According to the results of the Second World War, the territory of Germany was divided into four zones of occupation: American, British, Soviet and French. In 1946, on the basis of the American and British occupation zones, a new territorial association, the Bizonium, was created, and in 1948, after the annexation of the French occupation zone, it was renamed Trizonia. The economic council, which was a quasi-parliament, was functioning in these zones.

The Soviet administration and part of German society took the actions of the Western allies as an attempt to block the process of creating legitimate all-German authorities. In 1948, the United States, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg held a series of meetings in London, at which, without the consent of the USSR, they decided to create a constituent parliamentary council in Germany with the right to draft a new German Constitution.

“The Soviet authorities expected that a single demilitarized neutral state, an analogue of Finland or Austria, would be created on the basis of all four zones of occupation of Germany. However, this idea is absolutely not satisfied with the United States.

Firstly, in Washington they saw Germany not as a neutral state, but as an ally in anti-Soviet activities, and secondly, it was obvious that the Communist Party would play a huge role in the political life of the united country, ”German historian Konstantin said in an interview with RT. Zaleski.

  • Cologne, March 7, 1945
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  • © Manchester Daily Express

In the spring of 1949, the American, British, and French occupation administrations approved the draft Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany developed by the parliamentary council. On May 23, it officially entered into force on the territory of the former Trizonia, and from that moment the history of the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany begins. The capital of the new state is located in Bonn.

“In response to the actions of the Western allies aimed at proclaiming the Federal Republic of Germany, the Soviet authorities were forced to take retaliatory steps and supported the creation of the German Democratic Republic - GDR in their occupation zone,” Zaleski said.

Marshall plan

During the war years, the US authorities planned to divide Germany and completely destroy its economy. In 1944, American Finance Minister Henry Morgentau developed a doctrine, according to which Germany was transformed into a poor agrarian country, deprived of industry and science. In Washington, the plan was considered overly rigid and, after the defeat of the Third Reich, was only partially implemented - by blocking German foreign economic activity, as well as by disintegrating the industrial and financial systems.

However, when the US authorities saw a new global adversary in the Soviet Union after the war, their views on Germany changed. To confront the USSR and the nascent socialist camp, Washington needed a powerful European ally. It was then that the Americans initiated unification processes in the western zones of occupation and thought about the revival of the German and other European economies.

As a result of the war, production in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and other European countries dropped sharply. In Germany, it collapsed three times. But the economy of the States, the whole war successfully selling their goods to the Old World, was on the rise. It accounted for up to 60% of industrial production in the capitalist world and up to 70% of the gold reserves.

In the summer of 1947, US Secretary of State George Marshall declared the need for economic assistance to Western Europe. To do this, Washington developed special documents, and with the governments of European countries held talks on the conditions under which they can qualify for US financial assistance. Monetary relations in Western Europe actually came under American control, a number of goods could only be purchased in the United States, and the Communists should be expelled from the authorities, contrary to national legislation. In April 1948, the Marshall Plan was formally approved.

“One of the main beneficiaries of the American financial project was West Germany. Although the plan was sly and most of the money was returning to the United States, the German economy began to recover. At the same time, the republic’s sovereignty was limited even more, ”said Konstantin Zalessky.

In 1953, the Federal Republic of Germany managed to reach the pre-war level of the population’s well-being.

New old power

The first federal chancellor of West Germany was Konrad Adenauer, one of the founders of the Christian Democratic Union. He led the executive branch of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. Adenauer had a negative attitude towards the USSR. He interrupted all contacts with the GDR and organized in 1955 the entry of West Germany into NATO. The Communist Party in Germany was banned under him.

Although Adenauer himself did not personally perceive National Socialism, and with the advent of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany in 1933, he even left the post of mayor of Cologne, after the creation of the FRG he did not refuse the services of former Nazis in state structures.

  • First Federal Chancellor of West Germany Konrad Adenauer signs the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, May 23, 1949
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Formally, a policy of denazification was carried out in West Germany, but in practice a great number of people who were in the civil service in the Third Reich, and even members of the Nazi Party of the Democratic Republic of Germany got into the state apparatus of Germany.

“The base and middle level in the police and the courts remained almost completely after the Hitler period, despite the fact that it was impossible to remain innocent of persecuting people in such structures,” said Konstantin Zalessky.

When in 1951 the FRG acquired its own Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it quickly became clear that 2/3 of its employees were Nazis in the past. In response to a wave of criticism, Adenauer replied that it was time to "stop sniffing out the Nazis." In the same year, the property rights of members of the NSDAP were restored in West Germany.

“By the time of the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the former Hitlerite generals had completed a description of various issues of armed struggle against the USSR — methodological manuals for the US Army. And on 7 June 1955, the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany was established and the first volunteers took the military oath, ”said Dmitry Surzhik, a methodologist at the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.

  • Reinhard Gehlen (left) - the future founder of the Gehlen Organization, later transformed into the German Federal Intelligence Service
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According to the expert, the immediate work on the formation of the Bundeswehr was headed by Adolf Heusinger.

“It was a professional military man, a representative of the classical German military elite. He passed the battles of the First World War, and during the Second World War he initially headed the operational control of the Wehrmacht ground forces, and then the high command. He considered and claimed the Wehrmacht’s largest punitive operations against the Soviet partisans, ”Surzhik explained.

In 1957, Heusinger officially became head of the department of the Armed Forces of the German Defense Ministry, and in 1961 became head of the NATO military committee. The Soviet Union sought to extradite Huizinger for the court as a war criminal for the destruction of the civilian population of the USSR, but these attempts were in vain.

“The Soviet Union, Poland and Yugoslavia constantly demanded from Germany to extradite one or another military for the court. And for good reason. Virtually any commander of the German unit who fought on the Eastern Front could reasonably be tried - if not for direct orders, then for connivance. After all, war crimes against civilians and prisoners were completely commonplace in the German army. However, as a rule, such requests remained unsatisfied, ”said Konstantin Zalessky.

“There was no merger, there was absorption”

When Adenauer resigned in 1963, he was briefly replaced as economist Ludwig Erhard, but because of his straightforwardness he did not work with the legislators and quickly left the position. The third federal chancellor in 1966 was Kurt Georg Kiesinger, a member of the Nazi Party since 1933, an employee of the Goebbels Ministry of Propaganda.

After the war, he joined the CDU and consistently served as deputy of the Bundestag, Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg and Chairman of the Bundesrat.

Journalist Beate Klarsfeld publicly slapped Kiezinger and called her a Nazi, for which she was sentenced to a year in prison (she was later given a reduced sentence of up to conditional months).

In 1969, Kiesinger as Chancellor was replaced by Social Democrat Willy Brandt, under which mutual recognition of the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR took place, and relations between West Germany and the USSR were improved. But in 1974, the referent Brandter Gunter Guillaume, who turned out to be an East German intelligence officer, was arrested. A scandal broke out that cost the chancellor his chair. The head of the executive branch of West Germany became the representative of the pro-American wing of the Social Democrats, Helmut Schmidt. However, in 1982, due to his attempts to form a one-party government, a political crisis broke out in the country, and Schmidt left his post.

In 1982, CDU Representative Helmut Kohl was elected Chancellor of Germany for a record 16-year term, during which the FRG and the GDR became one state.

“The media and books often write about the fact that Germany merged in 1990. This is not quite true. There was no merger, there was absorption. The GDR became part of the FRG, having adopted its political system, ”stressed Konstantin Zalessky.

According to the historian, West Germany was originally created under the influence of the United States and later remained under the control of Washington.

“What can we talk about, even if the national secret service, the Gelena Organization, which was later transformed into the BND, was created by Nazi officers for American money, under the full control of the USA, and transferred all information to Washington? It was even formally transferred to the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Germany only in 1953-1956. American control was felt in government, in the media, in the economy. Germany as a state was the product of the confrontation between the United States and the USSR. It was a tool to counter the social bloc, ”concluded Konstantin Zalessky.