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East Germany PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Boundaries
East Germany is a state artificially and arbitrarily carved
from the remnants of the Third Reich. At the end of World War II,
Germany was partitioned into four occupation zones. The
partitioning was to be a temporary measure, and the country was
to be reunited after a short transitional period of one to three
years. Political considerations and power rivalries, however,
ultimately precluded speedy reunification. The British, French,
and American zones were merged in 1949 to become the Federal
Republic of Germany. The Soviet zone became the German Democratic
Republic, "an independent socialist state," later that same year.
The country covers an area of 108,568 square kilometers
(including East Berlin), somewhat less than one-third the area of
West Germany. The Baltic Sea coastline, East Germany's northern
boundary, measures about 320 kilometers. The coastline has many
natural harbors and is favorable for navigation, but before the
war it had no important ports. Czechoslovakia and East Germany
share a border of about 427 kilometers to the southeast. The
border conforms to pre-1938 boundaries. The Erzgebirge (mountain
range) form a natural frontier, although the mountains are not an
impassable barrier. The Potsdam Protocol of 1945 defined eastward
limits. Portions of Germany's prewar territories, most notably
East Prussia, were placed under the administration of the Soviet
Union and Poland pending conclusion of a final German peace
treaty. The Allied powers agreed in principle that Poland should
be given German territory to make up for land it had lost to the
Soviet Union in 1939. At Potsdam the boundaries dividing Germany
and Poland were drawn along the Oder and Neisse rivers located
about 160 kilometers to the west of the prewar boundary. Poland
was also given a small section of land in the north, lying to the
west of the Oder and containing the port of Stettin (Polish:
Szczecin) and the Swine Channel, which opens to the sea. East
Germany confirmed the inviolability of the Oder-Neisse line in
the early 1950s. Until 1970 West Germany refused to recognize the
border and referred to the former German territories controlled
by Poland and the Soviet Union as lands under foreign
administration. However, the Moscow and Warsaw treaties, signed
by West Germany in 1970, formally confirmed the Oder-Neisse line
as Germany's easternmost boundary. The border extends for about
453 kilometers.
The western boundary of the Soviet zone was outlined in a
protocol among the Allied powers in 1944, shortly before the end
of the war. The western and southwestern frontier extends 1,381
kilometers from Lübeck Bay on the Baltic Sea southward. Following
the old prewar state boundaries, the frontier cuts across the
northern plains, tracing the course of the Elbe River for a short
distance before traversing southward through the Harz (mountain
range) and then twisting eastward through Thüringer Wald
(forested mountain range). The border dividing the two Germanies
is among the most closely guarded and fortified in the world. The
areas along the border have been cleared of trees and houses.
Barbed wire fences, mine fields, and control towers mark the
entire length; and the restricted zone, including the high
security area, stretches over 780 meters in width. What began as
a temporary demarcation of administrative zones between the
Allied powers has been made into a virtually impenetrable border
by East Germany. One year after the conclusion of the 1972 Basic
Treaty, the Boundary Commission was established to settle
boundary questions between the two states. Bilateral frontier
agreements were also concluded in 1973 to provide for care of
frontier waterways and to handle environmental problems. In 1978
the two Germanies signed a protocol on the demarcation of about
90 percent of the inter-German border. Still disputed in early
1987 was a ninety-five kilometer section of the Elbe River in the
north.
Data as of July 1987
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