Kniffka Philatelie

The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR; more commonly known in English as East Germany) was a self-declared socialist state (but often mistakenly referred to in the West as a "communist state") that originated from the [Soviet Zone] of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin. The German Democratic Republic existed from 7 October 1949 until 3 October 1990, when its re-established states acceded to the adjacent Federal Republic of Germany, thus producing the current form of Germany. During its existence, the GDR was a member of the Eastern Bloc of eastern European nations that were aligned with the Soviet Union (USSR).