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EspañolALLIED OCCUPATION ZONES IN GERMANY
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four 'occupation zones' for administrative purposes during the period 1945-1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, the American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed, upon occupation zone boundaries, sometimes by as much as 200 miles. The line of contact between Soviet and American forces at the end of hostilities was temporary, after about two months of holding certain areas meant to be in the Soviet zone, the American forces withdrew in July 1945. It has been concluded that this was a crucial move that helped induce the Soviets in allowing American and British forces into their predesignated areas in Berlin, which was done at roughly the same time (July 1945), though the need for intelligence gathering (see Operation Paperclip) may have been a factor, as well.
The zones
Areas in pink, which constituted the portions of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line, were annexed directly to Poland and the Soviet Union. Areas in red, first became the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and later became the Soviet satellite of East Germany.
The American zone consisted of Bavaria, Hesse and the northern portions of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg. The port of Bremen and Bremerhaven were also placed under the control of the U.S. The headquarters of the American military government was the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt.
The British zone consisted of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lower Saxony and the present-day state of North Rhine-Westphalia with the British military government being headquartered in Bad Oeynhausen.
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 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 the French zone consisting of two non-contiguous areas, however both areas shared a border with France itself. The headquarters of the French military government was in Baden-Baden.
An area within the French zone previously known as the Saargebiet, which had been created under a League of Nations mandate following World War I, was re-established in 1945 as the Saar protectorate. It was intended that an independent nation be established there and as a result this area was more closely administered by France during the period of the occupation.
The Soviet occupation zone incorporated Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The headquarters of the Soviet military government was in Berlin-Karlshorst.
While located wholly within the designated Soviet zone, because of its symbolic importance as the nation's capital and seat of the Nazi government, the city of Berlin was jointly occupied by the Allied powers and was itself subdivided into four sectors.
Governance and the emergence of two Germanys
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council 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 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 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 with the establishment of the German Democratic Republic.
In the west, the occupation officially continued until 1955, but after the creation of the Federal Republic the military governors were replaced by civilian high commissioners, whose position was somewhere between that of a governor and of an ambassador. When the Federal Republic was recognized as a fully sovereign state in 1955, the occupation officially ended, the western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by normal ambassadors. 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 state of Saarland on January 1, 1957.
The city of Berlin, however, was not part of either state and continued to be under Allied occupation until 1990. For administrative purposes the three western sectors of Berlin were merged into the entity of West Berlin, while the Soviet sector functioned as East Berlin.
All German territory east of the Oder and Neisse (Pomerania, Neumark, Silesia and East Prussia) was annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union (newly formed Kaliningrad Oblast, part of the Russian SFSR). Klaipeda () and its region were reassigned to the Lithuanian SSR within the Soviet Union. 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.
The military governors and commissioners
British Zone
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 David Eisenhower
★ November 11, 1945–November 25, 1945 George S. Patton, Jr. (acting)
★ November 26, 1945–January 5, 1947 Joseph T. McNarney
★ January 6, 1947–May 14, 1949 Lucius DuBignon 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
See also
★ Allied-administered Austria
References
★ Post-WWII commanders/governors of Germany
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