Why was Germany divided into East and West Germany?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- In the period from 1949 till 1990, Germany was split in east and west. Why was there a West and East Germany created? In this video I will explain how and why it came to that split.
Link to the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam:
www.spsg.de/en...
Credits:
• Marshall plan picture: E. Spreckmeester, published Economic Cooperation Administration - Source, Publiek domein, commons.wikime...
• Hier hilft der Marshall plan foto: Par Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-20671-0014 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, commons.wikime...
• D-Mark: By National Museum of American History - Image by Godot13, Public Domain, commons.wikime...
• 100 DM: Alliierte Militärbehörde in Deutschland, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
I’m so thankful you are doing this channel in English. I would imagine it would be a lot easier to do it in your native German… really appreciate your hard work, love all your videos ❤
I have extensively watched and learned as much as I can re Germany/ third reich/ FDR GDR but through this edit I learned a new fact- that west Germany didn’t ever fully recognise the east, nor did it ever have an embassy there. Thank you for your continuing series of informative presentations.
That’s probably because of hatred for communism.
Actually until 1990, the West German state didn't officially recognize any of the german eastern borders established after WW2. As far as I know, until the reunification with DDR, the Constitution of the Federal Republic had provisions allowing for the eastern lands (those that formed DDR and those included in Poland and USSR) to reunite with the Federal Republic. 🙂
I happened to have a mapp atlas from the 1980s published in West Germany and there, although the official borders of Poland and DDR are shown, the old eastern German borders (from before WW2, including those of East Prussia) are clearly marked also. It was very interesting for me to discover this. 🙂
I visited the DDR a couple of times and I returned to Saxony after reunification. It actually smelled different because the smoke from the busy factories in the Erzgebirge valleys had disappeared. The factories were idle.
Great material, great channel, excelent host. Such a wonderful channel. Vielen Dank für Ihre Recherche und Ihre historische Objektivität.
Thank you for making these videos. I’m enjoying watching them.
Just one clarification: on the 8th May 1945 the war ended in Europe, it did not end as a whole. The war continued until September 1945 between Japan and the Allies.
That part of the war did not involve Germany. After the Nazis were defeated, there was no active war situation on Germany. That's why we have VE day... victory in EUROPE.
@@TommyWylie Still, the second world war did not end in May 1945 as stated in the video.
germany was not splet in west and east but in west and middle germany.
east germany is occupied by poland and russia.
True, yet the Germany what is now Poland and Russia is not more German. All Germans were expelled, German town names have been turned into Polish and Russian.
A friend of mine cycled the Oder border banks, both in Germany and Poland. And you can see 2 different approaches in river bank management: German bank has been dykes and the Polish bank is flood plains.
This is good stuff.
Great videos. I love learning about East Germany, glad I didn't live there though. My particular interest is the Inner-German Border. Hope you're doing a video on this soon. Here are a few interesting primary sources I've found that may be of interest.
th-cam.com/video/zm7EQ-bovOQ/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/xJtPM11bxWY/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/pK1E4HK0vs8/w-d-xo.html
Thank you, I will definitely make one or more videos on the innergerman border.
I enjoy your channel. Thank you for your effort.
I love your channel. Please continue the great job
Both Germanys (East&West) recognised each others in Basic treaty as a state signed 21 of december in 1972.
I remember that. The United States also recognized the DDR, with former U.S. Senator John Sherman Cooper of Kentucky (who was of German descent) serving as the first U.S. ambassador to East Germany. Cooper had been a longtime advocate of reduced tensions between the Soviet Union and the U.S.
2:40. Let’s us not to forget that Stalin and Hitler started that war together as allies.
That is incorrect, the Molotov agreement was simply a non-conflict agreement in which both parties would agree to not attack or involve eachother and divide the territory of Poland accordingly due to Soviet occupation in Poland. The brittish and even the french also attempted similar agreements at the start of the war.
Stalin also knew Hitler wasn't going to respect this agreement so he prepared for war, never supported the Nazi regime.
@@FleshBrain have you seen the friendship parade in Brest Litovsk in 1939? They were allies responsible for starting WWII.
@@paulmattt It is called German-Soviet parade, not friendship lmao. And it was simply made to delimitate the territory both the USSR and the Nazis would take. Which is actually a pretty common practice, it was done between the US and USSR on Germany. Will you also say they were "friends"?
And no, the USSR was neither an ally nor the origin of WW2, they simply saw a chance and took it. What else could they do? Try to take down the biggest and most powerful army in the world so they can get Poland? They were also at war with Poland. And I don't see how this would be the origin of WW2, the nazis started and executed most of WW2 by conquering nearby europeans, the Soviet Union, again, only made a non-aggro pact and agreed to stay outside the conflict. Which again, was also attempted by other nations because who in their sane mind would try to fight the nazis willingly?!
@@FleshBrain that makes them an ally. They occupy 51% of Polish territory, plus the Baltics and Bessarabia. They committed genocide against the occupied population. My family ended up under Soviet occupation. Some were lucky enough to escape to the German side. All are saying that the occupation was brutal and lasted 45 years. And yes, there was a full cooperation between the Soviets and the Nazis until Barbarossa. And yes, some of the Nazis paid for their war crimes, none of the Soviet war criminals ever did.
@@paulmattt So again, you're saying the US and USSR were also allies despite the Cold War? Lol. Do you know the Brittish were also making similar deals with the Soviets? The plan of the USSR was to become a commercial world power and wanted good relationships with the rest of world powers.
Why would they commit genocide over polands? They simply took it as a satellite country, nothing else, that's not genocide and there's no proof of such.
And no, there was little to no cooperation. Even Hitler expresses in Mein Kampf how disgusting it was to treat with the Russians and Polands. Stalin always talked in favour of germany as a tactic of maintaining good relationships. So did any other governor that wasn't in the conflict at the time, the US still maintained a trading pact until 1939 for example.
Stop trying to pass your anti-communist agenda, countries can't magically just decide to be heros, the USSR wouldn't have a valid reason to involve in the conflict other than trying to avoid the holocaust, but again, that's incredibly dangerous, you'd be facing the most powerful army in the world. You'd probably lose and receive the same treatment. This was known by England and French, because again, those both tried similar pacts as well!!!
England even supported Hitler raising power and made a lot of propaganda for him, will you say England also caused WW2? Please, don't be so gullible.
I noticed that you forgot about the stalin note, i was wondering how serious that was.
great work!! from your description, i take it you're not from the DDR?
That's correct!
A most interesting study. Of course, Germany was just one of three countries divided after 1945; Germany was joined by Vietnam and Korea. Germany was divided for 40 years, Vietnam for 30 years, and Korea remains divided.
Great channel and very nice intro audio and video-wise! But the advocating for the USSR at the end wasn't needed and I absolutely disagree.
J’aime tellement l’Allemagne que je suis ravi qu’il y en ait deux (I love Germany so much that I am delighted there are two) François Mauriac (1885-1970)
ALSO OUR PRIME MINISTER ANDREOTTI SAID THIS!
Fun Fact: from 1948 to 1955 there were even 3 Germanies: the Saarland was nr. 3. A French protectorate, which France tried hard to join France, but the Saarlanders said no. So Saarland join West Germany in 1955.
Also the French have left their mark on Saarland, it has the most Michelin stars of restaurants of whole Germany.
*why was germany split into east and west?* GERMANY DID A NO NO! THATS WHY!
Вообще конечно ещё было бы неплохо сказать о том, что предлагались и альтернативы: единая Германия по образцу Австрии: нейтральная, единая, внеблоковая, социальная. Но этот шанс объединения был упущен. И в 40-х, и в 90-х. Кстати, было бы интересно узнать, статья Конституции ФРГ, по которой ГДР вошла в состав ФРГ, распространяется на Австрию?) Что вы думаете?
USSR did propose that actually, but West instead of accepting that merged the occupation zone saying essentially fuck you to this proposal
Had lunch at Cecilienhof when it was still “DDR” as well as a tour of Potsdam and Schloss Sanssouci. A real trip. Meanwhile my “Westie” German friends hung out at the KaDeWe and got wasted.
Impressive that a man your age can still pat
himself on the back that well. ...
Reupload?
Yes, now with the correct founding date of the Federal Republic of Germany. Hope it didn't cause any inconvenience.
Great to finally find a channel in english that has a neutral stance about GDR and not just same old how horrible it was over there.
Factually accurate, but the REAL reason that Germany was divided up is that the wild-eyed, naive Franklin Roosevelt went along with Stalin's demand for a second front in France rather than agreeing with Churchill who wanted to go up through the Balkans and beat the Red Army to Czechoslovakia and Poland. Had Churchill's plan been followed, the Red Army would have never reached Germany and thus the entire country could have been occupied by the USA, Great Britain, and France. The ide that Stalin wanted a "buffer zone" is a Soviet concoction. He wanted ALL of Eastern Europe in order to subjigate those peoples to Moscow which is exactly what happened.
It would be nice if you had a German translation
Hallo, erg nieuwsgierig ben ik naar de boeken die je op de achtergrond hebt staan. Zelf ben ik namelijk gezond gestoord over alles wat met de recente Duitse geschiedenis te maken heeft.
Bijna iedere nieuwe video heeft een of meerdere boektips. Dan komt je kast snel vol. ;-)
Why not West Germany make a New capital in West Germany?
The short reason: because the Soviets wouldnt go home after the war.
Yet, the Soviets did pull out of Austria. They had also been given an occupation zone of that nation after it was re-instated as independent from Germany at war's end. That agreement that reunited Austria as a democracy required that it not join either a western or Soviet alliance (later to known known as NATO and the Warsaw Pact), and that the new Austria not ban the Communist Party.
The U.S., U.K and France had no problem with those terms. Unfortunately, no such agreement was possible with Germany, as the Soviets would never pull out and leave it unoccupied, after what the German military had done to the USSR, and because Stalin had such long and close ties to Walter Ulbricht and other German communists.
Thank you very succint and comprehensive. Speaks volumes of victimization of German population by victorious allies
Twice in dimension of what was slammed by Treaty of Versailes. The cumulative impact of this is showing in Ukraine . Which is proving to be catalyst for economic disaster for Germany which is now a vassal State of Atlanticists and clobalisrs . Will come out as worse than status of then GDR.maj gen Indian Srmy Veterans
Hi, nice video, I hope you'll produce more :)
One remark though: why do Germans tend to focus on the destruction caused on the Soviet Union (and by extension on Russia) and forget about the others? This expansion to the west you mention was at the cost of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Finland, one could argue Ukraine and Belarus as well, and Germany lost to the USSR "only" 1/3 of East Prussia... All the suffering caused by this on the local population was terrible and I don't see the fact that Nazi Germany did a lot of bad things as an excuse for all of the communist crimes...
Who was more vile, Hitler or Stalin? They both started World War II with their agreement to split up Poland. Thank you for these very interesting videos.
Intelligent until you get to the rank stupidity of the "alternative view" of Lord Stalin's need to be compensated, etc. No threat of a communism that had claimed, oh, twenty million lives in Europe. You and your conscience should have a visit from Orwell. I won't watch again.
What has always made me crazy was how Stalin used his large troop loses to guilt trip the other Allies into giving him what he wanted. Any students of the WWII Eastern Front know he was fudging the truth to fit his narrative. Most of those were NOT Ethnic Rusdians. They were usually Ukrainians, Belarusians, Tatars, Buryats, Kazaks, Uzbeks etc. Also, Stalin had heard from his top spies that Hitler was going to invade in the Spring of 41 but Stalins purge of his military, war with Finland in ‘39 and his desire not to go to war until 1943 made him refuse to prepare anything prior to the invasion. Lastly was the USSR ‘s insistence to fight the way Russia had always fought-and still fights in its war against Ukraine-sending huge masses of troops to overwhelm the enemy right into the meat grinder until the enemy ran out of troops! These are the Reasons for such high troop losses!
maybe no face shot and more historical videos.... you never blink bro....
He’s just German dude, they’re all secretly cyborgs
I like seeing a face to go along with the narration. 👍
@@cringlator Only half-German, he has a distinct Dutch accent.
So I guess...half cyborg.
This video is extremely biased to the west. Soviets didn’t “create” the East German state, it was created by people in east Germany. It wasn’t the ussr that wasn’t cooperative, it was the western countries who knew that if Germans themselves were going to choose a system, they would choose socialism/communism or atleast a system that would punish the industrialist/bankers who cooperated with naziism, but ofc the west, protected naziism and Nazis. It was only the east where the Nazi collaborators got what they deserved, all removal from power and privilege. also Stalin had wanted Germany to be united, and said so many times, but acting like Stalin’s opinion even mattered is ridiculous, history is not made at the hand waves of a single leader but by millions of people.
1:55 - Elbląg, Gdańsk, Koszalin, Legnica, Wrocław, Opole, Gliwice.
In future, please, use the official city names, as those are Polish since the end of WWII :)
The official names in Germany are in German.
Because they lost the War!
Why Germany was divided is not a question that even my pet hamster would ask, It's obvious. The real question is why the scandalous unification of 1990, that has already caused so much trouble, was allowed to happen!
It would be safer today ; if it was left split. ..
Where has it caused trouble? It creates more trouble that states like the UK, Russia and France do not dissolve the rest of their colonial empire.
@@DerVersteherPlus Those empires are no more than their dead shadows [[ there is omly one empire and it's the US. Are you for real or pretending?
What would have been your "solution"
to ½ going down the toilet ?
@@HauntedXXXPancake Down the drain sounds like the perfect solution for any fraction of Germany.
I just wasted 8 minutes and 40 seconds of my life watching this video. There was absolutely nothing new in it.
Enjoying those. Thanks a lot for making this channel. Keep going