From a divided society to a united and European one : the reunification of Germany, the transformation in East Germany and Germany in Europe

The article attempts to show the consequences of World War II for German statehood and the German nation. A consequence of World War II was the post-war bipolar division of the world, and at the same time an increase in integration tendencies in Western Europe. The fall of the Third Reich, responsible for the outbreak of the conflict, led to questions about the future and shape of Germany being raised in the salons of international politics. In the Cold War atmosphere, two German states emerged: West Germany, which functioned within the family of Western European democracies and the GDR, a satellite of the Soviet Union and one of the so-called people’s democracies. After the reunification of Germany, the social divisions perpetuated by the divisions of the Cold War persisted, an expression of which was inhabitants of the former East Germany being called 'Ossis,' and Germans from the western part 'Wessis.'