Introduction
Also known as West Germany, former republic of Central Europe, it is limited to the north with Denmark and the North and Baltic Seas; to the east with the former German Democratic Republic and the current Czech Republic; to the south with Austria and Switzerland; and to the west with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The Federal Republic occupied an area of 248,577 km2. It was officially constituted as the Federal Republic of Germany (RFA) on May 23, 1949, as one of the successor states of Germany, defeated in World War II. The other state was the German Democratic Republic (GDR), East Germany. West Germany ceased to exist as an independent state in 1990, after the reunification of the two German republics, which retained the name of the Federal Republic of Germany.
At the end of World War II, in 1945, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), meeting at the Potsdam Conference, decided to temporarily divide Germany into four occupation zones:the French zone, to the southwest; the English, to the northwest; the North American, to the south; and the Soviet, to the east. The city of Berlin, located within the Soviet zone, was also divided between the four powers.
The Federal Republic of Germany included the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg and Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein. Bonn, a former university city on the banks of the River Rhine, has become the capital of West Germany. At the time of reunification, in 1990, the Federal Republic of Germany had approximately 62 million inhabitants.
European Cooperation
In 1995, West Germany was internationally recognized as a fully-fledged state. Militarily restructured, it was integrated into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). West Germany also participated in the creation of the Council of Europe (see European Union).
Reunification
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and other barriers to emigration, more than 200,000 East Germans entered West Germany. The financial systems of the two Germanys were unified in July 1990 and, three months later, there was the disintegration of the German Democratic Republic and its union with the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundestag (the legislative body of the German Parliament), which represented the two Germanys, designated Berlin as its capital on June 20, 1991.
German Civilization
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