ABSTRACT
Germany's division after 1945 symbolised the developing Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union, the two global superpowers. Their dispute was principally ideological: the USA and its western allies upheld market capitalism and parliamentary democracy, while the Soviets model depended on state ownership, central planning and authoritarian political control. For the longer term, the allies intended the Germans to develop their own political parties which could eventually contest elections, so that political power could be exercised by democratically legitimate authorities under allied supervision, first locally and regionally, and ultimately nationally. Finally, the inclusion of the strong West German state in the wests anti-Soviet defensive alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), was the worst possible outcome for the Soviet Union as it tried to rebuild and consolidate after the Second World War. Germany's division was, however, in the interests of many German politicians themselves.
