Allied-occupied Germany

The entirety of Germany was <a href="/facts/Military_occupation/8jE5Q5UU">occupied</a> and administered by the <a href="/facts/Allies_of_World_War_II/YzCdtjDY">Allies of World War II</a>, from the <a href="/facts/Berlin_Declaration_(1945)/vufhqffP">Berlin Declaration</a> on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of <a href="/facts/West_Germany/oCydk787">West Germany</a> on 23 May 1949. Unlike <a href="/facts/Occupation_of_Japan/U2LYnBvE">occupied Japan</a>, <a href="/facts/Nazi_Germany/8kRbqRpo">Nazi Germany</a> was stripped of its <a href="/facts/Sovereignty/QnYhTTem">sovereignty</a> and its government was entirely dissolved. After Germany <a href="/facts/German_Instrument_of_Surrender/p0pH3Wd3">formally surrendered</a> on <a href="/facts/Victory_in_Europe_Day/vCUm3Fn9">Tuesday, 8 May 1945</a>, the four countries representing the Allies (the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>, <a href="/facts/United_Kingdom/kuPAILt2">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>, and <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">France</a>) asserted joint authority and sovereignty through the <a href="/facts/Allied_Control_Council/DFUmQXNg">Allied Control Council</a> (ACC).
Germany after the war was a devastated country – roughly 80 percent of its infrastructure was in need of repair or reconstruction – which helped the idea that Germany was entering a new phase of history ("<a href="/facts/Zero_hour_(1945)/pNQYKwm8">zero hour</a>"). At first, Allied-occupied Germany was defined as all territories of Germany before the <a href="/facts/Anschluss/h7gJQKcq">1938 Nazi annexation of Austria</a>. The <a href="/facts/Potsdam_Agreement/7yWhoYWV">Potsdam Agreement</a> on 2 August 1945 defined the new eastern German border by giving Poland and the Soviet Union all regions of Germany east of the <a href="/facts/Oder%25E2%2580%2593Neisse_line/22Xgm6Kx">Oder–Neisse line</a> (eastern parts of <a href="/facts/Province_of_Pomerania_(1815%25E2%2580%25931945)/wAjSXMaC">Pomerania</a>, <a href="/facts/Neumark/bM7aV4pD">Neumark</a>, <a href="/facts/Posen-West_Prussia/DSSQ6JWs">Posen-West Prussia</a>, <a href="/facts/East-Prussia/Grx2crbv">East-Prussia</a> and most of <a href="/facts/Silesia/SHDHG2MD">Silesia</a>) and divided the remaining "Germany as a whole" into four occupation zones, each administered by one of the Allies.
<a href="/facts/Areas_annexed_by_Nazi_Germany/S9YojIPa">All territories annexed by Germany</a> before the war from Austria and <a href="/facts/First_Czechoslovak_Republic/qVdJMUA0">Czechoslovakia</a> were returned to these countries. The <a href="/facts/Memel_Territory/13pKVfSJ">Memel Territory</a>, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the <a href="/facts/Lithuanian_Soviet_Socialist_Republic/nD4lm1Ue">Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic</a>. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, <a href="/facts/Fascist_Italy/6LEsbKQM">Italy</a>, <a href="/facts/Grand_Duchy_of_Luxembourg/vRN04l7f">Luxembourg</a>, <a href="/facts/Second_Polish_Republic/YEYGMvn9">Poland</a> and <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Yugoslavia/IRNUtvxW">Yugoslavia</a> were returned to their respective countries. Deviating from the occupation zones planned according to the <a href="/facts/London_Protocol_(1944)/cqMgubuS">London Protocol in 1944</a>, at Potsdam, the United States, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union approved the detachment from Germany of the territories east of the <a href="/facts/Oder%25E2%2580%2593Neisse_line/22Xgm6Kx">Oder–Neisse line</a>, 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 <a href="/facts/Former_eastern_territories_of_Germany/QGlAbvyT">former eastern territories of Germany</a> 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 320 km (200 miles). The so-called <a href="/facts/Line_of_contact/NqwBUzrp">line of contact</a> between Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established <a href="/facts/Inner_German_border/Cr4FTHbB">inner German border</a>, 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. 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 (<a href="/facts/Operation_Paperclip/psCe5nL5">Operation Paperclip</a>) may also have been a factor. 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 <a href="/facts/West_Germany/oCydk787">Federal Republic of Germany</a> (FRG, West Germany) and the <a href="/facts/East_Germany/PwI902Q6">German Democratic Republic</a> (GDR, East Germany).

Allied-occupied Germany open-in-new

Allied-occupied Germany