National Flag of West Germany |
West Germany was the informal name for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990, during which
years the Federal Republic did not yet include the territories of the German Democratic Republic,
called "Middle Germany" in the West but known as "East Germany" outside Germany. Since the
German reunification of 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany is informally called simply Germany.
The Federal Republic was proclaimed as the only legitimate German state and successor of the previous
government on 23. May 1949, with Bonn as its provisional capital, and included the post-World War II
UK, US, and French occupation zones. West Germany was declared "fully sovereign" 5. May 1955, although
with the former occupying troops remaining on the ground, due to their alliance with West Germany after
it joined the NATO on 9. May 1955.
West Germany became a focus of the Cold War with its juxtaposition to
the GDR, a member of the subsequently founded Warsaw Pact. The former capital, Berlin, was also divided
into East Berlin and West Berlin but West Berlin was completely surrounded by GDR territory.
Creation of West Germany
The Western Allies turned over increasing authority to German officials and moved to establish a nucleus
for a future German government by creating a central Economic Council for their zones. The program later
provided for a West German constituent assembly, an occupation statute governing relations between the
Allies and the German authorities, and the political and economic merger of the French with the British
and American zones.
On 23. May 1949, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, was
promulgated. Following elections in August, the first federal government was formed on 20. September 1949,
by Konrad Adenauer (CDU). The next day, the occupation
statute came into force, granting powers of self-government with certain exceptions.
West Germany quickly progressed toward fuller sovereignty and association with its European neighbors and
the Atlantic community. The London and Paris agreements of 1954 restored most of the state's sovereignty
(with some exceptions) in May 1955 and opened the way for German membership in the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). In April 1951, West Germany joined with France, Italy and the Benelux countries in
the European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner of the European Union) in March 1957.
Sovereignty and embedding in western organisations
The outbreak of war in Korea (June 1950) led to U.S. calls for the rearmament of West Germany in order to
defend western Europe from the perceived Soviet threat. But the memory of German aggression led other European
states to seek tight control over the West German military. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community
decided to establish a European Defence Community (EDC), with an integrated army, navy and air force, composed
of the armed forces of its member states. The West German military would be subject to complete EDC control,
but the other EDC member states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) would cooperate in
the EDC while maintaining independent control of their own armed forces.
Though the EDC treaty was signed (May 1952), it never entered into force. France's Gaullists rejected it
on the grounds that it threatened national sovereignty, and when the French National Assembly refused to
ratify it (August 1954), the treaty died. The French had killed their own proposal. Other means then had to
be found to allow West German rearmament. In response, the Brussels Treaty was modified to include West
Germany, and to form the Western European Union (WEU). West Germany was to be permitted to rearm, and have
full sovereign control of its military; the WEU would however regulate the size of the armed forces
permitted to each of its member states.
The three Western Allies retained occupation powers in Berlin and certain responsibilities for Germany as
a whole. Under the new arrangements, the Allies stationed troops within West Germany for NATO defense,
pursuant to stationing and status-of-forces agreements. With the exception of 45,000 French troops, Allied
forces were under NATO's joint defense command. (France withdrew from the collective military command
structure of NATO in 1966.)
West German politics
Political life in West Germany was remarkably stable and orderly. The Adenauer era (1949-63) was followed by
a brief period under Ludwig Erhard (1963-66) who, in turn, was
replaced by Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966-69). All governments between 1949 and 1966 were formed by the united
caucus of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), either alone or in coalition
with the smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP).
Kiesinger's 1966-69 "Grand Coalition" was between West Germany's two largest parties, the CDU/CSU and the
Social Democratic Party (SPD). This was important for the introduction of new emergency acts - the Grand
Coalition gave the ruling parties the two-thirds majority of votes required to see them in. These controversial
acts allowed basic constitutional rights such as freedom of movement to be limited in case of a state of
emergency.
During the time leading up to the passing of the laws, there was fierce opposition to them, above all by the
Free Democratic Party, the rising German student movement, a group calling itself Notstand der Demokratie
(Democracy in Crisis) and the labour unions. Demonstrations and protests grew in number, and in 1967 the
student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the head and killed by the police. The press, especially the tabloid
Bild-Zeitung newspaper, launched a massive campaign against the protesters and in 1968, apparently as a
result, there was an attempted assassination of one of the top members of the German socialist students'
union, Rudi Dutschke.
In the 1960s a desire to confront the Nazi past came into being. Successfully, mass protests clamored for
a new Germany. Environmentalism and anti-nationalism became fundamental values of West Germany. Rudi Dutschke
recovered sufficiently to help establish the Green Party of Germany by convincing former student protesters
to join the Green movement. As a result in 1979 the Greens were able to reach the 5% limit required to obtain
parliamentary seats in the Bremen provincial election. Dutschke died in 1979 due to the epilepsy he had from
the attack.
Another result of the unrest in the 1960s was the founding of the Red Army Faction (RAF) which was active from
1968, carrying out a succession of terrorist attacks in West Germany during the 1970s. Even in the 1990s attacks
were still being committed under the name "RAF". The last action took place in 1993 and the group announced it
was giving up its activities in 1998.
In the 1969 election, the SPD – headed by Willy Brandt – gained
enough votes to form a coalition government with the FDP. Chancellor Brandt remained head of government until
May 1974, when he resigned after a senior member of his staff was uncovered as a spy for the East German
intelligence service, the Stasi.
Finance Minister Helmut Schmidt (SPD) then formed a government and received the unanimous support of coalition
members. He served as Chancellor from 1974 to 1982. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, a leading FDP official, became
Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Schmidt, a strong supporter of the European Community (EC) and the
Atlantic alliance, emphasized his commitment to "the political unification of Europe in partnership with the USA".
In October 1982, the SPD-FDP coalition fell apart when the FDP joined forces with the CDU/CSU to elect CDU
Chairman Helmut Kohl as Chancellor in a Constructive Vote of No Confidence. Following national elections in
March 1983, Kohl emerged in firm control of both the government and the CDU. The CDU/CSU fell just short of
an absolute majority, due to the entry into the Bundestag of the Greens, who received 5.6% of the vote.
In January 1987, the Kohl-Genscher government was returned to office, but the FDP and the Greens gained at
the expense of the larger parties.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9. November 1989, the unification was quickly arranged: formally,
the Federal Republic of Germany grew by annexing the territory of the former German Democratic Republic.
This took place on 3. October 1990, and the four occupying powers officially withdrew from Germany
on 15. March 1991.
Please have a look at some sample banknotes from West Germany.
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