Postwar Music from East Germany

Does such a thing exist? If so, what bands? I'm in a heavy krautrock phase right now, but I've also been reading a little bit about parallel east/west german art scenes from WWII-1989. I'm wondering if there were similar parallels in music. Who was making music in East Germany during the Cold War? What did it sound like?

Between Or Beyond The Iron Curtain

I heard some DDR music when I was living in West Berlin (1983-84), but almost all I heard were awful, derivative, dated takes on early 1970s hard rock. Die Puhdys and Rockhaus were the biggest acts of the day, and a track called "Denke Daran" by Dialog got a lot of airplay: a Brecht-quoting anti-nuclear anthem in the style of "Every Breath You Take". Also on a Police-aping tip, Jessica were quite popular; there was even a feature on them on The Tube's Berlin special.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puhdys
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockhaus (German language only)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_(Band)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_(Band)

I have some awesome reissues of some polish and east german jazz from the 50s but I cannot remember anything other than them being on Pablo. Will try and dig out info when I get home.

I am now wondering if the Pablo bit is a lie from my addled brain, however the rest is true.

I also have some old DDR party songs ('Die Partei hat immer recht' and 'Stalin ist unserer Freund'). This is why I never participate in ILM, I can remember the stuff like that but never any of the good stuff.

Thanks Mike and AC - that's a start. I'll do some digging.