THE CREATION OF THE TWO GERMANIES

In 1945, Germany lay in ruins. The people of Germany, war-weary and concerned for an uncertain future, eked out an existence amidst the rubble and debris of the collapsed Reich. No-one – not even the occupying powers – was at this time certain what the future would hold. Yet, in the course of the next four decades, two very different Germanies emerged. In the west, the Federal Republic of Germany developed into a politically stable and economically prosperous capitalist democracy; in the east, the German Democratic Republic proved to be economically the most productive state in the communist bloc, and, until the Gorbachev era of the late 1980s, one of the Soviet Union's most reliable supporters and allies. Considering the turbulent past of these two Germanies, this double transformation, into two such different political and socioeconomic systems, is all the more remarkable.

Initially, the Allies were unsure and divided over their plans for Germany's future. War-time discussions in Teheran (1943) and Yalta (February 1945) had produced agreement that Germany should be divided into zones of occupation; and at the latter conference it was agreed that France should have her own zone, in addition to those of Britain, the USA and the USSR. Disagreements were already becoming apparent between the Soviets and the western powers on the issues of reparations and of the western frontiers of a reconstituted Poland.