Germany 1919-1990

1947

When Germany unconditionally surrendered in 1945 the Governement of the German Realm was taken over by an Alied Control Council. The German Realm as such did not cease to exist, but its governement was now exercised by the allies. Germany within its 1937 boundaries was now the responsibility of the allies. The Saarland was given as a protectorate to France and the areas east of the Oder and Neisse rivers were "temporarily" placed under Polish and Soviet Administration. In practice this ment that these territories were annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union and that its German population was removed and replaced by Poles and Russians. Poland had lost territorry in the East. The parts of Poland that the Soviets annexed in 1939 were not given back, so Poles from these areas repopulated the former Prussian provinces now inder Polish administration. The 1937 border is depicted as a grey line on this map. Later there  would be much ado about the question whether these territories were in theory still a part of allied controlled Germany or not, but in practice they were lost to Germany forever. The rest of Germany was divided into four zones of occupation that is each given its own colour on the map. The Russians, French, British (red) and Americans (light-yellow) each had their own zone of occupation. Berlin was also divided between the four powers. In Austria an Austrian governement was set up, but that country and its capital were also divided into zones of occupation.Maintaining a joint administration of Germany was soon made very difficult by the onset of the Cold War. In Germany and Berlin two seperate administrations developed. One in the three western zones that were economically united and one in the Soviet zone. By 1946 the old German constituent states had been replaced by new ones. Prussia was dissolved in 1946 and its constituent provinces became Lands of Germany. Later more reshuffling was done and the administrative subdivisions of Germany were made more balanced by this proces.