View source for Allied-occupied Germany

{{Short description|Post-World War II occupation of Germany}}
{{For|the occupation of Western Germany after World War I|Occupation of the Rhineland|Occupation of the Ruhr}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name = {{native name|de|Deutschland}}
| conventional_long_name = Germany
| image_flag = Flag of Germany (1946-1949).svg
| flag_border = no
| flag_type = The [[Flag of Germany#After World War II (1945–1949)|C-Pennant]]
| image_coat = 
| symbol_type = 
| common_name = Germany#After World War II (1945–49)
| image_map = Deutschland Besatzungszonen 8 Jun 1947 - 22 Apr 1949.svg
| image_map_caption = Germany from 17 December 1947 to 23 May 1949
| coordinates = {{WikidataCoord|display=inline,title}}
{{parabr}}{{Nowrap|{{Legend2|#a2bef1|[[Saar Protectorate]]}} (''[[de facto]]''<br> not a part of Germany)<br>{{Legend2|#0000ff|[[French occupation zone in Germany|French occupation zone]]}}<br />{{Legend2|#008000|[[British occupation zone in Germany|British occupation zone]]{{Efn|The two American exclaves in the British sector is the state of [[Bremen (state)|Bremen]].}}}}}}<br />{{Legend2|#ffa500|[[American occupation zone in Germany|American occupation zone]]}}<br />{{Legend2|#FF0000|[[Soviet occupation zone in Germany|Soviet occupation zone]]{{Efn|The quadripartite area shown within the Soviet zone is Berlin.}}}}
| stat_year1 = 1945
| stat_pop1 = 64,260,000
| stat_year2 = 1949
| stat_pop2 = 68,080,000
| status = [[Military occupation]]
| era = Cold War
| life_span = 1945–1949
| p1 = Nazi Germany
| flag_p1 = Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg
| s1 = Saar Protectorate{{!}}'''1947:'''<br />Saar Protectorate (de facto)
| flag_s1 = Flag of Saar (1947–1956).svg
| s2 = West Germany{{!}}'''1949:'''<br />Federal Republic of Germany
| flag_s2 = Flag of Germany.svg
| s3 = East Germany{{!}}German Democratic Republic
| flag_s3 = Flag of Germany.svg
| s4 = West Berlin
| flag_s4 = Flag_of_Berlin.svg
| capital = {{Plainlist|
* [[Berlin]] (''[[de jure]]'')<!-- West Berlin was not formally a part of West Germany, with laws from the latter being adapted into the former by the [[Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin]]. See [[Conscription in Germany#Conscientious objection]] for example. -->
* [[Frankfurt]] (American zone)
* [[Bad Oeynhausen]] (British zone)
* [[Baden-Baden]] (French zone)
* [[East Berlin]] (Soviet zone)
}}
| title_leader = [[#Military governors and commissioners|Governors]] (1945)
| leader1 = [[Bernard Montgomery]]
| year_leader1 = British zone
| leader2 = {{Nowrap|[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]}}
| year_leader2 = American zone
| leader3 = [[Jean de Lattre de Tassigny]]
| year_leader3 = French zone
| leader4 = [[Georgy Zhukov]]
| year_leader4 = Soviet zone
| event_pre = [[German Instrument of Surrender|Surrender of German armed forces]]
| date_pre = 8 May 1945
| event_start = {{Nowrap|[[Allied Control Council]]}}
| date_start = 5 June 1945
| event1 = [[Saar (protectorate)|Saar Protectorate]]{{Smallsup|a}}
| date_event1 = 17 December 1947
| event2 = [[West Germany]]
| date_event2 = 23 May 1949
| event_end = [[East Germany]]{{Smallsup|b}}
| date_end = 7 October 1949
| event_post = [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany|Final Settlement]]{{Smallsup|c}}
| date_post = 15 March 1991
| common_languages = {{Plainlist|
* [[German language|German]] (national language)
* [[English language|English]] (American and British zones)
* [[French language|French]] (French zone)
* [[Russian language|Russian]] (Soviet zone)
}}
| currency = {{Plainlist|
* {{Lang|de|[[Reichsmark]]}} and {{Lang|de|[[German Rentenmark|Rentenmark]]}} <small>(1945–1948)</small><br />'''West zones (except Saarland):'''
* [[Deutsche Mark]] <small>(from 1948)</small><sup>d</sup><br />'''Soviet zone:'''
* [[East German mark|Mark]] <small>(from 1948)</small><sup>e</sup>
}}
| footnote_a = Became a state of the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)]] by joining it on 1 January 1957, not recognized by all four Allied powers, the separation was opposed by the Soviet Union.
| footnote_b = Reunited Germany by joining the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990.
| footnote_c = [[German reunification]] took place on 3 October 1990.
| footnote_d = The [[Trizone|Western Allied zones of Germany]] and the western sectors of Berlin (de facto).
| footnote_e = The [[Soviet occupation zone|Soviet zone of Germany]] and sector of Berlin.
| footnotes = {{center|[[File:Occupied Berlin.svg|250px|Map of occupied Berlin]]<br />The four sectors and [[West Berlin#Exclaves|exclaves]] of [[Allied occupation of Berlin|Berlin]]}}
| demonym = 
| area_km2 = 
| area_rank = 
| GDP_PPP = 
| GDP_PPP_year = 
| HDI = 
| HDI_year = 
| national_anthem =
}}
{{Campaignbox Campaign of Germany (WW2)}}{{History of Germany}}
The entirety of Germany was [[military occupation|occupied]] and administered by the [[Allies of World War II]], from the [[Berlin Declaration (1945)|Berlin Declaration]] on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of [[West Germany]] on 23 May 1949. Unlike [[Occupation of Japan|occupied Japan]], [[Nazi Germany]] was stripped of its [[sovereignty]] and its government was entirely dissolved. After Germany [[German Instrument of Surrender|formally surrendered]] on [[Victory in Europe Day|Tuesday, 8 May 1945]], the four countries representing the Allies (the [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Soviet Union]], and [[France]]) asserted joint authority and sovereignty through the [[Allied Control Council]] (ACC).

Germany after the war was a devastated country – roughly 80 percent of its infrastructure was in need of repair or reconstruction<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=http://berlin-germany.eu/post-war-germany/rebuilding-post-war-germany/|title=Rebuilding Post War Germany: A Century-Long Project|last=Rumler|first=Frank|date=2012-11-21|newspaper=Berlin Germany Life: City Info Guide|language=en-US|access-date=2016-12-10}}</ref> – which helped the idea that Germany was entering a new phase of history ("[[Zero hour (1945)|zero hour]]"). At first, Allied-occupied Germany was defined as all territories of Germany before the [[Anschluss|1938 Nazi annexation of Austria]]. The [[Potsdam Agreement]] on 2 August 1945 defined the new eastern German border by giving Poland and the Soviet Union all regions of Germany east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]] (eastern parts of [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]], [[Neumark]], [[Posen-West Prussia]], [[East-Prussia]] and most of [[Silesia]]) and divided the remaining "Germany as a whole" into four occupation zones, each administered by one of the Allies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=States|first=United|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lM8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1224|title=Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776–1949: Multilateral, 1931–1945|date=1968|publisher=Department of State|language=en|access-date=24 June 2021|archive-date=21 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121171551/https://books.google.com/books?id=lM8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1224|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Areas annexed by Nazi Germany|All territories annexed by Germany]] before the war from Austria and [[First Czechoslovak Republic|Czechoslovakia]] were returned to these countries. The [[Memel Territory]], annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the [[Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic]]. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, [[Fascist Italy|Italy]], [[Grand Duchy of Luxembourg|Luxembourg]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] and [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] were returned to their respective countries. Deviating from the occupation zones planned according to the [[London Protocol (1944)|London Protocol in 1944]], at Potsdam, the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union approved the detachment from Germany of the territories east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]], with the exact line of the boundary to be determined in a final German peace treaty. This treaty was expected to confirm the shifting westward of Poland's borders, as the United Kingdom and United States committed themselves to support the permanent incorporation of eastern Germany into Poland and the Soviet Union. From March 1945 to July 1945, these [[former eastern territories of Germany]] had been administered under Soviet military occupation authorities, but following the Potsdam Agreement they were handed over to Soviet and Polish civilian administrations and ceased to constitute part of Allied-occupied Germany.

In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the agreed boundaries for the future zones of occupation, in some places by as much as {{Convert|200|mi|km|order=flip|abbr=in}}. The so-called [[line of contact]] between Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established [[inner German border]], was temporary. After two months during which they held areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone, U.S. forces withdrew in the first days of July 1945.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852310,00.html |title=What Is to Be Done? |publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=9 July 1945 |access-date=17 April 2020 |archive-date=16 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230216080738/https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,852310,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Some have concluded that this was a crucial move which persuaded the Soviet Union to allow American, British and French forces into their designated sectors in Berlin, which occurred at roughly the same time; the need for intelligence gathering ([[Operation Paperclip]]) may also have been a factor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Knowles |first=Chris |date=29 January 2014 |title=Germany 1945–1949: a case study in post-conflict reconstruction |url=http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/germany-1945-1949-a-case-study-in-post-conflict-reconstruction |access-date=19 July 2016 |website=History & Policy |archive-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230609111711/https://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/germany-1945-1949-a-case-study-in-post-conflict-reconstruction |url-status=live }}</ref> After the Soviet withdrawal from the Allied Control Council on 20 March 1948, the split had led to the establishment in 1949 of two new German states, the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] (FRG, West Germany) and the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] (GDR, East Germany).

== Occupation zones ==

=== American zone ===
{{further|American occupation zone in Germany|Allied-occupied Austria}}
The American zone in [[Southern Germany]] consisted of [[Bavaria]] (without the [[Circle of the Rhine|Rhine Palatinate Region]] and the [[Lindau (district)|Lindau District]], both part of the French zone) and [[Hesse]] (without [[Rhenish Hesse]] and [[Montabaur (region)|Montabaur Region]], both part of the French zone) with a new capital in [[Wiesbaden]], and of northern parts of ''[[Free People's State of Württemberg|Württemberg]]'' and ''[[Republic of Baden|Baden]]''. Those formed [[Württemberg-Baden]] and became northern portions of the present-day German state of [[Baden-Württemberg]] founded in 1952.

The ports of [[Bremen]] (on the lower [[Weser River]]) and [[Bremerhaven]] (at the Weser estuary of the [[North Sea]]) were also placed under U.S. control because of the U.S. request to have certain toeholds in [[Northern Germany]].

The headquarters of the [[Office of Military Government, United States|American military government]] was the former [[IG Farben Building]] in [[Frankfurt am Main]].

=== British zone ===
{{further|British occupation zone in Germany|Allied-occupied Austria}}

By May 1945 the [[British Army|British]] and [[Canadian Army|Canadian Armies]] had liberated the Netherlands and had conquered Northern Germany. The Canadian forces went home following the German surrender, leaving Northern Germany to be occupied by the British.

The [[British Army of the Rhine]] was formed on 25 August 1945 from the [[British Liberation Army]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://baor-locations.org/historybaor.aspx.html|title=British Army of the Rhine|publisher=BAOR Locations|access-date=1 November 2015|archive-date=18 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150918061025/http://baor-locations.org/historybaor.aspx.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

In July the British withdrew from [[Mecklenburg]]'s capital [[Schwerin]] which they had taken over from the Americans a few weeks before, as it had previously been agreed to be occupied by the [[Soviet Army]]. The [[Control Commission for Germany (British Element)]] (CCG/BE) ceded more slices of its area of occupation to the Soviet Union – specifically the [[Amt Neuhaus]] of [[Province of Hanover|Hanover]] and some exclaves and fringes of [[Free State of Brunswick|Brunswick]], for example the [[County of Blankenburg]], and exchanged some villages between British [[Holstein]] and Soviet Mecklenburg under the [[Barber-Lyashchenko Agreement]].

Within the British zone of occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the city of [[Hamburg]] as a [[States of Germany|German state]], but with borders that had been drawn by the Nazi government in 1937. The British also created the new German states of:
* [[Schleswig-Holstein]] – emerging in 1946 from the [[Provinces of Prussia|Prussian]] [[Province of Schleswig-Holstein]];
* [[Lower Saxony]] – the merger of Brunswick, [[Free State of Oldenburg|Oldenburg]], and [[Free State of Schaumburg-Lippe|Schaumburg-Lippe]] with the [[state of Hanover]] in 1946; and
* [[North Rhine-Westphalia]] – the merger of [[Free State of Lippe|Lippe]] with the Prussian provinces of the [[Rhine Province|Rhineland]] (northern part) and [[Province of Westphalia|Westphalia]] – during 1946–47.

Also in 1947, the American zone of occupation being inland had no port facilities – thus the [[Bremen (state)|Free Hanseatic City of Bremen]] and [[Bremerhaven]] became exclaves within the British zone.

The British headquarters were originally based in [[Bad Oeynhausen]] from 1946, but in 1954 it was moved to [[Mönchengladbach]] where it was known as [[JHQ Rheindahlen]].

Another special feature of the British zone was the enclave of [[Bonn]]. It was created in July 1949 and was not under British or any other allied control. Instead it was under the control of the [[Allied High Commission]]. In June 1950, [[Ivone Kirkpatrick]] became the [[British High Commissioner for Germany]]. Kirkpatrick carried immense responsibility particularly with respect to the negotiation of the [[Bonn–Paris conventions]] during 1951–1952, which terminated the occupation and prepared the way for the rearmament of West Germany.

{{multiple image|total_width=500
 | align = center
 | direction = horizontal
 | image1 = Germany Under Allied Occupation CL3279.jpg
 | alt1 = Photo of the Royal Air Force's Malcolm Club in Schleswig, Germany in 1945.
 | caption1 = Royal Air Force's [[Hugh Malcolm#Legacy|Malcolm Club]] in [[Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein|Schleswig]], formerly the Stadt Hamburg Hotel in late 1945.
 | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2007-0403-501, Berlin, britischer Panzerwagen,am Brandenburger Tor.jpg
 | alt2 = Photo of a British armored car in front of the Bradenburg Gate in Berlin in 1950.
 | caption2 = British armored car, at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, 1950.
}}

==== Belgian, Polish and Norwegian zones ====
{{further|Polish occupation zone in Germany}}
Army units from other countries were stationed within the British occupation zone.

* The Belgians were allocated a territory which was garrisoned by their troops.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Brüll|first=Christoph|title=Entre ressentiment et ré-éducation, L'Armée belge d'Occupation et les Allemands, 1945–1952|journal=Cahiers d'Histoire du Temps Présent|volume=23|year=2011|url=http://www.cegesoma.be/docs/media/chtp_beg/chtp_23/chtp23_003_Brull.pdf|pages=55–56|ref={{SfnRef|Brüll}}|access-date=6 July 2013|archive-date=14 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014173157/http://www.cegesoma.be/docs/media/chtp_beg/chtp_23/chtp23_003_Brull.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The zone formed a {{convert|200|km}} strip from the Belgian-German border at the south of the British zone, and included the important cities of [[Cologne]] and [[Aachen]]. The [[Belgian Forces in Germany|Belgian army of occupation in Germany]] (known as the Belgian Forces in Germany from 1951) became autonomous in 1946 under the command, initially, of [[Jean-Baptiste Piron]].{{Sfn|Brüll|pages=55–94}} Belgian soldiers remained in Germany until 31 December 2005.{{Sfn|Brüll|page=55}}[[File:Zone d'occupation belge 1946-1955.svg|thumb|Belgian occupation sub-zone of Germany]]
* Polish units mainly from [[1st Armoured Division (Poland)|1st Armoured Division]] were stationed in the northern area of the district of [[Emsland]] as well as in the areas of [[Oldenburg (city)|Oldenburg]] and [[Leer, Lower Saxony|Leer]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} This region bordered the Netherlands and covered an area of 6,500&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, and was originally intended to serve as a collection and dispersal territory for the millions of Polish displaced persons in Germany and Western Europe after the war.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}} Early British proposals for this to form the basis of a formal Polish zone of occupation, were however, soon abandoned due to Soviet opposition. The zone had a large camp constructed largely for displaced persons and was administered by the [[Polish government in exile]]. The administrative centre of the Polish occupation zone was the city of [[Haren, Germany|Haren]] the German population of which was temporarily removed. The city was renamed ''Maczków'' (after [[Stanisław Maczek]]) from 1945 to 1947. Once the British recognised the [[Polish People's Republic|pro-Soviet government in Poland]], and withdrew recognition from the London-based Polish government in exile, the Emsland zone became more of an embarrassment. Polish units within the British Army were demobilised in June 1947. The expelled German populations were allowed to return and the last Polish residents left in 1948.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}
* In 1946, the [[Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany|Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany]] had 4,000 soldiers in Hanover; amongst whom was future [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] [[Willy Brandt]] (then a Norwegian citizen) as press attaché.
* In 1947 (during summer), a [[Danish Brigade in Germany]] of 4,000 men, under British command, occupied [[Oldenburg (city)|Oldenburg]], after an agreement, signed at [[Copenhagen]] in April 1947, between Denmark and United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://untreaty.un.org/unts/1_60000/1/7/00000327.pdf/index.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url |title=Agreement concerning the participation of a Danish contingent in the occupation of Germany. Signed at Copenhagen, April 22, 1947 |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Funtreaty.un.org%2Funts%2F1_60000%2F1%2F7%2F00000327.pdf%2Findex.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com&tab=url |url-status=dead }}</ref> A Danish Occupation Force was formally established on 7 October 1949. The headquarters was in the town of [[Jever]], in [[East Friesland]]. However, it was decided to move the brigade to [[Itzehoe]] in October 1949, naming itself as ''Tysklandsbrigaden''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fnmuseet.dk/aarskrift/the.pdf |title=The Danish Brigade in Germany 1947–1958 |access-date=18 January 2023 |archive-date=21 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321142118/http://www.fnmuseet.dk/aarskrift/the.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> It remained stationed at Itzehoe, under the name of The Danish Command in Germany, until 1958.
* The London conference of 23 April 1949, during the [[London Six-Power Conference|Six-Power Conference]], gave to the Netherlands some less far-reaching border modifications, after the failure of the [[Bakker-Schut Plan]]. So, at 12 noon that day, Dutch troops moved to occupy an area of 69&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> (17,000 acres), whose most relevant parts were [[Elten]] (near [[Emmerich am Rhein]]) and [[Selfkant]]. Many other small border corrections were made, mostly in the vicinity of [[Arnhem]] and [[Dinxperlo]], which also were part of this small Dutch sub-zone of occupation.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

=== French zone ===
{{main|French occupation zone in Germany}}
[[File:Fotothek df pk 0000178 036.jpg|thumb|[[Forces Françaises à Berlin|French forces]] in front of the [[Brandenburg Gate]] in Berlin, 1946]]

The [[French Republic]] was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany, but the British and American governments later agreed to cede some western parts of their zones of occupation to the [[French Army]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Reinisch|first= Jessica|title= The Perils of Peace|year=2013 |publisher=OUP|page=261}}</ref> In April and May 1945, the [[1st Army (France)|French 1st Army]] had captured [[Karlsruhe]] and [[Stuttgart]], and conquered a territory extending to [[Berghof (residence)|Hitler's Eagle's Nest]] and the westernmost part of Austria. In July, the French relinquished Stuttgart to the Americans, and in exchange were given control over cities west of the Rhine such as [[Mainz]] and [[Koblenz]].<ref>{{cite book |last=de Gaulle|first= Charles|title= Mémoires de guerre : Le Salut 1944–1946|year=1959 |publisher=Plon|pages=170, 207}}</ref> All this resulted in two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border which met at just a single point along the River [[Rhine]]. Three German states (''[[States of Germany|Land]]'') were established: [[Rheinland Pfalz]] in the north and west and on the other hand [[Württemberg-Hohenzollern]] and [[South Baden]], who later formed [[Baden-Württemberg]] together with [[Württemberg-Baden]] of the American zone.<ref>{{Cite journal | first=Corey | last=Campion | title=Remembering the Forgotten Zone: Recasting the Image of the Post-1945 French Occupation of Germany | journal=French Politics, Culture & Society |volume=37 | issue=3 |date=2019 | pages=79–94| doi=10.3167/fpcs.2019.370304 | s2cid=210491528 }}</ref>

The French zone of occupation included the [[Saar protectorate|Saargebiet]], which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946. By 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and Allied-occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further areas adjacent to the Saar (in mid-1946, early 1947, and early 1949). Included in the French zone was the town of [[Büsingen am Hochrhein]], a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to allow limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law and order in Büsingen.

==== Luxembourg zone ====
From November 1945, Luxembourg was allocated a zone within the French sector.<ref name=Luxembourg1/> The Luxembourg [[Luxembourg Army|2nd Infantry Battalion]] was garrisoned in [[Bitburg]] and the 1st Battalion was sent to [[Saarburg]].<ref name=Luxembourg1/> The final Luxembourg forces in Germany, in Bitburg, left in 1955.<ref name=Luxembourg1>{{cite web|title=L'Armée luxembourgeoise après la libération (1944–1967) |url=http://www.armee.lu/historique/armee_apres_liberation-debut.php |publisher=Armée.lu |access-date=6 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730153721/http://armee.lu/historique/armee_apres_liberation-debut.php |archive-date=30 July 2013 }}</ref>

=== Soviet zone ===
{{main|Soviet occupation zone in Germany}}
[[File:Soviet Occupied Germany.png|thumb|Pink: portions of [[Weimar Germany]] east of the [[Oder–Neisse line]] attached to Poland (except for [[Kaliningrad Oblast|northerly East Prussia]] and the adjoining [[Klaipėda Region|Memel Territory]], not shown here, which were joined directly to the Soviet Union). Red: the [[Soviet Occupation zone of Germany]].]]
[[File:Oberbefehlshaber der vier Verbündeten, TASS.jpg|thumb|The Supreme Commanders of the [[Allied Control Council|Four Powers]] on 5 June 1945 in Berlin: [[Bernard Montgomery]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[Georgy Zhukov]], and [[Jean de Lattre de Tassigny]]]]
The Soviet occupation zone incorporated [[Thuringia]], [[Saxony]], [[Saxony-Anhalt (1945–1952)|Saxony-Anhalt]], [[Brandenburg (1945–1952)|Brandenburg]] and [[State of Mecklenburg (1945–1952)|Mecklenburg]].{{citation needed|date=October 2023}} The [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany|Soviet Military Administration]] was headquartered in [[Karlshorst|Berlin-Karlshorst]], which also came to house the chief ''rezidentura'' of [[Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies|Soviet intelligence]] in Germany.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murphy |first1=David E. |last2=Kondrashev |first2=Sergei A. |last3=Bailey |first3=George |title=Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War |date=1997 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=978-0-300-07871-8 |page=33}}</ref>

== Berlin ==
{{main|History of Berlin#West and East Germany (1945–1990)}}
While located wholly within the Soviet zone, because of its symbolic importance as the nation's capital and seat of the former Nazi government, the city of Berlin was jointly occupied by the Allied powers and subdivided into four sectors. All four occupying powers were entitled to privileges throughout Berlin that were not extended to the rest of Germany – this included the Soviet sector of Berlin, which was legally separate from the rest of the Soviet zone.

== Lost territory ==
{{main|Former eastern territories of Germany|Saar Protectorate}}
[[File:Verfassung des Saarlandes 1948.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of the 1947 Saar constitution]]
In 1945 [[historical eastern Germany|Germany east]] of the [[Oder–Neisse line]] was assigned to Poland by the [[Potsdam]] Conference to be "temporarily administered" pending the Final Peace Treaty on Germany between the four Allies and a future German state; eventually (under the September 1990 Peace Treaty) the northern portion of East Prussia became the [[Kaliningrad Oblast]] within the Soviet Union (today [[Russian Federation]]). A small area west of the Oder, near [[Szczecin]], also fell to Poland. Most German citizens residing in these areas were subsequently [[Expulsion of Germans|expropriated and expelled]]. Returning refugees, who had fled from war hostilities, were denied return.

Saarland, an area in the French occupation zone, was separated from Allied-occupied Germany to become a [[Saar Protectorate|French protectorate]] with its constitution took effect on 17 December 1947, however the separation was opposed by the Soviet Union and Germans here were not expelled.

== Population ==
In October 1946, the population of the various zones and sectors was as follows:<ref name="digizeitschriften.de">[http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PID=PPN514402342_1952%7Clog10 "I. Gebiet und Bevölkerung"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727180032/http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PID=PPN514402342_1952%7Clog10 |date=27 July 2020 }}. [[Statistisches Bundesamt]]. Wiesbaden.</ref>
{|class="wikitable sortable"
!State, sector, or other territory
!Zone
!Population
|-
|[[Bavaria]]
| rowspan="4" |American
|8.7&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Hesse]]
|3.97&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Württemberg-Baden]]
|3.6&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Bremen (state)|Bremen]]
|0.48&nbsp;million
|-
|[[North Rhine-Westphalia]]
| rowspan="4" |British
|11.7&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Lower Saxony]]
|6.2&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Schleswig-Holstein]]
|2.6&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Hamburg]]
|1.4&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Rhineland-Palatinate]]
| rowspan="3" |French
|2.7&nbsp;million
|-
|[[South Baden]]
|1.2&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Württemberg-Hohenzollern]]
|1.05&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Saxony]]
| rowspan="5" |Soviet
|5.5&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Saxony-Anhalt]]
|4.1&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Thuringia]]
|2.9&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Brandenburg]]
|2.5&nbsp;million
|-
|[[Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]]
|2.1&nbsp;million
|-
|[[West Berlin|Berlin (western sectors)]]
|American, British, French
|2.0&nbsp;million
|-
|[[East Berlin|Berlin (Soviet sector)]]
|Soviet
|1.1&nbsp;million
|}

== Governance and the emergence of two German states ==
[[File:Fotothek df pk 0000172 011 Porträt, Ernst.jpg|thumb|300px|right|{{left|An East German political event on 21 April 1946: [[Otto Grotewohl]] (right) and [[Wilhelm Pieck]] (left) seal the [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|unification of the 2 communist parties-SPD and KPD]] with a symbolic handshake. This merger formed the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]], a communist party that would come to dominate the future East German state. Walter Ulbricht is seated in the foreground to the right of Grotewohl.}}{{right |''[[Avraham Pisarek]]''}}]]
[[image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H26569, Frankfurt-Main, Frankfurter Konferenz.jpg|thumb|right|200px|West German mayors and minister presidents receive the British, American, and French occupiers' [[Frankfurt Documents]], which contained recommendations for the establishment of a new state and also formed a working basis for the [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany]]; 1 July 1948]]
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the [[Allied Control Council]] de facto broke down on 20 March 1948 ([[Four Power Agreement on Berlin|restored]] on 3 September 1971) in the context of growing tensions between the Allies, with Britain and the US wishing cooperation, France obstructing any collaboration in order to partition Germany into many independent states, and especially: the Soviet Union unilaterally implementing from early on elements of a Marxist political-economic system (enforced redistribution of land, nationalisation of businesses). Another dispute was the absorption of post-war expellees. While the UK, the US and the Soviet Union had agreed to accept, house and feed about six million expelled German citizens from former eastern Germany and four million [[Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia|expelled and denaturalised Czechoslovaks]], Poles, Hungarians and Yugoslavs of German ethnicity in their zones, France generally had not agreed to the expulsions approved by the Potsdam agreement (a decision made without input from France). Therefore, France strictly refused to absorb war refugees who were denied return to their homes in seized eastern German territories or destitute post-war expellees who had been expropriated there, into the French zone, let alone into the separated Saar protectorate.<ref name="Vor 50">Cf. the report of the Central State Archive of Rhineland-Palatinate on the first expellees arriving in that state in 1950 from other German states in the former British or American zone: "Beyond that [the fact, that until France took control of her zone west only few eastern war refugees had made it into her zone] already since summer 1945 France refused to absorb expellee transports in her zone. France, who had not participated in the Potsdam Conference, where the expulsions of eastern Germans had been decided, and who therefore did not feel responsible for the ramifications, feared an unbearable burden for its zone anyway strongly smarting from the consequences of the war." N.N., [http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/index.php?id=485&printView=1 "Vor 50 Jahren: Der 15. April 1950. Vertriebene finden eine neue Heimat in Rheinland-Pfalz"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731081922/http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/index.php?id=485&printView=1 |date=31 July 2013 }}, on: [http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/ Rheinland-Pfalz Landesarchivverwaltung] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425060148/http://www.landeshauptarchiv.de/ |date=25 April 2009 }}, retrieved on 4 March 2013.</ref> However, the native population, returning after Nazi-imposed removals (e.g., political and Jewish refugees) and war-related relocations (e.g., evacuation from air raids), were allowed to return home in the areas under French control. The other Allies complained that they had to shoulder the burden to feed, house and clothe the expellees who had to leave their belongings behind.

In practice, each of the four occupying powers wielded government authority in their respective zones and carried out different policies toward the population and local and state governments there. A uniform administration of the western zones evolved, known first as the [[Bizone]] (the American and British zones merged as of 1 January 1947) and later the Trizone (after inclusion of the French zone). The complete breakdown of east–west allied cooperation and joint administration in Germany became clear with the Soviet imposition of the [[Berlin Blockade]] that was enforced from June 1948 to May 1949. The three western zones were merged to form the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] (FRG) i.e. West Germany in May 1949, and after that the Soviets followed suit in October 1949 with the establishment of the [[German Democratic Republic]] (GDR) i.e. East Germany.

In the west, the occupation continued until 5 May 1955, when the [[General Treaty]] ({{langx|de|link=no|Deutschlandvertrag}}) entered into force. However, upon the creation of the Federal Republic in May 1949, the military governors were replaced by civilian [[high commissioner]]s, whose powers lay somewhere between those of a governor and those of an ambassador. When the ''Deutschlandvertrag'' became law, the occupation ended, the western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by normal ambassadors. West Germany was also allowed to build a military, and the [[Bundeswehr]], or Federal Defense Force, was established on 12 November 1955.

A similar situation occurred in East Germany. The GDR was founded on 7 October 1949. On 10 October the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany]] was replaced by the [[Soviet Control Commission]], although limited sovereignty was not granted to the GDR government until 11 November 1949. After the death of [[Joseph Stalin]] in March 1953, the Soviet Control Commission was replaced with the office of the Soviet High Commissioner on 28 May 1953. This office was abolished (and replaced by an ambassador) and (general) sovereignty was granted to the GDR, when the Soviet Union concluded a state treaty ''(Staatsvertrag)'' with the GDR on 20 September 1955. On 1 March 1956, the GDR established a military, the [[National People's Army]] (NVA).

Despite the grants of general sovereignty to both German states in 1955, full and unrestricted sovereignty under international law was not enjoyed by any German government until after the [[reunification of Germany]] in October 1990. Though West Germany was effectively independent, the western Allies maintained limited legal jurisdiction over 'Germany as a whole' in respect of West Germany and Berlin. At the same time, East Germany progressed from being a [[satellite state]] of the Soviet Union to increasing independence of action; while still deferring in matters of security to Soviet authority. The provisions of the [[Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany]], also known as the "Two-plus-Four Treaty", granting full sovereign powers to Germany did not become law until 15 March 1991, after all of the participating governments had ratified the treaty. As envisaged by the Treaty, the last occupation troops departed from Germany when the Russian presence was terminated in 1994, although the [[Belgian Forces in Germany]] stayed in German territory until the end of 2005.

A 1956 plebiscite ended the French administration of the Saar protectorate, and it joined the Federal Republic as ''[[Saarland]]'' on 1 January 1957, becoming its tenth state.

The city of Berlin was not part of either state and de jure continued to be under Allied occupation of the four countries until the reunification of Germany in October 1990. For administrative purposes, the three western sectors of Berlin were merged into the entity of [[West Berlin]] being de facto part of the FRG. The Soviet sector became known as [[East Berlin]] and while not recognised by the Western powers as a part of East Germany, the GDR declared it its capital (Hauptstadt der DDR).

== Occupation policy ==
{{main|Four Ds|Denazification|Industrial plans for Germany|Food in occupied Germany|Forced labor of Germans after World War II}}

Allied aims with respect to postwar Germany were first laid out at the [[Yalta Conference]], where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin signed an agreement stating that they intended to: disarm and disband the [[Wehrmacht|German armed forces]]; break up the [[German General Staff]]; remove or destroy all German military equipment; eliminate or control [[Industrial plans for Germany|German industry]] that could be used for military production; punish war criminals; exact [[World War II reparations|reparations]] for damage done by Germany; wipe out the Nazi party and its institutions; [[denazification|remove all Nazi and militarist influences]] from public life; and take any other measures in Germany as might be necessary to ensure future peace and safety.<ref>{{cite book |chapter= Document 500: Communiqué Issued at the End of the Conference |title= Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Malta and Yalta 1945 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |date= 12 February 1945 |chapter-url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Malta/d500 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230806033303/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945Malta/d500 |archive-date= 6 August 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The consensus among the Allies was that it was necessary to ensure Germany could not cause further world wars, but beyond that their opinion on what Germany's future should look like differed.<ref name="Bessel 2010, Chapter 10">{{cite book |last=Bessel |first=Richard |title=Germany 1945: From War to Peace |date=2010 |orig-date=1st pub. 2009 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-84983-201-4 |edition=eBook}} chpt. 10, "Visions of a New World".</ref>

=== US occupation policy ===

The US originally considered a punitive approach championed by [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s Secretary of the Treasury, [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]] (the "[[Morgenthau Plan]]"). Under this plan, Germany would have been broken into four autonomous states and not only demilitarized but also deindustrialized to the point of becoming chiefly agrarian.<ref>{{cite book |last=MacDonogh |first=Giles |title=After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation |date=2007 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-465-00337-2 |page=7}}</ref> The Morgenthau Plan was opposed by Secretary of State [[Cordell Hull]] and War Secretary [[Henry L. Stimson]], and Roosevelt distanced himself from the idea after it was reported on by major American newspapers.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}} Ultimately, US occupation policy came to be determined chiefly by the [[US War Department|War Department]], with long-term objectives summed up by the [[four Ds]]: {{em|[[denazification]], [[democratization]], [[demilitarization]], and [[decentralization]] (or [[decartelization]])}}.{{sfn|MacDonogh|2007|p=7}}{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

[[File:Buchenwald Samuelson 62779.jpg|thumb|American propaganda poster using images of concentration camp victims to warn against [[fraternization]].]]

Initially, the US was extremely rigorous in its efforts to prevent [[fraternization]] with German civilians. US soldiers were forbidden to shake hands with Germans, visit their homes, play games or sports with them, exchange gifts, take part in social events, or walk in the streets with them. How strictly this policy was applied varied from place to place, but in many places the restrictions were frequently ignored, as a result of which the policy was quickly abandoned.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}} Germans were also prohibited from inhabiting any part of a building in which US soldiers were housed, leading to large numbers of Germans being ejected from their homes.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}}

Denazification in the American zone included the complete closure of all Nazi German media, after which the US military government began granting licenses to Germans who had not been involved in Nazi propaganda to establish new publications.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Newspapers established via this process included ''[[Frankfurter Rundschau]]'' (August 1945), ''[[Der Tagesspiegel]]'' (Berlin, September 1945), and ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'' (Munich, October 1945).{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Radio stations were initially operated only by the [[American Forces Network]], whose stations included [[AFN Munich]], [[AFN Frankfurt]], and AFN Stuttgart.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} In 1946, ''[[Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor]]'' (RIAS), which was supervised by the military government's [[Information Control Division]], began to broadcast from Berlin.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}} Later,{{when|date=March 2025}} these stations were joined by the German-operated ''[[Hessischer Rundfunk]]'', ''[[Bayerischer Rundfunk]]'', and ''[[Süddeutscher Rundfunk]]''.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

=== British occupation policy ===

British occupation policy was similar to that of the United States, but with a greater focus on economic problems. The [[British occupation zone in Germany|British occupation zone]] included the [[Ruhr]] industrial region, which had experienced the heaviest bombing and therefore faced the greatest shortages of housing and food. Initial British occupation directives were concerned primarily with economic considerations and food supply.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

To further the long-term aim of [[democratization]], the British implemented government modeled on the UK system, placing heavy emphasis on local level democracy. The goal was to create a British-style administration with employees who viewed themselves as public servants, on the basis that this would help to reeducate Germans to democratic modes of thought. To that end the British introduced new local government structures, including a nonpolitical position similar to the English town clerk ("city director") that replaced the office of mayor.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

In general, the British believed strongly in reeducation as a means to achieve democracy, which led them to prioritize the reestablishment of schooling and university education in their zone.{{sfn|MacDonogh|2007|pp=253–254}}

=== French occupation policy ===

The French were less concerned with improving Germany's moral and civic character, focusing instead on ensuring France's future security and utilizing the resources of [[French occupation zone|their occupation zone]] to facilitate economic recovery within France itself.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}} Since one of their key goals was to ensure that Germany would never again be in a position to threaten France, the French were strongly opposed to a unified approach to occupation, and favored political structures that were as decentralized as possible.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

On the economic front, the French seized the opportunity to extract coal and steel resources from the [[Saarland|Saar region]], fusing it with France in a customs and currency union and encouraging the development of export industries. As a result, the French managed to extract a surplus from their occupation zone, and prevented it from becoming a financial liability the way the British and American zones were to their respective occupying powers.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

=== Soviet occupation policy ===

Soviet aims in Germany were similar to those of the French, with the primary goals being to prevent future aggression by Germany and to extract reparations.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

Political activity in the [[Soviet occupation zone]] was overseen by the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany|Soviet Military Administration]] (SMAD), which maintained close control over the Germans and allowed little room for independent action on the part of local German officials.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}} Key posts in local administration, particularly those dealing with security members, were given to members of the Communist party.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}}

Soviet occupation authorities also executed a rigorous program of land reform, expropriating large landed estates and imposing direct control over much of the economic activity in the zone.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}} They closed major banks and insurance companies in July 1945, and seized property formerly belonging to the German state, Wehrmacht, Nazi party, and Nazi organizations.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 10}}

The Soviets used suspicion of supposed [[Werwolf]] activity to tighten police control and secure forced labor.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}}

== Conditions in the occupation zones ==

[[Image:Steine klopfen janczikowsky.jpg|right|thumb|[[Trümmerfrau]]en at work, Berlin]]

The food situation in occupied Germany was initially very dire. By the spring of 1946 the official ration in the American zone was no more than {{convert|1275|Cal|kJ}} per day, with some areas probably receiving as little as {{convert|700|Cal|kJ}} per day. In the British zone the food situation was dire, as found during a visit by the British (and Jewish) publisher [[Victor Gollancz]] in October and November 1946. In [[Düsseldorf]] the normal 28-day allocation should have been {{convert|1548|Cal|kJ}} including {{convert|10|kg}} of bread, but as there was limited grain the bread ration was only {{convert|8.5|kg}}. However, as there was only sufficient bread for about 50% of this "called up" ration, the total deficiency was about 50%, not 15% as stated in a ministerial reply in the British Parliament on 11 December. So only about {{convert|770|Cal|kJ}} would have been supplied, and he said the German winter ration would be {{convert|1000|Cal|kJ}} as the recent increase was "largely mythical". His book includes photos taken on the visit and critical letters and newspaper articles by him published in several British newspapers; ''The Times, the Daily Herald, the Manchester Guardian'', etc.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gollancz, Victor |author-link=Victor Gollancz |title= In Darkest Germany|year=1947 |publisher=Victor Gollancz, London|pages=116, 125–126 }}</ref>

Some occupation soldiers took advantage of the desperate food situation by exploiting their ample supply of food and cigarettes (the currency of the black market) to get to the local German girls as what became known as ''frau bait'' (''[[The New York Times]]'', 25 June 1945). Some soldiers still felt the girls were the enemy, but used them for sex nevertheless.<ref name="Biddiscombe"/>

The often destitute mothers of the resulting children usually received no [[child support]]. In the earliest stages of the occupation, U.S. soldiers were not allowed to pay maintenance for a child they admitted having fathered, since to do so was considered "aiding the enemy". Marriages between white U.S. soldiers and Austrian women were not permitted until January 1946, and with German women until December 1946.<ref name="Biddiscombe" />

The children of African-American soldiers, commonly called ''Negermischlinge''<ref name="Spiegel"/> ("Negro half-breeds"), comprising about three percent of the total number of children fathered by GIs, were particularly disadvantaged because of their inability to conceal the foreign identity of their fathers. For many white U.S. soldiers of this era, [[miscegenation]] even with an "enemy" white population was regarded as an intolerable outrage. African-American soldiers were therefore reluctant to admit to fathering such children since this would invite reprisals and even accusations of rape, a crime which was much more aggressively prosecuted by military authorities against African-Americans compared with Caucasian soldiers, much more likely to result in a conviction by court-martial (in part because a German woman was both less likely to acknowledge consensual sexual relations with an African-American and more likely to be believed if she alleged rape against an African-American) and which carried a potential death sentence. Even in the rare cases where an African-American soldier was willing to take responsibility for fathering a child, until 1948 the U.S. Army prohibited [[interracial marriage]]s.<ref name="Spiegel"/> The mothers of the children would often face particularly harsh ostracism.<ref name="Hitchcock, William I. 2008">{{cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=William I. |author-link=William I. Hitchcock |title= The Bitter Road to Freedom|year=2008 |publisher=Free Press |location=New York}}</ref>

Between 1950 and 1955, the [[Allied High Commission]] for Germany prohibited "proceedings to establish paternity or liability for maintenance of children."<ref name="Spiegel"/> Even after the lifting of the ban West German courts had little power over American soldiers.

While Allied servicemen were ordered to obey local laws while in Germany, soldiers could not be prosecuted by German courts for crimes committed against German citizens except as authorised by the occupation authorities. Invariably, when a soldier was accused of criminal behaviour the occupation authorities preferred to handle the matter within the military justice system. This sometimes led to harsher punishments than would have been available under German law – in particular, U.S. servicemen could be executed if court-martialed and convicted of rape.<ref name="Hitchcock, William I. 2008"/> See [[John A. Bennett|United States v. Private First Class John A. Bennett]], 7 C.M.A. 97, 21 C.M.R. 223 (1956).

== Insurgency ==

{{main|Werwolf}}

The last Allied war advances into Germany and Allied occupation plans were affected by rumors of the Nazi [[Werwolf]] plan for insurgency, but actual insurgent efforts were minimal.<ref name="Benjamin">{{cite web | last = Benjamin| first = Daniel | title = Condi's Phony History | publisher=Slate magazine | date = 29 August 2003 | url = http://www.slate.com/id/2087768/ | access-date = 8 July 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080720000642/http://slate.com/id/2087768/| archive-date= 20 July 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref> Numerous historians, including [[Anthony Beevor]] and [[Earl F. Ziemke]], [[Golo Mann]], and [[Richard Bessel]], have observed that widespread resistance never really materialized.<ref name="rand">{{Cite journal |last1=Dobbins |first1=James |last2=McGinn |first2=John G. |last3=Crane |first3=Keith |last4=Jones |first4=Seth G. |last5=Lal |first5=Rollie |last6=Rathmell |first6=Andrew |last7=Swanger |first7=Rachel M. |last8=Timilsina |first8=Anga |title=America's Role in Nation-Building From Germany to Iraq |date = January 2003 |publisher=[[RAND Corporation]] |format=PDF |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1753/index.html |access-date=2007-08-03 |journal=RAND }}</ref><ref name="golomann">{{cite book |last=Mann |first=Golo |author-link=Golo Mann |title=The History of Germany Since 1789 |publisher=Vintage/Ebury |year=1984 |page=560 |isbn=978-0-7011-1346-9 }}</ref>{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}} The threat was nevertheless taken seriously by the Allies, with the Soviets using unfounded suspicions of Werwolf activity as a pretext to tighten police control and secure forced labor.{{sfn|Bessel|2010|loc=chpt. 7}}

[[Perry Biddiscombe]], while also characterizing German resistance as minor, argues that they caused tens of millions of dollars of property damage, and estimates the total death toll due to Werewolf actions and the resulting reprisals as 3,000–5,000.<ref name=Beddiscombe>{{Cite book | last = Biddiscombe | first = Perry | title = Werwolf!: The History of the National Socialist Guerrilla Movement, 1944–1946 | publisher = [[University of Toronto Press]] | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-8020-0862-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/werwolfhistoryof00bidd|page=276 }}</ref>

== Expulsion policy ==
{{main|Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2003-0703-500, Rückführung deutscher Kinder aus Polen.jpg|thumb|upright|August 1948, German children deported from the eastern areas taken over by Poland arrive in western Germany.]]
The [[Potsdam Conference]], where the victorious Allies drew up plans for the future of Germany, noted in article XIII of the [[Potsdam Agreement]] on 1 August 1945 that "the transfer to Germany of German populations...in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary will have to be undertaken"; "wild expulsion" was already going on.

Hungary, which had been allied with Germany and whose population was opposed to an expulsion of the German minority, tried to resist the transfer. Hungary had to yield to the pressure exerted mainly by the Soviet Union and by the [[Allied Control Council]].<ref>[http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf The Expulsion of the 'German' Communities from Eastern Europe at the End of the Second World War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001022039/http://cadmus.iue.it/dspace/bitstream/1814/2599/1/HEC04-01.pdf |date=1 October 2009 }} Steffen Prauser and Arfon Rees, European University Institute, Florence, Department of history and civilization</ref> Millions of people were expelled from [[former eastern territories of Germany]], Poland, [[Czechoslovakia]], Hungary and elsewhere to the occupation zones of the UK, US, and USSR, which agreed in the Potsdam Agreement to absorb the post-war expellees into their zones. Many remained in refugee camps for a long time. Some Germans remained in the Soviet Union and were [[Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union|used for forced labour]] for a period of years.

France was not invited to the Potsdam Conference. As a result, it chose to adopt some decisions of the Potsdam Agreements and to dismiss others. France maintained the position that it did not approve post-war expulsions and that therefore it was not responsible to accommodate and nourish the destitute expellees in its zone. While the few war-related refugees who had reached the area to become the French zone before July 1945 were taken care of, the French military government for Germany refused to absorb post-war expellees deported from the East into its zone. In December 1946, the French military government for Germany absorbed into its zone German refugees from Denmark, where 250,000 Germans had found a refuge from the Soviets by sea vessels between February and May 1945.<ref name="Vor 50"/> These clearly were war-related refugees from the eastern parts of Germany however, and not post-war expellees.

== Military governors and commissioners ==
{{main|List of administrators of Allied-occupied Germany}}

== See also ==
{{div col}}
* [[Allied-occupied Austria]]
* [[German-occupied Europe]]
* [[History of Germany since 1945]]
* [[Interzonal traffic]]
{{div col end}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|refs=
* William Durie, " THe UNited States Garrison Berlin 1945–1994", (Mission Accomplished, Aug 2014, {{ISBN|978-1-63068-540-9}} (English).
<ref name="Biddiscombe">{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1353/jsh.2001.0002| title = Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945–1948| journal = [[Journal of Social History]]| volume = 34| issue = 3| pages = 611–647| year = 2001| last1 = Biddiscombe | first1 = P.| s2cid = 145470893}}</ref>
<ref name="Spiegel">[http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,456835,00.html Children of the Enemy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603215325/http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,456835,00.html |date=3 June 2008 }} by [[Mary Wiltenburg]] and Marc Widmann, ''[[Der Spiegel]]'', 2 January 2007</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==
* Bark, Dennis L., and David R. Gress. ''A History of West Germany Vol 1: From Shadow to Substance, 1945–1963'' (1992)
* [[Bessel, Richard]]. ''Germany 1945: from war to peace'' (Simon and Schuster, 2012)
* Campion, Corey. "Remembering the" Forgotten Zone": Recasting the Image of the Post-1945 French Occupation of Germany." ''French Politics, Culture & Society'' 37.3 (2019): 79–94.
* Erlichman, Camilo, and Knowles, Christopher (eds.). [https://books.google.com/books?id=9AhjDwAAQBAJ&dq=Transforming+Occupation+in+the+Western+Zones+of+Germany+Politics,+Everyday+Life+and+Social+Interactions,+1945-55&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQpqPAkKndAhUM36QKHV2GC6AQ6AEIKDAA|date=23 Transforming Occupation in the Western Zones of Germany: Politics, Everyday Life and Social Interactions, 1945–55] (Bloomsbury, 2018). {{ISBN|978-1-350-04923-9}}
* Golay, John Ford. ''The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany'' (University of Chicago Press, 1958)
* Jähner, Harald. ''Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955'' (2022) [https://www.amazon.com/Aftermath-Fallout-Third-Reich-1945-1955/dp/0593319737/ excerpt]
* Jarausch, Konrad H.''After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945–1995'' (2008)
* Junker, Detlef, ed. ''The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War'' (2 vol 2004), 150 short essays by scholars covering 1945–1990 [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521168643/ excerpt and text search vol 1]; [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521168651/ excerpt and text search vol 2]
* Knowles, Christopher. "The British Occupation of Germany, 1945–49: A Case Study in Post-Conflict Reconstruction." ''The RUSI Journal'' (2013) 158#6 pp: 84–91.
* Knowles, Christopher. ''Winning the Peace: The British in Occupied Germany, 1945–1948'', (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
* Main, Steven J. "The Soviet Occupation of Germany. Hunger, Mass Violence and the Struggle for Peace, 1945–1947." ''Europe-Asia Studies'' (2014) 66#8 pp: 1380–1382. {{doi|10.1080/09668136.2014.941704}}
* Phillips, David. ''Educating the Germans: People and Policy in the British Zone of Germany, 1945–1949'' (2018) 392 pp. [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=52863 online review]
* Schwarz, Hans-Peter. ''Konrad Adenauer: A German Politician and Statesman in a Period of War, Revolution and Reconstruction'' (2 vol 1995) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11134689 full text vol 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628211509/https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11134689 |date=28 June 2011 }}
* Taylor, Frederick. ''Exorcising Hitler: the occupation and denazification of Germany'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011)
* Weber, Jurgen. ''Germany, 1945–1990'' (Central European University Press, 2004) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120210024250/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=115015309 online edition]

=== Primary sources and historiography ===
* {{Cite book|last1=Andrews|first1=Ernest A.|last2=Hurt|first2=David B.|year=2022|title= A Machine Gunner's War: From Normandy to Victory with the 1st Infantry Division in World War II|publisher=Casemate|location=Philadelphia & Oxford|isbn=978-1636241043}}
* Beate Ruhm Von Oppen, ed. ''Documents on Germany under Occupation, 1945–1954'' (Oxford University Press, 1955) [https://www.questia.com/library/407620/documents-on-germany-under-occupation-1945-1954 online]
* Clay, Lucius D. ''The papers of General Lucius D. Clay: Germany, 1945–1949'' (2 vol. 1974)
* Miller, Paul D. "A bibliographic essay on the Allied occupation and reconstruction of West Germany, 1945–1955." ''Small Wars & Insurgencies'' (2013) 24#4 pp: 751–759. {{doi|10.1080/09592318.2013.857935}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.36087|name=A Defeated People EFEATED PEOPLE (1946)}}
* {{Internet Archive film|id=gov.archives.arc.39159|name=Civil Affairs In Germany (1945)}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160827001230/http://www.ghi-dc.org/fileadmin/user_upload/GHI_Washington/PDFs/Occasional_Papers/The_Struggle_for_Germany.pdf The Struggle for Germany and the Origins of the Cold War] by Melvyn P. Leffler

{{Germany topics}}
{{Allied-administered Germany}}
{{World War II}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allied-Occupied Germany}}
[[Category:1945 establishments in Germany| ]]
[[Category:1949 disestablishments in Germany| ]]
[[Category:Allied occupation of Germany| ]]
[[Category:American military occupations]]
[[Category:British military occupations]]
[[Category:Dwight D. Eisenhower]]
[[Category:France–Germany military relations]]
[[Category:French military occupations]]
[[Category:Soviet military occupations]]
[[Category:Germany–Soviet Union military relations]]
[[Category:Germany–United Kingdom military relations]]
[[Category:Germany–United States military relations]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1945]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1949]]
[[Category:World War II occupied territories|Germany]]