the immediate aftermath¶

In the immediate aftermath of WWII, occupied Germany began the process of denazification. Referendums were held across each of the occupied sectors on the question of expropriating the large landowners and industrialists who had supported the Third Reich. In the Soviet zone, voters passed with overwhelming majorities the resolutions to transfer these lands and industries into public ownership, so they did. The same majorities were in favor of the measures in US and British zones. Perplexed, the US occupying forces pushed for another referendum. This one passed with an even larger majority.

Fearing the spread of socialist ideals, US and British occupiers opted to simply ignore the public, and leave this economic power in the hands of Nazi collaborators. I'm skipping over the Potsdam Agreement because we should all already be familiar with the fact that the west was perfectly amenable to housing literal Nazis to allow them to escape justice for their war crimes. In fact, while the GDR was led by a constant stream of Jewish avowed antifascists, the exact opposite was true in the west.

Over 1,000 officials from top to bottom of the Western German government had been high-ranking members of the Nazi party. All of this because the western powers, especially the US, decided they preferred fascism to socialism. They secretly rearmed West Germany, cut off vital trade to the east, and pumped billions of Marshall Plan dollars into the privatized economy explicitly to stem socialism.