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
Where it sits in time
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.
6 terms are shared from [object Object].
| Ruler | Reign | Length | How it ended · source | To the ruler before |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Theodor Heuss | 1949 – 1959 | 10 years | ending not on record | |
| Heinrich Lübke · from the line of Germany | 1959 – 1969 | 10 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Gustav Heinemann · from the line of Germany | 1969 – 1974 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Walter Scheel · from the line of Germany | 1974 – 1979 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Karl Carstens · from the line of Germany | 1979 – 1984 | 5 years | left office aliveread off the dates alone | |
| Richard von Weizsäcker | 1984 – 1994 | 10 years | ending 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 Adenauer | 1949 – 1963 |
| Ludwig Erhard | 1963 – 1966 |
| Kurt Georg Kiesinger | 1966 – 1969 |
| Willy Brandt | 1969 – 1974 |
| Helmut Schmidt | 1974 – 1982 |
| Walter Scheel | 1974 – 1974 |
| Helmut Kohl | 1982 – 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.
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.
%2C_Flag_of_West_Germany_(1949%E2%80%931990)%2C_Flag_of_Germany_(1990%E2%80%931996).svg/120px-Flag_of_East_Germany_(1949%E2%80%931959)%2C_Flag_of_West_Germany_(1949%E2%80%931990)%2C_Flag_of_Germany_(1990%E2%80%931996).svg.png)
flag, undatedFlag of East Germany (1949–1959), Flag of West Germany (1949–1990), Flag of Germany (1990–1996) · Public domain 
flag, from 1917Flag of Germany · Public domain 
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
- Angela Merkel · scientist · 1954 – present
- Meitnerium · discovery · 1982
- Olaf Scholz · politician · 1958 – present
- Friedrich Merz · politician · 1955 – present
- Annalena Baerbock · politician · 1980 – present
- Guido Westerwelle · politician · 1961 – 2016
- Munich massacre · atrocity · 1972
- Heiko Maas · politician · 1966 – present
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.
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
- On the timeline, 1939 – 2000, with everything that stood beside it.
- On the map in 1958, live: scrub the year and watch its borders move.
- Investigate it: what led to it, what came of it, and its succession analysed.
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.