Key Question 5: West and East Germany 1949 & 1991

• West and East Germany between 1949 and 1991

  Why were conditions in West and East Germany different after 1949?
• Division of Germany

  1. Germany divided into 4 zones (Britain, France and America controlled West Germany, and the Soviet Union controlled East Germany)

  2. Berlin split between East and West
• West Germany

  • Federal Republic of Germany - die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD)
  • Konrad Adenauer elected Chancellor on 15 September 1949
  • Bonn was the new capital
• East Germany

  • German Democratic Republic - die Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR)
  • USSR set up a one-party communist state there in 1949, led by Walter Ulbricht
  • East Berlin was the new capital
• Economic recovery in the West

  • West Germany received $1,300 million as part of Marshall Aid from America
  • Adenauer's economic miracle transformed West Germany into a prosperous industrial state
  • West Germany became one of the leading economies of the world by the 1960s
  • Production of cars second only to the USA
• Conditions in East Germany

  • Population only one-third that of West Germany
  • Industrial output barely 20 per cent of output in West Germany
  • Old Nazi concentration camps brought back into use for political prisoners
  • 120,000 people put into these camps, over a third of whom died
  • Secret police force called the Stasi to ensure protests would not occur
  • Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike in June 1953, attacking Communist Party buildings and demanding free and secret elections
• Separation of Germany by 1961

  1. East German government, under instructions from the USSR, started to construct a wall to divide East and West Berlin

  2. 103-mile perimeter around West Berlin quickly built

  3. Massive stone wall, topped with barbed wire and gun positions
• East Germans were not allowed to travel abroad without permission from their government.