Allied-occupied Germany

Germany Deutschland (German)
1945–1949
The C-Pennant
Germany from 17 December 1947 to 23 May 1949
Status	Military occupation
Capital	Berlin (de jure) Frankfurt (American zone) Bad Oeynhausen (British zone) Baden-Baden (French zone) East Berlin (Soviet zone) 52°31′N 13°23′E / 52.517°N 13.383°E / 52.517; 13.383   Saar Protectorate (de facto not a part of Germany)   French occupation zone   British occupation zone[a]   American occupation zone   Soviet occupation zone[b]
Common languages	German (national language) English (American and British zones) French (French zone) Russian (Soviet zone)
Governors (1945)
• British zone	Bernard Montgomery
• American zone	Dwight D. Eisenhower
• French zone	Jean de Lattre de Tassigny
• Soviet zone	Georgy Zhukov
Historical era	Cold War
• Surrender of German armed forces	8 May 1945
• Allied Control Council	5 June 1945
• Saar Protectoratea	17 December 1947
• West Germany	23 May 1949
• East Germanyb	7 October 1949
• Final Settlementc	15 March 1991
Population
• 1945	64,260,000
• 1949	68,080,000
Currency	Reichsmark and Rentenmark (1945–1948) West zones (except Saarland): Deutsche Mark (from 1948)d Soviet zone: Mark (from 1948)e
Preceded by Succeeded by Nazi Germany 1947: Saar Protectorate (de facto) 1949: West Germany East Germany
Became a state of the 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. Reunited Germany by joining the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990. German reunification took place on 3 October 1990. The Western Allied zones of Germany and the western sectors of Berlin (de facto). The Soviet zone of Germany and sector of Berlin.
The four sectors and exclaves of Berlin

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The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sovereignty and former state: after Germany formally surrendered on 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).

At first, Allied-occupied Germany was defined as all territories of Germany before the 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 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.^[1]

All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and 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 SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Yugoslavia were returned to their respective countries.

Deviating from the occupation zones planned according to the 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 320 km (200 miles). 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

On 20 March 1948, the Soviets withdrew from the Allied Control Council. The split led to the establishment in 1949 of two new German states, West Germany and East Germany.

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