administrative divisions of East Germany

The administrative divisions of the German Democratic Republic (commonly known as East Germany) were constituted in two different forms during the country's 41-year-long history. The GDR first retained the traditional German division into federated states called Länder, but in 1952 replaced them with arbitrarily-drawn districts called Bezirke. Immediately before German reunification in 1990, the old Länder were restored, but they were not effectively reconstituted until after the GDR had ceased to exist as a separate state.