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TIMELINE Pre-1952 May 8, 1945 - VE Day 1948-1949 - Berlin Blockade April 4, 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty 1949 - Trizonia becomes FRG October 7, 1949 - GDR forms June 25, 1950 - North Korea invades South Korea 1950 - Pleven and Spofford plans 1952 February 25, 1952 - Lisbon Agreement March 10 1952 - Stalin Note begins Battle of the Notes April 1, 1952 - Stalin orders GDR "to create a people's army--quietly." May 26, 1952 - Bonn Agreement June 1, 1952 - Soviets seal FRG-GDR border September 23, 1952 - Battle of the Notes ends Post-1952 May 5, 1955 - FRG "full" sovereignty 1955 - Austrian State Treaty 1955 - Saarland plebiscite January 1, 1957 - FRG annexes Saarland October 3, 1990 - FRG annexes GDR POLITICAL CONTEXT The Stalin Note advanced terms similar to those later adopted for Austria (see Austrian State Treaty ). It called for the creation of a neutral Germany with an eastern border on the Oder-Neisse Line and all allied troops removed within the year. The West German government under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer favoured closer integration with Western Europe and asked that the reunification be negotiated with the provision that there be internationally monitored elections throughout Germany. This condition was rejected by the Soviets. Stalin's proposal came while the European Defence Community was being discussed, which would have resulted in a rearmed West Germany tightly integrated in the Western bloc. CONTINUING POLITICAL AND ACADEMIC CONTROVERSY The West's rejection, including the U.S. rejection, of the 1952 Soviet offer to unify Germany created a controversial political and academic debate and established a post-WWII "stab-in-the-back" theory to parallel the post-WWI "stab-in-the-back" Theory of German political History and International Relations . Whether Stalin's offer was genuine or simply a tactical manoeuver to disrupt the ongoing military integration of the West was the subject of a heated debate at the time. Although most historians deny that Stalin was serious about reunification, this question was never definitely answered. REFERENCES |
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