Portal:East Germany/Region

Geography and nature

The German Democratic Republic, which consisted geographically of what is now eastern Germany, had an area of 107,771 km2 (41,610 mi2), bordering Czechoslovakia in the south, West Germany in the south and west, the Baltic Sea to the north, and Poland in the east.

Much of the territory of the former East Germany lay on the North German Plain and was largely flat and agricultural apart from low morainic hills left by the ice age. However in the south the land rose to the Ore Mountains and Elbe Sandstone Mountains that formed the border with its Communist neighbour, Czechoslovakia.

Administration divisions (Bezirke): Berlin – Cottbus – Dresden – Erfurt – Frankfurt (Oder) – Gera – Halle – Karl-Marx-Stadt – Leipzig – Magdeburg – Neubrandenburg – Potsdam – Rostock – Schwerin – Suhl

Cities and towns: Altenburg – Apolda – Bautzen – Brandenburg/Havel – Cottbus – Dessau – Dresden – Eberswalde – Eisenach – Stalinstadt/Eisenhüttenstadt – Erfurt – Frankfurt (Oder) – Freiberg – Gera – Görlitz – Gotha – Greifswald – Halberstadt – Halle – Halle-Neustadt – Hoyerswerda – Jena – Chemnitz/Karl-Marx-Stadt – Leipzig – Magdeburg – Merseburg – Neubrandenburg – Plauen – Potsdam – Rostock – Schwedt – Schwerin – Stralsund – Suhl – Weimar – Wismar – Wittenberg – Zittau – Zwickau

Rivers and canals: Elbe – Gera - Havel – Neiße – Oder – Saale – Spree – Unstrut – White Elster – Black Elster – Mittelland Canal – Werra

Waterbodies: Müritz – Schweriner See – Plauer See – Kummerower See – Scharmützelsee – Werbellinsee – Großer Müggelsee – Bay of Greifswald – Oderhaff

Islands: Rügen – Poel – Usedom – Hiddensee – Greifswalder Oie

Mountain and hill ranges: Ore Mountains – Harz – Elbe Sandstone Mountains – Thuringian Forest –  Thuringian Highland – Vogtland – Kyffhäuser – Rhön – Zittau Mountains

Regions: Dresden Elbe Valley – Lusatia – Spreewald – Mecklenburg Lake District – Barnim – Fläming – Magdeburg Börde – Altmark – Saxon Switzerland – Eichsfeld