ABSTRACT
On 12 September 1949 Theodor Heuss was elected as President of the new Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), and, on 11 October, Wilhelm Pieck, appointed to the same office in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The foundation of the two German republics bears all the hallmarks of the Cold War in that they both disputed each other's democratic legitimacy. The East Germans were the real victims of the Cold War while the West Germans were its beneficiaries, though it should be noted that most West Germans never perceived themselves as such. The showdown over Berlin in 1948, with Soviet superiority in conventional forces and US monopoly in nuclear power, had been the West's greatest propaganda success in the early stages of the Cold War. Apparently it was Socialist Unity Party (SED) chief Walter Ulbricht who first suggested that the Soviet government should encourage West German opposition to integrating the FRG into NATO by offering the prospect of neutrality.
