There s nothing wrong or slanderous with the common term East Germany which is and was the most widely used term to describe the country in English and was used by the GDR itself User Rd235 is simply wrong I have no idea where this particular axe to grind came from As a resident of eastern Germany myself I have yet to encounter any scholar or institution arguing against the use of East Germany to describe the German Democratic Republic a term that many erroneously believe means the former West Germany because of the democratic republic bit The move to the formal name was itself carried out without much in the way of consensus