Allied Occupation Zones In Germany Facts @ Karr.net

The Allied The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers during the Second World War. From the ranks of the many Allied powers , the British Empire and the British Commonwealth, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America were known, colloquially, as "The Big Three". U.S. President powers who defeated Nazi Germany Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich (Drittes Reich, ‘Third Reich’) refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German Empire of 187 in World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line The Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin (German: Stettin) and Świnoujście (Swinemünde). All pre-war German territory east into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during the period 1945–1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the future zones of occupation, in some places by as much as 200 miles. The line of contact The Line of Contact marked the farthest advance of American, British and Soviet Armies into Germany at the end of World War II. This contact began with the first meeting between Soviet and American forces at Torgau, near the Elbe river on Elbe Day, April 25, 1945. The line continued to form as American, British and Soviet forces took control of, between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities was temporary. After two months in which they had held areas that had been assigned to the Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , occasionally called the United Soviet Socialist Republic, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh zone, American forces withdrew in the first days of July 1945.^[1] Some have concluded that this was a crucial move that persuaded the Soviet Union to allow American, British, and French forces into their predesignated zones in Berlin, which occurred at roughly the same time (July 1945), although the need for intelligence gathering (see Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was the code name for the 1945 Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency O.S.S.[citation needed] recruitment of German scientists from Nazi Germany to the U.S. after VE Day) may also have been a factor.

French Zone of Occupation

Main article: Monnet plan

Initially, despite being one of the Allied powers, the French were not to be granted an occupation zone due to concerns over the great historical animosity between France and Germany, as well as the smaller role played by the French within the alliance. Eventually, both the British and the Americans agreed to cede small portions of their respective zones to France. This arrangement resulted in the French zone consisting of two non-contiguous areas, although both areas shared a border with France itself. The headquarters of the French military government was in Baden-Baden Baden-Baden is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe.

The Saargebiet, an economically important area due to its rich coal deposits, was enlarged and in 1947 turned into the Saar protectorate The Saar or Saar Area or Saar Protectorate or Saar Region was a French-German borderland territory twice temporarily made a protectorate state and now the Federal German Area State of Saarland. The state was twice forcibly made a protectorate by the victorious allies following a policy of "industrial disarmament" during forced post-war. It was a nominally independent state, but the economy was integrated into the French economy.

Soviet Zone of Occupation

Main article: Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone (German: Sowjetische Besatzungszone or Ostzone; Russian: Советская зона Германии, Sovetskaya zona Germanii, "Soviet Zone of Germany") was the area of central Germany occupied by the Soviet Union from 1945 on, at the end of World War II. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic, Areas in pink, which constituted the portions of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line The Oder-Neisse line was drawn in the aftermath of World War II as the eastern border of Germany and the western border of Poland. The line is formed primarily by the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers, and meets the Baltic Sea west of the seaport cities of Szczecin (German: Stettin) and Świnoujście (Swinemünde). All pre-war German territory east, came under Polish administration, except for the northern portion of East Prussia and an adjoining area around Memel, which were annexed directly by the Soviet Union. Areas in red, first became the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and later became a Soviet-allied country, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany The German Democratic Republic was a self-declared socialist state (but often referred to in the West as a "communist state") in the Eastern Bloc created in the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin. The German Democratic Republic existed from 7 October 1949 until 3 October 1990, when its re-established). The Supreme Commanders on June 5, 1945 in Berlin: Bernard Montgomery Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, PC , often referred to as "Monty", was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer. He successfully commanded Allied forces at the Battle of El Alamein, a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign during World War II, and troops under his command, Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a five-star general in the United States Army. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944, Georgy Zhukov Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, GCB (December 1 [O.S. November 19] 1896 – June 18, 1974) was a Soviet career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played an important role in leading the Red Army to liberate the Soviet Union from the Axis Powers' occupation, to advance through much of Eastern and Jean de Lattre de Tassigny Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny was a French military hero of World War II and commander in the Indochina War.

The Soviet occupation zone incorporated Thuringia The Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of 16,171 square kilometers (6,243.7 sq mi) and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen Bundesländer (federal states). The capital is Erfurt, Saxony The Free State of Saxony is a federal state of Germany, located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area (18,413 km²) and the sixth largest in population (4.3 million), of Germany's sixteen states, Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt is one of the sixteen Bundesländer (federal states) that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of 20,447 square kilometres (7,895 sq mi), and a population of 2.45 million (more than 2.8 million in 1990). Its capital is Magdeburg, Brandenburg Brandenburg ( listen ; Lower Sorbian: Bramborska; Upper Sorbian: Braniborska) is one of the sixteen states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam. Brandenburg surrounds but does not and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, sometimes translated as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is a state in northern Germany. The capital city is Schwerin. The state was formed through the merger of the historic regions Mecklenburg and Vorpommern after World War II, dissolved in 1952 and recreated prior to the German reunification in 1990. Due to its lengthy name,. The headquarters of the Soviet military government was in Berlin-Karlshorst.

Berlin

While located wholly within the designated 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 was itself subdivided into four sectors. Berlin was not considered to be part of the Soviet zone.

Governance and the emergence of two German states

The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in German as the Alliierter Kontrollrat, also referred to as the Four Powers , was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in Europe; the members were the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. France broke down in 1946–1947 due to growing tensions between the West and the Soviet Union, and was never fully implemented. 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 Bizone, or Bizonia, was the combination of the American and the British occupation zones during the occupation of Germany after World War II. With the addition of the French occupation zone, the entity became the Trizone or Trizonia. In 1949, the trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany (the American and British zones) 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 The Berlin Blockade, also known as the "German hold-up"[citation needed] was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first cold war international crisis that resulted in a casualty. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road that was enforced from June 1948 to May 1949. The three western zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949, and the Soviets followed suit in October 1949 with the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

In the west, the occupation officially continued until May 5, 1955, when the Deutschlandvertrag ("Germany Treaty") entered into force. However, upon the creation of the Federal Republic in May 1949, the military governors were replaced by civilian high commissioners, whose powers lay somewhere between those of a governor and those of an ambassador. When the Deutschlandvertrag became law, the occupation officially ended, the western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by normal ambassadors.

A similar situation occurred in East Germany. The GDR was founded on October 7, 1949. On October 10, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany was replaced by the Soviet Control Commission, although limited sovereignty was not granted to the GDR government until November 11, 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 May 28, 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 September 20, 1955.

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. In fact, the provisions of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, also known as the "Two-plus-Four Treaty," granting full sovereignty to Germany did not become law until 15 March 1991, after all of the participating nations had ratified the treaty.

A 1956 plebiscite ended the French administration of the Saar protectorate within the former French occupation zone and it joined the Federal Republic as the Saarland on January 1, 1957.

Officially, the city of Berlin was not part of either state and continued to be under Allied occupation 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, while the Soviet sector became known as East Berlin. And while not recognized by the Western powers as a part of East Germany, East Berlin functioned as the capital of the GDR (Hauptstadt der DDR).

All German territory east of the Oder and Neisse (Pomerania, Neumark, Silesia and East Prussia) was annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union. The northern portion of East Prussia became the newly-formed Kaliningrad Oblast, part of the Russian SFSR. Klaipeda (German: Memel) and its region were reassigned to the Lithuanian SSR. The territory annexed by Germany during the war from France, Belgium, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Lithuania was returned to those countries or annexed by the Soviet Union.

Occupation policy

Main articles: Denazification and Industrial plans for Germany General Eisenhower had ordered that there was to be "No Fraternization" between U.S. troops and Germans. Over a period of many months this policy was loosened, first by permitting US GIs to talk to German children, then also allowing them to talk to adults in certain circumstances.

In order to impress the German people with the Allied opinion of them, a strict non-fraternization policy was adhered to by Eisenhower and the War department. However, thanks to pressure from the State Department and individual US congressmen this policy was eventually lifted in stages. In June 1945 the prohibition against speaking with German children was made less strict. In July it became possible to speak to German adults in certain circumstances. In September the whole policy was completely dropped in Austria and Germany.

By December 1945 over 100,000 German civilians were interned as security threats and for possible trial and sentencing as members of criminal organizations.

The food situation in occupied Germany was initially very dire. By the spring of 1946 the official ration in the U.S. zone was no more than 1275 calories per day, with some areas probably receiving as little as 700. Some U.S. soldiers used this desperate situation to their advantage, exploiting their ample supply of food and cigarettes (the currency of the black market) as what became known as "frau bait" (The New York Times, 25 June 1945). Some Americans still felt the girls were the enemy, but used them for sex nevertheless.^[2] The often destitute mothers of the resulting children usually received no alimony.

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 as "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.^[2]

The children of black American soldiers, commonly called "Negermischlinge" ("Negro half-breeds"), comprising about 3 percent of the total number of children fathered by GIs, were particularly disadvantaged, since even in the cases where the soldier was willing to take responsibility he was prohibited from doing so by the U.S. Army which until 1948 prohibited interracial marriages.^[3]

Between 1950 and 1955 the Allied High Commission for Germany prohibited "proceedings to establish paternity or liability for maintenance of children."^[3] Even after the lifting of the ban West German courts had little power over American soldiers.

In general, the British authorities were less strict than the Americans about fraternization, and the French and Soviets more.

Expulsion Policy

Main article: Expulsion of Germans after World War II

The Potsdam conference mandated in article XIII of the Potsdam Treaty that German populations can be expelled from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.

Hungary tried to resist this Allied directive, but in the end had to yield to the pressure exerted by the Soviet Union.[3] The many millions expelled from Eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and elsewhere, when they were not used for forced labor over a period of years, they were sent to the occupation zones of those three Allies (UK, USA, USSR), who agreed in the Potsdam Agreement to absorb the post-war expellees in their zones, where many remained in refugee camps for a long time.

France wasn't invited to the Potsdam Conference. So it took its liberties to approve some decisions of the Potsdam Agreements and to dismiss others. As to the question of the post-war expellees France maintained the position, that it didn't approve post-war expulsions 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 in its zone post-war expellees deported from the East.^[4] In December 1946 the French military government for Germany absorbed in its zone German refugees from Denmark, where 250,000 Germans had found a refuge before the Soviets by sea vessels between February and May 1945.^[5] But these clearly were war-related refugees from the eastern parts of Germany, no post-war expellees.

The military governors and commissioners

British Zone

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Military governors

May 22, 1945 – April 30, 1946 Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
May 1, 1946 – October 31, 1947 William Sholto Douglas
November 1, 1947 – September 21, 1949 Sir Brian Hubert Robertson

High commissioners

September 21, 1949 – June 24, 1950 Sir Brian Hubert Robertson
June 24, 1950 – September 29, 1953 Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
September 29, 1953 – May 5, 1955 Sir Frederick Hoyer Millar

French Zone

Military commander

May 1945 – July 1945 Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Military governor

July 1945 – September 21, 1949 Marie-Pierre Koenig

High commissioner

September 21, 1949 – May 5, 1955 André François-Poncet

Soviet Zone

Military commander

April 1945 – June 9, 1945 Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov

Military governors

June 9, 1945 – April 10, 1946 Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
April 10, 1946 – March 29, 1949 Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky
March 29, 1949 – October 10, 1949 Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov

Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission

October 10, 1949 – May 28, 1953 Vasily Ivanoivich Chuikov

High commissioners

May 28, 1953 – July 16, 1954 Vladimir Semyonovich Semyonov
July 16, 1954 – September 20, 1955 Georgy Maksimovich Pushkin

American Zone

Military governors

May 8, 1945 – November 10, 1945 Dwight D. Eisenhower
November 11, 1945 – November 25, 1945 George S. Patton (acting)
November 26, 1945 – January 5, 1947 Joseph T. McNarney
January 6, 1947 – May 14, 1949 Lucius D. Clay
May 15, 1949 – September 1, 1949 Clarence R. Huebner (acting)

High commissioners

September 2, 1949 – August 1, 1952 John J. McCloy
August 1, 1952 – December 11, 1952 Walter J. Donnelly
December 11, 1952 – February 10, 1953 Samuel Reber (acting)
February 10, 1953 – May 5, 1955 James B. Conant

Notes

^ What Is to Be Done?, TIME Magazine, July 9, 1945
^ ^a ^b Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement In The U.S. Occupation Zones Of Germany And Austria, 1945-1948 by Perry Biddiscombe, Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) 611-647
^ ^a ^b Children of the Enemy by Mary Wiltenburg and Marc Widmann, Der Spiegel, 2007-01-02
^ Cf. the report of the Central Archive of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate on the first expellees arriving in that state in 1950 to be resettled from other German states. [1]
^ Cf. the report of the Central Archive of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate on the absorption of German refugees, who first found refuge in Denmark. [2]

References

Post-WWII commanders/governors of Germany

Subdivisions of Allied-administered Germany (1945-1949/1956/1990)

American zone	Bavaria · Bremen · Hesse (Greater Hesse) · Württemberg-Baden

British zone	Lower Saxony · Hamburg · North Rhine-Westphalia · Schleswig-Holstein

French zone	Baden · Rhineland-Palatinate · (Saar, 1945-1947) · Württemberg-Hohenzollern

Soviet zone	Brandenburg · Mecklenburg-Vorpommern · Saxony · Saxony-Anhalt · Thuringia

Berlin (1949–90)	West Berlin (UK, FR, USA) · East Berlin (USSR)

Saar Protectorate (1947–56)	Saarland (FR)

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Contents

The Zones of Occupation

American Zone of Occupation

British Zone of Occupation

French Zone of Occupation

Soviet Zone of Occupation

Berlin

Governance and the emergence of two German states

Occupation policy

Expulsion Policy

The military governors and commissioners

British Zone

Military governors

High commissioners

French Zone

Military commander

Military governor

High commissioner

Soviet Zone

Military commander

Military governors

Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission

High commissioners

American Zone

Military governors

High commissioners

See also

Notes

References

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