East Germany
About East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist workers' and peasants' state.
On the show · 36 mentions total
More written records were kept in the 40 years of the German Democratic Republic than in the rest of German history put together, and it is mostly bad poetry.
from 451: No Such Thing As Deckchair Wrestling · read transcript
More facts about East Germany
A Stasi handler had young officers write poetry so he could look for dissidents, watching for anything that was not socialist realism, like dissident use of meter or half rhymes.
451: No Such Thing As Deckchair Wrestling · listen
East German TV had a Monday-night programme called Der Schwarze Kanal, twenty minutes of clips from West German TV with a communist commentary explaining why they were so bad.
No Such Thing As Deckchair Wrestling · listen
In 1954 it became illegal to bathe completely naked in East Germany.
No Such Thing As The Turin Towelette · listen
When the Berlin Wall fell, one of the results was an 18 million car traffic jam.
No Such Thing As A Didgeridoo in a Bar · listen
After reunification East Germans felt this was their country but did not know how to live in it, from pronouncing the food in McDonald's to using supermarket trolleys.
340: No Such Thing As A Didgeridoo in a Bar · listen
More places from this episode
451: No Such Thing As Deckchair Wrestling put 7 places on the map.
- Guy's Hospital · United Kingdom
- Scarborough · United Kingdom
- Hampstead · United Kingdom
- Brighton Beach · United Kingdom
- National Theatre · United Kingdom
Coordinates: 52.0520, 12.3890