occupation udo hempel
East Germany , formally the German Democratic Republic or GDR , was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period . From 1949 to 1990 , it administered the region of Germany that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II  the Soviet Occupation Zone of the Potsdam Agreement , bounded on the east by the Oder  Neisse line . The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin , but did not include it ; as a result , West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR . The German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone , while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones . East Germany was a satellite state of the ___MASK42___ . Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948 , and the GDR began to function as a state on 7 October 1949 . Soviet forces , however , remained in the country throughout the Cold War . Until 1989 , the GDR was governed by the ___MASK28___ Unity Party ( SED ), though other parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation , the National Front of Democratic Germany . Jürgen Colombo ( born 2 September 1949 ) is a retired ___MASK93___ from West Germany , who won the gold medal in the Men ' s 4000m Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , alongside Günther Schumacher , Günter Haritz , and Udo Hempel . The North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO '), also called the North Atlantic Alliance , is an intergovernmental ___MASK43___ alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949 . The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party . Three NATO members are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and are officially nuclear - weapon states : the United States , France and the United Kingdom . NATO ' s headquarters are located in Haren , Brussels , Belgium , where the Supreme Allied Commander also resides . Belgium is one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe , the newest of which , Albania and Croatia , joined in April 2009 . An additional 22 countries participate in NATO ' s Partnership for Peace program , with 15 other countries involved in institutionalized dialogue programmes . The combined ___MASK43___ spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70 % of the global total . Members ' defence spending is supposed to amount to 2 % of GDP . A multi - sport event is an organized sports event , often held over multiple days , featuring competition in many different sports between organized teams of athletes from ( mostly ) nation states . The first ___MASK53___ , modern , multi - sport event of international significance is the modern Olympic Games . The Alps are the highest and most extensive ___MASK30___ range system that lies entirely in Europe , stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries : Austria , France , Germany , Italy , Liechtenstein , Monaco , Slovenia , and Switzerland . The mountains were formed over tens of millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided . Extreme shortening caused by the event resulted in marine sedimentary rocks rising by thrusting and folding into high ___MASK30___ peaks such as Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn . Mont Blanc spans the French  Italian border , and at is the highest ___MASK30___ in the Alps . The Alpine region area contains about a hundred peaks higher than 4000 metres ( just over 13 , 000 feet ). Hans Lutz ( born 31 March 1949 ) is a retired ___MASK93___ and road ___MASK38___ from Germany , who represented West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , Canada . There he won the gold medal in the Men ' s Team Pursuit , alongside Gregor Braun , Peter Vonhof and Günther Schumacher . Four years earlier , when Munich hosted the Summer Olympics , he won the bronze medal in the Men ' s 4 . 000m Individual Pursuit . West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG ( or " RFA ") in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 . During this Cold War era , NATO - aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact - aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border . After 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall . This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city - state of Berlin . With the reunification of West and East Germany , the Federal Republic of Germany , enlarged now to sixteen states , became known simply as " Germany ". This period is also referred to as the Bonn Republic (" Bonner Republik ") by historians , alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post - reunification Berlin Republic . The Berlin Wall was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 . Constructed by the German Democratic Republic ( GDR , East Germany ), starting on 13 August 1961 , the Wall completely cut off ( by land ) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989 . Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992 . The barrier included ___MASK24___ towers placed along large concrete walls , which circumscribed a wide area ( later known as the " death strip ") that contained anti - vehicle trenches , " ___MASK88___ beds " and other defenses . The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the " will of the people " in building a socialist state in East Germany . In practice , the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post - World War II period . Günter Haritz ( born 16 October 1948 ) is a retired road and ___MASK93___ from West Germany , who won the gold medal in the Men ' s 4 . 000 Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , alongside Günther Schumacher , Jürgen Colombo , and Udo Hempel . In 1973 , together with Peter Vonhof , Hans Lutz and Günther Schumacher , Haritz won the amateur world title in the team pursuit . The Warsaw Pact , formally the Treaty of Friendship , Co - operation , and Mutual Assistance and sometimes , informally , WarPac . was a collective defense treaty among the ___MASK42___ and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War . The Warsaw Pact was the ___MASK43___ complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ( CoMEcon ), the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe . The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 per the London and Paris Conferences of 1954 , but it is also considered to have been motivated by Soviet desires to maintain control over ___MASK43___ forces in Central and Eastern Europe . Weimar Republic is an unofficial , historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933 . The name derives from the city of Weimar , where its constitutional assembly first took place . The ___MASK21___ name of the state was still " Deutsches Reich "; it had remained unchanged since 1871 . In English the country was usually known simply as Germany . A national assembly was convened in Weimar , where a new constitution for the " Deutsches Reich " was written , and adopted on 11 August 1919 . In its fourteen years , the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems , including hyperinflation , political extremism ( with paramilitaries  both left - and right - wing ); and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War . The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country ' s defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles . However , the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency , unified tax policies , and organized the railway system . Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles ; it never completely met its disarmament requirements , and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations ( by twice restructuring its debt through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan ). Under the Locarno Treaties , Germany accepted the western borders of the republic , but continued to dispute the Eastern border . Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in central - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , Germany is the most populous ___MASK89___ state of the European Union . After the United States , it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world . Germany ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other ___MASK53___ cities include Hamburg , Munich , Cologne , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . Udo Hempel ( born 3 November 1946 ) is a retired road and ___MASK93___ from West Germany , who won the gold medal in the Men ' s 4 . 000 Team Pursuit at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , alongside Günther Schumacher , Jürgen Colombo , and Günter Haritz . In the 1968 Summer Olympics , he had already won silver in the same event . He was a professional cyclist from 1973 to 1983 , whose best results were on the track . Hempel was also part of the West German team that won the gold medal in the amateur 4 km pursuit world championship in Leicester in 1970 . Günther Schumacher ( born 27 June 1949 ) is a retired ___MASK93___ and road ___MASK38___ born in East Germany , who was a professional rider from 1977 to 1984 . He twice represented West Germany at the Summer Olympics ( 1972 and 1976 ), and won the gold medal on both occasions in the Men ' s Team Pursuit . West Berlin was a city that existed in the period between the end of the Berlin Blockade on 12 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany . It was east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors . It consisted of the American , British , and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and shared economic , political , legal , and sporting systems with West Germany , but was not " de jure " part of it . It had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies . East Berlin , " de jure " occupied and administered by the ___MASK42___ , was the " de facto " capital of East Germany . The Berlin Wall , built in 1961 , physically divided East and West Berlin until it fell in 1989 . The European Union ( EU ) is a political and economic union of ___MASK89___ states that are located primarily in Europe . It has an area of , and an estimated population of over 510 million . The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all ___MASK89___ states . EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people , goods , services , and capital within the internal market , enact legislation in ___MASK17___ and home affairs , and maintain common policies on trade , agriculture , fisheries , and regional development . Within the Schengen Area , passport controls have been abolished . A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 , and is composed of 19 EU ___MASK89___ states which use the euro currency . Munich ( also in British English ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria , on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps . Munich is the third largest city in Germany , after Berlin and Hamburg , and the 12th biggest city of the European Union , with a population of above 1 . 5 million . The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5 . 8 million people . The 1972 Summer Olympics ( German : " Olympische Sommerspiele 1972 "), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad , was an international multi - sport event held in Munich , West Germany , from August 26 to September 11 , 1972 . Peter Vonhof ( born 15 January 1949 ) is a retired ___MASK93___ and road ___MASK38___ from Germany , who represented West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal , Canada . There he won the gold medal in the Men ' s Team Pursuit , alongside Gregor Braun , Hans Lutz and Günther Schumacher . The Cold War was a state of political and ___MASK43___ tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc ( the Soviet Union and its satellite states ) and powers in the Western Bloc ( the United States , its NATO allies and others ). Historians do not fully agree on the dates , but a common timeframe is the period ( the second half of the 20th century ) between 1947 , the year the Truman Doctrine ( a U . S . policy pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism ) was announced , and 1991 , the year the Soviet Union collapsed .