This article lists the administrators of Allied-occupied Germany, which represented the Allies of World War II in Allied-occupied Germany (German : Alliierten-besetztes Deutschland) from the end of World War II in Europe in 1945 [1] [2] [3] until the establishment of West Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; German : Bundesrepublik Deutschland) and East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German : Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) in 1949. [4]
Source: [5]
No. | Portrait | Governor | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) | 8 May 1945 | 10 November 1945 | 186 days | United States Army | |
– | George S. Patton (1885–1945) Acting | General11 November 1945 | 25 November 1945 | 14 days | United States Army | |
2 | Joseph T. McNarney (1893–1972) | General26 November 1945 | 5 January 1947 | 1 year, 40 days | United States Air Force | |
3 | Lucius D. Clay (1898–1978) | General6 January 1947 | 14 May 1949 | 2 years, 128 days | United States Army | |
– | Lieutenant general Clarence R. Huebner (1888–1972) Acting | 15 May 1949 | 21 September 1949 | 129 days | United States Army |
No. | Portrait | High Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | John J. McCloy (1895–1989) | 21 September 1949 | 1 August 1952 | 2 years, 315 days | |
2 | Walter J. Donnelly (1896–1970) | 1 August 1952 | 11 December 1952 | 132 days | |
– | Samuel Reber (1903–1971) Acting | 11 December 1952 | 10 February 1953 | 61 days | |
3 | James B. Conant (1893–1978) | 10 February 1953 | 5 May 1955 | 2 years, 84 days |
No. | Portrait | Governor | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Field marshal Bernard Montgomery (1887–1976) [lower-alpha 1] | 22 May 1945 | 30 April 1946 | 343 days | British Army | |
2 | Air chief marshal Sir Sholto Douglas (1893–1969) | 1 May 1946 | 31 October 1947 | 1 year, 183 days | Royal Air Force | |
3 | General Sir Brian Robertson (1896–1974) | 1 November 1947 | 21 September 1949 | 1 year, 324 days | British Army |
No. | Portrait | High Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | General Sir Brian Robertson (1896–1974) | 21 September 1949 | 24 June 1950 | 276 days | British Army | |
2 | Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick (1897–1964) | 24 June 1950 | 29 September 1953 | 3 years, 97 days | none | |
3 | Sir Frederick Millar (1900–1989) | 29 September 1953 | 5 May 1955 | 1 year, 218 days | none |
No. | Portrait | Commander | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Army general Jean de Lattre de Tassigny (1889–1952) | 8 May 1945 | July 1945 | 1 month | French Army |
No. | Portrait | Governor | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Army general Marie-Pierre Kœnig (1898–1970) | July 1945 | 21 September 1949 | 4 years, 2 months | French Army |
No. | Portrait | High Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | André François-Poncet (1887–1978) | 21 September 1949 | 5 May 1955 | 5 years, 226 days |
No. | Portrait | Commander | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
N/A | Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) Commander of the 1st Belorussian Front (in Brandenburg and Berlin ) | April 1945 | 9 June 1945 | 2 months | Soviet Army | |
N/A | Konstantin Rokossovsky (1896–1968) Commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front (in Mecklenburg ) | Marshal of the Soviet UnionApril 1945 | 9 June 1945 | 2 months | Soviet Army | |
N/A | Ivan Konev (1897–1973) Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front (in Saxony ) | Marshal of the Soviet UnionApril 1945 | 9 June 1945 | 2 months | Soviet Army |
No. | Portrait | Chief Administrator | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (1896–1974) | 9 June 1945 | 10 April 1946 | 305 days | Soviet Army | |
2 | Vasily Sokolovsky (1897–1968) | Marshal of the Soviet Union10 April 1946 | 29 March 1949 | 2 years, 353 days | Soviet Army | |
3 | Army general Vasily Chuikov (1900–1982) | 29 March 1949 | 10 October 1949 | 195 days | Soviet Army |
No. | Portrait | Chairman | Took office | Left office | Time in office | Defence branch |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Army general Vasily Chuikov (1900–1982) | 10 October 1949 | 28 May 1953 | 3 years, 230 days | Soviet Army |
No. | Portrait | High Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Time in office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Vladimir Semyonov (1911–1992) | 28 May 1953 | 16 July 1954 | 1 year, 49 days | |
2 | Georgy Pushkin (1909–1963) | 16 July 1954 | 20 September 1955 | 1 year, 66 days |
The Potsdam Conference was held in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945 to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were represented respectively by General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. They gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had agreed to an unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier. The goals of the conference also included establishing the postwar order, solving issues on the peace treaty, and countering the effects of the war.
The Potsdam Agreement was the August 1945 agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its borders, and the entire European Theatre of War territory. It also addressed Germany's demilitarisation, reparations, the prosecution of war criminals and the mass expulsion of ethnic Germans from various parts of Europe.
High commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.
The history of Germany from 1945–1990 spans the period following World War II during the Division of Germany. The Potsdam Agreement was made between the major winners of World War II on 1 August 1945, in which Germany was separated into spheres of influence during the Cold War between the Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc.
The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II, as well as the overall surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, took place in late April and early May 1945.
The Bizone or Bizonia was the combination of the American and the British occupation zones on 1 January 1947 during the occupation of Germany after World War II. With the addition of the French occupation zone on 1 August 1948 the entity became the Trizone. Later, on 23 May 1949, the Trizone became the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany.
Following the termination of hostilities in World War II, the Allies were in control of the defeated Axis countries. Anticipating the defeat of Germany and Japan, they had already set up the European Advisory Commission and a proposed Far Eastern Advisory Commission to make recommendations for the post war period. Accordingly, they managed their control of the defeated countries through Allied Commissions, often referred to as Allied Control Commissions (ACC), consisting of representatives of the major Allies.
The German Instrument of Surrender was the legal document that effected the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and ended World War II in Europe. The decision to surrender was made public on 7 May 1945. definitive text was signed in Karlshorst, Berlin, on the night of 8 May 1945 by representatives of the three armed services of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and the Allied Expeditionary Force together with the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Red Army, with further French and US representatives signing as witnesses. The signing took place 9 May 1945 at 21:20 local time.
Following the collapse and defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, the victorious Allies asserted joint authority and sovereignty over Germany as a whole, collectively known as Allied-occupied Germany, defined as all territories of the former German Reich west of the Oder–Neisse line, having declared the destruction of Nazi Germany at the death of Adolf Hitler. The four powers divided "Germany as a whole" into four occupation zones for administrative purposes under the three Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. This division was ratified at the August 1945 Potsdam Conference. The four zones were agreed by the United States, United Kingdom and Soviet Union at the February 1945 Yalta Conference, setting aside an earlier division into three zones proposed by the September 1944 London Protocol.
The Allied High Commission was established by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Allied Control Council to regulate and supervise the development of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany.
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D. Clay, it administered the area of Germany and sector of Berlin controlled by the United States Army. The Allied Control Council comprised military authorities from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and France. Though created on January 1, 1946, OMGUS previously reported to the U.S. Group Control Council, Germany (USGCC), which existed from May 8, 1945 until October 1, 1945. OMGUS was eliminated on December 5, 1949, and the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany assumed control of its functions.
The Allied leaders of World War II listed below comprise the important political and military figures who fought for or supported the Allies during World War II. Engaged in total war, they had to adapt to new types of modern warfare, on the military, psychological and economic fronts.
The legal status of Germany concerns the question of the extinction, or otherwise continuation, of the German nation state following the rise and downfall of Nazi Germany, and constitutional hiatus of the military occupation of Germany by the four Allied powers from 1945 to 1949. It became current once again when the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.
The Berlin Declaration of 5 June 1945, had the governments of the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France, acting on behalf of the Allies of World War II, jointly assume "supreme authority" over German territory and asserted the legitimacy of their joint determination of issues regarding its administration and boundaries prior to the forthcoming Potsdam Conference.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Germany and philatelically related areas. The main modern providers of service were the Reichspost (1871–1945), the Deutsche Post under Allied control (1945–1949), the Deutsche Post of the GDR (1949–1990), the Deutsche Bundespost (1949–1995), along with the Deutsche Bundespost Berlin (1949–1990), and are now the Deutsche Post AG.
The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority and also referred to as the Four Powers, was the governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany and Allied-occupied Austria after the end of World War II. Members were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and France. The organisation was based in Berlin-Schöneberg. The council was convened to determine several plans for postwar Europe, including how to change borders and transfer populations in Eastern Europe and Germany. As the four Allied Powers had joined themselves into a condominium asserting supreme power in Germany, the Allied Control Council was constituted the sole legal sovereign authority for Germany as a whole, replacing the extinct civil government of Nazi Germany.
Events in the year 1945 in Germany.
The diplomatic history of World War II includes the major foreign policies and interactions inside the opposing coalitions, the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers, between 1939 and 1945. The military history of the war is covered at World War II. The prewar diplomacy is covered in Causes of World War II and International relations (1919–1939). For the postwar see Cold War.