page_title: BRD (Germany)
section_title: Use in East Germany
hierarchical_section_title: BRD (Germany) / History / Use in East Germany
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. ADN-ZB/Olympiadienst/Gahlbeck/27.8.72 München: XX. Olympische Sommerspiele Eröffnungsveranstaltung am 26.8.72. Ein stolzer Augenblick- erstmals bei Olympischen Sommerspielen marschiert eine selbständige und souveräne Mannschaft der DDR in die Olympische Arena ein.
context_page_description: BRD; is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany, informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Federal Republic itself during the early Cold War; it was commonly used between 1968 and 1990 by the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic, resulting in a strong deprecation of its use in West Germany. The East German regime had previously used the term "German Federal Republic", which it abbreviated as "DBR", to refer to West Germany. The most widely used abbreviation for West Germany in the country itself was its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "DE", which has remained the country code of reunified Germany.
  While the English equivalent FRG was used as an IOC country code and a FIFA trigramme, the use of BRD was strongly discouraged by the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany itself from the 1970s, because it was considered to be a derogatory communist term following its widespread use in East Germany since 1968; thus the term was regarded as a possible expression of an extremist, anti-constitutional and anti-democratic sentiment by West German authorities.
context_section_description: This changed in 1968 with the new constitution of the German Democratic Republic. The communists no longer strove for German reunification, and the name BRD was introduced as a propaganda counter-term to the term DDR, trying to express the equality of the states. The West would speak of the sogenannte DDR  or "so-called 'DDR'" when intending to belittle East German statehood.
  At that time, the initialism BRD had been adopted by Neues Deutschland, the ruling Socialist Unity Party's daily newspaper, while East German official sources adopted that initialism as standard in 1973.
  The East German decision to abandon the idea of a single German nation was accompanied by omitting the terms Deutschland ("Germany") and deutsch ("German") in a number of terms, for example:
  The governing National Front of Democratic Germany became the National Front of the German Democratic Republic in 1973
  The words of the national anthem, Auferstanden aus Ruinen, which referred to Deutschland, einig Vaterland ("Germany, united fatherland") ceased to be sung following Erich Honecker succeeding Walter Ulbricht as party leader in 1971
  The state television service, Deutscher Fernsehfunk became "Fernsehen der DDR" in 1972, its radio counterpart having always been called Rundfunk der DDR or "Radio of the GDR"
  The North German Plain, covering the north of East and West Germany, appeared in East German atlases as Nördliches Tiefland der DDR (Northern Plain of the GDR).
  The GDR sent a separate team to the 1972 Summer Olympics, at which its flag and anthem were used for the first time Until 1959, the GDR had used an identical flag to that of the Federal Republic, before adopting a version with the national emblem in the centre.
  However, the ruling party's full name, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands or "Socialist Unity Party of Germany" remained unchanged, as did that of its newspaper Neues Deutschland ("New Germany") .
  Therefore,  using the abbreviation BRD fitted perfectly into the official East German policy of downplaying the concept of a united Germany. In 1974, the GDR had replaced the vehicle registration code D, hitherto shared with the Federal Republic, for DDR and demanded that West Germany recognise the division by likewise accepting BRD. 
  This was rejected by the West, where some motorists  displayed bumper stickers with the slogan BRD - Nein Danke! ("BRD? No Thanks!"). Thus in the West the initialism became even more objectionable and using it was often considered either unreflecting or even expressing naïve Communist sympathies.
  As a result, the initialism reached only occasional frequency in West German parlance. In order to be precise West Germans increasingly used the terms Bundesrepublik or Bundesgebiet ("Federal Republic", or "Federal Territory") to refer to the country and Bundesbürger ("Federal Citizen[s]") as to its citizens, with the pertaining adjective bundesdeutsch (federally German).
caption: East German team at the opening ceremony of the 1972 Summer Olympics
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