The official name of East Germany was the German Democratic Republic. It was a communist state aligned in the orbit of the Soviet Union.
The Allies of World War II divided Germany into four zones of control after the war -- each zone occupied by one of the Allied nations -- Britain, France, the USA, and the USSR. The same thing was done for the city of Berlin, which was in the Soviet-controlled zone (East Germany). East Berlin was governed under Soviet control, and West Berlin was governed by the western Allies -- Britain, France and the USA. The British, French and American sectors were combined into West Germany (and West Berlin), and the eastern area became "East Germany," a satellite of the Soviet Union.
