place_of_death erich mende
East ___MASK77___ existed between 1949 and 1990 and consisted of the Soviet sector of ___MASK77___ established in 1945 . The American , British , and French sectors became West ___MASK77___ , strongly associated with ___MASK55___ , while East ___MASK77___ was the " de facto " capital of ___MASK27___ . From 13 ___MASK91___ 1961 until 9 November 1989 , East ___MASK77___ was separated from West ___MASK77___ by the ___MASK77___ Wall . Politika is a Serbian daily newspaper , published in ___MASK75___ . Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F . Ribnikar , it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans and is considered to be ___MASK50___ ' s newspaper of record . The German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic ( GDR / ___MASK27___ ) joined the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ ( FRG / ___MASK55___ ) to form the reunited nation of ___MASK23___ , and when ___MASK77___ reunited into a single city , as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23 . The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity , celebrated on 3 October ( German Unity Day ). Following German reunification , ___MASK77___ was once again designated as the capital of united ___MASK23___ . ___MASK81___ Republic is an unofficial , historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933 . The name derives from the city of ___MASK81___ , where its constitutional assembly first took place . The official 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 ___MASK81___ , where a new constitution for the " Deutsches Reich " was written , and adopted on 11 ___MASK91___ 1919 . In its fourteen years , the ___MASK81___ Republic faced numerous problems , including hyperinflation , political extremism ( with paramilitaries  both left - and right - ___MASK73___ ); and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War . The people of Germany blamed the ___MASK81___ Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country ' s defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles . However , the ___MASK81___ Republic government successfully reformed the currency , unified tax policies , and organized the railway system . ___MASK81___ 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 ___MASK49___ Treaties , Germany accepted the western borders of the republic , but continued to dispute the Eastern border . The inner German border ( or " deutsch - deutsche Grenze "; initially also " Zonengrenze ") was the border between the German Democratic Republic ( GDR , ___MASK27___ ) and the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ ( FRG , ___MASK55___ ) from 1949 to 1990 . Not including the similar but physically separate ___MASK77___ Wall , the border was long and ran from the Baltic ___MASK66___ to Czechoslovakia . The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc ( the Soviet ___MASK34___ 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 ___MASK34___ collapsed . The Federal City of ___MASK44___ is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine - Westphalia , with a population of 311 , 287 . ___MASK44___ is in the southernmost part of the Rhine - Ruhr region , Germany ' s largest metropolitan area , with over 11 million inhabitants . ___MASK23___ , officially the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ , is a federal parliamentary republic in ___MASK19___ - western Europe . It includes 16 constituent states , covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate . With about 82 million inhabitants , ___MASK23___ is the ___MASK21___ populous member state of the European ___MASK34___ . After the United States , it is the second ___MASK21___ popular immigration destination in the world . ___MASK23___ ' s capital and largest metropolis is Berlin . Other major cities include ___MASK86___ , Munich , ___MASK47___ , Frankfurt , Stuttgart and Düsseldorf . The Social Democratic Party of ___MASK23___ ( SPD ) is a social - democratic political party in ___MASK23___ . The party , led by Chairman Sigmar Gabriel since 2009 , has become one of the two major contemporary political parties in ___MASK23___ , along with the Christian Democratic ___MASK34___ ( CDU ). The Deputy to the Federal Chancellor , widely known as the Vice Chancellor of ___MASK23___ is , according to protocol , the second highest position in the Cabinet of ___MASK23___ . He is the equivalent of a deputy prime minister in other parliamentary systems . The current Vice Chancellor is Sigmar Gabriel , who is the president of the Social Democratic Party of ___MASK23___ ( SPD ) and also serves as Federal Minister for the Economy and Energy . West ___MASK77___ was a city that existed in the period between the end of the ___MASK77___ Blockade on 12 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East ___MASK77___ and ___MASK27___ . It was east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from ___MASK55___ 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 ___MASK55___ , 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 ___MASK77___ , " de jure " occupied and administered by the Soviet ___MASK34___ , was the " de facto " capital of ___MASK27___ . The ___MASK77___ Wall , built in 1961 , physically divided East and West ___MASK77___ until it fell in 1989 . The ___MASK45___ Pact , formally the Treaty of Friendship , Co - operation , and Mutual Assistance and sometimes , informally , WarPac . was a collective defense treaty among the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War . The ___MASK45___ Pact was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance ( CoMEcon ), the regional economic organization for the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe . The ___MASK45___ 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 military forces in Central and Eastern Europe . The Cabinet of ___MASK23___ ( or ) is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ . It consists of the Chancellor and the cabinet ministers . The fundamentals of the cabinet ' s organization as well as the method of its election and appointment as well as the procedure for its dismissal are set down in articles 62 through 69 of the "" ( the Basic Law ). ___MASK77___ is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states . With a population of approximately 3 . 5 million people , ___MASK77___ is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European ___MASK34___ . Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of rivers Spree and Havel , it is the centre of the ___MASK77___ - Brandenburg Metropolitan Region , which has about 6 million residents from more than 180 nations . Due to its location in the European Plain , ___MASK77___ is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate . Around one - third of the city ' s area is composed of forests , parks , gardens , rivers and lakes . ___MASK55___ is the common English name for the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ 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 ___MASK55___ and ___MASK45___ Pact - aligned East ___MASK23___ were divided by the Inner German border . After 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East ___MASK23___ by the Berlin Wall . This situation ended when East ___MASK23___ was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ along with the reunified city - state of Berlin . With the reunification of West and East ___MASK23___ , the Federal Republic of ___MASK23___ , enlarged now to sixteen states , became known simply as " ___MASK23___ ". This period is also referred to as the ___MASK44___ Republic (" Bonner Republik ") by historians , alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post - reunification Berlin Republic . A politician ( from " politics " + "- ian ", from the Greek title of Aristotle ' s book  " Politika ", meaning " Civic Affairs ") is a person active in party politics , or a person holding or seeking office in government . In democratic countries , politicians seek elective positions within a government through elections or , at times , temporary appointment to replace politicians who have died , resigned or have been otherwise removed from office . In non - democratic countries , they employ other means of reaching power through appointment , bribery , revolutions and intrigues . Some politicians are experienced in the art or science of government . Politicians propose , support and create laws or policies that govern the land and , by extension , its people . Broadly speaking , a " politician " can be anyone who seeks to achieve political power in any bureaucratic institution . Sigmar Gabriel ( born 12 September 1959 ) is a German politician who currently serves as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor . He has been chairman of the Social Democratic Party of ___MASK23___ ( SPD ) since 2009 . He was the Federal Minister of the Environment from 2005 to 2009 and the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2013 to 2017 . From 1999 to 2003 Gabriel was Prime Minister of Lower Saxony . Dr . Erich Mende ( 28 October 1916 -- 6 May 1998 ) was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party ( FDP ) and Christian Democratic ___MASK34___ ( CDU ) . He was the leader of FDP from 1960 to 1968 and Vice - Chancellor of Germany ( ___MASK55___ ) from 1963 to 1966 . The ___MASK61___ Treaty Organization ( NATO '), also called the ___MASK61___ ___MASK38___ , is an intergovernmental military ___MASK38___ based on the ___MASK61___ 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 ___MASK100___ , 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 military spending of all NATO members constitutes over 70 % of the global total . Members ' defence spending is supposed to amount to 2 % of GDP . A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is , in some countries , a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent . The position is often likened to that of a vice president , but is significantly different even though both positions are " number two " offices . The position of deputy prime minister should not be confused with the Canadian Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister of ___MASK99___ , a nonpolitical civil servant position . Also , the Deputy Prime Minister of ___MASK99___ does not act as a " number two ". The ___MASK77___ Wall was a barrier that divided ___MASK77___ from 1961 to 1989 . Constructed by the German Democratic Republic ( GDR , ___MASK27___ ), starting on 13 ___MASK91___ 1961 , the Wall completely cut off ( by land ) West ___MASK77___ from surrounding ___MASK27___ and from East ___MASK77___ until government officials opened it in November 1989 . Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992 . The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls , which circumscribed a wide area ( later known as the " death strip ") that contained anti - vehicle trenches , " fakir 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 ___MASK27___ . In practice , the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked ___MASK27___ and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post - World War II period . ___MASK27___ , 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 ___MASK23___ that was occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II  the ___MASK70___ of the ___MASK17___ Agreement , bounded on the east by the Oder  Neisse line . The Soviet zone surrounded ___MASK84___ , but did not include it ; as a result , ___MASK84___ 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 . ___MASK27___ was a satellite state of the Soviet Union . 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 Socialist Unity Party ( SED ), though other parties nominally participated in its alliance organisation , the National ___MASK11___ of Democratic ___MASK23___ .