Divided Germany, the wall and reunification

Two German states had existed since 1949. The German Democratic Republic established a one-party socialist rule based on the Soviet model. The Federal Republic emerged under the influence of the Western Allies as a democratic, federalist state. In Berlin, the Wall was erected starting in 1961. There was a Cold War between the great powers. The opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989 sealed the end of the GDR state. It paved the way for reunification on October 3, 1990, with the approval of the Allies in the Two Plus Four Treaty. Berlin became the capital and seat of government. But even many years after German reunification put an end to the division of Germany into East and West, some questions remain unanswered: How did the populations of the socialist GDR and the capitalist FRG want to structure their society? What was important to them and what did not work according to plan? What can we learn from these disagreements? How do the earlier worlds of social imagination relate to the present? The materials in the series "Divided Germany, the Wall and Reunification" address these and other questions and this period of German-German history.