... 1948 and also to erect the Berlin Wall in 1956. The importance of Germany was great thorough out the Cold War because it was the it represented to both the Soviet Union on the one hand, and Great Britain and the United States on the other the casus belli for the Second World War, and therefore the course taken by Germany after the Second World War was of critical importance for both sides. Both of the superpowers sought to impose their own political and economic sets of beliefs on the subdued Germany, in order to both make sure that Germany would be weakened and reprimanded sufficiently to punish it for it's crimes during the Second World War, and also so that a resurgent Germany might align itself with the other power in alliance. Although both of the sides who would later contest the Cold War obviously had a great ...

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