National Emblem of the GDR (1953-55) Long Sleeve T-Shirt

East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic or GDR (German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik [ˈdɔʏtʃə demoˈkʀaːtɪʃə ʀepuˈbliːk]; Russian: Германская Демократическая Республика, Germanskaya Demokraticheskya Respublika or DDR/ГДР), was a former Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. From 1949 to 1990, it administered the region of Germany that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II—the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR. The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic wa...