germany-east and west

[baremission]

I'm trying to do some research for a project for my german lesson but i need something explaining.
Can anyone tell me why Germany was split up into east and west in the first place? and whose decision it was?or any info at all about germany at this time! wikipedia just isnt clearing the issue up for me!
cheers.

[sddsddean]

Very basically, at the end of World War 2 the Russians had invaded Germany from the east and the other allies (UK, USA, France etc) from the west. As the whole point of war is to gain territory, the allies had to split up Germany between them. After loads of negotiations, Russia got what became East Germany and turned it into a satelite state of Russia. The other allies did have their own zones in what became West Germany. This is why most UK bases are in northern Germany and US ones in SW Germany. The 'western' allies aim was to eventually return W Germany to the german people, but the Russians wanted to keep the East Germans under heel. This started the cold war with all the western allies now waiting for an attack from the Russians via E Germany. If you do a google on 'cold war' you will probably find more info than you can handle! Hope this sort of explains it.

[baremission]

thankyou!

[jno]

just to add that Berlin, which was well inside the eastern half, was kept open (after a Russian attempt to blockade it failed: the west airlifted supplies in), so you could reach it by road, rail and air. It was itself divided into east and west Berlin by the Berlin Wall, but this went up only gradually and came down much more quickly. Tourists could cross the wall (with a lot of queuing), it was basically built to keep easterners inside.

[Segilla]

Why did the Berlin blockade 'fail'?
The Russians blocked the roads and railways, so supplies etc had to be taken in by air.
But why did they relent? What was the advantage they gained?

[sddsddean]

This explains it fairly well
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/berlin.ht m