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[[caption-width-right:250:''Blühe, deutsches Vaterland!''[[note]]''"Blossom, German fatherland!"''[[/note]]]]
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Called "the Bonn Republic" these days by historians, the Federal Republic of Germany (''Bundesrepublik Deutschland'') was a UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}an state formed out of three of the occupation zones of UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} in the aftermath of the defeat of the UsefulNotes/{{Nazi|Germany}}s in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the other becoming UsefulNotes/EastGermany under occupation by the [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn Soviet Union]]. This didn't happen overnight - the British and American occupation zones were merged, informally very quickly after the war and more formally combined into something called at the time "the Bizone" or "Bizonia" by 1948 or so, with the French zone allowed in just before the formation of the Bundesrepublik itself in 1949. The Saarland, separately occupied and disputed by UsefulNotes/{{France}}, joined in 1957 after the residents were allowed to vote on which country they wanted to be part of. This is sometimes referred to in modern times as the ''kleine Wiedervereinigung'' ("Little Reunification").

West Germany became a democracy and an economic superpower. It joined UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and had a considerable number of foreign military bases there. The bridges had speed limits for tanks (and still do in UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic), because WorldWarIII would have been fought there.

West Germany had the legacy of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII to deal with. They implemented a NoSwastikas policy and banned all vaguely Nazi organisations. West Germany also became a pretty peaceful nation, not getting involved in any foreign wars. This didn't stop UsefulNotes/EastGermany from calling them fascists on a regular basis; the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall was called "''der antifaschistische Schutzwall''," literally meaning "the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier." The GDR regime also had a field day any time when real or supposed connections of high ranking West German officials to the Nazi Era became public and they often leaked documents from Soviet Archives or the likes to the press themselves to land a propaganda coup. That said, the GDR itself had quite a few old Nazis in high ranks of army state and party in the 1950s and early 1960s.[[note]]For both nations, FridgeLogic has to come into play. The vast majority of Germans of legal age in 1949, and virtually all who would have the knowledge, skill set and experience to run major governmental institutions, would have had at least a tangential relationship to the Hitler regime, the only exceptions being political exiles or those imprisoned by the regime for being of other political parties (and in the case of socialists/communists in the latter category, they tended to move to East Germany). So there was no escaping the reality in either FRG or GDR that complete denazification of the newly-minted governments was not practical absent letting the Occupation powers run things for a generation or two. That said, it was often more of a ''hindrance'' for a post-war career to have been an exile or imprisoned during the Nazi era, especially in the West. Sometimes the same judges that had ruled to take away rights or property from dissidents ruled after the war that they had no right to restitution.[[/note]]

It considered itself a reconstituted UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic (despite the irony of Weimar now being in UsefulNotes/EastGermany), deciding to pay reparations for both wars and keeping the D license plate. It also elected to pay reparations to UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} starting in 1953 as penance for UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust (and on a more practical level, payment for the labor and property stolen from Jews by the Nazis); Germany remains Israel's foremost advocate in Europe to this day, and has discovered rather interesting ways to show its sorriness to Israel (including giving the [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles IDF]] nuclear-capable submarines). The ''de facto'' capital of West Germany was UsefulNotes/{{Bonn}}, although Berlin was symbolically named the ''de jure'' capital in the Basic Law. West Berlin, an occupied city, sent non-voting representatives to the West German Parliament.

West Germany also developed culturally, with West German literature, philosophy, films, and music making their mark. On the high end, the likes of ''Gruppe '47'' (including, most famously, [[Literature/TheTinDrum Günter Grass]]) pointed the West German reaction to the horrors of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (in essence, "we were guilty and foolish, all of us!") and the process of denazification (they were for it). On the pop-cultural level, Music/TheBeatles and countless other British bands had their first breaks in Germany--typically UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}}--and the West Germans were the first Continental Europeans to really get what this "rock" thing was all about. The West Germans returned the favor: late '60s and early '70s West German rock (called "KrautRock" by the British music press), led by bands like Neu!, Amon Düül II, and early Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, had a powerful impact on PostPunk, [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]], Electronic, and {{Industrial}} music. West Berlin in particular was famous for both its rollicking club scene and its Hansa-By-The-Wall (yes, ''[[UsefulNotes/BerlinWall that]]'' Wall) recording studio, which was a magnet for musicians German and non-German alike. Music/DavidBowie spent most of his most productive and creative period in West Berlin (termed, fittingly, his "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Berlin period]]"), inspired by the West German scene. [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] was similarly inspired, recording part of his debut album and all of ''Lust for Life'' (you know, the famous one) at Hansa-By-The-Wall.

On another cultural note, West Germans also managed to create a brilliant national soccer team, winning UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup in 1954, 1974, and 1990 (just before reunification). The win in 1954, against Hungary, was a massive boost to West German pride (which until then had been rather shaky), and was seen as a moral victory for the West over the Soviet bloc.

Older sources will sometimes refer to this place as simply "[[JustForFun/OneMarioLimit Germany]]", possibly due to the feeling that this was the ''real'' Germany- the other one was just CommieLand with Germans. (This is similar to how UsefulNotes/SouthKorea is sometimes referred to as just "Korea", based on much the same attitude about UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.) Bonn itself felt that for a while, refusing to recognise any country bar the USSR that had any relations with the GDR until Willy Brandt's ''Neue Ostpolitik'' of the 1970s. The two Germanies recognised each other (but not completely: for example, no ambassadors, but ''[[InsistentTerminology permanent representatives]]'' [Ständige Vertretung] – this would become important in 1990) and joined the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations together.

In the early 1980s, it was a site for the US Cruise and Pershing II deployments, something that caused considerable anxiety in a country that would have had nukes from both sides land on it in a nuclear war. In 1986, Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced the unilateral removal of those missiles- a year later the entire lot were got rid of under the INF Treaty.

The West German Basic Law was aimed at the reunification of Germany. When Germany reunified, UsefulNotes/EastGermany was merely absorbed into UsefulNotes/WestGermany, creating the reunified Germany- UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic, which is basically the Bonn Republic with the former Demokratische Republik integrated into the Bundesrepublik and the government moved to the now-reunified Berlin. The Basic Law stayed in place with minor changes as it had served the country well. While Article 23 ''was'' changed (which allowed for Germany to be reunified without major changes to the constitution - something which was seen as obsolete with reunification complete) Article 146 notably ''wasn't'' - meaning the German constitution still contains a paragraph that details how it could be replaced by a new one (this was intended as the other avenue to reunification and is sometimes brought up by populist or opposition politicians)
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!!Appears in the following works:
* Insert any fiction about [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction the Red Army Faction]]:
** ''Literature/TheLostHonourOfKatharinaBlum'' (novel and film)
** ''Germany in Autumn''
** ''The Third Generation'' by Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder
** ''Marianne and Juliane''
** ''Stammheim''
** ''Film/TheBaaderMeinhofComplex''
** ''Greater Freedom, Lesser Freedom''
* ''A Small Town In Germany'' , a Creator/JohnLeCarre novel
* ''Literature/TheOdessaFile''
* Recurring ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' segment ''Sprockets''
* ''Series/ACaseForTwo'' until 1990.
* ''Derrick'' until 1990.
* ''Series/{{Tatort}}'' until 1990. The series and its East German counterpart ''Polizeiruf 110'' started in 1970 and 1971 respectively. [[LongRunners Both are still airing]] as of the early 2020s.
* The ''Film/JamesBond'' film ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' has BigBadDuumvirate General Orlov and Prince Kamal Khan attempting to detonate a nuclear bomb on a US Air Base in West Germany to trigger WorldWarIII.
* The incredibly depressing book and movie ''Film/ChristianeF'', about the lives of teenage heroin addicts in West Berlin. Mostly famous outside Germany due to Music/DavidBowie providing the soundtrack and appearing in the film.
* ''Film/RosenFuerDenStaatsanwalt'' satirises post-war Germany's reliance on ex-Nazis in running their (otherwise completely overhauled) legal system.
* The first act of ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' takes place in late 1980s Düsseldorf, appropriately with a family massacre involving an East German defector. While the rest of the story takes place in UsefulNotes/TheBerlinRepublic, the echoes of UsefulNotes/TheColdWar remain omnipresent.
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