ABSTRACT
Background Information The Federal Republic of Germany lies in Central Europe. After losing the Second World War, Germany was divided in 1945 into four zones of occupation. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: From three zones (US, UK, France) the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) was developed, and from the earlier USSR zone, the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) was created. With the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, West and East Germany were reunifi ed on 3 October 1990 (now a national holiday).
