Usage
In the Potsdam Agreement the description of the territories transferred is "The former German territories ", and permutations on this description are the most commonly used to describe any former territories of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line.
While the name East Germany, a political term, used to be the colloquial naming of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the term Eastern Germany underwent a shift in the 20th century due to the border shifts after the Second World War. Since in German there is only one usual term Ostdeutschland, meaning East Germany or Eastern Germany, the German rather ambiguous term never gained prevailing use for the GDR as did the English term. While Eastern Germany had been used for the former eastern territories of Germany before the Second World War. The term since has been used to denote the post-war and the respective five states of the reunited Germany. However, this is rather an outside perspective, because people and institutions in the states, traditionally considered as Middle Germany, like the three southern new states Saxony-Anhalt, the Free State of Saxony and the Free State of Thuringia, still use the term Middle Germany when referring to their area and its institutions.
Read more about this topic: Former Eastern Territories Of Germany
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