Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
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The Allied powers who defeated 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.
- The United States zone consisted of Bavaria, Hesse and the northern portions of the present state of Baden-Württemberg. Also, the port of Bremen with Bremerhaven was under the control of the United States. 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 state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The headquarters of the British military government was in Bad Oeynhausen.
- The French zone consisted of the present state of Rheinland-Pfalz and the southern areas of Baden-Württemberg. The headquarters of the French military government was in Baden-Baden.
- *The western zones were later combined into the Trizone.
- 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.
- The city of Berlin was jointly occupied by the Allied Powers and itself subdivided into four sectors.
Each power wielded government authority in its own zone and carried out different policies toward the population, local and state governments there.
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council broke down in 1946-1947 due to growing Cold War tensions between the West and the Soviet Union, and was never fully implemented. The complete breakdown of east-west allied cooperation and joint administration in Germany became no less apparent than during the Berlin Blockade.
The three western zones merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany when that state was declared in May 1949, and the Soviet zone emerged as the German Democratic Republic in October 1949.
In the west, the occupation officially continued until 1955, but after the creation of the Federal Republic the military governors were replaced by 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.
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 (Pomerania, Silesia and East Prussia) was annexed by Poland and 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
American Zone
Military governors
- May 8, 1945 - Nov 10,1945: Dwight David Eisenhower
- Nov 11,1945 - Nov 25,1945 George S. Patton, Jr. (acting)
- Nov 26,1945 - Jan 5, 1947 Joseph T. McNarney
- Jan 6, 1947 - May 14,1949 Lucius DuBignon Clay
- May 15,1949 - Sep 1, 1949 Clarence R. Huebner (acting)
High commissioners
- Sep 2, 1949 - Aug 1, 1952 John J. McCloy
- Aug 1, 1952 - Dec 11,1952 Walter J. Donnelly
- Dec 11,1952 - Feb 10,1953 Samuel Reber (acting)
- Feb 10,1953 - May 5, 1955 James B. Conant
British Zone
Military governors
- May 22,1945 - Apr 30,1946 Sir Bernard Law Montgomery
- May 1, 1946 - Oct 31,1947 William Sholto Douglas
- Nov 1, 1947 - Sep 21,1949 Sir Brian Hubert Robertson
High commissioners
- Sep 21,1949 - Jun 24,1950 Sir Brian Hubert Robertson
- Jun 24,1950 - Sep 29,1953 Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
- Sep 29,1953 - May 5, 1955 Sir Frederick Hoyer-Millar
French Zone
Military commander
- May 1945 - Jul 1945 Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
Military governor
- Jul 1945 - Sep 21,1949 Marie-Pierre Koenig
High commissioner
- Sep 21,1949 - May 5, 1955 André François-Poncet
Soviet Zone
Military commander
- Apr 1945 - Jun 9,1945 Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
Military governors
- Jun 9, 1945 - Apr 10,1946 Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov
- Apr 10,1946 - Mar 29,1949 Vasily Danilovich Sokolovsky
- Mar 29,1949 - Oct 10,1949 Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission
- Oct 10,1949 - May 28,1953 Vasily Ivanoivich Chuikov
High commissioners
- May 28,1953 - Jul 16,1954 Vladimir Semyonovich Semyonov
- Jul 16,1954 - Sep 20,1955 Georgy Maksimovich Pushkin
References
[Post-WWII commanders/governors of Germany]
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