Editing West Germany (section)

===NATO membership===
<!--[[File:ParisAgreement1954.jpg|thumb|left|The Paris Agreements, signed on 23 October 1954, restored sovereignty to the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] (FRG), which became a full member of [[NATO]] and resulted in the creation of the [[Western European Union]] (WEU).]]-->
[[File:Deutschland Bundeslaender 1957.png|thumb|upright|left|West Germany (blue) and West Berlin (yellow) after the accession of the Saarland in 1957 and before the five {{lang|de|Länder}} from the GDR and East Berlin joined in 1990]]
With territories and frontiers that coincided largely with the ones of old [[Middle Ages]] [[East Francia]] and the 19th-century [[Napoleon]]ic [[Confederation of the Rhine]], the Federal Republic of Germany was founded on 23 May 1949 under the terms of the [[Bonn–Paris conventions]], whereby it obtained "the full authority of a sovereign state" on 5 May 1955 (although "full sovereignty" was not obtained until the [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany|Two Plus Four Agreement]] in 1990).{{refn |name=Sovereignty |group=lower-alpha |Detlef Junker of the {{lang|de|[[Heidelberg University]]}} states "In the October 23, 1954, Paris Agreements, Adenauer pushed through the following laconic wording: 'The Federal Republic shall accordingly [after termination of the occupation regime] have the full authority of a sovereign state over its internal and external affairs.' If this was intended as a statement of fact, it must be conceded that it was partly fiction and, if interpreted as wishful thinking, it was a promise that went unfulfilled until 1990. The Allies maintained their rights and responsibilities regarding Berlin and Germany as a whole, particularly the responsibility for future reunification and a future peace treaty".<ref>{{Cite book |editor-first=Detlef |editor-last=Junker |translator-first=Sally E. |translator-last=Robertson |url=http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780511192180&ss=exc |title=The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, A Handbook |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923221838/http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780511192180&ss=exc |archive-date=23 September 2015 |volume=1, 1945–1968 |series=Publications of the [[German Historical Institutes]] |isbn=0-511-19218-5 |at=Section "The Presence of the Past", paragraph 9}}</ref>}} The former occupying Western troops remained on the ground, now as part of the [[NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO), which West Germany joined on 9 May 1955, promising to rearm itself soon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kaplan |first=Lawrence S. |year=1961 |title=NATO and Adenauer's Germany: Uneasy Partnership |journal=[[International Organization (journal)|International Organization]] |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=618–629 |doi=10.1017/S0020818300010663 |s2cid=155025137}}</ref>

West Germany became a focus of the [[Cold War]] with its juxtaposition to [[East Germany]], a member of the subsequently founded [[Warsaw Pact]]. The former capital, [[Berlin]], had been divided into four sectors, with the Western Allies joining their sectors to form [[West Berlin]], while the Soviets held [[East Berlin]]. West Berlin was completely surrounded by East German territory and had suffered a Soviet blockade in 1948–49, which was overcome by the [[Berlin Blockade#Start of the Berlin Airlift|Berlin airlift]].

[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F078072-0004, Konrad Adenauer.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Konrad Adenauer]] was a German statesman who served as the first [[Chancellor of Germany|chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany]].]]

The outbreak of the [[Korean War]] in June 1950 led to U.S. calls to rearm West Germany to help defend Western Europe from the perceived Soviet threat. Germany's partners in the [[European Coal and Steel Community]] proposed to establish a [[Treaty establishing the European Defence Community|European Defence Community]] (EDC), with an integrated army, navy and air force, composed of the armed forces of its member states. The West German military would be subject to complete EDC control, but the other EDC member states ([[Belgium]], France, Italy, [[Luxembourg]] and the [[Netherlands]]) would cooperate in the EDC while maintaining independent control of their own armed forces.

Though the EDC treaty was signed (May 1952), it never entered into force. France's [[Gaullism|Gaullists]] rejected it on the grounds that it threatened national sovereignty, and when the [[National Assembly (France)|French National Assembly]] refused to ratify it (August 1954), the treaty died. The French Gaullists and communists had killed the French government's proposal. Then other means had to be found to allow West German rearmament. In response, at the [[London and Paris Conferences]], the [[Treaty of Brussels|Brussels Treaty]] was modified to include West Germany, and to form the [[Western European Union]] (WEU). West Germany was to be permitted to rearm (an idea many Germans rejected), and have full sovereign control of its military, called the {{lang|de|[[Bundeswehr]]}}. The WEU, however, would regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Also, the German constitution prohibited any military action, except in the case of an external attack against Germany or its allies ({{lang|de|Bündnisfall}}). Also, Germans could reject military service on grounds of conscience, and serve for civil purposes instead.<ref>John A. Reed Jr, ''Germany and NATO'' (National Defense University, 1987) [https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a264257.pdf Online].</ref>

The three Western [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] retained occupation powers in Berlin and certain responsibilities for Germany as a whole. Under the new arrangements, the Allies stationed troops within West Germany for NATO defense, pursuant to stationing and status-of-forces agreements. With the exception of 55,000 French troops, Allied forces were under NATO's joint defense command. (France withdrew from the collective military command structure of NATO in 1966.)