The post World War II German Air Force was founded in 1956 during the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of the then West Germany, and after the reunification of East and West 1990, it was integrated with parts of the air arm of the former German Democratic Republic. There is no continuity between the current Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht, which was founded in 1935 and completely disbanded after World War II. Thus the term Luftwaffe is used for both the 'historic' and the 'current' German air force. After World War II German aviation was severely curtailed, and military aviation was completely forbidden by the Allied Control Commission. This all changed in 1955 when West Germany joined NATO, as the Western Allies believed that Germany was needed to counter the increasing military threats posed by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies. Therefore on 9 January 1956 a new German Air Force was founded as a branch of the new Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Force).
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