After the second world war, germany was divided into two parts, east germany and west germany. east germany was controlled by the former soviet union while west germany was controlled by the other allied governments: the united states, the united kingdom, and france. the war had destroyed most of germany's economy. the soviet union as well as the allied occupation forces sought to rebuild the economies of their respective parts. before the fall of the berlin wall reunited east and west germany in 1990, west germany's economy grew at an annual average growth rate of 4.4 percent, which was about 3 times higher than east germany's rate.