East Germany: On the Ways

Among casual observers of Eastern Europe's people's republics, East Germany retains a mistaken reputation for being an economic sad sack. Yet almost unnoticed, the country has risen to tenth place among the world's industrial powers—and the resurgence is due in no small part to the busy shipyards on East Germany's Baltic coast.

Last year these yards turned out no fewer than 175 ships, totaling about 250,000 tons. In the final week of 1966, Warnemünde's Warnow yards — East Germany's largest—delivered a 12,300-ton freighter to the U.S.S.R., along with the 150th of a...