Germany » History

West Germany, based as a progressive parliamentary republic with a "social market economy", was joined with the United States, the UK and France. The country eventually came to enjoy prolonged economic growth beginning in the early 1950s. West Germany joined NATO in 1955 and was an establishing member of the European Economic Community in 1958. Across the border, East Germany was at first occupied by, and later (May 1955) allied with, the USSR.

A strict country with a Soviet-style command economy, East Germany soon became the richest, most advanced country in the Warsaw Pact, but many of its citizens looked to the West for political freedoms and economic prosperity. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to stop East Germans from escaping to West Germany, became a symbol of the Cold War. However, tensions between East and West Germany were somewhat reduced in the early 1970s by Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, which included the de facto (actually existing but not officially approved) acceptance of Germany's territorial losses in World War II.

Before a growing migration of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and mass demonstrations during the summer of 1989, East German authorities suddenly eased the border restrictions in November, allowing East German citizens to travel to the West. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that concluded with German reunification on 3 October 1990. Under the terms of the agreement between West and East Germany, Berlin again became the capital of the reunited Germany.

 

Longer Historical Perspective

After the success of the German Revolution in November 1918, a republic was declared. The Weimar Constitution came into effect with its signing by President Friedrich Ebert on 11 August 1919. The German Communist Party was established by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1918, and the German Workers Party, later known as the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi Party, was founded in January 1919.

On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag (Location of the German Parliament until the rise of Hitler into power) was set on fire. Some basic democratic rights were quickly cancelled afterwards under an emergency law. An Enabling Act gave Hitler's government full legislative power. Only the Social Democratic Party of Germany voted against it; the Communists were not able to present a reasonable opposition, as many of their representatives had already been murdered or imprisoned. A centralised dictatorship was established by a series of moves and decrees making Germany a single-party state.

Industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements in order to shift the economy towards a war production base. In 1936 German troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policies proved inadequate. Emboldened, Hitler followed from 1938 onwards a policy of expansionism to establish Greater Germany. To avoid a two-front war, Hitler concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, a pact which was later broken by Germany.

In 1939, the growing tensions from nationalism, militarism, and territorial issues led to the Germans launching a blitzkrieg (swift surprise attack by air and ground forces) on September 1 against Poland, followed two days later by declarations of war by Britain and France, marking the beginning of World War II. Germany quickly gained direct or indirect control of the majority of Europe.