La totalidad de Alemania fue ocupada y administrada por los Aliados de la Segunda Guerra Mundial , desde la Declaración de Berlín el 5 de junio de 1945 hasta el establecimiento de Alemania Occidental el 23 de mayo de 1949. A diferencia del Japón ocupado , la Alemania nazi fue despojada de su soberanía y su antiguo estado : después de que Alemania se rindiera formalmente el 8 de mayo de 1945, los cuatro países que representaban a los Aliados (Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Unión Soviética y Francia) afirmaron la autoridad y soberanía conjuntas a través del Consejo de Control Aliado (ACC).
En un principio, la Alemania ocupada por los Aliados se definió como todos los territorios de Alemania antes de la anexión nazi de Austria en 1938. El Acuerdo de Potsdam del 2 de agosto de 1945 definió la nueva frontera oriental alemana otorgando a Polonia y la Unión Soviética todas las regiones de Alemania al este de la línea Oder-Neisse (partes orientales de Pomerania , Neumark , Posen-Prusia Occidental , Prusia Oriental y la mayor parte de Silesia ) y dividió el resto de "Alemania en su conjunto" en cuatro zonas de ocupación, cada una administrada por uno de los Aliados. [1]
Todos los territorios anexados por Alemania antes de la guerra de Austria y Checoslovaquia fueron devueltos a estos países. El Territorio de Memel , anexado por Alemania a Lituania antes de la guerra, fue anexado por la Unión Soviética en 1945 y transferido a la RSS de Lituania . Todos los territorios anexados por Alemania durante la guerra de Bélgica, Francia, Italia, Luxemburgo, Polonia y Yugoslavia fueron devueltos a sus respectivos países.
En Potsdam, Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido y la Unión Soviética aprobaron en 1944 , apartándose de las zonas de ocupación previstas en el Protocolo de Londres, la separación de Alemania de los territorios al este de la línea Oder-Neisse , quedando la línea exacta de la frontera a determinar en un tratado de paz alemán definitivo. Se esperaba que este tratado confirmara el desplazamiento hacia el oeste de las fronteras de Polonia, ya que el Reino Unido y los Estados Unidos se comprometían a apoyar la incorporación permanente de Alemania oriental a Polonia y la Unión Soviética. Desde marzo de 1945 hasta julio de 1945, estos antiguos territorios orientales de Alemania habían estado administrados por las autoridades de ocupación militar soviéticas, pero tras el Acuerdo de Potsdam fueron entregados a las administraciones civiles soviéticas y polacas y dejaron de formar parte de la Alemania ocupada por los Aliados.
En las últimas semanas de combates en Europa, las fuerzas estadounidenses habían traspasado los límites acordados para las futuras zonas de ocupación, en algunos lugares hasta 320 kilómetros (200 millas). La llamada línea de contacto entre las fuerzas soviéticas y estadounidenses al final de las hostilidades, que se extendía en su mayor parte al este de la frontera interior alemana establecida en julio de 1945 , era temporal.
Después de dos meses durante los cuales mantuvieron áreas que habían sido asignadas a la zona soviética, las fuerzas estadounidenses se retiraron en los primeros días de julio de 1945. [2] Algunos han concluido que este fue un movimiento crucial que persuadió a la Unión Soviética a permitir que las fuerzas estadounidenses, británicas y francesas ingresaran a sus sectores designados en Berlín, lo que ocurrió aproximadamente al mismo tiempo; la necesidad de recopilación de inteligencia ( Operación Paperclip ) también puede haber sido un factor. [3]
El 20 de marzo de 1948, los soviéticos se retiraron de facto del Consejo de Control Aliado. La división condujo a la creación en 1949 de dos nuevos estados alemanes, Alemania Occidental y Alemania Oriental .
La zona americana en el sur de Alemania estaba formada por Baviera (sin la región del Rin-Palatinado y el distrito de Lindau , ambos parte de la zona francesa) y Hesse (sin la región del Renania-Palatinado y Montabaur , ambos parte de la zona francesa) con una nueva capital en Wiesbaden , y por partes septentrionales de Württemberg y Baden . Estas formaron Württemberg-Baden y se convirtieron en porciones septentrionales del actual estado alemán de Baden-Württemberg, fundado en 1952.
Los puertos de Bremen (en el bajo río Weser ) y Bremerhaven (en el estuario del río Weser en el Mar del Norte ) también quedaron bajo control estadounidense debido a la petición de Estados Unidos de disponer de determinados puntos de apoyo en el norte de Alemania . A finales de octubre de 1946, la zona estadounidense contaba con la siguiente población:
La sede del gobierno militar estadounidense estaba en el antiguo edificio IG Farben en Frankfurt am Main .
Tras el cierre total de todos los medios de comunicación alemanes nazis, se inició el lanzamiento y funcionamiento de títulos de periódicos completamente nuevos mediante la concesión de licencias a alemanes cuidadosamente seleccionados como editores. Se otorgaron licencias a alemanes no involucrados en la propaganda nazi para establecer esos periódicos, incluidos Frankfurter Rundschau (agosto de 1945), Der Tagesspiegel (Berlín; septiembre de 1945) y Süddeutsche Zeitung (Múnich; octubre de 1945). Las estaciones de radio fueron administradas por el gobierno militar. Más tarde, Radio Frankfurt , Radio München (Múnich) y Radio Stuttgart dieron paso a Hessischer Rundfunk , Bayerischer Rundfunk y Süddeutscher Rundfunk , respectivamente. La RIAS en Berlín Occidental siguió siendo una estación de radio bajo control estadounidense.
En mayo de 1945, los ejércitos británico y canadiense habían liberado los Países Bajos y conquistado el norte de Alemania. Las fuerzas canadienses regresaron a casa tras la rendición alemana, dejando el norte de Alemania en manos de los británicos.
El Ejército Británico del Rin se formó el 25 de agosto de 1945 a partir del Ejército de Liberación Británico . [5]
En julio, los británicos se retiraron de Schwerin, la capital de Mecklemburgo , que habían arrebatado a los estadounidenses unas semanas antes, ya que se había acordado previamente que fuera ocupada por el ejército soviético . La Comisión de Control para Alemania (Elemento Británico) (CCG/BE) cedió más porciones de su área de ocupación a la Unión Soviética, específicamente el Amt Neuhaus de Hannover y algunos enclaves y franjas de Brunswick , por ejemplo el condado de Blankenburg , e intercambió algunos pueblos entre Holstein británico y Mecklemburgo soviético según el Acuerdo Barber-Lyashchenko .
Dentro de la zona de ocupación británica, el CCG/BE restableció la ciudad de Hamburgo como un estado alemán , pero con fronteras que habían sido trazadas por el gobierno nazi en 1937. Los británicos también crearon los nuevos estados alemanes de:
También en 1947, la zona de ocupación estadounidense, al estar tierra adentro, no tenía instalaciones portuarias, por lo que la Ciudad Libre Hanseática de Bremen y Bremerhaven se convirtieron en enclaves dentro de la zona británica.
A finales de octubre de 1946, la zona británica tenía una población de:
El cuartel general británico estuvo originalmente ubicado en Bad Oeynhausen desde 1946, pero en 1954 se trasladó a Mönchengladbach , donde pasó a llamarse JHQ Rheindahlen .
Otra característica especial de la zona británica era el enclave de Bonn . Fue creado en julio de 1949 y no estaba bajo el control británico ni de ningún otro aliado, sino bajo el control de la Alta Comisión Aliada . En junio de 1950, Ivone Kirkpatrick se convirtió en la Alta Comisionada británica para Alemania . Kirkpatrick tenía una inmensa responsabilidad, en particular con respecto a la negociación de las convenciones de Bonn-París durante 1951-1952, que pusieron fin a la ocupación y prepararon el camino para el rearme de Alemania Occidental.
Unidades del ejército de otros países estaban estacionadas dentro de la zona de ocupación británica.
En un principio, a la República Francesa no se le concedió una zona de ocupación en Alemania, pero los gobiernos británico y estadounidense acordaron posteriormente ceder algunas partes occidentales de sus zonas de ocupación al Ejército francés . [11] En abril y mayo de 1945, el 1.er Ejército francés había capturado Karlsruhe y Stuttgart , y conquistado un territorio que se extendía hasta el Nido del Águila de Hitler y la parte más occidental de Austria. En julio, los franceses cedieron Stuttgart a los estadounidenses y, a cambio, se les dio el control sobre ciudades al oeste del Rin, como Maguncia y Coblenza . [12] Todo esto dio lugar a dos áreas apenas contiguas de Alemania a lo largo de la frontera francesa que se encontraban en un solo punto a lo largo del río Rin . Se establecieron tres estados alemanes ( Land ): Renania Palatinado en el norte y el oeste y, por otro lado, Württemberg-Hohenzollern y Baden Sur , que más tarde formaron Baden-Württemberg junto con Württemberg-Baden de la zona estadounidense. [13]
La zona de ocupación francesa incluía la región del Sarre , que se separó de ella el 16 de febrero de 1946. El 18 de diciembre de 1946 se establecieron controles aduaneros entre la zona del Sarre y la Alemania ocupada por los Aliados. La zona francesa cedió más áreas adyacentes al Sarre (a mediados de 1946, principios de 1947 y principios de 1949). En la zona francesa se incluía la ciudad de Büsingen am Hochrhein , un enclave alemán separado del resto del país por una estrecha franja de territorio suizo neutral. El gobierno suizo acordó permitir que un número limitado de tropas francesas pasaran por su territorio para mantener la ley y el orden en Büsingen.
A finales de octubre de 1946, la zona francesa contaba con una población de:
(The Saar Protectorate had a further 0.8 million.)[4]
From November 1945, Luxembourg was allocated a zone within the French sector.[14] The Luxembourg 2nd Infantry Battalion was garrisoned in Bitburg and the 1st Battalion was sent to Saarburg.[14] The final Luxembourg forces in Germany, in Bitburg, left in 1955.[14]
The Soviet occupation zone incorporated Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg.[citation needed] The Soviet Military Administration was headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, which also came to house the chief rezidentura of Soviet intelligence in Germany.[15]
At the end of October 1946, the Soviet zone had a population of:
While located wholly within the 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 subdivided into four sectors. All four occupying powers were entitled to privileges throughout Berlin that were not extended to the rest of Germany – this included the Soviet sector of Berlin, which was legally separate from the rest of the Soviet zone.
At the end of October 1946, Berlin had a population of:
In 1945 Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line was assigned to Poland by the Potsdam Conference to be "temporarily administered" pending the Final Peace Treaty on Germany between the four Allies and a future German state; eventually (under the September 1990 Peace Treaty) the northern portion of East Prussia became the Kaliningrad Oblast within the Soviet Union (today Russian Federation). A small area west of the Oder, near Szczecin, also fell to Poland. Most German citizens residing in these areas were subsequently expropriated and expelled. Returning refugees, who had fled from war hostilities, were denied return.
Saarland, an area in the French occupation zone, was separated from Allied-occupied Germany to become a French protectorate with its constitution took effect on 17 December 1947, however the separation was opposed by the Soviet Union and Germans here were not expelled.
In October 1946, the population of the various zones and sectors was as follows:[4]
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council de facto broke down on 20 March 1948 (restored on 3 September 1971) in the context of growing tensions between the Allies, with Britain and the US wishing cooperation, France obstructing any collaboration in order to partition Germany into many independent states, and especially: the Soviet Union unilaterally implementing from early on elements of a Marxist political-economic system (enforced redistribution of land, nationalisation of businesses). Another dispute was the absorption of post-war expellees. While the UK, the US and the Soviet Union had agreed to accept, house and feed about six million expelled German citizens from former eastern Germany and four million expelled and denaturalised Czechoslovaks, Poles, Hungarians and Yugoslavs of German ethnicity in their zones, France generally had not agreed to the expulsions approved by the Potsdam agreement (a decision made without input from France). Therefore, France strictly refused to absorb war refugees who were denied return to their homes in seized eastern German territories or destitute post-war expellees who had been expropriated there, into the French zone, let alone into the separated Saar protectorate.[16] However, the native population, returning after Nazi-imposed removals (e.g., political and Jewish refugees) and war-related relocations (e.g., evacuation from air raids), were allowed to return home in the areas under French control. The other Allies complained that they had to shoulder the burden to feed, house and clothe the expellees who had to leave their belongings behind.
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 merged as of 1 January 1947) 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 that was enforced from June 1948 to May 1949. The three western zones were merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) i.e. West Germany in May 1949, and after that the Soviets followed suit in October 1949 with the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) i.e. East Germany.
In the west, the occupation continued until 5 May 1955, when the General Treaty (German: Deutschlandvertrag) 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 ended, the western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by normal ambassadors. West Germany was also allowed to build a military, and the Bundeswehr, or Federal Defense Force, was established on 12 November 1955.
A similar situation occurred in East Germany. The GDR was founded on 7 October 1949. On 10 October the Soviet Military Administration in Germany was replaced by the Soviet Control Commission, although limited sovereignty was not granted to the GDR government until 11 November 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 28 May 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 20 September 1955. On 1 March 1956, the GDR established a military, the National People's Army (NVA).
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. Though West Germany was effectively independent, the western Allies maintained limited legal jurisdiction over 'Germany as a whole' in respect of West Germany and Berlin. At the same time, East Germany progressed from being a satellite state of the Soviet Union to increasing independence of action; while still deferring in matters of security to Soviet authority. The provisions of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, also known as the "Two-plus-Four Treaty", granting full sovereign powers to Germany did not become law until 15 March 1991, after all of the participating governments had ratified the treaty. As envisaged by the Treaty, the last occupation troops departed from Germany when the Russian presence was terminated in 1994, although the Belgian Forces in Germany stayed in German territory until the end of 2005.
A 1956 plebiscite ended the French administration of the Saar protectorate, and it joined the Federal Republic as Saarland on 1 January 1957, becoming its tenth state.
The city of Berlin was not part of either state and de jure continued to be under Allied occupation of the four countries 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 being de facto part of the FRG. The Soviet sector became known as East Berlin and while not recognised by the Western powers as a part of East Germany, the GDR declared it its capital (Hauptstadt der DDR).
Allied aims with respect to postwar Germany were first laid out at the Yalta Conference, where Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin signed an agreement stating that they intended to: disarm and disband the German armed forces; break up the German General Staff; remove or destroy all German military equipment; eliminate or control German industry that could be used for military production; punish war criminals; exact reparations for damage done by Germany; wipe out the Nazi party and its institutions; remove all Nazi and militarist influences from public life; and take any other measures in Germany as might be necessary to ensure future peace and safety.[17] The consensus among the Allies was that it was necessary to ensure Germany could not cause further world wars, but beyond that their opinion on what Germany's future should look like differed.[18]
The US originally considered a punitive approach championed by Roosevelt's Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr. (the "Morgenthau Plan"). Under this plan, Germany would have been broken into four autonomous states and not only demilitarized but also deindustrialized to the point of becoming chiefly agrarian.[19] The Morgenthau plan was opposed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull and War Secretary Henry L. Stimson, and Roosevelt distanced himself from the idea after it was reported on by major American newspapers.[20] Ultimately, US occupation policy came to be determined chiefly by the War Department, with long-term objectives summed up by the four Ds: denazification, democratization, demilitarization, and decentralization (or decartelization).[21][20]
Initially, the US was extremely rigorous in its efforts to prevent fraternization with German civilians. US soldiers were forbidden to shake hands with Germans, visit their homes, play games or sports with them, exchange gifts, take part in social events, or walk in the streets with them. How strictly this policy was applied varied from place to place, but in many places the restrictions were frequently ignored, as a result of which the policy was quickly abandoned.[22] Germans were also prohibited from inhabiting any part of a building in which US soldiers were housed, leading to large numbers of Germans being ejected from their homes.[22]
British occupation policy was similar to that of the United States, but with a greater focus on economic problems. The British Occupation Zone included the Ruhr industrial region, which had experienced the heaviest bombing and therefore faced the greatest shortages of housing and food. Initial British occupation directives were concerned primarily with economic considerations and food supply.[20]
To further the long-term aim of democratization, the British implemented government modeled on the UK system, placing heavy emphasis on local level democracy. The goal was to create a British-style administration with employees who viewed themselves as public servants, on the basis that this would help to reeducate Germans to democratic modes of thought. To that end the British introduced new local government structures, including a nonpolitical position similar to the English town clerk ("city director") that replaced the office of mayor.[20]
In general, the British believed strongly in reeducation as a means to achieve democracy, which led them to prioritize the reestablishment of schooling and university education in their zone.[23]
The French were less concerned with improving Germany's moral and civic character, focusing instead on ensuring France's future security and utilizing the resources of their occupation zone to facilitate economic recovery within France itself.[20] Since one of their key goals was to ensure that Germany would never again be in a position to threaten France, the French were strongly opposed to a unified approach to occupation, and favored political structures that were as decentralized as possible.[20]
On the economic front, the French seized the opportunity to extract coal and steel resources from the Saar region, fusing it with France in a customs and currency union and encouraging the development of export industries. As a result, the French managed to extract a surplus from their occupation zone, and prevented it from becoming a financial liability the way the British and American zones were to their respective occupying powers.[20]
Soviet aims in Germany were similar to those of the French, with the primary goals being to prevent future aggression by Germany and to extract reparations.[20]
Political activity in the Soviet occupation zone was overseen by the Soviet Military Administration (SMAD), which maintained close control over the Germans and allowed little room for independent action on the part of local German officials.[20] Key posts in local administration, particularly those dealing with security members, were given to members of the Communist party.[22]
Soviet occupation authorities also executed a rigorous program of land reform, expropriating large landed estates and imposing direct control over much of the economic activity in the zone.[20] They closed major banks and insurance companies in July 1945, and seized property formerly belonging to the German state, Wehrmacht, Nazi party, and Nazi organizations.[20]
The Soviets used suspicion of supposed Werwolf activity to tighten police control and secure forced labor.[22]
The food situation in occupied Germany was initially very dire. By the spring of 1946 the official ration in the American zone was no more than 1,275 calories (5,330 kJ) per day, with some areas probably receiving as little as 700 calories (2,900 kJ) per day. In the British zone the food situation was dire, as found during a visit by the British (and Jewish) publisher Victor Gollancz in October and November 1946. In Düsseldorf the normal 28-day allocation should have been 1,548 calories (6,480 kJ) including 10 kilograms (22 lb) of bread, but as there was limited grain the bread ration was only 8.5 kilograms (19 lb). However, as there was only sufficient bread for about 50% of this "called up" ration, the total deficiency was about 50%, not 15% as stated in a ministerial reply in the British Parliament on 11 December. So only about 770 calories (3,200 kJ) would have been supplied, and he said the German winter ration would be 1,000 calories (4,200 kJ) as the recent increase was "largely mythical". His book includes photos taken on the visit and critical letters and newspaper articles by him published in several British newspapers; The Times, the Daily Herald, the Manchester Guardian, etc.[24]
Some occupation soldiers took advantage of the desperate food situation by exploiting their ample supply of food and cigarettes (the currency of the black market) to get to the local German girls as what became known as frau bait (The New York Times, 25 June 1945). Some soldiers still felt the girls were the enemy, but used them for sex nevertheless.[25]
The often destitute mothers of the resulting children usually received no child support. 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 "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.[25]
The children of African-American soldiers, commonly called Negermischlinge[26] ("Negro half-breeds"), comprising about three percent of the total number of children fathered by GIs, were particularly disadvantaged because of their inability to conceal the foreign identity of their fathers. For many white U.S. soldiers of this era, miscegenation even with an "enemy" white population was regarded as an intolerable outrage. African-American soldiers were therefore reluctant to admit to fathering such children since this would invite reprisals and even accusations of rape, a crime which was much more aggressively prosecuted by military authorities against African-Americans compared with Caucasian soldiers, much more likely to result in a conviction by court-martial (in part because a German woman was both less likely to acknowledge consensual sexual relations with an African-American and more likely to be believed if she alleged rape against an African-American) and which carried a potential death sentence. Even in the rare cases where an African-American soldier was willing to take responsibility for fathering a child, until 1948 the U.S. Army prohibited interracial marriages.[26] The mothers of the children would often face particularly harsh ostracism.[27]
Between 1950 and 1955, the Allied High Commission for Germany prohibited "proceedings to establish paternity or liability for maintenance of children."[26] Even after the lifting of the ban West German courts had little power over American soldiers.
While Allied servicemen were ordered to obey local laws while in Germany, soldiers could not be prosecuted by German courts for crimes committed against German citizens except as authorised by the occupation authorities. Invariably, when a soldier was accused of criminal behaviour the occupation authorities preferred to handle the matter within the military justice system. This sometimes led to harsher punishments than would have been available under German law – in particular, U.S. servicemen could be executed if court-martialed and convicted of rape.[27] See United States v. Private First Class John A. Bennett, 7 C.M.A. 97, 21 C.M.R. 223 (1956).
The last Allied war advances into Germany and Allied occupation plans were affected by rumors of the Nazi Werwolf plan for insurgency, and successful Nazi deception about plans to withdraw forces to the Alpenfestung redoubt. Perry Biddiscombe estimates the total death toll as a direct result of Werewolf actions and the resulting reprisals as 3,000–5,000.[28][29]
The Potsdam conference, where the victorious Allies drew up plans for the future of Germany, noted in article XIII of the Potsdam Agreement on 1 August 1945 that "the transfer to Germany of German populations...in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary will have to be undertaken"; "wild expulsion" was already going on.
Hungary, which had been allied with Germany and whose population was opposed to an expulsion of the German minority, tried to resist the transfer. Hungary had to yield to the pressure exerted mainly by the Soviet Union and by the Allied Control Council.[30] Millions of people were expelled from former eastern territories of Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and elsewhere to the occupation zones of the UK, US, and USSR, which agreed in the Potsdam Agreement to absorb the post-war expellees into their zones. Many remained in refugee camps for a long time. Some Germans remained in the Soviet Union and were used for forced labour for a period of years.
France was not invited to the Potsdam Conference. As a result, it chose to adopt some decisions of the Potsdam Agreements and to dismiss others. France maintained the position that it did not approve post-war expulsions and that 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 post-war expellees deported from the East into its zone. In December 1946, the French military government for Germany absorbed into its zone German refugees from Denmark, where 250,000 Germans had found a refuge from the Soviets by sea vessels between February and May 1945.[16] These clearly were war-related refugees from the eastern parts of Germany however, and not post-war expellees.
