As everyone knows, after World War II, Germany was divided into the capitalist West and the communist East. The rest is modern history: the Wall, Cold War, Reagan, Gorbachev, Hasselhoff, unification.

It didn't have to be like that. Not if they listened to Henry Morgenthau Jr.

Morgenthau was the second ever Jewish member of the US Cabinet (yes, Jewish, despite the Jr), serving as the Secretary of the Treasury under FDR. He did a lion's share in helping Jewish refugees during the war, and was tasked by to come up with a plan for post-war Germany. Hence, the Morgenthau Plan.

The plan was designed to cripple Germany by partitioning it, but partitioning differently. The Ruhr valley and the industrial area that surrounded it would become an "International Zone". The rest would be split into two parts: no, not West and East... North and South!

FDR really liked the plan, but Churchill didn't, so at the end, it was not to be. The Marshall plan went through instead, and that's how we got the West and the East, etc.

Would modern history be different if the Morgenthau Plan was adopted? Interesting thought experiment, isn't it?