Fraught friendships: East German experts, communist development, and environment in Mongolia during the Cold War

Abstract This article examines East German experts’ participation in development projects in Mongolia and their conceptions of environments during the Cold War. Starting in the 1950s, East Germany (German Democratic Republic, GDR) and Mongolia intensified economic ties that aimed to industrialise Mongolia and align with communist objectives. The endeavours were intended to provide development aid, though they also provided the GDR with access to natural resources it could not obtain domestically. Drawing on sources from numerous German archives, this article argues that East German development projects followed broader patterns of exploitation and consumption between Europe and the Global South after the Second World War. Communist trade relations dissolved with the end of the Cold War, but they set the stage for trade and environmental impacts that have continued to this day.