ABSTRACT
The German Democratic Republic (GDR) prided itself in the mid-seventies on being one of the ten leading industrial nations of the world. One exogenous difference between the GDR and Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is the energy and resource base. Most observers agree that this is inferior in the GDR. World Bank figures indicate that the GDR’s per capita GNP in 1977 was 41 % lower than that of the FRG, whereas figures calculated by the German Institute for Economic Research in West Berlin show it to have been about 20 % lower for the period 1967—1976. By the time the Wall was built in 1961, the GDR had lost to the FRG more than two and a half million people, including approximately one-third of its persons possessing academic qualifications. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
