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East Germany Transportation and Communications
The transportation system inherited by East Germany included
a good railroad network, a satisfactory system of roads, and an
excellent inland waterway system, all damaged to some extent by
the war
(see
fig. 8). During the occupation period, the Soviets
confiscated from the railroads a substantial amount of rolling
stock and track as reparations. In addition, factories that had
produced locomotives were dismantled and taken to the Soviet
Unions as complete railroad maintenance shops. After reparations
payments ended, the railroad system was slowly rebuilt, and
highways and canals were repaired. The political situation in
West Berlin and the closing of the east-west border imposed
restrictions on all forms of inter-German transportation. Lack of
sufficient investment in the 1960s and 1970s hampered maintenance
and the acquisition of spare parts for rolling stock and highway
vehicles. In 1985 the system as a whole consisted of 14,054
kilometers of railroad tracks, 47,214 kilometers of roads, and
2,319 kilometers of inland waterways.
These were 13,777 kilometers of standard-guage railroad line
in 1985; 2,523 kilometers were electrified. As of 1984, about
3,830 kilometers were double tracked. At 13.1 kilometers of track
per 100 square kilometers, the network's density approximately
equaled that of West Germany. A major goal in railroad
improvement during the 1970s and early 1980s was the replacement
of steam locomotives by diesel and electric engines. By 1986
electric engines were supplying 38 percent of the locomotive
capacity in the country, and plans called for an increase to 60
percent by 1990. Additional focal points in the 1980s were the
introduction of microelectronic technology and robots to improve
the efficiency of railroad operations. In 1985 freight carried by
rail amounted to 347.9 million tons for a total of 58.7 billion
ton-kilometers. Passengers carried numbered 623 million, or about
22.5 billion passenger-kilometers.
The best known roads in both Germanies are the autobahns,
many of them built during the 1930s and World War II primarily
for military purposes. These limited-access highways also became
important for private and commercial users and remained so after
Germany was partitioned. However, the East German part of the
system was sometimes underutilized because of its orientation
toward the country's borders. During the 1960s and 1970s, as the
economy produced more trucks and buses, the highway system
increased in importance. New sections of autobahn completed
during the 1970s--Dresden-Leipzig, East Berlin-Rostock, and the
western part of the Berlin Ring--added to the overall importance
of the highway system and contributed to the growing volume of
freight carried by road. In 1982 construction of the autobahn
connection on East German territory between Berlin and Hamburg
was completed. With West German financial assistance, major
projects were also carried out on the major transit artery from
Berlin to Helmstedt and additional portions of the Berlin Ring.
By the late 1970s, however, increasing fuel costs forced
authorities to give more thought to saving gasoline and diesel
fuel, and the government encouraged diversion of freight from the
highways to trains and barges. In 1985 freight carried on the
highways amounted to 555 million tons. This figure, although well
over 1.5 times the amount carried by rail, represented a
considerable proportional decline compared with rates in the
1970s. In 1985 the 15.1 billion ton-kilometers for motor vehicles
freight was only about a quarter of the 58.7 billion tonkilometers posted by rail freight.
The inland waterway system inherited by East Germany was well
developed before World War II. In the mid-1980s, it remained
important to the overall transportation network. The Elbe River,
navigable from Hamburg through East Germany to Prague, provides
the north-south axis of the waterway system; and the series of
canals from the Polish border near Eisenhüttenstadt to the interGerman border and beyond provides the east-west axis. Magdeburg,
where the two axes meet, is a hub of inland waterway traffic. In
the mid-1980s, other major inland waterway ports included
Frankfurt am Oder, Dresden, East Berlin, Potsdam, and Halle. The
17.7 million tons of cargo carried in 1985 (2.4 billion tonkilometers ) was a small amount compared with the amounts carried
by road and rail. Nevertheless, the waterways remained important,
particularly for bulk cargoes. The approximately 1,170 river and
canal craft plying the waterways in 1985 had a total capacity of
about 608,800 tons.
Until the mid-1950s, East Germany had a negligible
shipbuilding capacity, practically no oceangoing vessels, and no
seaport facilities worthy of the name (the Baltic ports, which
had never been of major importance, were destroyed in the war).
After 1957, however, shipbuilding and harbor construction
mushroomed as the government invested heavily in those
industries, in part because of large and continuing Soviet
purchases of seagoing vessels. Reconstruction of the ports of
Rostock, Stralsund, and Wismar moved forward. By the 1970s,
Rostock, which had received the highest funding priority, ranked
fourth among Baltic Sea ports. Further improvements to facilities
at Rostock during the 1976-80 Five-Year Plan period, completion
of the East Berlin-Rostock autobahn, and electrification of the
Berlin-Rostock railroad line increased Rostock's importance to
the country's economy. The less important port of Wismar
specialized in potash and grain; Stralsund specialized in lumber
and bulk goods. In 1985 flag vessels in the East German
oceangoing merchant fleet numbered 171, for a total of 1.7
million deadweight tons. Freight turnover in the three Baltic
ports in 1985 amounted to about 953,000 tons in Stralsund, 4.5
million tons in Wismar, and 19.7 million tons in Rostock.
The Oder River port of Schwedt is the East German terminus of
the Friendship Pipeline, which carries crude oil from the Soviet
Union. About 1,301 kilometers of pipeline carry the crude oil
from Schwedt to Rostock for transshipment and from Schwedt to the
refinery city of Leuna, located about 25 kilometers west of
Leipzig. There are also 500 kilometers of pipeline for refined
products and 1,500 kilometers for natural gas.
Beginning in 1980, all domestic air traffic (excluding
agricultural and industrial operations) in East Germany was
suspended in an effort to economize on fuel; Interflug, the state
airline, provided only international service on a regular basis.
In 1985 the gross amount of cargo carried by civil aviation was
29,700 tons, accounting for 71.6 million ton-kilometers. In 1984
Interflug carried more than 1.5 million passengers (2.5 billion
passenger-kilometers). East Berlin-Schönefeld was the country's
principal airport; Dresden, Erfurt, Heringsdorf, and Leipzig also
handled substantial amounts of traffic.
In the mid-1980s, East Germany possessed a comparatively
well-developed communications system. There were about 3.6
million telephones in use, or about 21.8 for every 100
inhabitants, and 16,476 telex stations. In 1976 East Germany
began operating a ground radio station at Fürstenwalde for
relaying and receiving communications from Soviet satellites as a
participant in the international telecommunications organization
Intersputnik.
In 1985 there were 6,646,500 licensed radios in the country,
or 39.9 for every 100 persons, and 6,078,500 licensed
televisions, or 36.5 for every 100 persons. The mass media,
including newspapers, radio, and television, were closely
supervised by the state. However, East Germans could also receive
West German television except in the area around Dresden (in 1983
the East German government began installing a cable television
system for the Dresden area that would include West German
transmissions, possibly in an effort to overcome the reluctance
of East Germans to live there).
Data as of July 1987
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