As the popularity in the Federal Republic of the accounts by Axel Rodenberger and David Irving illustrates, the attack on Dresden on 13, 14 and 15 February 1945 became the ultimate symbol for the Allied bombings. The special status of Dresden was nurtured with particular care by the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED), the governing Communist Party in the German Democratic Republic. Here Dresden became a historical symbol that could be integrated into the anti-Fascist self-image of the East German state. During the 1950s and 1960s, public commemorations of the ‘Anglo-American’ attack became important events, in which the anti-Fascist identity of the GDR was reinforced and completed with a virulent anti-Western message. With Dresden as their main symbol, the Allied bombings were a central element of East German memory culture.

East German historical accounts of the Allied bombings, unlike those that appeared in the Federal Republic, focused almost exclusively on Dresden. Also, it became the only city whose bombing was centrally commemorated.

Earlier East German accounts focused exclusively on Dresden and general military-historical studies on the air war did not appear until the 1970s with the academic work of Olaf Groehler.

Like the historical accounts in the Federal Republic, East German historiography was written primarily by non-academic historians. The authors often were politicians, who had political interest in a specific interpretation of the Allied bombings and in the appropriation of Dresden as an anti-Western political symbol. They reproduced minor variations of a politically centralized perspective that remained more or less stable until the end of the GDR. Their accounts contributed greatly to the establishment of Dresden as a central issue of Cold War propaganda.

As Dresden came to function as a Cold War icon, East German and Western interpretations increasingly disputed the backgrounds of this particular raid, and connected this debate to ideological differences. Two central issues sparked debates between historians from the East and West: the assumed anti-Soviet motives behind the attack on Dresden and disputes over the death toll produced by the attack. Both issues were heavily debated and led to increasing controversy between historians from the East and West. Especially following the publication of David Irving's The Destruction of Dresden, which had considerable impact in both the Federal Republic and the GDR.