Dividing Germany, 1949-1955 January 25, 2012
Modest beginnings: the provisional capital in Bonn
The Petersberg Hotel above Bonn, seat of the Allied High Commission
Adenauer visits the Allied High Commissioners
Divided Germany, as seen from Bonn
Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman
Editorial Cartoons endorsing the “Schuman Plan” (1950)
Two ways of reading the Schuman Plan (for French and German audiences, allegedly)
Paris, June 1950: Six countries begin negotiations on the European Coal and Steel Community
Posters favoring the European Defense Community, 1952
French communist propaganda brands the EDC as a “Treaty to resuscitate the Wehrmacht”
Non-communist French opposition to the EDC (“No to the Wehrmacht, to the SS, to the Gestapo”)
“Little Konrad is getting a military outfit – but which one “Little Konrad is getting a military outfit – but which one?” (American, Benelux, French proposals)
West Germany regains its sovereignty – and joins NATO, May 5, 1955
Adenauer reviews the first class of recruits to the Bundeswehr (Jan
Ludwig Erhard (1897-1977) “Prosperity for everyone”
The founding of the German Democratic Republic, Oct The founding of the German Democratic Republic, Oct. 7, 1949 “Long Live the National Front of Democratic Germany”
“Our first iron is proof of the economic progress of our Republic “Our first iron is proof of the economic progress of our Republic!” (August 1951)
Ulbricht visits a collective farm (February 1953)
Refugees from East Germany arrive in the West
Stalin’s “peace note” of March 1952: bargaining away the GDR?
March 1953: mourners along the “Stalinallee” (in East Berlin) lay flowers for Stalin
Striking workers march down the “Stalinallee,” June 17, 1953
Stones against tanks
Under fire, protesters flee to the British sector of Berlin
The East German “People’s Police in Barracks”
The Warsaw Pact conference, May 11, 1955
Recruits to the “National People’s Army” (April 1956)