I.

Introduction

West Germany, common name of a former republic of central Europe, bordered on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; on the east by the former East Germany and the Czech Republic; on the south by Austria and Switzerland; and on the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. West Germany had an area of 248,577 sq km (95,976 sq mi). It was established officially as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; German Bundesrepublik Deutschland) on September 21, 1949, as one of two successor states—East Germany (officially the German Democratic Republic, or GDR) being the other—to the nation of Germany after its defeat in World War II (1939-1945). West Germany ceased to exist in 1990 when it merged with East Germany into a single nation known as Germany (officially called the Federal Republic of Germany).

When World War II ended in 1945, leaders from the United States, Britain, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) met at the Potsdam Conference. They decided to temporarily divide Germany into four occupation zones—French in the southwest, British in the northwest, American in the south, and Soviet in the east. The city of Berlin, located inside the Soviet zone, was also divided among the four powers. When the USSR began to establish Communist governments in Eastern Europe, the Allied alliance suffered a breakdown. With western powers opposed to Soviet expansion, the Cold War began and tensions in Germany increased. The Soviets increased the isolation of the zones of Germany and Berlin under their control, distancing these zones from the democratic development being encouraged by the Western powers in the rest of Germany. Unable to agree with the Western powers on a policy for Germany, the Soviets set up a Communist government in the eastern part of Germany (East Germany). The United States, France, and Britain supported the free market democracy in the west (West Germany).

West Germany included the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen), Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Schleswig-Holstein. Bonn, an old university city on the Rhine River, served as the West German capital and continues to host much of the government of the new Germany. The official capital of Germany, Berlin (formerly the capital of East Germany), is scheduled to take over some of the federal government functions by the year 2000. At the time of reunification in 1990 West Germany had about 62 million inhabitants.