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148-574: The German Evangelical Alliance (EAD) has been active in Germany since 1851. At present the EAD has affiliated members who are connected to the EAD organisation itself or welfare services which are a part of the EAD. Before 1990 there were two separate organisations which had existed since the division of Germany . The GDR had the Evangelische Allianz in der DDR and West Germany had

296-472: A democratic parliamentary government. Continual economic growth starting in the 1950s fueled a 20-year " economic miracle " ( "Wirtschaftswunder" ). As West Germany's economy grew, and its standard of living steadily improved, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany. After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of

444-614: A "cardboard castle". There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead, the conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars . Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia , its own member state, in August 1968. Since

592-547: A "hinterland" wall (inner wall), was built some 100 m (110 yd) farther into East German territory. The houses contained between the wall and fences were razed and the inhabitants relocated, thus establishing what later became known as the death strip . The death strip was covered with raked sand or gravel, rendering footprints easy to notice, easing the detection of trespassers and also enabling officers to see which guards had neglected their task; it offered no cover; and, most importantly, it offered clear fields of fire for

740-641: A burden on authorities in the German Occupation Zones, including the re-defined Soviet Occupation Zone. Most of the Germans who were being expelled were from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which included most of the territory to the east of the Oder-Neisse Line. The Potsdam Declaration stated: Since the influx of a large number of Germans into Germany would increase the burden already resting on the occupying authorities, they consider that

888-725: A conference center, recreation home and hotel. It is represented in the Bundestag (German parliament) by Wolfgang Baake as Commissioner of the German EA. There are 1,200 local churches, free churches or free groups who support the alliance. Deputies of the Evangelische Allianz meet once a year in Bad Blankenburg for the Alliance Conference ( Allianzkonferenz ). The affiliated Institute for

1036-844: A detailed accounting of industrial plants, goods and infrastructure—some of which had already been removed by the Soviets. France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Benelux countries later met to combine the non-Soviet zones of Germany into one zone for reconstruction, and to approve the extension of the Marshall Plan . Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the Soviet Union engineered

1184-510: A dismembered Germany, but also as a response to the exclusion of France from the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Berlin , which lay in the Soviet (eastern) sector, was also divided into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet sector becoming East Berlin . A key item in the occupiers' agenda was denazification . The swastika and other outward symbols of

1332-583: A few places it was some distance from the legal border, most notably at Potsdamer Bahnhof and the Lenné Triangle that is now much of the Potsdamer Platz development. Later, the initial barrier was built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on 17 August. During the construction of the Wall, National People's Army (NVA) and Combat Groups of

1480-527: A further 3 million ethnic Germans. 'Wild' expulsions from Czechoslovakia began immediately after the German surrender. The Potsdam Conference subsequently sanctioned the "orderly and humane" transfer to Germany of individuals regarded as "ethnic Germans" by authorities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. The Potsdam Agreement recognized that these expulsions were already underway and were putting

1628-554: A further 3 million in East Germany. In West Germany these represented a major voting block ; maintaining a strong culture of grievance and victimhood against Soviet Power, pressing for a continued commitment to full German reunification, claiming compensation, pursuing the right of return to lost property in the East, and opposing any recognition of the postwar extension of Poland and the Soviet Union into former German lands. Owing to

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1776-402: A hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the Wall, led by their Mayor ( Oberbürgermeister ) Willy Brandt , who criticized the United States for failing to respond and went so far as to suggest to Washington what to do next. Kennedy was furious. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, but the main candidate for its location was around

1924-646: A key psychological role in the West German recovery, other factors were also significant. The Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform; in March 1948 they withdrew from the four-power governing bodies, and in June 1948 they initiated the Berlin Blockade , blocking all ground transport routes between Western Germany and West Berlin . The Western Allies replied with a continuous airlift of supplies to

2072-495: A massive industrial dismantling campaign in its occupation zone, much more intensive than that carried out by the Western powers. While the Soviet powers soon realized that their actions alienated the German workforce from the Communist cause, they decided that the desperate economic situation within the Soviet Union took priority over alliance building. The allied leaders had agreed on paper to economic and political cooperation but

2220-655: A new location for the capital, as Berlin was then a special administrative region controlled directly by the allies and surrounded by the Soviet zone of occupation. The former Reichstag building in Berlin was occasionally used as a venue for sittings of the Bundestag and its committees and the Bundesversammlung , the body which elects the German Federal President. However, the Soviets disrupted

2368-633: A nucleus for a future German government by creating a central Economic Council for their zones. The program later provided for a West German constituent assembly , an occupation statute governing relations between the Allies and the German authorities, and the political and economic merger of the French with the British and American zones. On 23 May 1949, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the constitution of

2516-485: A permit. After the 1972 agreements, new crossings were opened to allow West Berlin waste to be transported into East German dumps, as well as some crossings for access to West Berlin's exclaves (see Steinstücken ). Four autobahns connected West Berlin to West Germany, including Berlin-Helmstedt autobahn , which entered East German territory between the towns of Helmstedt and Marienborn (Checkpoint Alpha), and which entered West Berlin at Dreilinden (Checkpoint Bravo for

2664-405: A public relations disaster for the communist bloc as a whole. Western powers portrayed it as a symbol of communist tyranny, particularly after East German border guards shot and killed would-be defectors. Such fatalities were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany. The Berlin Wall was more than 140 kilometres (87 mi) long. In June 1962, a second, parallel fence, also known as

2812-500: A rapidly increasing agricultural production were the initial triggers to this 'Wirtschaftswunder' (economic miracle) as it was known, although there was nothing miraculous about it. The era became closely linked with the name of Ludwig Erhard , who led the Ministry of Economics during the decade. Unemployment at the start of the decade stood at 10.3%, but by 1960 it had dropped to 1.2%, practically speaking full employment. In fact, there

2960-415: A single economic unit with some central administrative departments. These plans never materialized, initially because France blocked any establishment of central administrative or political structures for Germany; and also as both the Soviet Union and France were intent on extracting as much material benefit as possible from their occupation zones in order to make good in part the enormous destruction caused by

3108-630: A total of 275 German soldiers died while clearing mines, while 392 had been injured. Norman Naimark writes in The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949 that although the exact number of women and girls who were raped by members of the Red Army in the months preceding and years following the capitulation will never be known, their numbers are likely in

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3256-672: A vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book " Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany ", that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $ 10 billion . During the more than two years that this policy was in place, no industrial research in Germany could take place, as any results would have been automatically available to overseas competitors who were encouraged by

3404-585: A weakness. In the 1961 Vienna summit , Kennedy made the error of admitting that the US would not actively oppose the building of a barrier. A feeling of miscalculation and failure immediately afterwards was admitted by Kennedy in a candid interview with New York Times columnist James "Scotty" Reston . On Saturday, 12 August 1961, the leaders of the GDR attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee , in

3552-594: A whole' to Poland and the Soviet Union. In addition, under the Allies' Berlin Declaration (1945) , the territory of the extinguished German Reich was to be treated as the land area within its borders as of 31 December 1937. All land expansion from 1938 to 1945 was hence treated as automatically invalid, including Eupen-Malmedy , Alsace-Lorraine , Austria , Lower Styria , Upper Carniola , Southern Carinthia , Bohemia , Moravia , Czech Silesia , Danzig , Poland , and Memel . The northern half of East Prussia in

3700-523: A wooded area to the north of East Berlin. There, Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall. At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along

3848-736: The Deutsche Evangelische Allianz e. V. , based in Stuttgart . In the course of German reunification , both organisations also merged. The offices of the Deutschen Evangelische Allianz were in Stuttgart until November 2004. With a tight budget, the organisation moved to Bad Blankenburg . Today the German EAD is a state-approved organisation ( eingetragener Verein or e.V. ), with

3996-616: The "brain drain" feared by officials in East Germany. Yuri Andropov , then the CPSU Director on Relations with Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries, wrote an urgent letter on 28 August 1958 to the Central Committee about the significant 50% increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the refugees. Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they were leaving for economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that

4144-648: The Brussels Treaty was modified to include West Germany, and to form the Western European Union (WEU). West Germany was to be permitted to rearm, and have full sovereign control of its military; the WEU would, however, regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Fears of a return to Nazism, however, soon receded, and as a consequence, these provisions of the WEU treaty have little effect today. Between 1949 and 1960,

4292-518: The Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. Taking advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany, the number of GDR citizens moving to West Germany totaled 187,000 in 1950; 165,000 in 1951; 182,000 in 1952; and 331,000 in 1953. One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further Sovietization , given the increasingly paranoid actions of Joseph Stalin in late 1952 and early 1953. In

4440-606: The German reunification on 3 October 1990. Following the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 and its defeat in World War II , Germany was stripped of its territorial gains. Beyond that, more than a quarter of its old pre-war territory was annexed by communist Poland and the Soviet Union . The German populations of these areas were expelled to the west. Saarland was a French protectorate from 1947 to 1956 without

4588-531: The Marshall Plan help from the Allies, the currency reform of June 1948 and helped by the fact that the Korean War (1950–53) led to a worldwide increased demand for goods, where the resulting shortage helped overcome lingering resistance to the purchase of German products. East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the Soviet Union . The Western Allies turned over increasing authority to West German officials and moved to establish

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4736-483: The Nazi regime were banned, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was established as a temporary German flag. It remained the official flag of the country (necessary for reasons of international law ) until East Germany and West Germany (see below) were independently established in 1949. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union had agreed at Potsdam to a broad program of decentralization, treating Germany as

4884-544: The Potsdam Conference , with the U.S. operating under influence of the Morgenthau plan, the victorious Allies decided to abolish the German armed forces as well as all munitions factories and civilian industries that could support them. This included the destruction of all ship and aircraft manufacturing capability. Further, it was decided that civilian industries which might have a military potential, which in

5032-666: The Saar Protectorate , but did return to Germany in January 1957 (following a referendum), with economic reintegration with Germany occurring a few years later. In August 1954 the French parliament voted down the treaty that would have established the European Defense Community , a treaty they themselves had proposed. Germany was eventually allowed to rearm under the auspices of the Western European Union , and later NATO . The Soviet Union engaged in

5180-486: The Socialist Unity Party and GDR State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, "Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!). It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer (wall) had been used in this context. The transcript of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht, on 1 August in

5328-494: The United States , with the latter grouping becoming largely united in 1949 under NATO and the former grouping becoming largely united in 1955 under the Warsaw Pact . As the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states by 1955, the pact has been long considered "superfluous", and because of the rushed way in which it was conceived, NATO officials labeled it

5476-652: The " Wall of Shame ", a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt in reference to the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement . Along with the separate and much longer inner German border , which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize physically the Iron Curtain that separated the Western Bloc and Soviet satellite states of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War . Before

5624-584: The "Brain Drain". In 1948, in response to moves by the Western powers to establish a separate, federal system of government in the Western zones, and to extend the US Marshall Plan of economic assistance to Germany, the Soviets instituted the Berlin Blockade , preventing people, food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin by land routes through the Soviet zone. The United States,

5772-505: The "death strip", over 116 watchtowers , and 20 bunkers with hundreds of guards. This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of the Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth-generation Wall. The layout came to resemble the inner German border in most technical aspects, except that the Berlin Wall had no landmines nor spring-guns . Maintenance

5920-414: The 156 km (97 mi) around the three western sectors, and the 43 km (27 mi) that divided West and East Berlin. The date of 13 August became commonly referred to as Barbed Wire Sunday in Germany. The barrier was built inside East Berlin on East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point. Generally, the Wall was only slightly inside East Berlin, but in

6068-556: The Allied Control Council in Germany should in the first instance examine the problem with special regard to the question of the equitable distribution of these Germans among the several zones of occupation. They are accordingly instructing their respective representatives on the control council to report to their Governments as soon as possible the extent to which such persons have already entered Germany from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and to submit an estimate of

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6216-632: The Allies at the Yalta Conference Germans were used as forced labor as part of the reparations to be extracted. German prisoners were for example forced to clear minefields in France and the Low Countries. By December 1945 it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were being killed or injured each month in accidents. In Norway the last available casualty record, from 29 August 1945, shows that by that time

6364-793: The Allies to Poland at the Potsdam Conference and the German population was being forcibly expelled. The International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR) was created as part of the agreement negotiated at the London Six-Power conference in June 1948 to establish the Federal Republic of Germany . French support to internationalize the Ruhr through the IAR was abandoned in 1951 with the West German agreement to pool its coal and steel markets within European Coal and Steel Community . In

6512-594: The British had agreed in July 1942 to support "the General Principle of the transfer to Germany of German minorities in Central and South Eastern Europe after the war in cases where this seems necessary and desirable". In 1944 roughly 12.4 million ethnic Germans were living in territory that became part of post-war Poland and Soviet Union. Approximately 6 million fled or were evacuated before the Red Army occupied

6660-686: The Cold War rhetoric and successful political machinations of Konrad Adenauer , this block eventually became substantially aligned with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany ; although in practice 'westward-looking' CDU policies favouring the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union worked against the possibility of achieving the objectives of the expellee population from the east through negotiation with

6808-402: The East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit the FRG and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side, and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall over the next few weeks. The Brandenburg Gate , a few meters from the Berlin Wall, reopened on 22 December 1989, with demolition of

6956-425: The East German government's general policy of benign neglect, vandals were known to have been pursued in the outer strip, and even arrested. In 1986, defector and political activist Wolfram Hasch and four other defectors were standing inside the outer strip defacing the wall when East German personnel emerged from one of the hidden doors to apprehend them. All but Hasch escaped back into the western sector. Hasch himself

7104-511: The East Germans took for such a move. They considered the Wall as an end to concerns about a GDR/Soviet retaking or capture of the whole of Berlin; the Wall would presumably have been an unnecessary project if such plans were afloat. Thus, they concluded that the possibility of a Soviet military conflict over Berlin had decreased. The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protective rampart" ( German : "antifaschistischer Schutzwall" ) intended to dissuade aggression from

7252-421: The East. The construction of the Wall had caused considerable hardship to families divided by it. Most people believed that the Wall was mainly a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering or fleeing to West Berlin. The National Security Agency was the only American intelligence agency that was aware that East Germany was to take action to deal with the brain drain problem. On 9 August 1961,

7400-463: The Federal Republic of Germany was established in Bonn, after Chancellor Konrad Adenauer intervened emphatically for Bonn (which was only fifteen kilometers away from his hometown). Most of the members of the German constitutional assembly (as well as the U.S. Supreme Command) had favored Frankfurt am Main where the Hessian administration had already started the construction of an assembly hall. The Parlamentarischer Rat (interim parliament) proposed

7548-413: The Federal Republic of Germany, was promulgated. Following elections in August, the first federal government was formed on 20 September 1949, by Konrad Adenauer ( CDU ). Adenauer's government was a coalition of the CDU, the CSU and the Free Democrats. The next day, the occupation statute came into force, granting powers of self-government with certain exceptions. In 1949 the new provisional capital of

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7696-510: The GDR nomenclature. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 they hoped to end the loss of labor and in doing so they posed the West German government with a new problem—how to satisfy the apparently insatiable demand for labor. The answer was to recruit unskilled workers from Southern European countries; the era of the Gastarbeiter (foreign laborers) began. Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall ( German : Berliner Mauer , pronounced [bɛʁˌliːnɐ ˈmaʊɐ] )

7844-405: The GDR through the Soviet embassy and through the implicit threat of force which could be exercised through the continuing large Soviet military presence in the GDR, which was used to repress protests in East Germany bloodily in June 1953 . East Germany differed from West Germany ( Federal Republic of Germany ), which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy and

7992-476: The GDR which came into force that day. However, until 1955, the Soviets maintained considerable legal control over the GDR state, including the regional governments, through the Sowetische Kontrollkommission and maintained a presence in various East German administrative, military, and secret police structures. Even after legal sovereignty of the GDR was restored in 1955, the Soviet Union continued to maintain considerable influence over administration and lawmaking in

8140-407: The GDR. Stalin agreed, calling the situation "intolerable". He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that "The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border—and not just any border, but a dangerous one ... The Germans will guard the line of defence with their lives." Consequently, the inner German border between the two German states

8288-427: The German Wehrmacht; and the policy broke down completely in 1948 when the Russians blockaded West Berlin and the Cold War began. It was agreed at Potsdam that the leading members of the Nazi regime who had been captured should be put on trial accused of crimes against humanity, and this was one of the few points on which the four powers were able to agree. In order to secure the presence of the western allies in Berlin,

8436-407: The German rationing system (which stayed in place) had much lower supplies of food. The U.S. Army sent in large shipments of food to feed some 7.7 million prisoners of war—far more than they had expected —as well as the general population. For several years following the surrender, German nutritional levels were low. The Germans were not high on the priority list for international aid, which went to

8584-414: The Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint at 06:34. At Marienborn , the Soviet checkpoint next to Helmstedt on the West German-East German border, US personnel were counted by guards. The column was 160 km (99 mi) long, and covered 177 km (110 mi) from Marienborn to Berlin in full battle gear. East German police watched from beside trees next to the autobahn all the way along. The front of

8732-407: The Issue of Islam ( Institut für Islamfragen ) provides information about Islam from a Christian point of view. Division of Germany The history of Germany from 1945 to 1990 comprises the period following World War II . The period began with the Berlin Declaration , marking the abolition of the German Reich and Allied-occupied period in Germany on 5 June 1945, and ended with

8880-401: The NSA intercepted an advance warning information of the Socialist Unity Party's plan to close the intra-Berlin border between East and West Berlin completely for foot traffic. The interagency intelligence Berlin Watch Committee assessed that this intercept "might be the first step in a plan to close the border." This warning did not reach John F. Kennedy until noon on 13 August 1961, while he

9028-478: The Netherlands) would cooperate in the EDC while maintaining independent control of their own armed forces. Though the EDC treaty was signed (May 1952), it never entered into force. France's Gaullists rejected it on the grounds that it threatened national sovereignty, and when the French National Assembly refused to ratify it (August 1954), the treaty died. The French had killed their own proposal. Other means had to be found to allow West German rearmament. In response,

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9176-410: The Polish government-in-exile of their support for this after the Tehran Conference in 1943. It was also agreed at Potsdam that Poland would receive all German lands East of the Oder-Neisse line , although the exact delimitation of the boundary was left to be resolved at an eventual Peace Conference. Under the wartime alliances of the United Kingdom with the Czechoslovak and Polish governments-in-exile,

9324-401: The Soviet Union. But for Adenauer, fostering and encouraging unrealistic demands and uncompromising expectations amongst the expellees would serve his "Policy of Strength" by which West Germany contrived to inhibit consideration of unification or a final Peace Treaty until the West was strong enough to face the Soviets on equal terms. Consequently, the Federal Republic in the 1950s adopted much of

9472-460: The Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present." Some of the victims had been raped as many as 60 to 70 times . According to German historian Miriam Gebhardt , as many as 190,000 women were raped by U.S. soldiers in Germany . On 17 December 1947, the Saar Protectorate had been established under French control, in

9620-402: The Soviets gave East Germany authority over civilian movement in Berlin, passing control to a regime not recognized in the West. Initially, East Germany granted "visits" to allow its residents access to West Germany. However, following the defection of large numbers of East Germans (known as Republikflucht ) under this regime, the new East German state legally restricted virtually all travel to

9768-429: The Stuttgart speech, where he amongst other things repudiated the Morgenthau plan-influenced policies and gave the West Germans hope for the future. Reports such as The President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria helped to show the U.S. public how bad the situation in Germany really was. The next improvement came in July 1947, when after lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , and Generals Clay and Marshall ,

9916-441: The Truman administration decided that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base on which it had previously been dependent. In July 1947, President Harry S. Truman rescinded on "national security grounds" the punitive occupation directive JCS 1067 , which had directed the U.S. forces in Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany." It

10064-490: The UK government privately acknowledged in a cabinet meeting that German civilian adult death rates had risen to 4 times the pre-war levels and death rates amongst the German children had risen by 10 times the pre-war levels. The German Red Cross was dissolved, and the International Red Cross and the few other allowed international relief agencies were kept from helping Germans through strict controls on supplies and on travel. The few agencies permitted to help Germans, such as

10212-485: The US ( Berlin Brigade ), and France ( Forces Françaises à Berlin ). On 16 August, Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced. Early on 19 August, the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Glover S. Johns Jr.) was alerted. On Sunday morning, U.S. troops marched from West Germany through East Germany, bound for West Berlin. Lead elements—arranged in a column of 491 vehicles and trailers carrying 1,500 men, divided into five march units—left

10360-455: The United Kingdom, France , Canada , Australia , New Zealand and several other countries began a massive " airlift ", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies. The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted

10508-400: The United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel. West Germany also joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Economic Community . East Germany's economy, centrally planned in the Soviet style, grew increasingly stagnant; the East German secret police tightly controlled daily life, and the Berlin Wall (1961) ended the steady flow of refugees to the West . The country

10656-470: The United States agreed to withdraw from Thuringia and Saxony in exchange for the division of Berlin into four sectors. Future President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the US War Department initially implemented a strict non-fraternization policy between the US troops and German citizens. The State Department and individual US congressmen pressured to have this policy lifted. In June 1945

10804-478: The United States in the south, and the Soviet Union in the east, bounded on the east by the new Poland-Germany border on the Oder-Neisse line . At Potsdam , these four zones in total were denoted as 'Germany as a whole', and the four Allied Powers exercised the sovereign authority they now claimed over Germany in agreeing 'in principle' to the ceding of territory of the former German Reich east of 'Germany as

10952-543: The United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union . The capital, Berlin , as the seat of the Allied Control Council , was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city's location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the other occupying powers. These included the Soviets' refusal to agree to reconstruction plans making post-war Germany self-sufficient, and to

11100-506: The Wall also separated West Berlin from the present-day state of Brandenburg . The following present-day municipalities, listed in counter-clockwise direction, share a border with the former West Berlin: There were nine border crossings between East and West Berlin. These allowed visits by West Berliners, other West Germans, Western foreigners and Allied personnel into East Berlin, as well as visits by GDR citizens and citizens of other socialist countries into West Berlin, provided that they held

11248-543: The Wall beginning on 13 June 1990 and concluding in 1994. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification , which formally took place on 3 October 1990. After the end of World War II in Europe , what remained of pre-war Germany west of the Oder-Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones (as per the Potsdam Agreement ), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers :

11396-545: The Wall guards. Through the years, the Berlin Wall evolved through four versions: The "fourth-generation Wall", known officially as " Stützwandelement UL 12.11 " (retaining wall element UL 12.11), was the final and most sophisticated version of the Wall. Begun in 1975 and completed about 1980, it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3.6 metres (12 ft) high and 1.2 m (3.9 ft) wide, and cost DDM 16,155,000 or about US$ 3,638,000. The concrete provisions added to this version of

11544-556: The Wall were done to prevent escapees from driving their cars through the barricades. At strategic points, the Wall was constructed to a somewhat weaker standard, so that East German and Soviet armored vehicles could easily break through in the event of war. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. The Wall was reinforced by mesh fencing , signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire , dogs on long lines, " beds of nails " (also known as "Stalin's Carpet") under balconies hanging over

11692-701: The Wall's construction was to prevent East German citizens from fleeing to the West . The Soviet Bloc propaganda portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from " fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people" from building a communist state in the GDR. The authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart ( German : Antifaschistischer Schutzwall , pronounced [antifaˌʃɪstɪʃɐ ˈʃʊtsval] ). Conversely, West Berlin's city government sometimes referred to it as

11840-503: The Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989, the deadly force associated with the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, over 100,000 people attempted to escape, and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over

11988-562: The Wall, with an estimated death toll of those murdered by East German authorities ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989, a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries ( Poland and Hungary in particular) and the events of the " Pan-European Picnic " set in motion a peaceful development during which the Iron Curtain largely broke, rulers in the East came under public pressure to cease their repressive policies. After several weeks of civil unrest,

12136-446: The West German economy grew at an unparalleled rate. Low rates of inflation, modest wage increases and a quickly rising export quota made it possible to restore the economy and brought a modest prosperity. According to the official statistics the German gross national product grew in average by about 7% annually between 1950 and 1960. The initial demand for housing, the growing demand for machine tools, chemicals, and automobiles and

12284-625: The West German population's support for reunification and the eventual return of the Government to Berlin. After the Petersberg agreement West Germany quickly progressed toward fuller sovereignty and association with its European neighbors and the Atlantic community. The London and Paris agreements of 1954 restored most of the state's sovereignty (with some exceptions) in May 1955 and opened

12432-437: The West in 1956. Soviet East German ambassador Mikhail Pervukhin observed that "the presence in Berlin of an open and essentially uncontrolled border between the socialist and capitalist worlds unwittingly prompts the population to make a comparison between both parts of the city, which unfortunately does not always turn out in favour of Democratic [East] Berlin." With the closing of the inner German border officially in 1952,

12580-492: The West) has been estimated at $ 7 billion to $ 9 billion, with East German party leader Walter Ulbricht later claiming that West Germany owed him $ 17 billion in compensation, including reparations as well as manpower losses. In addition, the drain of East Germany's young population potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost educational investment. The brain drain of professionals had become so damaging to

12728-556: The West. Another official justification was the activities of Western agents in Eastern Europe. The Eastern German government also claimed that West Berliners were buying out state-subsidized goods in East Berlin. East Germans and others greeted such statements with skepticism, as most of the time, the border was only closed for citizens of East Germany traveling to the West, but not for residents of West Berlin travelling to

12876-670: The Western Allies eventually becoming concerned about the deteriorating economic situation in their " Trizone ", the American Marshall Plan of economic aid was extended to Western Germany in 1948 and a currency reform, which had been prohibited under the previous occupation directive JCS 1067, introduced the Deutsche Mark and halted rampant inflation. Though the Marshall Plan is regarded as playing

13024-469: The Western powers, the so-called Morgenthau Plan proposed by Henry Morgenthau Jr. , was one of "pastoralization". The Morgenthau Plan, though subsequently ostensibly shelved due to public opposition, influenced occupation policy; most notably through the U.S. punitive occupation directive JCS 1067 and the industrial plans for Germany . The "Level of Industry plans for Germany" were the plans to lower German industrial potential after World War II . At

13172-549: The Western zones of Berlin began to improve quickly, and residents of the Soviet zone soon began leaving for the West in large numbers, fleeing hunger, poverty and repression in the Soviet Zone for a better life in the West. Soon residents of other parts of the Soviet zone began to escape to the West through Berlin, and this migration, called in Germany "Republikflucht", deprived the Soviet zone not only of working forces desperately needed for post-war reconstruction but disproportionately of highly educated people, which came to be known as

13320-468: The Working Class (KdA) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields and other obstacles were installed along the length of East Germany's western border with West Germany proper. A wide no man's land was cleared as well to provide a better overview and a clear line of fire at fleeing refugees. With the closing of

13468-538: The area corresponding to the current German state of Saarland . It was not allowed to join its fellow German neighbors until a plebiscite in 1955 rejected the proposed autonomy. This paved the way for the accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany as its 12th state, which went into effect on 1 January 1957. On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, Bundesrepublik Deutschland )

13616-593: The area. Of the remainder, around 2 million died during the war or in its aftermath (1.4 million as military casualties; 600,000 as civilian deaths), 3.6 million were expelled by the Poles, one million declared themselves to be Poles, and 300,000 remained in Poland as Germans. The Sudetenland territories, surrendered to Germany by the Munich Agreement , were returned to Czechoslovakia; these territories containing

13764-433: The beginning of the Cold War, the Western policies changed as it became evident that a return to operation of the West German industry was needed not only for the restoration of the whole European economy but also for the rearmament of West Germany as an ally against the Soviet Union. On 6 September 1946 United States Secretary of State , James F. Byrnes made the famous speech Restatement of Policy on Germany , also known as

13912-669: The blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic (the "GDR"; East Germany) was declared on 7 October 1949. On that day, the USSR ended the Soviet military government which had governed the Soviet Occupation Zone (Sowetische Besatzungszone) since the end of the War and handed over legal power to the Provisorische Volkskammer under the new Constitution of

14060-473: The border in Berlin remained considerably more accessible because it was administered by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. On 11 December 1957, East Germany introduced a new passport law that reduced the overall number of refugees leaving Eastern Germany. It had the unintended result of drastically increasing the percentage of those leaving through West Berlin from 60% to well over 90% by

14208-404: The city". The creation of the Wall had important implications for both German states. By stemming the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country: despite discontent with the Wall, economic problems caused by dual currency and the black market were largely eliminated. The economy in the GDR began to grow. However, the Wall proved

14356-741: The control council. Many of the ethnic Germans, who were primarily women and children, and especially those under the control of Polish and Czechoslovakian authorities, were severely mistreated before they were ultimately deported to Germany. Thousands died in forced labor camps such as Lambinowice , Zgoda labour camp , Central Labour Camp Potulice , Central Labour Camp Jaworzno , Glaz, Milecin, Gronowo, and Sikawa. Others starved, died of disease, or froze to death while being expelled in slow and ill-equipped trains; or in transit camps. Altogether, around 8 million ethnic German refugees and expellees from across Europe eventually settled in West Germany, with

14504-468: The convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon, to be met by Clay and Johnson, before parading through the streets of Berlin in front of a large crowd. At 04:00 on 21 August, Lyndon Johnson left West Berlin in the hands of General Frederick O. Hartel and his brigade of 4,224 officers and men. "For the next three and a half years, American battalions would rotate into West Berlin, by autobahn, at three-month intervals to demonstrate Allied rights to

14652-571: The demarcation lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. On 1 April 1952, East German leaders met the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow; during the discussions, Stalin's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should "introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin [so as to stop] free movement of Western agents" in

14800-407: The east–west sector boundary in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Berlin soon went from being the easiest place to make an unauthorized crossing between East and West Germany to being the most difficult. Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs. West Berlin became an isolated exclave in

14948-411: The end of 1958. Those caught trying to leave East Berlin were subjected to heavy penalties, but with no physical barrier and subway train access still available to West Berlin, such measures were ineffective. The Berlin sector border was essentially a " loophole " through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape. The 3.5 million East Germans who had left by 1961 totalled approximately 20% of

15096-535: The end of the War, the USSR installed a Soviet-style regime in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and later founded the GDR, with the country's political system based on a centrally planned socialist economic model with nationalized means of production, and with repressive secret police institutions, under party dictatorship of the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands; Socialist Unity Party of Germany) similar to

15244-529: The entire East German population. An important reason that passage between East Germany and West Berlin was not stopped earlier was that doing so would cut off much of the railway traffic in East Germany. Construction of a new railway bypassing West Berlin, the Berlin outer ring , commenced in 1951. Following the completion of the railway in 1961, closing the border became a more practical proposition. The emigrants tended to be young and well-educated, leading to

15392-662: The erection of the Berlin Wall, a retired general, Lucius D. Clay , was appointed by Kennedy as his special advisor with ambassadorial rank. Clay had been the Military Governor of the US Zone of Occupation in Germany during the period of the Berlin Blockade and had ordered the first measures in what became the Berlin Airlift . He was immensely popular with the residents of West Berlin, and his appointment

15540-506: The first six months of 1953, 226,000 had fled. By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. The restrictions presented a quandary for some Eastern Bloc states, which had been more economically advanced and open than the Soviet Union, such that crossing borders seemed more natural—especially where no prior border existed between East and West Germany. Up until 1952,

15688-405: The formal occupation of the western allies until 1990, although most day-to-day administration was conducted by an elected West Berlin government. West Germany was allied with the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. A western democratic country with a " social market economy ", the country would from the 1950s onwards come to enjoy prolonged economic growth ( Wirtschaftswunder ) following

15836-555: The former eastern territories and other countries in Eastern Europe ; an estimated two million of them died on the way there. Some nine million Germans were prisoners of war . With the beginning of the Cold War , the remaining territory of Germany was divided between the Western Bloc led by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc led by the USSR. Two separate German countries emerged: Under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , West Germany built strong relationships with France,

15984-408: The former occupying troops remained permanently stationed there. The former German capital, Berlin, was a special case, being divided into East Berlin and West Berlin , with West Berlin completely surrounded by East German territory. Though the German inhabitants of West Berlin were citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany, West Berlin was not legally incorporated into West Germany; it remained under

16132-523: The hundreds of thousands, quite possibly as high as the 2,000,000 victims estimate made by Barbara Johr, in "Befreier und Befreite". Many of these victims were raped repeatedly. Naimark states that not only had each victim to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation (the German Democratic Republic ). Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in

16280-483: The indigenous Caritasverband, were not allowed to use imported supplies. When the Vatican attempted to transmit food supplies from Chile to German infants, the U.S. State Department forbade it. The German food situation became worse during the very cold winter of 1946–1947 when German calorie intake ranged from 1,000–1,500 kilocalories per day, a situation made worse by severe lack of fuel for heating. As agreed by

16428-462: The installation of communist regimes in most of the countries occupied by Soviet military forces at the end of the War, including Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, and the GDR, which together with Albania formed the Comecon in 1949 and later a military alliance, the Warsaw Pact . The beginning of the Cold War saw the Eastern Bloc of the Soviet Union confront the Western Bloc of

16576-429: The issue of reparations dealt an early blow to the prospect of a united Germany in 1945. The figure of $ 20 Billion had been floated by Stalin as an adequate recompense but as the United States refused to consider this a basis for negotiation The Soviet Union was left only with the opportunity of extracting its own reparations, at a heavy cost to the East Germans. This was the beginning of the formal split of Germany. With

16724-506: The memory of German aggression led other European states to seek tight control over the West German military. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community decided to establish a European Defence Community (EDC), with an integrated army, navy and air force, composed of the armed forces of its member states. The West German military would be subject to complete EDC control, but the other EDC member states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and

16872-468: The modern era of "total war" included virtually all, were to be severely restricted. The restriction of the latter was set to Germany's "approved peacetime needs", which were defined to be set on the average European standard. In order to achieve this, each type of industry was subsequently reviewed to see how many factories Germany required under these minimum level of industry requirements. The first plan, from 29 March 1946, stated that German heavy industry

17020-721: The necessary permits. These crossings were restricted according to which nationality was allowed to use it (East Germans, West Germans, West Berliners, other countries). The best known was the vehicle and pedestrian checkpoint at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße ( Checkpoint Charlie ), which was restricted to Allied personnel and foreigners. Several other border crossings existed between West Berlin and surrounding East Germany. These could be used for transit between West Germany and West Berlin, for visits by West Berliners into East Germany, for transit into countries neighbouring East Germany (Poland, Czechoslovakia , and Denmark), and for visits by East Germans into West Berlin carrying

17168-411: The occupation authorities to access all records and facilities. Meanwhile, thousands of the best German scientists were being put to work in the U.S. (see also Operation Paperclip ) During the war, Germans seized food supplies from occupied countries and forced millions of foreigners to work on German farms and factories, in addition to food shipped from farms in eastern Germany. When this ended in 1945,

17316-456: The outside of the wall Unlike the inner German border, however, the outer strip was usually no more than four meters wide, and, in photos from the era, the exact location of the actual border in many places appears not even to have been marked. Also in contrast with the inner German border, little interest was shown by East German law enforcement in keeping outsiders off the outer strip; sidewalks of West Berlin streets even ran inside it. Despite

17464-489: The party dictatorship of the Soviet Communist Party in the USSR. At the same time, a parallel country was established under the control of the Western powers in the zones of post-war Germany occupied by them, culminating in the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, which initially claimed to be the sole legitimate power in all of Germany, East and West. The material standard of living in

17612-483: The perimeter of the city. In 1961, Secretary of State Dean Rusk proclaimed, "The Wall certainly ought not to be a permanent feature of the European landscape. I see no reason why the Soviet Union should think it is to their advantage in any way to leave there that monument to communist failure." United States and UK sources had expected the Soviet sector to be sealed off from West Berlin but were surprised by how long

17760-468: The political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative. The exodus of emigrants from East Germany presented two minor potential benefits: an easy way to smuggle East German secret agents to West Germany, and a reduction in the number of citizens hostile to the communist regime. Neither of these advantages, however, proved particularly useful. On 15 June 1961, First Secretary of

17908-405: The prohibition against speaking with German children was loosened. In July troops were permitted to speak to German adults in certain circumstances. In September 1945 the entire policy was dropped. Only the ban on marriage between Americans and German or Austrian civilians remained in place until 11 December 1946 and 2 January 1946 respectively. The initial proposal for the post-surrender policy of

18056-528: The reasons were more political than material. He stated "the flight of the intelligentsia has reached a particularly critical phase." By 1960, the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61% of its population of working age, compared to 70.5% before the war. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals: engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers, and skilled workers. The direct cost of manpower losses to East Germany (and corresponding gain to

18204-557: The recognition of the " Four Powers ", because the Soviet Union opposed it, making it a disputed territory . At the end of World War II, there were some eight million foreign displaced people in Germany, mainly forced laborers and prisoners. This included around 400,000 survivors of the Nazi concentration camp system , where many times more had died from starvation, harsh conditions, murder, or being worked to death. Between 1944 and 1950, some 12 to 14 million German-speaking refugees and expellees arrived in Western and central Germany from

18352-478: The region of Königsberg was administratively assigned by the Potsdam Agreement to the Soviet Union, pending a final Peace Conference (with the commitment of Britain and the United States to support its incorporation into Russia); and was then annexed by the Soviet Union. The Free City of Danzig and the southern half of East Prussia were incorporated into and annexed by Poland; the Allies having assured

18500-477: The same year, suggests that the initiative for the construction of the Wall came from Khrushchev. However, other sources suggest that Khrushchev had initially been wary about building a wall, fearing negative Western reaction. Nevertheless, Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for some time, arguing that East Germany's existence was at stake. Khrushchev had become emboldened upon seeing US president John F. Kennedy 's youth and inexperience, which he considered

18648-537: The speech Restatement of Policy on Germany , held in Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, the United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the U.S. motive in detaching the Saar from Germany as "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". The Saar came under French administration in 1946 as

18796-521: The steel production was located, had argued for a more limited capacity reduction by placing the production ceiling at 12 million tons of steel per year, but had to submit to the will of the U.S., France and the Soviet Union (which had argued for a 3 million ton limit). Germany was to be reduced to the standard of life it had known at the height of the Great Depression (1932). Car production was set to 10% of pre-war levels, etc. By 1950, after

18944-796: The symbolism of expellee groups; especially in appropriating and subverting the terminology and imagery of the Holocaust ; applying this to post-war German experience instead. Eventually in 1990, following the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany , the unified Germany indeed confirmed in treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union that the transfer of sovereignty over the former German eastern territories in 1945 had been permanent and irreversible; Germany now undertaking never again to make territorial claims in respect of these lands. The intended governing body of Germany

19092-624: The time and rate at which further transfers could be carried out, having regard to the present situation in Germany. The Czechoslovak Government, the Polish Provisional Government and the control council in Hungary are at the same time being informed of the above and are being requested meanwhile to suspend further expulsions pending the examination by the Governments concerned of the report from their representatives on

19240-602: The unpopularity of the policy. Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the Petersberg Agreement of November 1949 reduced the levels vastly, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951. The final limitations on German industrial levels were lifted after the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, though arms manufacture remained prohibited. Germany's second largest center of mining and industry, Upper Silesia , had been handed over by

19388-574: The use of the Reichstag building by flying very noisy supersonic jets near the building. A number of cities were proposed to host the federal government, and Kassel (among others) was eliminated in the first round. Other politicians opposed the choice of Frankfurt out of concern that, as one of the largest German cities and a former centre of the Holy Roman Empire , it would be accepted as a "permanent" capital of Germany, thereby weakening

19536-475: The victims of the Nazis. It was directed that all relief went to non-German displaced persons , liberated Allied POWs , and concentration camp inmates. During 1945 it was estimated that the average German civilian in the U.S. and UK occupation zones received 1200 kilocalories a day in official rations, not counting food they grew themselves or purchased on the large-scale black market . In early October 1945

19684-401: The virtual completion of the by then much watered-down plans, equipment had been removed from 706 factories in the west and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons. Timber exports from the U.S. occupation zone were particularly heavy. Sources in the U.S. government stated that the purpose of this was the "ultimate destruction of the war potential of German forests". With

19832-624: The way for German membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In April 1951, West Germany joined with France, Italy and the Benelux countries in the European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner of the European Union). The outbreak of the Korean War (June 1950) led to Washington calling for the rearmament of West Germany in order to defend western Europe from the Soviet threat. But

19980-400: The western half of the city. The Soviets ended the blockade after 11 months. The Allies confiscated intellectual property of great value, all German patents, both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies. Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the U.S. pursued

20128-402: Was a growing demand for labor in many industries as the workforce grew by 3% per annum, the reserves of labor were virtually used up. The millions of displaced persons and the refugees from the eastern provinces had all been integrated into the workforce. At the end of the decade, thousands of younger East Germans were packing their bags and migrating westwards, posing an ever-growing problem for

20276-552: Was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The primary intention for

20424-500: Was an unambiguous sign that Kennedy would not compromise on the status of West Berlin. As a symbolic gesture, Kennedy sent Clay and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to West Berlin. They landed at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday, 19 August 1961 and were greeted enthusiastically by the local population. They arrived in a city defended by three Allied brigades—one each from the UK ( Berlin Infantry Brigade ),

20572-425: Was arrested, dragged through the door into the death strip, and later convicted of illegally crossing the de jure border outside the wall. Graffiti artist Thierry Noir has reported having often been pursued there by East German soldiers. While some graffiti artists were chased off the outer strip, others, such as Keith Haring , were seemingly tolerated. Besides the sector-sector boundary within Berlin itself,

20720-473: Was called the Allied Control Council , consisting of the commanders-in-chief in Germany of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union; who exercised supreme authority in their respective zones, while supposedly acting in concert on questions affecting the whole country. In actuality however, the French consistently blocked any progress towards re-establishing all-German governing institutions; substantially in pursuit of French aspirations for

20868-405: Was closed, and a barbed-wire fence erected. The border between the Western and Eastern sectors of Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Soviet and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted. This resulted in Berlin becoming a magnet for East Germans desperate to escape life in the GDR, and also a flashpoint for tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1955,

21016-497: Was established in the Soviet Zone. The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but Britain, France, and the United States rejected the offer as insincere. Also, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer preferred "Westintegration", rejecting "experiments". In English, the two larger states were known informally as "West Germany" and "East Germany" respectively. In both cases,

21164-576: Was established on the territory of the Western occupied zones, with Bonn as its "provisional" capital. It comprised the area of 11 newly formed states (replacing the pre-war states), with present-day Baden-Württemberg being split into three states until 1952). The Federal Republic was declared to have "the full authority of a sovereign state" on 5 May 1955. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) ), with East Berlin as its capital,

21312-469: Was performed on the outside of the wall by personnel who accessed the area outside it either via ladders or via hidden doors within the wall. These doors could not be opened by a single person, needing two separate keys in two separate keyholes to unlock. As was the case with the inner German border, an unfortified strip of Eastern territory was left outside the wall. This outer strip was used by workers to paint over graffiti and perform other maintenance on

21460-401: Was replaced by JCS 1779, which instead stressed that "[a]n orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." The dismantling did however continue, and in 1949 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer wrote to the Allies requesting that it end, citing the inherent contradiction between encouraging industrial growth and removing factories and also

21608-527: Was reunited on 3 October 1990, following the decline and fall of the SED as the ruling party of East Germany and the Peaceful Revolution there. At the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August 1945), after Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, the Allies officially divided Germany into the four military occupation zones — France in the southwest, the United Kingdom in the northwest,

21756-400: Was to be lowered to 50% of its 1938 levels by the destruction of 1,500 listed manufacturing plants . In January 1946 the Allied Control Council set the foundation of the future German economy by putting a cap on German steel production—the maximum allowed was set at about 5,800,000 tons of steel a year, equivalent to 25% of the pre-war production level. The UK, in whose occupation zone most of

21904-561: Was vacationing in his yacht off the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts . While Kennedy was angry that he had no advance warning, he was relieved that the East Germans and the Soviets had only divided Berlin without taking any action against West Berlin's access to the West. However, he denounced the Berlin Wall, whose erection worsened the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to

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