Germany found herself in a state of despair in 1945 due to the economical, political and physical damage the war had caused ‘Wohin wir blicken. Ruinen, Schutt und Asche […] Die Wirtschaft ist desorganisiert und völlig gelähmt.’ In the aftermath of the war, the Soviet Union, the Western powers and those within each Allied regime had different views on the way in which Germany’s future should be shaped. This was particularly evident at the Potsdam conference, with the introduction of the currency reform and the implementation of the Marshall Plan. However, the post-war German politicians were also partly responsible for the division of Germany with a lack of communication between East and West. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to analyse
…show more content…
The Truman Doctrine is a name given to the speech that Truman made in an attempt to convince the Congress to supply the government in Athens with aid in the Greek civil war. Along with this came the creation of America’s foreign-policy commitment to support anti-communist governments. Attitudes hardened more when Stalin ordered the blockade of West Berlin, which he saw as a dangerous bridgehead and shop-window for western values. After the successful Berlin Airlift, the Federal Republic of Germany was declared in May 1949, followed by the almost inevitable emergence of the German Democratic Republic as a sovereign nation in …show more content…
Despite the fact that German politicians supported the creation of a fully-fledged German state, they decided that the new constitution should not be called a Verfassung, the usual German word, but instead a Grundgesetz (Basic Law). An exhibition at the German Historical Museum, displays the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany with the signature of Konrad Adenauer, ‘Der Parlamentarische Rat wollte alles vermeiden, was dem entstehenden Weststaat endgültigen Charakter geben könnte.’ In practice it made little difference to the situation in relation to the structure of the new state but it suggested that it was only a temporary new state-a Provisorium-and it allowed for a complete German state to be created once the divisions between the Soviet and the western occupation zones were
The Truman Doctrine is a name given to the speech that Truman made in an attempt to convince the Congress to supply the government in Athens with aid in the Greek civil war. Along with this came the creation of America’s foreign-policy commitment to support anti-communist governments. Attitudes hardened more when Stalin ordered the blockade of West Berlin, which he saw as a dangerous bridgehead and shop-window for western values. After the successful Berlin Airlift, the Federal Republic of Germany was declared in May 1949, followed by the almost inevitable emergence of the German Democratic Republic as a sovereign nation in …show more content…
Despite the fact that German politicians supported the creation of a fully-fledged German state, they decided that the new constitution should not be called a Verfassung, the usual German word, but instead a Grundgesetz (Basic Law). An exhibition at the German Historical Museum, displays the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany with the signature of Konrad Adenauer, ‘Der Parlamentarische Rat wollte alles vermeiden, was dem entstehenden Weststaat endgültigen Charakter geben könnte.’ In practice it made little difference to the situation in relation to the structure of the new state but it suggested that it was only a temporary new state-a Provisorium-and it allowed for a complete German state to be created once the divisions between the Soviet and the western occupation zones were