How did life change for East Germans 1945-49?

Life under Communism and the Stasi www.explaininghistory.com

Above we can see a story in three pictures. The aerial picture was taken in 1945 showing the Soviet zone of Berlin in utter devastation. In the next frame a Soviet soldier selects a German woman whom he would subsequently rape. Below, is a Soviet propaganda picture showing how land was now being redistributed from the rich to the poor in Germany.
Key Question One: To what extent was East Germany Denazied at all? What were the Key Question Two: What overall picture of Soviet occupation can we draw out from these three images?

The taking of Berlin cost the USSR 100,000 soldiers. An unknown number of Berliners died. During the war some 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians died, and Stalin

was determined to both protect the USSR from future western attack and to mercilessly punish the Germans. He wanted a million slave labourers to be shipped to Soviet

Gulags from Germany but was denied this at Potsdam. Over one million German women were raped by Red Army soldiers in 1945, and thousands of Germans took their own lives as the Red Army approached. Soviet authorities were disinterested in what their men did, they were focused on reaching strategic sites like the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Key Question Three: Many horric things German people experienced in 1945 were never discussed with their families or loved ones, how might this affect the process of coming to terms with Nazism and the past?

The Soviets had a simple proposition for captured Nazis who they didn't execute: Siberia or service for the new East German State. The newly established secret police, the Stasi, were lled with former SS and Gestapo men who found they could quite easily adapt to communism if the alternative was hard labour and death. When the Soviets found Nazi concentration camps they kept them open and lled them with their own opponents. Key Question Four: The Soviets claimed to be liberating Germany from fascism, to what extent did they do this?

Following the destruction of vast swathes of Russia, Stalin could demand, with some justication, for reparations from Germany. What resulted Wasserstein the wholesale asset stripping of East Germany's cities and the collectivisation of her agriculture. Eventually German industries were set up to supply Soviet economic needs, based around inefcient heavy industry and centrally planned targets. In 1949 the Republic of East Germany was established in response to the creation of West Germany. Key Question Five: Can it be argued that the Soviet Union was acting as a colonial power?