West Germany

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your West Germany shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the West Germany offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of West Germany at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a West Germany? Wrong! If the West Germany is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about West Germany then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling West Germany? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about West Germany and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your West Germany wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your West Germany then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the West Germany site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about West Germany, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your West Germany, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Former Country|_noautocat = yes|native_name = |conventional_long_name = Federal Republic of Germany|national_motto = (German language for "Unity and Justice and Freedom")|national_anthem = (3rd stanza)
also called |common_name = Germany|continent=Europe|region = Germany|country = Germany|status = Federation|era=Cold War|year_start = 1949|year_end = 1990|date_start = May 23|date_end =|p1 = Allied Occupation Zones in Germany|flag_p1 = Flag of Germany (1946-1949).svg|s1 = Germany|flag_s1=Flag of Germany.svg|image_flag = Flag_of_Germany.svg|image_coat = Coat of Arms of Germany.svg|image_map = LocationWestGermany.png|national_anthem = Das Lied der Deutschen|common_languages = German language|capital = Bonn|latd=50 |latm=44 |latNS=N |longd=7 |longm=6 |longEW=E|largest_city = Hamburg|government_type = Federal republic|leader1 = Theodor Heuss|year_leader1 = 1949–1959|leader2 = Heinrich Lübke|year_leader2 = 1959–1969|leader3 = Gustav Heinemann|year_leader3 = 1969–1974|leader4 = Walter Scheel|year_leader4 = 1974–1979|leader5 = Karl Carstens|year_leader5 = 1979–1984|leader6 =Richard von Weizsäcker|year_leader6 = 1984–1994|title_deputy = Chancellor of Germany|deputy1 = Konrad Adenauer|year_deputy1 = 1949–1963|deputy2 = Ludwig Erhard|year_deputy2 = 1963–1966|deputy3 = Kurt Georg Kiesinger|year_deputy3 = 1966–1969|deputy4 = Willy Brandt|year_deputy4 = 1969–1974|deputy5 = Helmut Schmidt|year_deputy5 = 1974–1982|deputy6 = Helmut Kohl|year_deputy6 = 1982–1998|stat_pop1 = 63254000 |stat_year1 = 1990|GDP_PPP_year = 1990|GDP = $946 billion|event_end =enlarged by [German reunification|currency = German mark|currency_code = DEM|time_zone = Central European Time|utc_offset = +1|time_zone_DST = Central European Summer Time|utc_offset_DST = +2|cctld = .de Westdeutschland) was the common English name for the [Federal Republic of Germany, or FRG (in German Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD), from its founding on 24 May 1949 to 2 October 1990, before the five states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, informally East Germany) acceded with effect on 3 October 1990. Since, the current 16-state Federal Republic of Germany is simply called Germany.

The foundation for the influential position held by Germany today was laid during the economic Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s, when West Germany rose from the massive destruction wrought by World War II to become home to the world's fourth largest economy again. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had not only selected his home town Bonn as provisional capital (thus the era is also called die Bonner Republik—the Bonn Republic Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung), but also had cemented a full alignment with the West rather than experimenting with a third, neutral way. He not only secured membership in NATO, but was also a founder of cooperations which today have developed into the European Union. By the time of the establishment of the G8 in 1975, there was no question that the Federal Republic of Germany was to be a member in that organization as well.

Western Germany (Westdeutschland) is mainly used today as a geographic term.

History After World War II, leaders from the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union held the Potsdam Conference where future arrangements with post-war Europe and actions to be made against Japan in the Pacific were negotiated. The conference came to the agreement to split Germany into Allied Occupation Zones in Germany — France in the southwest, United Kingdom in the northwest, United States in the south, and USSR in the east. Former German areas East of the Oder were put under Polish administration, millions of Germans were expelled from there. In 1946, the first three zones were combined. First the British and American zones were combined into the quasi-state of Bizone, then only months afterward the French zone was included into Bizone. In 1949, with the beginning of the Cold War, the two German states that were founded in the two zones (Trizonia and the Soviet zone) became known as West Germany and East Germany.

(protectorate of France), Berlin, and the Bremen (state).

During the period from 1949-1990 there existed another German state, largely to the east of the FRG, called the German Democratic Republic or GDR, commonly known in English as East Germany. This division resulted from the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and the prosecution of the Cold War. From 3 October 1990, after the reformation of the GDR's Länder, the East German states German reunification. Since the German reunification in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany (still the country's legal and official name) is also called simply Germany.

NATO membership The Federal Republic of Germany, founded on 24 May 1949, was declared "fully sovereign" on 5 May 1955. The former occupying Western troops remained on the ground, now as part of the NATO (NATO) which West Germany joined on 9 May 1955, promising to re-arm itself soon.

West Germany became a focus of the Cold War with its juxtaposition to East Germany, a member of the subsequently founded Warsaw Pact. The former capital, Berlin, had also been divided into four sectors, the Western Allies joining their sectors to form West Berlin, while the Soviets held East Berlin. West Berlin was completely surrounded by East German territory and had suffered a Soviet blockade in 1948 which had been overcome by the Berlin airlift.

The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 led to U.S. calls for the rearmament of West Germany in order to help defend Western Europe from the perceived Soviet Union threat. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community proposed 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 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 then had to be found to allow West German rearmament. In response, 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, an idea which was rejected by many Germans, and have full sovereign control of its military called Bundeswehr; the WEU would however regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Also, the German constitution prohibited any military action except in case of an external attack against Germany or its allies (Bündnisfall). Also, Germans could reject military service on grounds of conscience, and serve for civil purposes instead.

The three Western Allies of World War II retained occupation powers in Berlin and certain responsibilities for Germany as a whole. Under the new arrangements, the Allies stationed troops within West Germany for NATO defense, pursuant to stationing and status-of-forces agreements. With the exception of 45,000 French troops, Allied forces were under NATO's joint defense command. (France withdrew from the collective military command structure of NATO in 1966.)

Reunification The official German reunification ceremony on October 3, 1990, was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, President of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others. One day later, the parliament of the united Germany would assemble in an act of symbolism in the Reichstag building.

However, at that time, the role of Berlin had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, the Bundestag concluded on June 20, 1991, with a quite slim majority that both government and parliament should return to Berlin from Bonn.

German Economic Miracle The West German Wirtschaftswunder (English: "economic miracle") coined by The Times of London in 1950), was partly due to the economic aid provided by the United States and the Marshall Plan, but mainly due to the currency reform of 1948 which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as legal tender, halting rampant inflation. This act to strengthen the German economy had been explicitly forbidden during the two years that the occupation directive JCS 1067 was in effect. The Allied dismantling of the West German coal and steel industry finally ended in 1950.

became a very important element, symbolically and economically, of West German economic recovery.

In addition to the physical obstacles that had to be overcome for the German economic recovery (see the Morgenthau Plan) there were also intellectual challenges. The Allies confiscated intellectual privileges of huge value, such as all German patents, both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies. David R. Henderson, "German Economic 'Miracle'", The Library of Economics and Liberty website. Susan Stern, "Marshall Plan 1947–1997: A German View", Germany Info website. Meanwhile some of the best German researchers were being put to work in the Soviet Union and in the U.S.

Contrary to popular belief, the Marshall Plan, which was extended to also include the newly formed West Germany in 1949, was not the main force behind the Wirtschaftswunder. Henderson, op. cit. Stern, op. cit. Had that been the case, other countries such as Great Britain and France (which both received higher economic assistance from the plan than Germany) should have experienced the same phenomenon. In fact, the amount of monetary aid (which was in the form of loans) received by Germany through the Marshall Plan was far overshadowed by the amount the Germans had to pay back as war reparations and by the charges the Allies made on the Germans for the ongoing cost of occupation (about United States dollar2.4 billion per year). In 1953 it was decided that Germany was to repay $1.1 billion of the aid it had received. The last repayment was made in June 1971.

The Korean war (1950–53) led to a worldwide increased demand for goods, and the resulting shortage helped overcome lingering resistance to the purchase of German products. At the time Germany had a large pool of skilled and cheap labour, partly as a result of the deportations and Human migrations which affected up to 16.5 million Germans. This helped Germany to more than double the value of its exports during the war. Apart from these factors, hard work and long hours at full capacity among the population and in the late 1950s and 1960s extra labour supplied by thousands of Gastarbeiter ("guest workers") provided a vital base for the economic upturn.

From the late 1950s onwards, West Germany had one of the strongest economies in the world, almost as strong as before the Second World War. The East German economy showed strong growth, but not as much as in West Germany, due in part to continued reparations to the USSR in terms of resources.

Ludwig Erhard, who served as the Minister of the Economy in Konrad Adenauer's cabinet from 1949 until 1963 and later became Chancellor, is often associated with the German Wirtschaftswunder.

In 1952 West Germany became part of the European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the European Union. On 5 May 1955 West Germany was declared "fully sovereign". The British Armed Forces, Military of France and Military of the United States remained in the country, just as the Red Army remained in East Germany. Four days after becoming "fully sovereign" in 1955, West Germany joined NATO. The U.S. retained an especially strong presence in West Germany, acting as a deterrent in case of a Soviet invasion. In 1976 West Germany became one of the founding nations of the G8 (G6). In 1973, West Germany which was home to roughly 1.26% of the world's population featured the world's List of regions by past GDP (PPP) of 944 billion (5.9% of the world total). In 1987 the FRG held a 7.4% share of total world production.

Position towards East Germany During the Cold War period, after two separate German states (plus the special regions of Saarland and Berlin) had been established in the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, at prevailing opinion in jurisprudence and international law, the Federal Republic is not a new West German state but a re-organized German Reich Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (2 BvF 1/73), 31. Juli 1973 (e.g. continued validity of the Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and the Federal Republic of Germany BVerfGE 6, 309 ff.) West Germany viewed itself as the only democratic German state and thus claimed exclusive mandate for Germany as a whole. However, this view was contested by East Germany as well as critics in the west.

Before the 1970s, the official position of West Germany concerning East Germany was that, according to the Hallstein Doctrine, the West German government was the only democratically elected and therefore legitimate representative of the German people, and any country (with the exception of the USSR) that recognized the authorities of the German Democratic Republic would not have diplomatic relations with West Germany. In the early 1970s, Willy Brandt's policy of Ostpolitik led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. The Treaty of Moscow (1970) (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (1972) (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (1972) (December 1972) helped to normalise relations between East and West Germany and led to both German states joining the United Nations.

The West German Constitution (Grundgesetz / Basic Law) provided two articles for the unification with other parts of Germany:

Article 23 provided the possibility for other parts of Germany to join the Federal Republic (under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany).
Article 146 provided the possibility for unification of all parts of Germany under a new constitution.

After the democratic revolution of 1989 in Eastern Germany, the first freely elected East German parliament decided in June 1990 to join the Federal Republic under Article 23 of the (West-)German Basic Law (Grundgesetz). This made a quick unification possible. In July/August 1990 the East German parliament enacted a law for the establishment of New Länder on the territory of the German Democratic Republic. This East German constitutional law converted the former centralized socialist structure of East Germany into a federal structure equal to that of Western Germany.

The two German states entered into a Monetary union and customs union in July 1990, and on 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic dissolved and the reestablished New Länder (as well East and West Berlin became unified) joined the Federal Republic of Germany bringing an end to the East-West divide. From a West German point of view Berlin already was a member state of the Federal Republic, therefore it was regarded as an old state.

Politics Political life in West Germany was remarkably stable and orderly. The Konrad Adenauer era (1949–63) was followed by a brief period under Ludwig Erhard (1963–66) who, in turn, was replaced by Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966–69). All governments between 1949 and 1966 were formed by the united caucus of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), either alone or in coalition with the smaller Free Democratic Party (Germany) (FDP).

Kiesinger's 1966–69 "Grand Coalition" was between West Germany's two largest parties, the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). This was important for the introduction of new emergency acts—the Grand Coalition gave the ruling parties the two-thirds majority of votes required to see them in. These controversial acts allowed basic constitutional rights such as freedom of movement to be limited in case of a state of emergency.

During the time leading up to the passing of the laws, there was fierce opposition to them, above all by the FDP, the rising German student movement, a group calling itself Notstand der Demokratie ("Democracy in a State of Emergency") and the Trade union. Demonstrations and protests grew in number, and in 1967 the student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the head and killed by the police. The press, especially the tabloid Bild-Zeitung newspaper, launched a massive campaign against the protesters and in 1968, apparently as a result, there was an attempted assassination of one of the top members of the German socialist students' union, Rudi Dutschke.

In the 1960s a desire to confront the Nazism past came into being. Successfully, mass protests clamored for a new Germany. Environmentalism and anti-nationalism became fundamental values of West Germany. Rudi Dutschke recovered sufficiently to help establish the Green Party of Germany by convincing former student protesters to join the Green movement. As a result in 1979 the Greens were able to reach the 5% limit required to obtain parliamentary seats in the Bremen (state) provincial election. Dutschke died in 1979 due to the epilepsy he had from the attack.

Another result of the unrest in the 1960s was the founding of the Red Army Faction (RAF) which was active from 1968, carrying out a succession of terrorist attacks in West Germany during the 1970s. Even in the 1990s attacks were still being committed under the name "RAF". The last action took place in 1993 and the group announced it was giving up its activities in 1998.

In the 1969 election, the SPD—headed by Willy Brandt—gained enough votes to form a coalition government with the FDP. Chancellor Brandt remained head of government until May 1974, when he resigned after a senior member of his staff was uncovered as a spy for the East German intelligence service, the Stasi.

Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt (SPD) then formed a government and received the unanimous support of coalition members. He served as Chancellor from 1974 to 1982. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a leading FDP official, became Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Schmidt, a strong supporter of the European Community (EC) and the Atlantic alliance, emphasized his commitment to "the political unification of Europe in partnership with the USA".

In October 1982, the SPD-FDP coalition fell apart when the FDP joined forces with the CDU/CSU to elect CDU Chairman Helmut Kohl as Chancellor in a Constructive vote of no confidence. Following national elections in March 1983, Kohl emerged in firm control of both the government and the CDU. The CDU/CSU fell just short of an absolute majority, due to the entry into the Bundestag of the Greens, who received 5.6% of the vote.

In January 1987, the Kohl-Genscher government was returned to office, but the FDP and the Greens gained at the expense of the larger parties.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, the German reunification was quickly arranged. Formally, the Federal Republic of Germany grew by joining of the 5 East German states (which had been reestablished only a few month before). As well both parts of Berlin had been reunited. This took place on 3 October 1990.

The four occupying powers officially withdrew from Germany on 15 March 1991.

Culture Sports

In the 20th century Association Football became the largest sport in Germany. The Germany national football team, established in 1908, continued its tradition based in the Federal Republic of Germany, winning the 1954 FIFA World Cup in a stunning upset dubbed the miracle of Bern. The 1974 FIFA World Cup was held in West German cities and West Berlin. After having been beaten by their East German counterparts in the first round, the team of the DFB won the cup again, defeating the Netherlands 2–1 in the Final. With the process of unification in full swing in the summer of 1990, the Germans clinched a third World Cup, with players that had been capped for East Germany not yet permitted to contribute. European championships have been clinched too, in 1972, 1980 and 1996.

After both Olympic games of 1936 had been held in Germany, Munich was selected to host the 1972 Summer Olympics. These were also the first summer games were East Germans showed up for the first time with the separate flag and anthem of the GDR. Since the 1950s, Germany at the Olympics had been represented by a united team led by the pre-war German NOC officials as the IOC had denied East German demands for a separate team.

As in 1957, when the Saarland acceded, East German sport organizations ceased to exist in late 1990 as their subdivisions and their members joined their Western counterparts. Thus, the present German organisations and teams in football, Olympics and elsewhere are identical to those which informally had been called "West German" before 1991, with the only differences being enlarged membership, and a different name used by some foreigners. These organizations and teams in turn had mostly continued the traditions of those representing Germany before WW2 and even WW1, thus having a century old continuity despite political changes. On the other hand, the separate East Germans teams and organisations had been founded in the 1950s, they were an episode lasting less than four decades, yet quite successful in that time.

Life in general area. The large cleared part was known as the 'kill zone'During the 40 years of separation it was inevitable that some divergence would occur in the cultural life of the two parts of the severed nation. Both West Germany and East Germany followed along traditional paths of the common German culture, but West Germany, being obviously more susceptible to influences from western Europe and North America, became more Multiculturalism. Conversely, East Germany, while remaining surprisingly conservative in its adherence to some aspects of the received tradition, was powerfully molded by the dictates of a socialist ideology of predominantly Soviet inspiration. Guidance in the required direction was provided by exhortation through a range of associations and by some degree of censorship; the state, as virtually the sole market for artistic products, inevitably had the last word in East Germany.

Geographical distribution of government West Germany was known to be much more governmentally Decentralization than its communism counterpart East Germany, in which all government agencies were located in East Berlin.

However, in West Germany most of the political agencies and buildings were located in Bonn, the DAX was located in Frankfurt am Main, which became the economic center. And the Judicial Branch of both the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and the highest Court of Appeals, located in Karlsruhe.

Present geographical and political terminology Today, Rhineland and Westphalia are often considered to be western Germany in geographical terms. When distinguishing between former West Germany and former East Germany as parts of present-day unified Germany, it has become most common to refer to the Alte Bundesländer (old states) and the Neue Bundesländer (new states), although Westdeutschland and Ostdeutschland are still heard as well.

Notes

External links {{succession box | title=Federal Republic of Germany
1949–1956 10 states
1957–1990 11 states

Concurrent with:

Saar (protectorate) 1949–1956

Concurrent with:

German Democratic Republic 1949–1990

] | after=Germany
16 states since 1990|years=-->

{{Infobox Former Country|_noautocat = yes|native_name = |conventional_long_name = Federal Republic of Germany|national_motto = (German language for "Unity and Justice and Freedom")|national_anthem = (3rd stanza)
also called |common_name = Germany|continent=Europe|region = Germany|country = Germany|status = Federation|era=Cold War|year_start = 1949|year_end = 1990|date_start = May 23|date_end =|p1 = Allied Occupation Zones in Germany|flag_p1 = Flag of Germany (1946-1949).svg|s1 = Germany|flag_s1=Flag of Germany.svg|image_flag = Flag_of_Germany.svg|image_coat = Coat of Arms of Germany.svg|image_map = LocationWestGermany.png|national_anthem = Das Lied der Deutschen|common_languages = German language|capital = Bonn|latd=50 |latm=44 |latNS=N |longd=7 |longm=6 |longEW=E|largest_city = Hamburg|government_type = Federal republic|leader1 = Theodor Heuss|year_leader1 = 1949–1959|leader2 = Heinrich Lübke|year_leader2 = 1959–1969|leader3 = Gustav Heinemann|year_leader3 = 1969–1974|leader4 = Walter Scheel|year_leader4 = 1974–1979|leader5 = Karl Carstens|year_leader5 = 1979–1984|leader6 =Richard von Weizsäcker|year_leader6 = 1984–1994|title_deputy = Chancellor of Germany|deputy1 = Konrad Adenauer|year_deputy1 = 1949–1963|deputy2 = Ludwig Erhard|year_deputy2 = 1963–1966|deputy3 = Kurt Georg Kiesinger|year_deputy3 = 1966–1969|deputy4 = Willy Brandt|year_deputy4 = 1969–1974|deputy5 = Helmut Schmidt|year_deputy5 = 1974–1982|deputy6 = Helmut Kohl|year_deputy6 = 1982–1998|stat_pop1 = 63254000 |stat_year1 = 1990|GDP_PPP_year = 1990|GDP = $946 billion|event_end =enlarged by [German reunification|currency = German mark|currency_code = DEM|time_zone = Central European Time|utc_offset = +1|time_zone_DST = Central European Summer Time|utc_offset_DST = +2|cctld = .de Westdeutschland) was the common English name for the [Federal Republic of Germany, or FRG (in German Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD), from its founding on 24 May 1949 to 2 October 1990, before the five states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, informally East Germany) acceded with effect on 3 October 1990. Since, the current 16-state Federal Republic of Germany is simply called Germany.

The foundation for the influential position held by Germany today was laid during the economic Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s, when West Germany rose from the massive destruction wrought by World War II to become home to the world's fourth largest economy again. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had not only selected his home town Bonn as provisional capital (thus the era is also called die Bonner Republik—the Bonn Republic Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung), but also had cemented a full alignment with the West rather than experimenting with a third, neutral way. He not only secured membership in NATO, but was also a founder of cooperations which today have developed into the European Union. By the time of the establishment of the G8 in 1975, there was no question that the Federal Republic of Germany was to be a member in that organization as well.

Western Germany (Westdeutschland) is mainly used today as a geographic term.

History After World War II, leaders from the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union held the Potsdam Conference where future arrangements with post-war Europe and actions to be made against Japan in the Pacific were negotiated. The conference came to the agreement to split Germany into Allied Occupation Zones in Germany — France in the southwest, United Kingdom in the northwest, United States in the south, and USSR in the east. Former German areas East of the Oder were put under Polish administration, millions of Germans were expelled from there. In 1946, the first three zones were combined. First the British and American zones were combined into the quasi-state of Bizone, then only months afterward the French zone was included into Bizone. In 1949, with the beginning of the Cold War, the two German states that were founded in the two zones (Trizonia and the Soviet zone) became known as West Germany and East Germany.

(protectorate of France), Berlin, and the Bremen (state).

During the period from 1949-1990 there existed another German state, largely to the east of the FRG, called the German Democratic Republic or GDR, commonly known in English as East Germany. This division resulted from the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and the prosecution of the Cold War. From 3 October 1990, after the reformation of the GDR's Länder, the East German states German reunification. Since the German reunification in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany (still the country's legal and official name) is also called simply Germany.

NATO membership The Federal Republic of Germany, founded on 24 May 1949, was declared "fully sovereign" on 5 May 1955. The former occupying Western troops remained on the ground, now as part of the NATO (NATO) which West Germany joined on 9 May 1955, promising to re-arm itself soon.

West Germany became a focus of the Cold War with its juxtaposition to East Germany, a member of the subsequently founded Warsaw Pact. The former capital, Berlin, had also been divided into four sectors, the Western Allies joining their sectors to form West Berlin, while the Soviets held East Berlin. West Berlin was completely surrounded by East German territory and had suffered a Soviet blockade in 1948 which had been overcome by the Berlin airlift.

The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 led to U.S. calls for the rearmament of West Germany in order to help defend Western Europe from the perceived Soviet Union threat. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community proposed 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 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 then had to be found to allow West German rearmament. In response, 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, an idea which was rejected by many Germans, and have full sovereign control of its military called Bundeswehr; the WEU would however regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Also, the German constitution prohibited any military action except in case of an external attack against Germany or its allies (Bündnisfall). Also, Germans could reject military service on grounds of conscience, and serve for civil purposes instead.

The three Western Allies of World War II retained occupation powers in Berlin and certain responsibilities for Germany as a whole. Under the new arrangements, the Allies stationed troops within West Germany for NATO defense, pursuant to stationing and status-of-forces agreements. With the exception of 45,000 French troops, Allied forces were under NATO's joint defense command. (France withdrew from the collective military command structure of NATO in 1966.)

Reunification The official German reunification ceremony on October 3, 1990, was held at the Reichstag building, including Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, President of Germany Richard von Weizsäcker, former Chancellor Willy Brandt and many others. One day later, the parliament of the united Germany would assemble in an act of symbolism in the Reichstag building.

However, at that time, the role of Berlin had not yet been decided upon. Only after a fierce debate, considered by many as one of the most memorable sessions of parliament, the Bundestag concluded on June 20, 1991, with a quite slim majority that both government and parliament should return to Berlin from Bonn.

German Economic Miracle The West German Wirtschaftswunder (English: "economic miracle") coined by The Times of London in 1950), was partly due to the economic aid provided by the United States and the Marshall Plan, but mainly due to the currency reform of 1948 which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as legal tender, halting rampant inflation. This act to strengthen the German economy had been explicitly forbidden during the two years that the occupation directive JCS 1067 was in effect. The Allied dismantling of the West German coal and steel industry finally ended in 1950.

became a very important element, symbolically and economically, of West German economic recovery.

In addition to the physical obstacles that had to be overcome for the German economic recovery (see the Morgenthau Plan) there were also intellectual challenges. The Allies confiscated intellectual privileges of huge value, such as all German patents, both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies. David R. Henderson, "German Economic 'Miracle'", The Library of Economics and Liberty website. Susan Stern, "Marshall Plan 1947–1997: A German View", Germany Info website. Meanwhile some of the best German researchers were being put to work in the Soviet Union and in the U.S.

Contrary to popular belief, the Marshall Plan, which was extended to also include the newly formed West Germany in 1949, was not the main force behind the Wirtschaftswunder. Henderson, op. cit. Stern, op. cit. Had that been the case, other countries such as Great Britain and France (which both received higher economic assistance from the plan than Germany) should have experienced the same phenomenon. In fact, the amount of monetary aid (which was in the form of loans) received by Germany through the Marshall Plan was far overshadowed by the amount the Germans had to pay back as war reparations and by the charges the Allies made on the Germans for the ongoing cost of occupation (about United States dollar2.4 billion per year). In 1953 it was decided that Germany was to repay $1.1 billion of the aid it had received. The last repayment was made in June 1971.

The Korean war (1950–53) led to a worldwide increased demand for goods, and the resulting shortage helped overcome lingering resistance to the purchase of German products. At the time Germany had a large pool of skilled and cheap labour, partly as a result of the deportations and Human migrations which affected up to 16.5 million Germans. This helped Germany to more than double the value of its exports during the war. Apart from these factors, hard work and long hours at full capacity among the population and in the late 1950s and 1960s extra labour supplied by thousands of Gastarbeiter ("guest workers") provided a vital base for the economic upturn.

From the late 1950s onwards, West Germany had one of the strongest economies in the world, almost as strong as before the Second World War. The East German economy showed strong growth, but not as much as in West Germany, due in part to continued reparations to the USSR in terms of resources.

Ludwig Erhard, who served as the Minister of the Economy in Konrad Adenauer's cabinet from 1949 until 1963 and later became Chancellor, is often associated with the German Wirtschaftswunder.

In 1952 West Germany became part of the European Coal and Steel Community, which would later evolve into the European Union. On 5 May 1955 West Germany was declared "fully sovereign". The British Armed Forces, Military of France and Military of the United States remained in the country, just as the Red Army remained in East Germany. Four days after becoming "fully sovereign" in 1955, West Germany joined NATO. The U.S. retained an especially strong presence in West Germany, acting as a deterrent in case of a Soviet invasion. In 1976 West Germany became one of the founding nations of the G8 (G6). In 1973, West Germany which was home to roughly 1.26% of the world's population featured the world's List of regions by past GDP (PPP) of 944 billion (5.9% of the world total). In 1987 the FRG held a 7.4% share of total world production.

Position towards East Germany During the Cold War period, after two separate German states (plus the special regions of Saarland and Berlin) had been established in the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany, at prevailing opinion in jurisprudence and international law, the Federal Republic is not a new West German state but a re-organized German Reich Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (2 BvF 1/73), 31. Juli 1973 (e.g. continued validity of the Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and the Federal Republic of Germany BVerfGE 6, 309 ff.) West Germany viewed itself as the only democratic German state and thus claimed exclusive mandate for Germany as a whole. However, this view was contested by East Germany as well as critics in the west.

Before the 1970s, the official position of West Germany concerning East Germany was that, according to the Hallstein Doctrine, the West German government was the only democratically elected and therefore legitimate representative of the German people, and any country (with the exception of the USSR) that recognized the authorities of the German Democratic Republic would not have diplomatic relations with West Germany. In the early 1970s, Willy Brandt's policy of Ostpolitik led to a form of mutual recognition between East and West Germany. The Treaty of Moscow (1970) (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (1972) (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (1972) (December 1972) helped to normalise relations between East and West Germany and led to both German states joining the United Nations.

The West German Constitution (Grundgesetz / Basic Law) provided two articles for the unification with other parts of Germany:

Article 23 provided the possibility for other parts of Germany to join the Federal Republic (under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany).
Article 146 provided the possibility for unification of all parts of Germany under a new constitution.

WEST GERMANY at TOFFS
TOFFS ... Download our latest brochure which is full of our best selling shirts

West Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
West Germany (Inf. German: Westdeutschland or West-Deutschland) was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland), from its ...

Germany national football team - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The German national football team (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) is the football team representing the country of Germany in international competition since 1908 ...

West Germany
West Germany (Click on thumbnail to view larger image) 220 025-1 light engine in Hamburg - Aug 1969: 094 640-0 at Hamburg Rothenburgsort mpd - Aug 1969

TheFA.com - England 4-2 West Germany (aet)
Thirty-six years ago today, on a Saturday, England won the World Cup. Hot and humid in the capital today; quite similar all those years ago with thunder and lightning mixed in ...

TheFA.com - West Germany 1974
WORLD CUP 2006: All the results from the 1974 World Cup Finals in West Germany, won by Franz Beckenbauer's side. ... West Germany striker Gerd Muller scores his second goal in the ...

Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
Spartacus, USA History, British History, Second World War, First World War, Germany,

Large map of East and West Germany
Maps of Germany compiles physical, political and road maps to for you to use ... Maps of Germany contains a compiled list of German maps and maps of West and East Germany.

BBC ON THIS DAY | 9 | 1955: West Germany accepted into Nato
West Germany formally joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation at a special ceremony in Paris.

West-Germany Portal
West Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, Bundesrepublik Deutschland. ... west-germany.com : Contact us: About us: West Germany Wiki-pedia Results for West-Germany follow