Germany: history 1919–49

An election poster for the German National Socialists from 1931. It reads, ‘Work, Freedom and Bread!’ The National Socialists came to power in Germany 1933.

Adolf Hitler, then German Chancellor, at the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, in 1936. These Games were some of the most controversial in Olympic history, as they were used by Hitler as propaganda for Nazi ideology. This prompted several nations to call for a boycott, in protest against the anti-Semitic policies enacted by Hitler's National Socialist government.

For the earlier history of Germany see Germany: history to 1519, Germany: history 1519–1815, and Germany: history 1815–1919.

The establishment of the Weimar Republic Following the German collapse in World War I and Germany's acceptance of the Allies' armistice terms in November 1918, a newly elected national assembly met in Weimar in February 1919. The assembly was unable to meet in Berlin because of a socialist uprising in the capital, and the town of Weimar gave its name to the new republic. A provisional constitution was adopted, marking the beginning of the Weimar Republic, that was to last until Hitler came to power in 1933. The moderate socialist Friedrich Ebert was elected president, while the Social Democrat Philip Scheidemann formed a coalition cabinet.

The peace settlement The Allied peace terms were received by Germany on 7 May. They involved substantial sacrifices of territory, the payment of reparations in money and produce, and complete disarmament. Scheidemann resigned, and another Social Democrat, Gustav Bauer, formed a government for the purpose of accepting the terms with reservations, but these the Allies rejected. Germany was thus obliged to accept the terms unconditionally, and signed the Treaty of Versailles, which came into force from January 1920. By doing so they were forced to accept the ‘War Guilt Clause’ (Clause 231), which placed the entire blame for the war on Germany.

The Treaty of Versailles reduced the territory of Germany by some 70,000 sq km/27,000 sq mi, and the Rhineland was to be occupied by Allied troops. 12.5% of the German population found itself living outside the new German borders. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, while the Saarland was to be administered by France under the auspices of the League of Nations for 15 years. Large areas in the east went to Poland, and the creation of the Polish Corridor (giving Poland access to the Baltic) separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Danzig (Gdańsk) and Memel (Klaipeda) were also lost. Eupen, Malmédy, and Moresnet went to Belgium, and northern Schleswig to Denmark, and minor territorial concessions were also made to Lithuania and Czechoslovakia.

Germany's overseas possessions were to be administered as League of Nations mandates by various Allied powers: the Caroline, Marshall, Mariana, and Palau islands in the Pacific by Japan, together with the concession of Kiao–Chow in China, German New Guinea by Australia, South West Africa (Namibia) by South Africa, Tanganyika by Britain, and Rwanda and Burundi by Belgium; Togo and Cameroon were both divided between Britain and France.

Germany's armed forces were severely restricted, and the government had to accept the burden of reparations to the victorious allies. The government that had been forced to accept the terms of the treaty became very unpopular. Many Germans never accepted defeat in World War I, and the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles became known as the November Criminals. A right-wing counter-revolution, the Kapp Putsch, began in March 1920. The government fled to Stuttgart, but within a week the revolt was suppressed. However, those involved went unpunished, or lightly punished, as many German judges opposed the new Weimar Republic.

The burden of reparations A new coalition government was formed on 20 June 1920, with Konstantin Fehrenbach of the Catholic Centre Party as chancellor. The main work of this ministry was concerned with reparations. The Spa Conference, held by the Allies in July 1920, began discussions on reparations and their payment. The sum was eventually fixed at 132 billion gold marks (£6.6 billion) on 27 April 1921. For the next ten years the question of reparation payments dominated the foreign policy of Germany.

In May 1921 the ‘London ultimatum’ with respect to reparations was presented to Germany, and Joseph Wirth (on the liberal wing of the Catholic Centre Party) succeeded Fehrenbach as chancellor of a government prepared to accept the ultimatum. The effort to meet reparation requirements resulted in hyperinflation in Germany, and this in turn made it increasingly difficult for Germany to cover its obligations.

The occupation of the Ruhr In 1923 Germany unilaterally suspended the payment of reparations, and French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region, the German industrial heartland. The German policy of passive resistance to the occupation of the Ruhr was initiated by Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno, who had succeeded Wirth in November 1922. With the failure of the German policy in the Ruhr to secure anything except impoverishment of the country, Cuno left office, and Gustav Stresemann of the liberal right-wing German People's Party came forward and formed a cabinet in August 1923.

The problems that confronted Stresemann were to settle the Ruhr problem, to restore internal order, and to stabilize the mark. The order for passive resistance was withdrawn on 27 September, and this step was only opposed by Bavaria where a separatist movement was aiming at the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy and the overthrow of the German republic. In Saxony there was a communist revolt against the republic, and a ‘republican proletarian’ government was set up. Stresemann issued an ultimatum, ordering this government to resign, and appointed a military commissioner with dictatorial powers.

Economic stabilization was helped by the introduction of the Dawes Plan (see Dawes, Charles Gates) in September 1924, which secured the evacuation of the Ruhr in the following year, contributed to the relative prosperity of the German economy for the remainder of the decade, and enabled Germany to resume payment of reparations.

Locarno and European security The London Conference of 1924, at which the Dawes Plan was adopted, paved the way for the Locarno treaties the following year (see Locarno, Pact of), and for Germany's entry into the League of Nations in September 1926.

During this period of transition towards more stable conditions, President Ebert died (in February 1925) and was succeeded by the right-wing Paul Hindenburg, who had been chief of staff of the German army in World War I. Hans Luther was now chancellor, and Stresemann, who was foreign minister, concluded the Locarno treaties with France, Belgium, Great Britain, and Italy. The Locarno treaties contributed much towards European security, guaranteeing, among other things, Germany's existing frontiers with France and Belgium. They also provided for the Rhineland to become a demilitarized zone, in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles. Germany signed a similar treaty with the USSR in April 1926, but giving assurances that Germany's treaties with the Western powers were not directed against the USSR. With the full acceptance of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, implied in both the Locarno treaties and the Dawes Plan, Germany was accepted as a full member of the League of Nations in 1926. It was even given a permanent seat on the council of the League. Between 1926 and 1929 Germany entered the so-called ‘golden years’ of the Weimar Republic. Unemployment fell and the economy seemed to be heading for a full recovery after the disastrous years of 1918–25.

When Wilhelm Marx became chancellor in January 1927 Stresemann was again foreign minister, and the Locarno Pact and the League of Nations continued to receive German support as a means of securing equality of treatment. In February the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control was withdrawn, and the chief obstacle was thus removed from the hitherto secret reconstruction of the German army.

The emergence of the Nazis With the fall of the government in 1928 the socialists gained in the ensuing elections, rising from 131 to 153 seats, and Stresemann became foreign minister once more, this time in a government with the Social Democrat Hermann Müller as chancellor. In these elections the far-right National Socialist German Workers' (or Nazi) Party (see Nazism), led by Adolf Hitler, won 12 seats with a total of over 800,000 votes. However this was a decline from their 32 seats of May 1924, and with only 12 seats, the Nazis were still a minor party in the Reichstag. The German Communist Party (KPD) won 54 seats, and the Social Democrats won 154. The conditions for Nazi domination of Germany were not yet favourable – the economy was going well and unemployment stood at less than 1 million. In 1929 German reparation payments were rescheduled by the Young Plan (devised by US financier Owen D Young), superseding the Dawes Plan, and the Allies agreed to evacuate the Rhineland by June 1930.

However, the ability of Germany to pay the reparations, even over the six decades of the Young Plan, was dependent on the ability of the USA to lend it money. When the USA entered financial crisis after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the German economy began to collapse.

The German Nationalist Party strongly denounced the Young Plan. Alfred Hugenberg, the leader of the Nationalists, became allied with Hitler in their joint opposition to the plan, and as a result the financial power of the industrialists and also the propaganda machine of the Nationalists helped to build up the Nazi Party. The socialist influence waned, and in December 1929 Müller was succeeded by Heinrich Brüning, leader of the Catholic Centre Party. Brüning did not have a majority in the Reichstag (parliament), and governed mainly by decree during the two years he remained in office.

Nazi electoral successes In 1930 the Reichstag was dissolved, and the elections were a triumph for the Nazi Party, which gained 107 seats as against their previous 12, with a total vote of nearly 6.5 million. Unemployment in Germany in 1930 had reached 3 million, a rise of 2 million since 1928. The mounting economic crisis and its effects on ordinary German people were exactly what Hitler needed to gain support. The Nazis were able to present the Weimar Republic as incapable of looking after the interests of its people. Hitler now sought to consolidate his victory by directing national socialist propaganda against the Jews and Marxists (see anti-Semitism and Nazi propaganda), the alleged injustices of the Versailles Treaty, and the republican–democratic system of government. The worsening of the world economic depression of the early 1930s resulted in Hitler acquiring a broader basis of support from the hard-hit lower middle classes, and in the succeeding elections Hitler's following grew even larger; when he stood unsuccessfully against Hindenburg in the presidential elections in 1932, he secured over 13 million votes.

The economic crisis of the early 1930s was the second economic disaster that the Weimar Republic had presided over during its short life. Hitler was able to claim that the democratic system had failed the German people, and that the Nazis were their only hope. His charismatic personality and the conditions in Germany made it relatively easy for him to increase Nazi strength and power. With millions of workers unemployed and the middle classes losing their wealth and security for a second time, the Weimar Republic was unable to sustain itself.

In the Reichstag elections of June 1932 the Nazis increased their seats to 230, becoming the largest single party but short of the 350 seats required for a majority. Hitler demanded to be appointed chancellor as the leader of the largest party, but Hindenburg did not trust Hitler to uphold democracy or to obey the law. Franz von Papen was reappointed chancellor even though his German National People's Party (DNVP) had less than a sixth of the seats held by the Nazis. Von Papen tried to bring Hitler into his government by offering to make him vice chancellor, but Hitler refused this as an insult. With the Nazis and the German Communist Party (KDP) disrupting the Reichstag it was impossible for Von Papen to govern Germany, and new elections had to be called for November 1932. Support for the Nazis actually fell in these elections – they won only 196 seats – but they still remained the largest single party in the Reichstag. Support for the communists rose and they returned with 100 seats, up from 89 in July 1932. Hindenburg refused once more to appoint Hitler as chancellor, choosing instead to appoint the former minister of defence Kurt von Schleicher. Attempts were again made to bring the Nazis into the government, this time by trying to bypass Hitler and appoint another leading Nazi, Gregor Strasser as vice chancellor. However, the Nazis stood firm, Strasser refused the offer, and the Schleicher government proved as weak as von Papen's.

Subsequently the reactionary group around Hindenburg persuaded him to make Hitler chancellor over a mixed cabinet of Nazis and nationalists, in January 1933. They hoped Hitler would prove no more than a compliant figurehead, amenable to the wishes of the non-Nazi Nationalist Party.

Hitler assumes absolute power Almost immediately the Reichstag was burned down, in circumstances that have still not been explained, although it was possibly the work of the Nazis themselves. Hitler's first act was to place responsibility for the fire on the communists. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was arrested for the crime and later executed, and the KPD was accused of plotting to overthrow the government. By this means Hitler was able to restrict the activities of both communists and socialists at the subsequent elections, for many Germans sincerely believed that he had saved Germany from a threatened communist uprising.

In the elections called by Hitler for March 1933, the Social Democrats and KPD suffered intense intimidation from the Nazi's own supporters including the paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung, ‘storm troops’). They also faced arrest by police acting under instructions from the government. The Nationalists often supported this as they feared the left-wing parties as agents of revolution. The results of the March 1933 election saw the Nazis gain 288 seats, once again the largest party, but still short of the 324 seats needed for a sole majority. Communist members of the Reichstag were reduced to 81, although this was a major achievement in the atmosphere of the 1933 election. With both continuing support for the Social Democrats and the KPD, and the lack of a Nazi majority, Hitler had to seek other methods to destroy the Weimar democracy.

It was clear by 1933 that the democratic system of the Weimar was finished. In the December 1924 elections for the Reichstag, the extremist antidemocratic parties of the right and left, the Nazis and Communists (KDP), gained just 59 of the 493 seats (11.9% of those available). The Reichstag at this time was, therefore, dominated by parties committed to some form of democratic government. By the election of September 1930 the gains of the extremist Nazis and KPD had risen to 184 seats out of 577 (31.9%). The German electorate was abandoning the centre ground that was essential to the maintenance of democracy. In the elections of November 1932, the last that could be considered fair and relatively free, the Nazis and KDP combined won 296 of the 584 seats (50.6%). A majority of the deputies in the Reichstag were now committed to ending democracy in Germany. After the March 1933 elections that figure rose to 369 of the 647 deputies (57%). The survival of democracy in Germany was virtually impossible.

With Hitler in place as chancellor, the Nazis set about the final destruction of the Weimar Republic. The KPD was declared illegal, and communists stripped of their right to sit in the Reichstag. This and further intimidation of all non-Nazi deputies gave Hitler the majority he needed. On 23 March 1933 the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave Hitler total power as dictator; the Third Reich (‘third empire’), as it was named by the Nazis, had begun.

The Enabling Bill allowed Hitler to rule without the Reichstag for four years, and banned all other political parties. There was now no check on Hitler's power; submission was compelled by means of the paramilitary SA and SS (Schutzstaffel), and the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, ‘secret police’). The 83-year-old Hindenburg remained as president, but was powerless to stop the Nazis. Hitler suppressed all opposition parties, including the Nationalists who had helped him to power, having naively believed that Hitler would be their tool. Hitler had not, however, disposed of all opposition, and those within the Nazi Party who still offered resistance or potential rivalry were murdered. On the Night of the Long Knives, 30 June 1934, the socialist or radical-wing leaders of the Nazi party were arrested and summarily executed (including Ernst Röhm, chief of the SA, the man to whom Hitler was largely indebted for his triumph); a number of non-Nazis were also executed at the same time. This swift and total destruction of his enemies, a tactic known as Blitzkrieg, confirmed Hitler's ability to be totally powerful within Germany.

In August 1934 Hindenburg died, and Hitler became both president and chancellor. He later adopted the title of Führer (leader), and replaced the state governors with Nazi-appointed Reich commissioners (Gauleiters), who had dictatorial powers at the local level.

The Saarland, rearmament, and the Rhineland Attention next focused on the Saarland district, in which a plebiscite was held on 13 January 1935 under the terms of the Versailles Treaty to determine whether this area should return to Germany. The Nazi propaganda campaign was such that the result was a foregone conclusion, and on 1 March the important mining district of Saarland was returned to Germany by a majority of over 90%.

Hitler then denounced the armament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles, and declared Germany's intention of re-establishing compulsory military service. Also in 1935, an Anglo-German naval agreement was concluded, under which the British government allowed Germany to build up to 35% of British naval strength. This was Britain's first step on the path of appeasement.

Germany's next act was to defy the Locarno Pact, to which Hitler had previously reaffirmed Germany's commitment. Both this treaty and the Treaty of Versailles were repudiated when on 7 March 1936 the demilitarized Rhineland zone was reoccupied by German troops. France and Britain made no opposition, their fears to some extent allayed by Hitler's undertaking not to fortify the zone, and by his declaration that he had ‘no territorial demands to make in Europe’. Relations between France and Germany inevitably deteriorated, particularly as the result of the clash of interests aroused by the Spanish Civil War.

German alliances At this point Germany began to forge links with other far-right totalitarian governments. The threat of sanctions against Italy following its invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) brought about a rapprochement between Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy and Hitler, and the so-called Rome–Berlin Axis came into being in the autumn of 1936.

This was followed on 25 November by the Anti-Comintern Pact, signed by Germany and Japan, then ruled by an authoritarian government dominated by the military. Announced as a defence against the interference of the Soviet-led Third (communist) International (the Comintern) in the internal affairs of the nation, this agreement was viewed as a dangerous military alliance by the rest of the world. Agitation for the return of the former German colonies was intensified. Intervention on behalf of the far-right nationalist leader, Gen Francisco Franco, in the Spanish Civil War also helped to bring Germany and Italy together in a joint policy versus the rest of Europe, and Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in 1937.

Union with Austria By the spring of 1937 the first phase of building up the German economy in preparation for war was completed; the point of ‘full employment’ had been reached through rearmament and an unlimited spending policy. Strengthened by previous successes, and by the knowledge that it alone among the nations was rearming at top speed, Germany now began the policy of piecemeal absorption of European territory. In March 1938 German troops invaded Austria, which was occupied without resistance, and on 13 March the union of Germany and Austria (Anschluss) was announced (for further details see Austria).

The Sudeten Germans and the Munich Agreement Italy's acquiescence in the annexation of Austria served outwardly to strengthen its ties with Germany, and the accord between the two countries was affirmed at a meeting between Hitler and Mussolini in Rome in May 1938. Thus Italian support was assured for Hitler's next move – against Czechoslovakia.

Nazi propaganda intensified on behalf of the German-speaking people in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia. In September the crisis came to a head and Germany demanded the Sudetenland under threat of war. Hitler formulated this demand at conferences with the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, at Berchtesgaden on 15 September and at Bad Godesberg on 22 September.

Finally, on 28 September, a conference was held in Munich between Hitler, Mussolini, Chamberlain, and the French premier Edouard Daladier, at which Hitler gained his demands. The Sudeten German districts were accordingly occupied by German forces and the Czech defences taken over. An Anglo-German declaration repudiating war was agreed on 29 September, followed in December by a pact between Germany and France. Neither of these agreements, however, served to prevent the deterioration of the European situation.

Further German expansionism In order to pay for its successive ventures Germany fell heavily into debt, and it was with the aim of easing their economic difficulties that, in November 1938, the Nazis organized one of the worst pogroms against the Jews, whose rights had steadily been taken away since Hitler came to power. In 1939 Germany annexed the remainder of Czechoslovakia: a German protectorate was set up over Bohemia and Moravia, incorporating over 6 million Czechs in the German Reich (empire), while Slovakia was formed into a puppet republic, subject to Germany. This move was accompanied by a trade drive in Romania and the Balkans, resulting in barter agreements to give Germany the foodstuffs so greatly needed in exchange for manufactured articles. Lithuania was forced to cede Memel (Klaipeda) to Germany.

Poland and the outbreak of war On 28 April 1939 Hitler denounced the Non-Aggression Pact concluded with Poland in 1934 and also the Anglo-German naval agreement of 1935. To offset the supposed encirclement of Germany by Great Britain, France, and Poland, a military alliance was made with Italy, thus openly directing the Rome–Berlin Axis towards war. The demand for Danzig (Gdańsk) – established as a free city in 1919 – became more menacing. An additional source of tension between Germany and Poland was the Polish Corridor separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany.

Hitler was undeterred by the British promise of support for Poland, which he countered by a non-aggression pact with Soviet Russia (see Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact). This was concluded on 23 August 1939, and for the sake of it Hitler outwardly reversed Germany's stridently anticommunist policy. Secure, as he imagined, from a war on two fronts, Hitler forced the issue with Poland and invaded it on 1 September. Great Britain and France then declared war on Germany on 3 September.

German conquests in World War II For further details of the war see World War II.

The Polish campaign lasted only a month. Germany was, however, forced to agree to Soviet annexation of half the Polish territory, while at the same time the USSR strengthened its position in the Baltic by securing bases from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. With the spring of 1940 came a period of renewed military success for Germany. Norway was invaded on 9 April to protect the transport of iron ore from Sweden, which was essential to German armament. The invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg followed on 10 May. With the occupation of these countries and with the surrender of France, fighting in Europe had come to an end by July. Plans were made for the invasion of Britain, but the offensive and defensive successes of the British Royal Air Force caused these plans to be abandoned.

Hitler's New Order in Europe Politically Hitler now sought to maintain his prestige by dictating settlements to disputes involving Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. These countries were accordingly brought within the orbit of Germany. The ‘New Order’ in Europe was launched, by which the economy of each European country under Nazi domination was linked to the economy of Germany, and made to serve the aims and ambitions of Germany.

Meanwhile, it was Hitler's hope to guard against US intervention by means of a ten-year pact with Italy and Japan, concluded on 27 September 1940. The mutual military and economic support that the three countries guaranteed to each other in the event of attack by a country not at that time at war was held to be directed towards the USA. It did not, however, hinder US economic aid to Britain.

Hitler's New Order meant the subjugation of the peoples of Europe to work for Germany, and the organization of foreign labour was pushed forward in order to keep up the supply of men and materials necessitated by the German campaign in Greece and the invasion of the USSR (22 June 1941). Luxembourg, Alsace-Lorraine, and part of Yugoslavia, formerly belonging to Austria, were incorporated into the Reich during 1941. There was also a tightening of the bonds with Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia, reducing them to the status of vassal states of Germany, while Romania, Finland, Hungary, and Slovakia lent armed aid to Germany against the USSR. At the same time a pact of friendship was concluded with Turkey.

The tide turns against Germany German reverses in the USSR and North Africa 1942–43 led to an intensification of propaganda to maintain morale, and a tightening of the grip of the Gestapo in the German Reich itself. Persecution of minorities – principally Jews – was stepped up, as the concentration camps were organized for the final solution, in which over six million Jews died (see also Holocaust).

In 1943 Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Gestapo and SS, was appointed minister of the interior in an attempt to counter defeatism. His position was strengthened the following year as a result of the attempt on Hitler's life on 20 July 1944. This unsuccessful plot to kill Hitler by a bomb explosion was organized by a number of high-ranking officers in the army. Reprisals were severe. Defeatism was everywhere ruthlessly suppressed, especially in the face of the Soviet advances in the east.

The defeat of Germany In the west the morale of the fighting forces was rallied for the offensive against the Allies in the Ardennes, launched by Gerd von Rundstedt in December 1944 (see Battle of the Bulge). In January 1945 the Soviet advance again went forward in the east, and the Allied offensive in the west began the following month.

Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, shortly before Berlin fell into Soviet hands. Admiral Karl Dönitz announced himself as Hitler's successor on 1 May, but his government did not survive the unconditional surrender of all armed German forces signed by Gen Alfred Jodl, army chief of staff, on 7 May, and announced over the radio by Count Schwerin von Krosigk, the German foreign minister. The official terms of surrender were signed in Berlin in the early hours of 8 May by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel for the German army, Admiral Hans von Friedeburg for the navy, and Gen Hans-Jurgen Stumpft for the air force.

Germany was divided into zones of occupation, roughly corresponding to the areas conquered by each of the Allied armies. Normal, everyday life had come to a standstill. Nearly all the large cities had suffered severe damage from bombing, and the countryside was devastated either as a result of the fighting or by the Germans themselves in their retreat. An Allied Control Commission to govern the country was set up, consisting of the Allied commanders-in-chief, Gen Eisenhower representing the USA, Field Marshal Montgomery for Great Britain, Marshal Zhukov for the USSR, and Gen de Lattre de Tassigny for France.

The Potsdam Conference The policy to be followed towards defeated Germany was decided at the Potsdam Conference (17 July–2 August 1945), which was attended by President Truman for the USA, Stalin for the USSR, and Winston Churchill and then Clement Attlee for the UK.

The main decision of the conference was that the political and economic life of Germany was to be decentralized. All laws of Nazi origin were to be abolished, and reorganization of the judicial system and of education was to follow. There was to be complete disarmament and elimination of war potential. The western frontier of Poland was fixed provisionally on the Oder–Neisse line, thus giving Silesia and Prussia east of the Oder to Poland, which also gained the southwestern part of East Prussia, including Danzig (Gdańsk). The northeastern part of East Prussia, including Königsberg (Kaliningrad), was allotted to the USSR.

As a result of the Potsdam Conference the zones of occupation were given a demarcation slightly different from the areas originally taken up by the occupying armies earlier in the year. The British zone included the Ruhr, the northern Rhineland, Westphalia, Hannover, Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Lippe, Schaumburg-Lippe, Brunswick, Heligoland, and the Frisian Islands. The US zone included Bavaria, part of Württemberg, Bremen, Waldeck, Hesse and Hesse-Nassau, and Baden north of and including Karlsruhe. The Soviet zone included Mecklenburg, Brandenburg west of the Oder, Anhalt, Thuringia, and Saxony. The French zone included the southern Rhineland, the Saar basin, the Rhenish Palatinate, Baden south of Karlsruhe, and part of Württemberg. Berlin (situated within the Soviet zone) was created as a fifth zone, divided into areas of occupation among the four powers.

The Western and Eastern blocs By 1946 the four zones of occupation had hardened almost into the semblance of two separate states: the French, British, and US zones forming a Western bloc, the Soviet zone an Eastern bloc.

In the West permission was granted for the formulation of political parties with the prospect of free elections at a later date, the leading political figures at the time being Konrad Adenauer (Christian Democrat) and Kurt Schumacher (Social Democrat). Parallel with the growth of political activity went the process of denazification and reconstruction.

In the Soviet zone Wilhelm Pieck and Walter Ulbricht, former leaders of the German Communist Party, returned to Berlin under Soviet auspices, the former to become chairman of the Party's central committee. Under Soviet pressure it was proposed to fuse the Social Democratic Party with the communists. This fusion was formally effected in June 1946, and Pieck and Otto Grotewohl, the fusionist leader of the Social Democratic Party, became joint chairmen of a single Socialist Unity Party, in reality entirely communist in its orientation.

In the Soviet zone the large estates of Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, and Saxony were broken up, and land amounting to around 16,200 sq km/6,250 sq mi was distributed to some 300,000 families of peasants, including German refugees deported from Poland and Czechoslovakia. A central administration for the whole zone was created in Berlin.

The first post-war elections Elections for the provincial assemblies in the East were held in 1946, with the Socialist Unity Party in the majority throughout the zone. Municipal elections were held in all four zones in various stages throughout 1946 – the first free elections since 1932. In the British, US, and French zones the Christian Democrats proved the strongest party, with the Social Democrats a strong second. In the Soviet zone the Socialist Unity Party had the strongest vote. In Berlin itself the Social Democrats won a victory in the face of strong communist opposition.

Political polarization between East and West In 1946 the USA and Britain agreed on the economic fusion of their zones, with the aim of achieving a self-sustaining economy, while maintaining the political independence of the Länder (state) governments concerned. Developments in the Soviet zone were more radical. The occupying power continued the transfer of land, nationalized industries, removed vast quantities of goods and equipment to the USSR, and rapidly tightened the hold of the one-party regime.

In London in December 1947 four-power negotiations in the Council of Foreign Ministers broke down on the future of a politically and economically united Germany. The governments of Britain, France, and the USA therefore decided to carry out, without the USSR, the political and economic integration of their zones. Germany had now become a pawn in the growing political conflict – the Cold War – between the Western world and the USSR.

The Berlin blockade As a part of their plan to aid German recovery the Western powers announced a drastic currency reform to apply to their zones but not to Berlin; and on 20 June 1948 the Reichsmark was withdrawn and the new Deutschmark introduced. The Soviets countered this move with an order forbidding all traffic between their zone and the West. Thus on 24 June 1948 began the ‘blockade of Berlin’, which the Allies countered with an airlift to supply their sectors with food and other goods. The blockade lasted until May 1949, and final restrictions were not lifted until September 1949. The blockade marked the formal division of Berlin into eastern and western sectors.

The foundation of the German Federal Republic With the likelihood of a German government for the whole of Germany now fast receding, in June 1948 the Western Allies recommended that the Germans call together a parliamentary assembly for West Germany by 1 September. The assembly was to work out a constitution by the end of the year and elect a government by the spring of 1949. The Western Allies wanted Germans to administer their own affairs under direct Allied control, because they wanted to ease the burden on the taxpayers at home. They also wanted the political and economic integration of West Germany because it would be a good bargaining counter in their dealings with the USSR. Finally, they wanted an economically prosperous and politically stable Germany to play its part in the European recovery programme.

In September 1948 the Parliamentary Council met in Bonn to begin the work of drafting a constitution. This took several months, but by 23 May 1949 the legislatures of some eight Länder had ratified the Bonn ‘basic law’ by substantial majorities, and the two-thirds majority required before the constitution could be introduced was thus obtained. In anticipation of the completion of the basic law, the governments of the USA, Great Britain, and France had drawn up an agreed memorandum to govern the exercise of their powers and responsibilities in Germany following the creation of a German federal republic. Military government as such would terminate, but West Berlin remained a separate issue on the military side, though considered part of the new federal republic. Thus on 23 May 1949 the German Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) came into being.

In the Soviet zone the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) was formed on 7 October 1949. Germany therefore ceased to exist as a single entity, although both East and West continued to give verbal support to the idea of its eventual reunification.

For subsequent developments in Germany, both East and West, see Germany.