he Russians installed a puppet regime of German Communists in the east, creating the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). At the same time, the three western sectors of Berlin were united to form West Berlin. The Soviet sector became East Berlin.
Any possibility that the USSR might have permitted the reunification of a neutral Germany in the 1950s was opposed by Konrad Adenauer, West Germany's chancellor from 1949 to 1963. He was deeply suspicious of Soviet intentions and preferred the closest possible ties with Western Europe and the United States. He guided the Federal Republic of Germany into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1955. Claiming that only West Germany represented the true wishes of all the German people, Adenauer refused to recognize the Soviet-dominated German Democratic Republic or maintain diplomatic relations with any country that did. The chancellor skillfully exploited the Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States to win sovereignty and the right to rearm West Berlin. Adenauer also brought about impressive economic recovery with a modified form of free-enterprise capitalism. Businesses and industries were largely private, but the high taxes they paid helped provide rebuilding programs and an impressive network of social services. This on-going economic recovery enabled West Germany to provide a home for more than 10 million ethnic German refugees who in 1945 either had fled from Soviet armies or had been expelled from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern European countries. Adenauer was a skillful politician, and, under his leadership, the West German constitution functioned smoothly, convincing many Germans that parliamentary democracy was compatible with order and prosperity.
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