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in Europe (dark grey) Show globe Location of West Germany (dark green) in Europe (dark grey) Show map of Europe Territory of West Germany Lands of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), claimed by West Germany until 1973 Lands of pre-1937 Germany that were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union after World War II, claimed by West Germany until 1972 Show territorial claims Capital Bonn ...
The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch–deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990.
Crossing points on the inner German border, 1982 [1]. Crossing the inner German border between East and West Germany remained possible throughout the Cold War; it was never entirely sealed in the fashion of the border between the two Koreas, though there were severe restrictions on the movement of East German citizens. [2]
The Federal Republic of Germany, as a federal state, consists of sixteen states. [a] Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen (with its seaport exclave, Bremerhaven) are called Stadtstaaten ("city-states"), while the other thirteen states are called Flächenländer ("area states") and include Bavaria, Saxony, and Thuringia, which describe themselves as Freistaaten ("free states").
During the Cold War, the Fulda Gap offered one of the two obvious routes for a hypothetical Soviet tank attack on West Germany from Eastern Europe, especially from East Germany. The other route crossed the North German Plain. A third, less likely, route involved travelling up through the Danube River valley through neutral Austria.
Die Wölbung der Hände, a memorial on the former West German side. The restrictive East German controls and the ever-increasing amount of traffic soon resulted in notable waiting times on the West German side. Therefore, the West German government added extensive car parks and rest areas on the autobahn approach to Helmstedt.
The warmest area in Germany is the area bordering France, west of the Schwarzwald hills, roughly between Mannheim to the north and the Swiss border to the south. The coldest area (except for mountain peaks) is found in the southeastern parts of eastern Germany around Dresden and Görlitz up to Berlin .
West Germans and West Berliners were allowed visa-free travel to East Berlin and East Germany starting 23 December 1989. Until then, they could only visit under restrictive conditions that involved application for a visa several days or weeks in advance and obligatory exchange of at least 25 DM per day of their planned stay.