BRD is an unofficial abbreviation for the Federal Republic of Germany ( ), informally known in English as West Germany until 1990, and just Germany since reunification. It was occasionally used in the Federal Republic itself during the early Cold War;Its first recorded use (according to the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS)) was: Wilhelm Grewe: Die verfassungsrechtlichen Grundlagen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Teil I: Das Besatzungsstatut. In: Deutsche Rechts-Zeitschrift, J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen 1949, S. 265–270. Nachdruck in Der Sprachdienst, Hrsg. Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, 1988, S. 137 ff. it was commonly used between 1968 and 1990 by the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), resulting in a strong deprecation of its use in West Germany. The East German government had previously used the term "German Federal Republic" (), which it abbreviated as "DBR", to refer to West Germany. The most widely used abbreviation for West Germany in the country itself was its ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "DE", which has remained the country code of reunified Germany.
While the English equivalent FRG was used as an IOC country code and a FIFA trigramme, the use of BRD was strongly discouraged by the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany itself from the 1970s, because it was considered to be a derogatory communist term following its widespread use in East Germany since 1968; thus the term was regarded as a possible expression of an extremist, anti-constitutional and anti-democratic sentiment by West German authorities.Wer BRD sagt, richtet Unheil an, Der Spiegel, 25 September 1978Dialectics, Dogmas, and Dissent: Stories from East German Victims of Human Rights Abuse, John Rodden, Penn State Press, 2010, page xi The term was not banned by law, but its use was discouraged or forbidden in schools in West Germany from the 1970s, and treated as an error.Erlass der Schulbehörde Schleswig-Holstein, RdErl. 4 October 1976 (NBl. KM. Schl.-H. S. 274) As a result of its use by East Germany and the war on the abbreviation by the West German government, far-left groups such as the Red Army Faction tended to use the term as a way to attack West Germany; additionally the term "BRD" has been used by some far-right groups for the same purpose. After German reunification, the country is usually referred to simply as Germany (), and hence the need for abbreviations is greatly diminished. However, since the end of the Cold War the term "BRD" has lost some of its potency as an insult intended to attack the Federal Republic of Germany, and the term "BRD" has been listed in the German dictionary Duden as an "unofficial abbreviation" for the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1990s,Dudenredaktion (Hrsg.): Duden online, Bibliographisches Institut GmbH, Stichwort "Bundesrepublik". Retrieved 4 January 2017. and is occasionally used by national newspapers across the political spectrum.Dorothea Siems: Deutschland steht vor Revolution am Arbeitsmarkt. Subtitle: "Die Attraktivität der BRD könnte noch geringer werden", Welt Online 22 June 2011.
History
Background The official name was and is Bundesrepublik Deutschland ("Federal Republic of Germany"). The name, even though in the beginning referring only to the republic established in the Trizone, was to reflect a name for all of Germany, therefore it was particularly to include the term Deutschland ("Germany"). This corresponded to the spirit of the then West German constitution, the Basic Law, allowing all states or Länder, then under Allied control, to join the new Federal Republic. In 1949 the original eleven states in the Trizone and West Berlin did so.The initial states were the following: Baden (south), Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The latter two and the first merged in Baden-Württemberg in 1952. However the latter was prevented by Allied objection on account of the city being a quadripartite allied occupation area. The Saarland joined with effect from 1 January 1957, while the "new states" of the East did so with effect from 3 October 1990, including reunited Berlin.
Therefore, the term Germany had an importance as part of the official name, which is reflected in the naming conventions which developed in the Cold War. Starting in June 1949 the abbreviation was sometimes used in the Federal Republic of Germany without any special connotations. The initialism BRD began to enter into such regular usage in West German scientific and ministerial circles, that it was added to the western edition of the German language dictionary Duden in 1967.Deutschland - Ein Name im Wandel, Helmut Berschin, Olzog, 1979, page 76 The German Democratic Republic at first used the name Westdeutschland or "West Germany" (abbreviated "WD") for the Federal Republic of Germany,Deutschland seit 1945: eine dokumentierte gesamtdeutsche Geschichte in der Zeit der Teilung, Gerhart Binder, Seewald, 1969, page 600 but since the 1950s the East German government insisted on calling West Germany Deutsche Bundesrepublik or "German Federal Republic" (abbreviated "DBR"),Dokumentation zur Deutschlandfrage, Heinrich Siegler Siegler, 1971, page 46 because they also considered East Germany part of Germany, and thus would not permit the West German government to use the name "Germany".Der Vertrag von Versailles und seine Folgen für die Pfalz oder deutsche Sozialdemokraten verraten Deutschland, Reinhard Welz Vermittler Verlag e.K., 2004, page 143
Use in East Germany This changed in 1968 with the new constitution of the German Democratic Republic. The communists no longer strove for German reunification, and the name BRD was introduced as a propaganda counter-term to the term DDR, trying to express the equality of the states.Bezeichnungen für "Deutschland" in der Zeit der "Wende": dargestellt an ausgewählten westdeutschen Printmedien, Ute Röding-Lange Königshausen & Neumann, 1997, page 84 The West would speak of the sogenannte DDRVom Sogenannten, Der Spiegel, 21 October 1968, page 65 or "so-called 'DDR'"Facts about Germany: The Federal Republic of Germany, 1959 - Germany (West), page 20 when intending to belittle East German statehood.
At that time, the initialism BRD had been adopted by Neues Deutschland, the ruling Socialist Unity Party's daily newspaper,Neues Deutschland, 8 December 1970 while East German official sources adopted that initialism as standard in 1973.
The East German decision to abandon the idea of a single German nation was accompanied by omitting the terms Deutschland ("Germany") and deutsch ("German") in a number of terms, for example:
The governing National Front of Democratic Germany became the National Front of the German Democratic Republic in 1973Wörter und Wortgebrauch in Ost und West: ein rechnergestütztes Korpus-Wörterbuch zu Zeitungstexten aus den beiden deutschen Staaten : Die Welt und Neues Deutschland 1949-1974, Manfred W. Hellmann Gunter Narr Verlag, 1992, page 813 The words of the national anthem, Auferstanden aus Ruinen, which referred to Deutschland, einig Vaterland ("Germany, united fatherland") ceased to be sungThe German Language in a Changing Europe, Michael G. Clyne, Cambridge University Press, 1995, page 74 following Erich Honecker succeeding Walter Ulbricht as party leader in 1971Rereading East Germany: The Literature and Film of the GDR, Cambridge University Press, 2016, page 47 The state television service, Deutscher Fernsehfunk became "Fernsehen der DDR" in 1972,Hörfunk und Fernsehen in der DDR: Funktion, Struktur u. Programm des Rundfunks in der DDR, Heide Riedel, Literarischer Verlag Braun, 1977, page 84 its radio counterpart having always been called Rundfunk der DDR or "Radio of the GDR" The North German Plain, covering the north of East and West Germany, appeared in East German atlases as Nördliches Tiefland der DDR (Northern Plain of the GDR).Muttersprache, 1989, page 158 The GDR sent a separate team to the 1972 Summer Olympics, at which its flag and anthem were used for the first timeSport, Politics, and Communism, James Riordan, Manchester University Press, 1991, page 143 Until 1959, the GDR had used an identical flag to that of the Federal Republic, before adopting a version with the national emblem in the centre.Germany from Partition to Reunification, Henry Ashby Turner, Yale University Press, 1992, page 83
However, the ruling party's full name, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands or "Socialist Unity Party of Germany" remained unchanged, as did that of its newspaper Neues Deutschland ("New Germany") .
Therefore, using the abbreviation BRD fitted perfectly into the official East German policy of downplaying the concept of a united Germany. In 1974, the GDR had replaced the vehicle registration code D, hitherto shared with the Federal Republic, for DDR and demanded that West Germany recognise the division by likewise accepting BRD.Kennzeichen BÄÄH, Der Spiegel 12 August 1974 This was rejected by the West, where some motorists displayed bumper stickers with the slogan BRD - Nein Danke! ("BRD? No Thanks!").Kontroverse Begriffe: Geschichte des öffentlichen Sprachgebrauchs in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Georg Stötzel, Martin Wengeler Walter de Gruyter, 1995, page 320 Thus in the West the initialism became even more objectionable and using it was often considered either unreflecting or even expressing naïve Communist sympathies.
As a result, the initialism reached only occasional frequency in West German parlance. In order to be precise West Germans increasingly used the terms Bundesrepublik or Bundesgebiet ("Federal Republic", or "Federal Territory") to refer to the country and Bundesbürger ("Federal Citizen[s]") as to its citizens, with the pertaining adjective bundesdeutsch (federally German).
Opposition to use in West Germany To distance themselves from the term BRD, until German reunification, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and media sometimes used the abbreviations BR Deutschland,Konfession und Wahlverhalten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Karl Schmitt, Duncker & Humblot, 1989, page 307 BR-Dt.,Deutschland-Jahrbuch, Volume 2, Klaus Mehnert, Heinrich Schulte Rheinisch-Westfälisches Verlagskontor, 1953, page 520 BRDt., Der 17. Juni 1953 in der Literatur der beiden deutschen Staaten BR Dtld.Wirtschafts-Ploetz: die Wirtschaftsgeschichte zum Nachschlagen, Hugo Ott, Hermann Schäfer Ploetz, 1985, page 495 or simply Dtld.Geographisches Namenbuch Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Institut für Angewandte Geodäsie (Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut) Verlag des Instituts für Angewandte Geodäsie, 1981 After the newly established states of the German Democratic Republic acceded to the Federal Republic, Deutschland ("Germany") has always been used as the official short name.