Pastlasby Oleh Voronko

State · 1949 – 1990

West Germany

A state of 1949 – 1990 — 41 years in Europe. It replaced German Reich, Trizone and Allied Control Council. It was replaced by Germany. The atlas records 20 things within it — unrest and atrocity 3 · natural disasters 1 · treaties 3 · people 12 · works and ideas 1. Its line of rulers holds 6 people.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the state.

Stood
41 years
1949 – 1990
Rulers
6
the President
Most ground
246,400 km²
in 1958
Within it
20
recorded rows
Symbols
3
on record, with years
Map: West Germany in 1958, its borders in gold among its neighbours
West Germany in 1958, when it held the most ground the borders dataset draws for it: 246,400 km². Its neighbours wear their tints, as on the atlas's own map. Borders from Cliopatria (CC BY 4.0), coast and rivers from Natural Earth, cities from Reba, Reitsma & Seto 2016 (CC BY 4.0), each city under the name it bore that year.

Where it sits in time

3000 BCE2000 BCE1000 BCE110002000German Reich: 1871 – 1949Germany: 1990 – 2026West Germany: 1949 – 1990

Five thousand years, 3000 BCE to 2026; the state in gold, what it replaced or followed and what replaced or followed it in grey.

Before and after

The states the record files it as replacing or following, and those that replaced or followed it - Wikidata's own statements, each read from this state's side.

Before it

  • German Reich · replaces · 1871 – 1949
  • Trizone · replaces
  • Allied Control Council · replaces

After it

  • Germany · replaced by · 1990 – present

Rulers

Read from the state’s own English article and its rulers’ articles, where Wikidata names no ruler.

Theodor Heuss · 1949 – 1959 · no death date to read the end againstHeinrich Lübke · 1959 – 1969 · left office aliveGustav Heinemann · 1969 – 1974 · left office aliveWalter Scheel · 1974 – 1979 · left office aliveKarl Carstens · 1979 – 1984 · left office aliveRichard von Weizsäcker · 1984 – 1994 · no death date to read the end against19501960197019801990
left alive by a regular roadending not on record

6 terms are shared from [object Object].

RulerReignLengthHow it ended · sourceTo the ruler before
Theodor Heuss1949 – 195910 yearsending not on record
Heinrich Lübke · from the line of Germany1959 – 196910 yearsleft office aliveread off the dates alone
Gustav Heinemann · from the line of Germany1969 – 19745 yearsleft office aliveread off the dates alone
Walter Scheel · from the line of Germany1974 – 19795 yearsleft office aliveread off the dates alone
Karl Carstens · from the line of Germany1979 – 19845 yearsleft office aliveread off the dates alone
Richard von Weizsäcker1984 – 199410 yearsending not on record

6 rulers, 6 with terms dated as terms, covering 1949 – 1994. Only 45 years of the line are dated - too short for a median. 0 of 5 handovers irregular - a killing, a deposition, a rival claimant, a rising or a coup beside it. The violent-handover count is withheld: power changed hands so often that any rising falls beside one (exposure 0.63, limit 0.6). A blank in the last column means no kin on record, which is coverage, never “unrelated”.

Heads of government

The line of Federal Chancellor of Germany, drawn and never measured: a cabinet is not a reign.

Konrad Adenauer1949 – 1963
Ludwig Erhard1963 – 1966
Kurt Georg Kiesinger1966 – 1969
Willy Brandt1969 – 1974
Helmut Schmidt1974 – 1982
Walter Scheel1974 – 1974
Helmut Kohl1982 – 1998

Ground held, by year

km² inside its borders as the borders dataset draws them, measured on an equal-area grid; a step series, held between the years the dataset maps.

1960197019801990

243,300 km² in 1954, 246,400 km² in 1990; at its largest 246,400 km² in 1959. Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0.

Flags and arms, in order

Each symbol with the years its own statement gives; the timeline flies the one of the year on screen.

  • Flag of East Germany (1949–1959), Flag of West Germany (1949–1990), Flag of Germany (1990–1996)
    flag, undatedFlag of East Germany (1949–1959), Flag of West Germany (1949–1990), Flag of Germany (1990–1996) · Public domain
  • Flag of Germany
    flag, from 1917Flag of Germany · Public domain
  • Coat of arms of Germany
    coat of arms, from 1950Coat of arms of Germany · Public domain

What happened within it, by century

Every row the atlas hosts under this state, by the century it began in: wars and battles in red, risings, regime changes and massacres beside them, everything else in grey. A tall bar is a century the record is full for, which is partly a fact about Wikipedia.

1900 – 199920 rows · 3 risings, regime changes and massacres

and 12 more in the atlas.

Among all states

Each measure against the states that carry it, never against all of them: a bar is the share of those states below this one.

  • How long it stood41 years

    stood longer than 30% of 3,187 states with a recorded end or still standing.

  • The most ground it held246,400 km²

    held more ground at its peak than 63% of 1,465 states with a border in Cliopatria.

  • Wars recorded per centurynone

    had more wars on record per century than 44% of 3,187 states, counting the wars the atlas hosts under each.

  • Rulers on record6

    has more rulers on record than 69% of 1,968 states with a line of rulers.

What led to it, and what came of it

The investigation's own picture: 45 causes the record names and 1 result, the strongest six of each at their own years, joined to the state by the kind of claim - a recorded statement solid, the article's sentence dashed, a theory dash-dot.

Allied Control Council · Linked · 1945 – 1948Allied Control CouncilGerman Reich · Linked · 1871 – 1949German ReichTrizone · Linked · 1948 – 1949TrizoneOtto Hahn · Coincidence · 1879 – 1968Otto HahnWaldemar Pabst · Coincidence · 1880 – 1970Waldemar PabstAlbert Kesselring · Coincidence · 1885 – 1960Albert KesselringWest Germany · 1949 – 1990West GermanyGermany · Linked · 1990 – 2026Germany190019502000
linkedcoincidence

Open the investigation: every row with its evidence, the conditions at the time, the theories condition by condition, and the succession analysed.

Theories that apply to its ending

Of 3 theories of why states fall, 1 has every condition present at this ending; each is applied by its own logic, condition by condition, and whether its authors named this case is a footnote.

  • Demographic-structural breakdown

    Goldstone 1991 · Turchin & Nefedov 2009

    Applies by its own logic: 2 of its 3 conditions held here (it needs 2), and this is the kind of outcome it predicts — unrest, adverse regime change or the state's ending.

    • famine, plague or disaster within 30 y in the state, or population up 25% over 50 y — prior
    • overlapping reigns — rival claimants — within 20 y, or 3 or more changes of ruler within 20 y, or 2 or more reigns of two years or less within 20 y, or a monarch deposed or killed within 20 y — handovers 3

Open in the atlas

Wikidata Q713750 (CC0) · borders Cliopatria, CC BY 4.0 · coast and rivers Natural Earth · symbols from Wikimedia Commons, each credited above · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.