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Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) Facts & Worksheets

From the time of its creation on May 24, 1949, until October 2, 1990, the former Federal Republic of Germany was known as West Germany (or Westdeutschland in German).

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From the time of its creation on May 24, 1949, until October 2, 1990, the former Federal Republic of Germany was known as West Germany (or Westdeutschland in German).

See the fact file below for more information about Federal Republic of Germany, or you can download our 27-page Federal Republic of Germany worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

  • Capital: Bonn
  • Official Language: German
  • Government: The president serves as the head of state, while the chancellor is the head of government 
  • On May 24, 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in the areas that had previously been occupied by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France (with the exception of Saarland). 
  • It included the western portion of Berlin as well as the following ten states: Baden-Wurtemberg, Bayern, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, and Schleswig-Holstein. 
  • The capital was moved to Bonn, the hometown of the first chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

NATIONAL SYMBOLS

  • NATIONAL FLAG. The three horizontal stripes of the German federal flag are made up of the colors black, red, and gold. These colors were utilized at the start of the 19th century by both the liberal freedom movement and the liberation wars of Napoleon. 
  • NATIONAL ANTHEM: Das Lied der Deutschen (“The Song of Germans”). The third verse of the Germany Song, penned by Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, serves as the nation’s anthem.
  • Hoffmann articulated his wish for a united and free Germany in the third stanza, calling for “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (unity, justice, and freedom), where the rule of law would triumph rather than an arbitrary monarchy.
  • NATIONAL MOTTO: Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit – translated in English as – Unity and Justice and Freedom.
  • COAT OF ARMS. An eagle appears on the coat of arms. It has a longer history as an emblem. The eagle was treasured by the Romans as a symbol of the supreme god, the emperor, and invincibility, just as it was by the Germanic tribes as the bird of the god Odin. 

HISTORY

  • Germany was in ruins when the German military leaders unconditionally submitted to Allied forces on May 8, 1945, with around 25% of the nation’s housing being rendered uninhabitable.
  • Food shortages caused city people to starve, factories and transportation stopped operating, and millions of homeless German refugees fled from the former eastern regions to the west. The winning allied states held the reins of sovereignty. All of it needed to be reconstructed.
  • FOUR OCCUPATION ZONES. The Allies split Germany into four military occupation zones at the Potsdam Conference in August 1945: the French in the southwest, the British in the northwest, the Americans in the south, and the Soviets in the east. 
  • East Prussia, Eastern Pomerania, and Silesia, once German provinces (1919–1937) east of the Oder–Neisse line, were ceded to Poland, thereby moving the nation west.
  • The Allied Control Council was meant to be Germany’s governing authority. 
  • Denazification was high on the occupiers’ agenda. In order to achieve this, the swastika and other overt Nazi symbols were outlawed, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was set up as a temporary German flag. 
  • General Eisenhower and the War department upheld a stringent non-fraternization policy, albeit it was gradually relaxed. 
  • At Nürnberg, the Allies tried 22 Nazi commanders; all but three were found guilty, and 12 received death sentences.

ADENAUER ERA

  • The first federal administration was established on September 20, 1949, under Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), a collaboration of the Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats, following elections in August. 
  • As the first leader of West Germany, Theodor Heuss of the Free Democratic Party won the election. 
  • Ludwig Erhard, the minister of economics, established a social market economy that has been incredibly successful, keeping the means of production in private hands and letting the market determine prices and wages. 
  • The economy was to be driven by the
    profit motive. 
  • A welfare state would be established as a safety net, and the government would regulate to avoid the establishment of monopolies. Resettling 4.5 million Germans from the area east of the Oder-Neisse line, 3.4 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia, prewar Poland, and other eastern European nations, and 1.5 million from East Germany presented Adenauer with his first challenge.
  • However, because a large number of the immigrants were intelligent, resourceful, and flexible, they helped West Germany’s economy recover.

ECONOMIC MIRACLE

  • The Marshall Plan of the Allies and the 1948 currency reform rapidly benefited West Germany. Production in the industrial sector climbed by 35%. Agriculture output significantly increased from pre-war levels. Following the end of World War II, Western Europe, and particularly West Germany, saw an extraordinary two decades of boom, which saw a remarkable rise in living standards.
  • While the Marshall Plan and U.S. economic aid played a role, the currency reform of 1948, which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as legal tender and stopped rampant inflation, was largely responsible for the West German Wirtschaftswunder. Compared to Germany, Great Britain and France both got more economic aid from the Marshall Plan, but neither nation displayed any signs of an economic miracle.
  • The amount of financial assistance (which came in the form of loans) that Germany received through the Marshall Plan was greatly outweighed by the sums the Germans were required to repay as war reparations. And also by the costs that the Allies levied against the Germans for the ongoing costs of occupation (which came to about $2.4 billion annually). Germany was ordered to reimburse $1.1 billion of the aid it had received in 1953. In June 1971, the final payments were made.
  • The Korean War (1950–1953) raised demand for goods globally, and the shortages that followed helped dispel lingering opposition to buying German goods. During the war, Germany’s exports more than doubled in value because of its abundant supply of trained and inexpensive labor. A crucial foundation for the economic recovery was laid by the population’s relentless labor and long hours, as well as the additional labor supplied by thousands of Gastarbeiter (“guest workers”) in the late 1950s and 1960s.

SOVEREIGNTY and POLITICAL STABILITY

  • On May 5, 1955, the Federal Republic of Germany was acknowledged as “fully sovereign”. The Soviet Army stayed in the nation, much as the British, French, and American troops did in East Germany. 
  • West Germany joined NATO in 1955, four days after achieving “fully sovereign” status. NATO was founded in 1949 for the defense of Europe. Due to its proximity to East Germany, a member of the subsequently established Warsaw Pact, West Germany became a focal point of the Cold War. In West Germany, the U.S. maintained a particularly robust presence to serve as a deterrence in the event of a Soviet invasion. 
  • Berlin’s previous capital had also been split into four sectors, with the Soviet Union controlling East Berlin while the Western Allies combined their sectors to become West Berlin.
  • West Germany’s political environment was surprisingly stable and well-organized. A brief period under Ludwig Erhard (1963–1966), who was then succeeded by Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966–1969), followed the Adenauer era (1949–1963). 
  • The combined caucus of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU), either alone or in combination with the smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP), constituted all of the governments from 1949 to 1966.
  • The FDP, the growing German student movement, a group calling itself Notstand der Demokratie (“Democracy in a State of Emergency”), and labor unions led the fierce resistance to the laws prior to their passage.

Federal Republic of Germany Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about the Federal Republic of Germany across 27 in-depth pages. These ready-to-use worksheets are perfect for teaching kids about the Federal Republic of Germany. From the time of its creation on May 24, 1949, until October 2, 1990, the former Federal Republic of Germany was known as West Germany (or Westdeutschland in German).

Complete List of Included Worksheets

Below is a list of all the worksheets included in this document.

  1. Federal Republic of Germany Facts
  2. We the Germans
  3. Divided by Four
  4. The year was 1945
  5. Re-right
  6. You’re the Ger-MAN!
  7. German Search
  8. I Represent
  9. East Meets West
  10. Check Mate!
  11. P.S. from the West

Frequently Asked Questions

When was the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) established?

The Federal Republic of Germany, often referred to as West Germany, was established on May 23, 1949.

What was the capital of West Germany?

The capital of West Germany was Bonn until the reunification of Germany in 1990. After reunification, the capital became Berlin.

Which major event led to the division of Germany into East and West?

The division of Germany into East and West was a consequence of World War II and the agreements made among the Allied powers, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. This division was formalized by the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

What was the significance of the Hallstein Doctrine in West German foreign policy?

The Hallstein Doctrine, named after West German diplomat Walter Hallstein, was a foreign policy strategy that West Germany adopted in the 1950s and 1960s. It asserted that West Germany would not recognize any country that recognized East Germany as a sovereign state. This was part of the broader Cold War struggle for diplomatic recognition and influence between the Western and Eastern blocs.

When did the reunification of Germany occur, and how did it come about?

The reunification of Germany occurred on October 3, 1990, when East Germany (German Democratic Republic) formally acceded to West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany). This momentous event was the result of peaceful protests and negotiations, and it marked the end of the division of Germany that had persisted since the end of World War II.

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Use With Any Curriculum

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