The division of Germany

The division of Germany


During 1945, the Allies began organising their respective occupation zones in Germany. The Americans occupied the South, the British the West and North, France the South-West, and the Soviets Central Germany. The Eastern part was administered by Poland, except the town of Königsberg (renamed Kaliningrad) and its surrounding area, which were annexed by the USSR. On 30 August 1945, the Inter-Allied Control Council was founded. Berlin was divided into four sectors and placed under the administrative control of the Allied Kommandatura. In 1946, the main war criminals were tried in Nuremberg by Allied judges. In the same year, the fate of the German satellite states and of Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Finland was determined in Paris by separate peace treaties.


On 28 July 1946, the United States proposed a plan for economic unification of the occupied zones. Faced with the refusal of France and the Soviet Union, the British and Americans decided to unite their zones economically and, in December of the same year, created the Bizone. On 1 August 1948, the French occupation zone joined the Bizone, which then became the Trizone. Gradually, relations between the Allies deteriorated, and the quadripartite structures became unmanageable. In March 1948, the Inter-Allied Control Council ceased to operate, as did, in June 1948, the Kommandatura.

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