The Cold War and the division of Germany

In short: After 1945 the USA and the Soviet Union with their alliances faced each other as superpowers without fighting directly: the Cold War. Germany was divided into the Federal Republic (West) and the GDR (East).

In more detail: The contrast between democracy and market economy in the West and communism in the East shaped world politics until 1990.

In detail

• Blocs: NATO (1949) and the Warsaw Pact (1955).
• Berlin: The city was divided. On 13 August 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall began, meant to stop people fleeing the GDR.
• Arms race: Nuclear weapons, space travel (Sputnik 1957, Moon landing 1969), Cuban Missile Crisis 1962.
• Proxy wars: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan.
• Life in the GDR: State party SED, surveillance by the Stasi, planned economy.
• Détente: Ostpolitik, CSCE Final Act of Helsinki 1975 (mauerfall-und-wiedervereinigung).