West Germany (German: Westdeutschland) is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland or BRD) in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990.During this period, the NATO-aligned West Germany and the socialist East Germany are divided by the Inner German border.

After 1961, West Berlin is physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall.

This situation ends when East Germany is dissolved and its five states join the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin.

The enlarged Federal Republic of Germany with sixteen states (known simply as "Germany") is thus the continuation of the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany.The Federal Republic of Germany is established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France (the "Western Zones").

Its population grows from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990.

The city of Bonn is its provisional capital city.

The fourth Allied occupation zone (the East Zone, or Ostzone) is held by the Soviet Union.

The parts of this zone lying east of the Oder-Neisse are in fact annexed by the Soviet Union and communist Poland; the remaining central part around Berlin becomes the communist German Democratic Republic (abbreviated GDR; in German Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR) with its de facto capital in East Berlin.

As a result, West Germany has a territory about half the size of the interwar democratic Weimar Republic.At the onset of the Cold War, Germany (and, indeed, Europe) is divided among the Western and Eastern blocs.

Germany is de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin.

The Federal Republic of Germany claims an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, considering itself to be the democratically reorganized continuation of the German Reich.

It takes the line that the GDR is an illegally constituted state.

The GDR does hold regular elections, but these are not free and fair; from the West German perspective, the GDR is thus a puppet state of the Soviets and therefore illegitimate.Three southwestern states of West Germany merge to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, and the Saarland joins the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957.

In addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin is considered an unofficial de facto 11th state.

While legally not part of the Federal Republic of Germany, as Berlin is under the control of the Allied Control Council, West Berlin aligns itself politically with West Germany and is directly or indirectly represented in its federal institutions.Relations with the Soviet bloc improve during the era of ‘Neue Ostpolitik’ around 1970, and West Germany begins taking the line of "two German states within one German nation", but formally maintains the exclusive mandate.

It recognizes the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn is represented de jure by the West German state alone.

East Germany, as before, recognizes the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country.

The Federal Republic and the GDR agree that neither of them can speak in the name of the other one.The foundation for the influential position held by Germany today is laid during the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) of the 1950s when West Germany rises from the enormous destruction wrought by the Second World War to become the world's third largest economy.

The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remains in office until 1963, works for a full alignment with the West rather than neutrality.

He not only secures a membership in NATO but is also a proponent of agreements that develop into the present-day European Union.

When the G6/G8 is established in 1975, there is no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well.With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolized by the opening of the Berlin Wall, there is a rapid move towards German reunification.

East Germany votes to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990.

Its five post-war states (Länder) are reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin, which ends its special status and forms an additional Land.

They formally join the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany.

The expanded Federal Republic retains West Germany's political culture and continues its existing memberships in international organizations, as well as its Western foreign policy alignment and affiliation to Western alliances like the European Union and NATO.