Division of Germany (1945 - 1990)

polentinhay:

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Yalta and Potsdam conferences established the occupation of the country by the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. Germany and its capital, Berlin, were divided into four occupation zones, while the eastern border was shifted to the Oder-Neisse line, transferring territories to Poland and the Soviet Union.

The central objective of the occupation was the reconstruction of the country, but the political and economic differences between the occupying powers quickly made joint administration impossible. Between 1947 and 1948, the deindustrialization carried out by the Soviets and the administrative and economic reforms of the Western Allies intensified rivalries, culminating in the Berlin Blockade and the Airlift organized by the Western Allies.

In 1949, the division became permanent with the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), aligned with the United States and the capitalist bloc, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), aligned with the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc. In the following decades, West Germany (FRG) joined NATO and experienced rapid economic growth, while East Germany (GDR) joined the Warsaw Pact and adopted a planned economy under strong Soviet influence.

The flight of millions of East Germans to the West led to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which became one of the main symbols of the division of Europe during the Cold War. From the 1970s onwards, relations between the two Germanys improved with Ostpolitik. In 1989, the weakening of the Soviet Union

Collection: cold-war - Tags: germany, world-war-2, cold-war - Source: reddit.com