Following the German surrender to the Allied powers on May 8, 1945, Germany was occupied and divided into four zones. Each of the main Allied powers (the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France) was responsible for the administration of its zone. In 1947, the United States and Great Britain merged their zones. After tensions arose between Soviets and the Western powers, the German Federal Republic (FRG, commonly known as West Germany) was created out of the American, British, and French zones on September 21, 1949. The Soviets then oversaw the creation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, commonly known as East Germany) out of their zone of occupation on October 7, 1949. The United States responded by stating its position that the GDR was “without any legal validity,” and that the United States would “continue to give full support to the Government of the German Federal Republic at Bonn in its efforts to restore a truly free and democratic Germany.” As prospects for early reunification of Germany dimmed, the United States established full diplomatic relations with the FRG on May 6, 1955.
In response to the improvement of relations between the two German governments, representatives of the United States and GDR negotiated arrangements for U.S. recognition of the GDR and the establishment of diplomatic relations, which occurred on September 4, 1974, when the United States and East Germany released a joint communiqué to that effect. Despite this step taken to deal with the reality of the German situation, the United States continued until German reunification in 1990 to view the FRG as the sole legitimate successor government of the historical German state and a future reunified Germany.
The American Embassy in Berlin was established on December 9, 1974, with Brandon H. Grove, Jr., as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. John Sherman Cooper presented his credentials as the first U.S. Ambassador to the GDR on December 20, 1974.
Following the collapse of one-party rule in East Germany in late-1989, the signing of a Unification Treaty by East and West German Governments on August 31, 1990, and a series of meetings between the foreign ministers of East and West Germany, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union in Bonn, Berlin, Paris, and Moscow, a Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (the so-called “Two Plus Four Agreement”) was signed in Moscow on September 12, 1990.
On September 25, 1990, President George H.W. Bush submitted the treaty for ratification, and the U.S. Senate obliged unanimously on October 10. The treaty finally went into effect on March 15, 1991. Since the five constituent federal states of the German Democratic Republic were technically absorbed by the Federal Republic of Germany under the terms of Article 23 of the “Basic Law” (which was subsequently abolished under the terms of the Unification Treaty so as to limit any further changes to the borders of Germany), there was no reason for the United States to recognize the reunified Germany as a “new state.” The United States maintained its embassy in Bonn; however, it closed its embassy in Berlin on October 2, 1990.
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1. Berlin was a divided city before the wall
At the end of the Second World War, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation under the control of the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Berlin, although located within the Soviet zone, was also split amongst the four powers. The American, British and French sectors would form West Berlin and the Soviet sector became East Berlin. The division of Germany and the nature of its occupation had been confirmed by the Allied leaders at the Potsdam Conference, held between 17 July and 2 August 1945.
2. The Berlin Wall came to represent the ideological divisions of the Cold War
This photograph shows British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, American President Harry Truman and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference on 23 July 1945.
The relationship between the former wartime Allies, although tense from as early as 1942, became increasingly strained as they struggled to reach agreement on the shape of post-war Europe.
By 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union had begun to emerge as ideologically opposed 'superpowers', each wanting to exert their influence in the post-war world. Germany became a focus of Cold War politics and as divisions between East and West became more pronounced, so too did the division of Germany. In 1949, Germany formally split into two independent nations: the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR or West Germany), allied to the Western democracies, and the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany), allied to the Soviet Union.
In 1952, the East German government closed the border with West Germany, but the border between East and West Berlin remained open. East Germans could still escape through the city to the less oppressive and more affluent West.
3. The Berlin Wall developed over time
In 1961, rumours spread that measures would be introduced to strengthen the border and stop East Germans from leaving for the West.
On 15 June, East German leader Walter Ulbricht declared that 'no one has the intention of building a wall', but on the night of 12-13 August a wire barrier was constructed around West Berlin. Established crossing points between the Western and Soviet sectors were closed, dividing neighbourhoods and separating families overnight. From this barbed wire barricade, the Wall would eventually develop into a fortified concrete structure encircling West Berlin and isolating it from the surrounding East German territory.
In this photograph, construction workers are supervised by East German guards as they build part of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
4. The Berlin Wall was heavily guarded
The Berlin Wall was not one wall, but two. Measuring 155 kilometres (96 miles) long and four metres (13 feet) tall, these walls were separated by a heavily guarded, mined corridor of land known as the 'death strip'.
It was under the constant surveillance of armed East German border guards who were authorised to shoot anyone attempting to escape into West Berlin. By 1989, the Wall was lined with 302 watchtowers. More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall over the course of its 28-year history. But the Wall was just one part of the larger 'inner German border' that separated East and West Germany, and hundreds more were killed trying to cross other fortified border points.
5. The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989
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. At a press conference on 9 November, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced that East Germans would be free to travel into West Germany, starting immediately. He failed to clarify that some regulations would remain in place.
Western media inaccurately reported that the border had opened and crowds quickly gathered at checkpoints on both sides of the Wall. Passport checks were eventually abandoned and people crossed the border unrestricted. East and West Berliners came together in celebration. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the first step towards German reunification.
The political, economic and social impact of the fall of the Berlin Wall further weakened the already unstable East German government. Germany reunited on 3 October 1990, 11 months after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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