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West Germany (in German Westdeutschland) was the informal English name for the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG, from 1949 to 1990. During this period there existed another German state, largely to the east of the FRG, called the German Democratic Republic, or GDR (informally known in English as East Germany). This division was resultant from the ending of World War II and the prosecution of the Cold War. From 3 October 1990, after the reformation of the GDR's Länder, the GDR merged with the Federal Republic. Since this reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany (still the country's legal name) has been commonly known simply as Germany. West Germany was declared "fully sovereign" on 5 May 1955, although the British, French and US militaries remained in the country, just as the Soviet Army remained in East Germany. However, the Four Powers did not surrender total sovereignty to the Federal Republic until just before the reunification. West Germany's capital was Bonn. Germans sometimes now refer to the old West Germany as die Bonner Republik – the Bonn Republic.
History After World War II, leaders from all of the following countries; United States, United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, organized a meeting at the Potsdam Conference. Talks were focused towards future arrangments with post-war Europe and actions to be made against Japan in the Pacific. The nations came to the agreement to split Germany into four occupation zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest, American in the south, and Soviet in the east. In 1946, the three zones were combined. First the British and American zones were combined into the state of Bizonia, then only months afterward, Bizonia and the French zone were combined into Trizonia. In 1949, with the begining of the cold war, the two zones (Trizonia and the Soviet zone) became known as West Germany and East Germany. 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 existence of East Germany 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 (August 1970), the Treaty of Warsaw (December 1970), the Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971), the Transit Agreement (May 1972), and the Basic Treaty (December 1972) helped to normalise relations between East and West Germany and led to both German states joining the United Nations. The two German states entered into a currency and customs union in July 1990, and on 3 October 1990, the East German state dissolved and became part of the Federal Republic bringing an end to the East-West divide. Geographical usage Today, Rhineland and Westphalia are usually considered to be western Germany in geographical terms. See also Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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