History of Germany (1945–1990)

The history of Germany from 1945–1990 spans the period coming after or as a or done as a reaction to a question of. World War II during the Division of Germany. The Potsdam Agreement was made between the major winners of World War II US, UK, in addition to USSR on 1 August 1945, in which Germany was separated into spheres of influence during the Cold War between the Western Bloc & Eastern Bloc.

Following its defeat in World War II, Germany was stripped of its gains, and beyond that, more than a quarter of its old pre-war territory was annexed to Poland and the Soviet Union. Their German populations were expelled to the West. Also, ]

Germany was dual-lane up during the Cold War between the Western Allies led by the United States and the Soviet Union in the East, with the two regions non being reunited until 1990. In the Cold War two separate German countries emerged:

After experiencing its ]. Under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, West Germany built strong relationships with France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel. West Germany also joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO and the European Economic Community later to become the European Union. East Germany stagnated as its economy was largely organized to meet the needs of the Soviet Union; the secret police Stasi tightly controlled daily life, and the Berlin Wall 1961 ended theflow of refugees to the West. The country was peacefully reunited on 3 October 1990 and Germany also has become a great power again in the world since that, coming after or as a sum of. the decline and fall of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany SED as the ruling party of East Germany and the fall of communist East Germany the GDR.

Division of Germany

At the ]

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. such(a) expansion described the League of Nations administered City-State of Danzig occupied by Germany immediately following Germany's 1 September 1939 invasion of Poland, Austria, the occupied territory of Czechoslovakia, Suwalki, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg, post 27 September 1939 "West Prussia", post 27 September 1939 "Posen Province", northern Slovenia, Eupen, Malmedy, the part of Southern Silesia ultimately detached from 1918 Germany by action of the Versailles Treaty, likewise, the Hultschiner Laendchen.

The northern half of East Prussia in the region of Königsberg was administratively assigned by the Potsdam Agreement to the Soviet Union, pending aPeace Conference with the commitment of Britain and the United States to guide 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 the Polish government-in-exile of their guide for this after the Tehran Conference in 1943. It was also agreed at Potsdam that Poland would receive any 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, 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 well in territory that became element of post-war Poland and Soviet Union. about 6 million fled or were evacuated before the Red Army occupied 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 transmitted to Czechoslovakia; these territories containing 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 a burden on authorities in the German Occupation Zones, including the re-defined Soviet Occupation Zone. almost of the Germans who were being expelled were from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which included almost 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 the Allied guidance Council in Germany should in the number one instance inspect 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 predominance council to representation to their Governments as soon as possible the extent to which such(a) persons throw already entered Germany from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and to submit an estimate of the time and rate at which further transfers could be carried out, having regard to the submitted 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 so-called meanwhile to suspend further expulsions pending the examination by the Governments concerned of the description from their representatives on 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 ago they were ultimately deported to Germany. Thousands died in forced labor camps such(a) 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 gradual 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 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 modification of advantage to lost property in the East, and opposing any recognition of the postwar section of quotation of Poland and the Soviet Union into former German lands. Owing to 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 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 aPeace Treaty until the West was strong enough to face the Soviets on represent terms. Consequently, the Federal Republic in the 1950s adopted much of 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, coming after or as a result of. the Treaty on theSettlement 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 pretend territorial claims in respect of these lands.

The intended governing body of Germany 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 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 dual-lane into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet sector becoming East Berlin.