Wednesday, January 9, 2013

West German railways currency exchange offices, 1950s


The interesting thing about this map is that it shows Germany in the borders of 1937.  Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, West Germany refused to recognise the East European border changes imposed by Stalin in 1945 and held (as did France) that the legitimate German borders were those of 1937.  By the end of the 1960s, however, both countries recognised the reality of the Soviet Union's grip on Eastern Europe and that changing borders again would repeat the enormous dislocation of 1945-1946; under Chancellor Willi Brandt's Ostpolitik, recognition of the Oder-Neisse line as the frontier was signed with Poland in 1970.

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