To what extent was Germany the focus of Cold War hostility between 1945 and 1961?

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To what extent was Germany the focus of Cold War hostility between 1945 and 1961?

The cold war was the continuing state of political conflict, proxy wars, military tension, propaganda warfare and economic warfare existing after Second World War between the newly emerged superpowers i.e. USA and USSR. The Second World War ended with the total victory of the allies’ power over Germany in 1945. Moreover, it was Germany that launched most actions such as Blitzkrieg in WW2. Thus, Germany was on focus even before the cold war started. But the question arises, was Germany the focus of cold war post WW2 or in the cold war? In this essay, I plan to answer this question as fairly as possible.

The superpowers that emerged post Second World War, USA and USSR, despite being allies against the axis powers did not agree about the political philosophy and the configuration of the post war world. The Second World War had a devastating effect in Europe and Germany- regarded as the root cause of all, had a lot to pay. Germany’s geographical position in the centre of Europe and its potential economic strength, made it difficult for the western powers and the USSR to agree about what they could do with Germany. The USSR did not wish to see a resurgent united Germany as that would pose a threat to its security. At the same time, it wished to get as much as out of Germany as possible in terms of reparations. The USA had come to see that the best hope for European peace would lie on the rapid economic recovery of Germany. So, both the post WW2 superpowers had their plans for Germany; this makes it a focus after the WW2 and in the early cold war period.

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In Yalta conference of 1943, the four D’s (disarmament, demilitarization, de-nazification and division) for Germany was decided and thus, Germany was divided into four zones. At Potsdam though, in the Potsdam conference of 1945 the agreement at Yalta proved to be hard to be enforced and finally the countries decided that they would carry out the de-nazification of Germany in their own ways in their respective zones of occupation. As agreed at Potsdam, Germany was then divided into four zones and so was Berlin.  Thus the whole country of Germany and its capital was divided between four countries, that is, ...

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