The question connects today’s map with former borders.
Brandenburg surrounds Berlin in northeastern Germany. That location helps with learning, but the decisive point is historical: the territory belonged to the Soviet occupation zone and later to the GDR. Today’s state of Brandenburg was re-established on 3 October 1990.
An older GDR administrative map therefore often shows different names: Potsdam, Cottbus and Frankfurt (Oder) were districts. A district of the centrally governed GDR is not the same as a present-day federal state with its own parliament. The exam uses current state names to identify the territory.
The other three answers
The three alternatives lead to the history of West Germany.
Bavaria
Bavaria belonged to the Federal Republic from 1949, not to the GDR. Its location in southeastern Germany does not make it one of the eastern states of 1990.
Saarland
Saarland politically joined the Federal Republic on 1 January 1957. That accession in the west must be distinguished from reunification in 1990.
Hesse
Hesse was already a state of the Federal Republic founded in 1949. It is therefore not part of the former GDR territory asked for here.
Current state names are a guide.
“Brandenburg belonged to the GDR” is the short study answer. More precisely, it concerns the territory of today’s state. State and administrative structures changed during German division and again in 1990.
Do not equate Brandenburg with all of Berlin. Berlin was a divided city with a special status; the Unification Treaty expressly treats the reunited state of Berlin separately from the other five states.
Re-establishment in 1990 · State of Brandenburg ↗Brandenburg: the state around Berlin belongs to the eastern group sought here.
Location helps you recognise it; the historical classification supplies the answer.
Three words for this question
- das Gebietterritory / area
- A defined area; here the question concerns the state to which it previously belonged.
- der Bezirkdistrict
- Here, a former administrative division of the GDR.
- wiedererrichtento re-establish
- To create again a state entity that had previously been abolished.