Germany became a nation state in 1871, when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After WWI and the revolution of 1918-1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 led to the establishment of a dictatorship, WWII and the Holocaust. After Germany surrendered, the Allies partitioned Berlin and Germany's remaining territory into four military occupation zones (three western sectors, controlled by France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and a eastern sector, controlled by Soviet Union).
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