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 | |
| – | General George S. Patton (1885–1945) Acting | 11 November 1945 | 25 November 1945 | 14 days | United States Army | |
| 2 | General Joseph T. McNarney (1893–1972) | 26 November 1945 | 5 January 1947 | 1 year, 40 days |  United States Air Force | |
| 3 | General Lucius D. Clay (1898–1978) | 6 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 | Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Rokossovsky (1896–1968) Commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front (in Mecklenburg ) | April 1945 | 9 June 1945 | 2 months | Soviet Army | |
| N/A | Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Konev (1897–1973) Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front (in Saxony ) | April 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 | Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Sokolovsky (1897–1968) | 10 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 |
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The economy of this country was centrally planned and state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, it became the most successful economy in the Eastern Bloc.
The Potsdam Conference was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone 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 agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe on 1 August 1945 and it was published the next day. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned the military occupation and reconstruction of Germany, its border, 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. France was not invited to the conference but formally remained one of the powers occupying Germany.
West Germany is the colloquial English term used to describe the Federal Republic of Germany from its formation on 23 May 1949 until the reunification of Germany through the accession of East Germany on 3 October 1990. During the Cold War, the western portion of Germany and the associated territory of West Berlin were parts of the Western Bloc. West Germany was formed as a political entity during the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, established from 12 states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The FRG's provisional capital was the city of Bonn, and the Cold War–era country is retrospectively designated as the Bonn Republic.
West Berlin was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1990, the territory was claimed by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), despite being entirely surrounded by East Germany (GDR). The legality of this claim was contested by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. However, West Berlin de facto aligned itself politically with the FRG from May 1949 and was thereafter treated as a de facto city-state of that country. After 1949, it was directly or indirectly represented in the institutions of the FRG, and most of its residents were citizens of the FRG.
High commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.
The final battles of the European theatre of World War II continued after the definitive surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies, signed by Field marshal Wilhelm Keitel on 8 May 1945 in Karlshorst, Berlin. After German leader Adolf Hitler's suicide and handing over of power to grand admiral Karl Dönitz on the last day of April 1945, Soviet troops conquered Berlin and accepted surrender of the Dönitz-led government. The last battles were fought on the Eastern Front which ended in the total surrender of all of Nazi Germany’s remaining armed forces such as in the Courland Pocket in western Latvia from Army Group Courland in the Baltics surrendering on 10 May 1945 and in Czechoslovakia during the Prague offensive on 11 May 1945.
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in October 1949.
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 a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining German armed forces to the Allies, and ended World War II in Europe; the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and the surrender took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day.
The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Like occupied Japan, Germany was stripped of its sovereignty and former state: after Nazi Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, four countries representing the Allies asserted joint authority and sovereignty through the Allied Control Council (ACC). At first, Allied-occupied Germany was defined as all territories of Germany before the 1938 Nazi annexation of Austria; the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945 defined the new eastern German border by giving Poland and the Soviet Union all regions of Germany east of the Oder–Neisse line and divided the remaining "Germany as a whole" into four occupation zones, each administered by one of the Allies.
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 or the Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany, 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 de jure "supreme authority" over Germany after its military defeat and asserted the legitimacy of their joint determination of issues regarding its administration and boundaries prior to the forthcoming Potsdam Conference.
The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority, and also referred to as the Four Powers, was the governing body of the Allied occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Austria (1945–1955) after the end of World War II in Europe. After the defeat of the Nazis, Germany and Austria were occupied as two different areas, both by the same four Allies. Both were later divided into four zones by the 1 August 1945 Potsdam Agreement. Its members were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. The organisation was based in Schöneberg, Berlin.
The American occupation zone in Germany, also known as the US-Zone, and the Southwest zone, was one of the four occupation zones established by the Allies of World War II in Germany west of the Oder–Neisse line in July 1945, around two months after the German surrender and the end of World War II in Europe. It was controlled by the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) and ceased to exist after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany on 21 September 1949, but United States maintains military presence across Germany.
