In 1989, political changes in Eastern Europe and civil unrest in Germany put pressure on the East German government to loosen some of its regulations on travel to West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the first step towards German reunification.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop an exodus from the eastern, communist part of divided Germany to the more prosperous west. Between 1949 and 1961 more than 2.6 million East Germans, out of a total population of 17 million, had escaped.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city.

The Potsdam Agreement was made between the major winners of World War II (US, UK, and USSR) on 1 August 1945, in which Germany was separated into spheres of influence during the Cold War between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc . Their German populations were expelled to the West.

For purposes of occupation, the 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.

Historian Frank Bösch says economic hardship was one of the main reasons for the collapse of the East German dictatorship. As an example, Bösch, who is director of the Leibniz Center for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF), points to the large amount of debt the GDR had amassed with Western countries.

Germany sits in the heart of Europe, and many of the industrial raw materials she can’t supply herself can be imported from her European neighbors. Germany was allowed to exist after WW2 because the victors couldn’t consolidate their gains without her.

After Germany’s defeat in the Second World War, the four main allies in Europe – the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France – took part in a joint occupation of the German state.

This still left Germany with debts it had incurred in order to finance the reparations, and these were revised by the Agreement on German External Debts in 1953. After another pause pending the reunification of Germany, the last installment of these debt repayments was paid on 3 October 2010.

eleven years

In 1947, the Marshall Plan, initially known as the “European Recovery Program” was initiated. In the years 1947–1952, some $13 billion of economic and technical assistance—-equivalent to around $140 billion in 2017—were allocated to Western Europe. Germany’s economy continued to improve until the 1973 oil crisis.

Japan on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of its surrender in World War II. Emperor Naruhito expressed”deep remorse” over his country’s wartime actions at a somber annual ceremony curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result of the attack on Hawaii, America declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941. The first planned offensive action by the United States in World War II came in January 1942 when the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise attacked Japanese bases in the Marshall Islands.