17 - Germany

Summary

At the end of World War II, the Big Three agreed on Germany’s territorial reduction and division, and the territorial westward relocation of Poland. Poland received the German territories of southern East Prussia, Pomerania, Posen, and Silesia, with the Oder and Neisse rivers forming its new western border. The Big Three also decided to divide the remainder of Germany into occupation zones—a decision that, however, predetermined the country’s divided fate until 1990. At their birth in 1949, both the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) were firmly convinced that the nation’s division would be temporary. The Korean War cemented the nation’s division. Afterwards, West Germany tried to prevent East Germany’s attempt at seeking separate statehood. The East German closure of the borders in the divided capital Berlin in 1961 deepened the division. Starting in late 1969, West Germany acknowledged the reality of the two German states but denied the existance of two German nations. Although recognition in 1972-73 had been a long-term goal of the GDR, it also brought the danger of economic and political embracement by the FRG.