Federal Republic of Germany

Origins

The three western occupation zones were combined, and a parliamentary council drafted the Basic Law, which came into force on 23 May 1949. Konrad Adenauer became the first chancellor, with Bonn as provisional capital, while the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic.

Rule and society

Under the social market economy of Ludwig Erhard, West Germany experienced the Wirtschaftswunder. It joined NATO in 1955 and was a founding member of the European Economic Community in 1957. Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik eased relations with the East. The federal system gives strong powers to the Länder, and a Constitutional Court guards the Basic Law.

To the present

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the GDR joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990 under Helmut Kohl. Berlin became the capital, and Germany is today the European Union's most populous member and largest economy.