Germany was split into East and West Germany following its defeat in World War II in 1945, primarily as a result of the ideological "Cold War" rift between the Allied powers. After the war, the country was divided into four occupation zones controlled by the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. While the Western allies sought to rebuild Germany as a democratic, capitalist state, the Soviet Union wanted a communist "buffer zone" to protect its borders and extract reparations. By 1949, these tensions became irreconcilable, leading to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West) and the German Democratic Republic (East). The split was physically and symbolically solidified by the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which prevented East Germans from fleeing to the West. The country remained divided for 41 years until the fall of the wall in 1989 and the official reunification on October 3, 1990.