Germany During The Cold War
As a consequence of the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 and the onset of the Cold War in 1947, the country was split between the two global blocs in the East and West, a period known as the division of Germany. Millions of refugees from Central and Eastern Europe moved west, most of them to West Germany. Two states emerged: West Germany was a parliamentary democracy, a NATO member, a founding member of what since became the European Union and one of the world's largest economies, while East Germany was a totalitarian Communist dictatorship that was a satellite of Moscow. With the collapse of Communism in 1989, reunion on West Germany's terms followed.
No one doubted Germany's economic and engineering prowess; the question was how long bitter memories of the war would cause Europeans to distrust Germany, and whether Germany could demonstrate it had rejected totalitarianism and militarism and embraced democracy and human rights.
Read more about this topic: History Of Germany
Famous quotes containing the words germany, cold and/or war:
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”
—Marlene Dietrich (1904–1992)
“If you stand right fronting and face to face to a fact, you will see the sun glimmer on both its surfaces, as if it were a cimeter, and feel its sweet edge dividing you through the heart and marrow, and so you will happily conclude your mortal career. Be it life or death, we crave only reality. If we are really dying, let us hear the rattle in our throats and feel cold in the extremities; if we are alive, let us go about our business.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The remnant of Indians thereabout—all but exterminated in their recent and final war with regular white troops, a war waged by the Red Men for their native soil and natural rights—had been coerced into the occupancy of wilds not far beyond the Mississippi.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)