Germany's way to
democracy
 After World War II
– German military leaders' unconditional surrender in
May 1945
– sovereign authority passed to the victorious Allied
powers
– end of the war: “zero hour”
– Americans, British, French, and Soviets divided
Germany into four zones
– the American, British, and French zones together made
up the western two-thirds of Germany, while the Soviet
zone comprised the eastern third
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Germany‘s way to democracy

Berlin, the former capital, was placed under
joint four-power authority but was
partitioned into four sectors for
administrative purposes
 an Allied Control Council was to exercise
overall joint authority
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Germany‘s way to democracy

In the western zones the Allies permitted a market
economy
 The emergence of a free and pluralistic press was
also fostered
 The Soviets subjected the press and all other
means of communication in their zone to
increasingly close censorship
 In the economic sphere they nationalized most
industries without compensation for the previous
owners
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Germany‘s way to democracy

the Federal Republic of Germany was established
with its provisional capital in the small university
city of Bonn
 the occupying powers soon approved the
formation of regional organs of self-administration
called Länder or “states”
 by 1947 those Länder established in the western
zones had freely elected parliamentary assemblies.
 institutional developments followed a superficially
similar pattern in the Soviet zone
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Germany‘s way to democracy

the Federal Republic of Germany came into
being in May 1949
 in October 1949, following the formation of
the Federal Republic, a constitution ratified
by the People's Congress went into effect in
the Soviet zone, which became the German
Democratic Republic (East Germany), with
its capital in the Soviet sector of Berlin
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Germany‘s way to democracy

in 1954 Moscow proclaimed East Germany a
sovereign state
 in 1955 East Germany became a charter member
of the Warsaw Pact, the Soviet bloc's military
alliance
 in 1961 the flow of refugees to West Germany
through Berlin increased dramatically, bringing
the total number of East Germans who had fled
since the war to some three million
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Germany‘s way to democracy
On Aug. 13, 1961, the
East German
government surprised
the world by sealing
off East Berlin from
West Berlin, first by
barbed wire and later
by construction of a
concrete wall through
the middle of the city.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
No one was permitted to
go to the West through the
tightly guarded crossing
points without official
permission. East Germans
who sought to escape by
climbing over the wall
risked being shot by East
German guards under
orders to kill, if need be,
to prevent the crime of
“flight from the republic.”
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Two major reasons for the building of the Wall:
 1. Economics: too many well-educated people
moved from East Germany, and some worked
in West Berlin and lived in East Berlin (it's
cheaper there), so DDR lost money on this
 2. Political: the West side interfered with the
East side (the Russian sector)
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Germany‘s way to democracy
In 1963, J.F.
Kennedy delivered
his famous speech
in Berlin, finishing
with the words „Ich
bin ein Berliner“.
Read his speech or
listen to it.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
In June 1987, in a
speech outside the
Brandenburg Gate in
West Berlin, Reagan
addressed Soviet
leader Mikhail
Gorbachev, memorably
saying, "Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.“
(Read complete
speech, or listen to and
see Reagan on the
Internet).
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Germany‘s way to democracy

With the rise of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
in the USSR in the late 1980s, the Soviet-backed
regimes of Eastern Europe began to lose control
over their people. East Germany’s Communist
government fell in 1989, an event that profoundly
altered relations between the two Germanys.
 With the fall of the Berlin Wall and other
emigration barriers, more than 200,000 East
Germans streamed into West Germany.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
The reunification of Germany was one of
the greatest events in world history. (Los
Angeles Times; Times) It was a once-in-alifetime chance for many to witness such a
humanitarian effort toward peace and
prosperity. The following images capture
just a few of the celebrations of the
reunification and the stories they have to
tell.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Citizens Chipping Away at the Berlin Wall
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Germany‘s way to democracy
German Military Removing the Berlin Wall
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Celebration at the Brandenburg Gate
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Germany‘s way to democracy
West Germany and East Germany merged their
financial systems in July 1990, and in October
East Germany dissolved and all its citizens
became citizens of the Federal Republic of
Germany.
The final obstacle to reunification was removed in
July 1990 when Kohl prevailed upon Gorbachev
to drop his objections to a unified Germany within
the NATO alliance in return for sizable (West)
German financial aid to the Soviet Union.
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Germany‘s way to democracy

A unification treaty was ratified by the
Bundestag and the People's Chamber in
September and went into effect on Oct. 3,
1990.
 With a few segments preserved as a
monument, the wall was completely
removed by the summer of 1991.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Problems after Reunification:
 Reunification promised to quickly alleviate
forty years of East German Socialism by
means of tax money, which proved wrong.
 Reunification promised to bring "social
freedom" by ignoring the crimes of former
Socialist party leaders.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Effects of Reunification:
The cost of reunification has been a heavy burden
to the German economy and has contributed to
Germany's inability today to be the locomotive of
the European economy that it had been in the past.
The costs of reunification are estimated to amount
to over 1.5 trillion Euro.
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Germany‘s way to democracy
Effects of Reunification:
Following reunification, Germany followed the
social policies of Geschichtsaufarbeitung (working
through history) and Vergangenheitsbewältigung
(mastering the past) to deal with their violent
history.
Since unification, hundreds of thousands of former
East Germans have continued to migrate to
western Germany to find well-paying jobs.
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