Coat of Arms of East Germany - Definition and Overview

The coat of arms

The Coat of Arms of the German Democratic Republic featured a hammer, a pair of compasses, surrounded by a ring of rye. The hammer represented the workers in the factories. The compasses represented the intelligentsia, and the ring of rye the farmers. The first designs included only the hammer and ring of rye, as an expression of the GDR as a communist "Workers' and Farmers' state" (Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat). Surrounded by a wreath, the state coat of arms also acted as the coat of arms for the East German National People's Army, and when surrounded by a twelve pointed white star, for the People's Police.

It was adopted as the GDR's coat of arms by a law of 26 September 1955, and added to the national flag by a law of 1 October 1959. The coat of arms was officially abolished on 31 May, 1990, by a decision of the first freely-elected GDR Parliament (Volkskammer).

The display of this coat of arms was for some years regarded as unconstitutional in West Germany and West Berlin and was prevented by the police. Only in 1969 did the West German government reverse this policy.

In 2004 a German businessman's trademarking of the GDR coat of arms was repealed on the grounds that it was a symbol in common use to represent the regional origin of eastern German goods and services.