"Following the end of World War II in 1945, a defeated Germany was divided into four occupation zones, controlled by the Allied powers: the United States, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. In 1949, two states emerged: the democratic Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the West, and the socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the East, with the latter being under Soviet control."
"People in the GDR lived in a surveillance state, deprived of freedom of expression. Those who failed to follow the socialist regime's line faced persecution and imprisonment. By the late 1980s, the population was increasingly rising up against the government. Citizens longed for the freedom and democracy their neighbors in the Federal Republic of Germany enjoyed. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of reform were providing encouragement."
After World War II, Germany was divided into four occupation zones controlled by the United States, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. In 1949 two states formed: the democratic Federal Republic of Germany in the West and the socialist German Democratic Republic in the East under Soviet control. East German citizens faced strict travel restrictions, heavily guarded borders and a massive wall around West Berlin to prevent departures. The GDR operated a surveillance state that suppressed free expression and persecuted dissenters. In the late 1980s growing popular protests, aided by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms and refusal to use force, led to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and opened the way to reunification.
Read at www.dw.com
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