Video: 'WEST GERMAN SOVEREIGNTY and GERMAN FLAG HOISTED AT SHAPE'

(Thursday, May 5, 1955, 12 noon Central European Time; during the Cold War) — The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) became a sovereign state today when the United States, France, and Great Britain end their military occupation, which had begun with the end of World War II in 1945.

With Konrad Adenauer as chancellor, West Germany was given the right to rearm and become a full-fledged member of the western alliance against the Soviet Union.