Why was there a west Germany and an east Germany?

Russia did not want to unify its part of Germany with the western part, so the end result was two Germanies.

The Americans invaded Germany from the west and Russia invaded Germany from the east hence the names. West Germany and East Germany like North Korea and South Korea are not their official names. West Germany has the name of the current Germany which is Federal Republic of Germany or Bundesrepublik Deutschland. East Germany is The German Democratic Republic or Deutsche Demokratische Republik(DDR). The west was free and had a democracy where the German people were free to walk around and leave the country. The east had a communist government, where the people were not free and the government had a tight grip on its people. East Germans could not leave the country unless they had business in West Germany. The East German government's spy agency(Stasi) did what our spy agency NSA does, they tapped its people phones.

At the end of the Second World War, the Allied forces closed in on Germany. The Russian forces moved in from the East and the American, English and the French forces from the West. What Russia took(Eastern parts of Germany) remained in Russian hands and what US, France and England took ( Western parts of Germany) remained in their hands. Had there been better understanding between the US and Russia, a settlement could have been reached and Germany restored. By then differences had already developed between Communist Russia and Democratic West. They could not agree upon what form restored Germany should take. Cold war between them had already developed. Unable to find a single solution for the resettlement of Germany, separate governments were formed for the West and the East by those who were in control of the land. Thus was created the Federal Republic of Germany out of the areas in control of USA, England and France, and the German Democratic Republic out of the areas in Russian control. Even the city of Berlin occupied by the Allies was divided on the same pattern as West Berlin and East Berlin and later a wall was constructed separating these portions reflecting the enmity that had already developed between these one time Allies, USA and Russia.

There was a West and East Germany because the Russians made a "Soviet Zone" roughly from the part of Germany they overran in WWII. Britain, France and America divided up spheres of influence---West Germany, which was free. East Germany was Communist except fot the American, French and British Sectors in Berlin. East Berlin was the Soviet Sector and West Berlin comprised the British, French and American Sectors. The Berlin areas were called "Sectors" to avoid confusion with the four country "Zones" of Germany.

The Russians cordoned off their half in order to prevent what they called "doctrinal infection", which always struck me as sounding like something to be avoided.

West Germany was capitalist and democratic and East Germany was communist and authoritarian.

FDR basically gave Eastern Europe to Stalin for Stalin's support in Finishing off the Japanese Churchill disagreed with most of the Proposals and when the war was over Said a Iron Curtain has fallen across Europe

Yalta Agreement

British prime minister Winston Churchill, U.S. president franklin d. roosevelt, and Soviet premier Joseph Stalin met from February 4 to 11, 1945, at Yalta, in the Crimea. The conference—the last attended by all three of these leaders—produced an agreement concerning the prosecution of the war against Japan, the occupation of Germany, the structure of the United Nations, and the post–World War II fate of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Yalta agreement proved to be controversial, as many in the United States criticized Roosevelt for abandoning Eastern Europe to the Communists.

Roosevelt came to Yalta seeking early Soviet participation in the war against Japan. Fearing that Japan would not surrender easily, Roosevelt promised Stalin the return of territories lost following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan, but only ninety days after the surrender of Germany. With the surrender of Japan in August 1945, which followed the dropping of nuclear bombs by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union obtained the promised territories after expending minimal military effort.

Roosevelt also sought Stalin's approval of the U.N. Charter, which had already been drafted. Stalin had previously insisted that each of the sixteen Soviet republics be represented and that the permanent members of the Security Council retain a permanent Veto on all issues, not just those involving sanctions or threats to peace. Roosevelt and Churchill objected to this proposal, and at Yalta, Stalin agreed to three seats for the Soviet Union in the General Assembly and a limited veto.

The postwar status of Germany was also settled at Yalta. Germany was to be divided into four zones of occupation by the three countries and France, as was the city of Berlin. Germany was to have its industrial base rebuilt but its armaments industries were to be abolished or confiscated. The leaders also approved the creation of an international court to try German leaders as war criminals, setting the stage for the Nuremberg Trials.

The most troublesome issue was the fate of the Eastern European countries that Germany had conquered during the war. The Soviet army occupied most of the territory, making it difficult for Churchill and Roosevelt to bargain with Stalin on this point. It was agreed that interim governments in these countries would give way to democratically elected regimes as soon as practicable. On Poland, Churchill and Roosevelt abandoned the London-based Polish government-in-exile, agreeing that members of this group must work with the Soviet-dominated group with headquarters in Lublin, Poland.

In the aftermath of World War II the results envisioned in the Yalta agreement on Eastern Europe proved illusory. Communist regimes were established by the Soviet Union, accompanied by the destruction of democratic political groups. The legacy of Yalta continued until the collapse of Communism and the emergence of democracy in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Further readings

The Soviets and US/Western nations became hostile to each other soon after WW2 ended (or even before it ended). The Soviets set up a pro-Soviet commie regime in their occupation zone of Germany and the US and Western powers set up a pro-Western regime in their occupation zone. That is why the country was split into two separate republics.

World War 2, the victors were dividing up the spoils.

It was the beginning of a long twilight struggle. Daylight didn't break until 1987.