HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 15

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HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 15

• The Cold War Division of Germany

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The Morgenthau Plan

• Drawn up by the US Secretary of State, Henry
  Morgenthau.
• Designed to ensure that Germany could never again
  be a threat to her neighbours.
• Germany to be divided into independent states,
  higher education prohibited and heavy industry
  destroyed.
• Pressure from the public to punish Germany led to
  this being adopted as official US and UK policy
  until the spring of 1945.

US Secretary of State, Henry Morenthau
Jr. (1891-1967)
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The Yalta Conference

• An Allied Control Commission to be established to
  govern a defeated Germany.
• Germany to be occupied by the 3 wartime allies
  and France. Each power was to occupy and
  administer a zone of its own.
• The USSR was to retain the territory seized under
  the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939 the borders of
  Poland were to be shifted westwards.
• Reparations to be extracted from Germany.

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Crimean
resort of Yalta, February 1945
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Occupied Berlin
Source R. Overy, The Penguin Historical Atlas of
the Third Reich (1996)
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Divisions within the Allies

• The Americans wanted a decentralized, federal
  democratic system in Germany (modelled on the US
  constitution).
• Great Britain wanted Germany denazified and
  demilitarized, but then a revival of the economy
  security from attack, then business as usual
  (Kramer).
• Russia envisioned a united and neutral Germany.
  Her priorities were to consolidate gains in
  Eastern Europe extract reparations from
  Germany.
• French aims were similar to those after WW1
  They wanted Germany broken up into weak states
  that would be no threat to French security and
  the creation of buffer zones in the Rhineland and
  the Saar.

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Problems facing the Allies

• Germany is social, political and economic chaos.
• German cities had been destroyed by Allied
  bombing 75 of buildings in Berlin had been
  demolished, only 1 of buildings in Hanover were
  undamaged.
• Communications infrastructure had been
  similarly disrupted roads, rail networks,
  bridges etc.
• Social chaos old social structures disrupted,
  German men killed or imprisoned during the war,
  women had to fend for themselves.
• Refugee crisis up to 12 million Germans migrated
  from the east, plus thousands displaced within
  Germany, POWs and concentration camp inmates.

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Source R. Overy, The Penguin Historical Atlas of
the Third Reich
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Problems facing the Allies

• Germany is social, political and economic chaos.
• German cities had been destroyed by Allied
  bombing 75 of buildings in Berlin had been
  demolished, only 1 of buildings in Hanover were
  undamaged.
• Communications infrastructure had been
  similarly disrupted roads, rail networks,
  bridges etc.
• Social chaos old social structures disrupted,
  German men killed or imprisoned during the war,
  women had to fend for themselves.
• Refugee crisis up to 12 million Germans migrated
  from the east, plus thousands displaced within
  Germany, POWs and concentration camp inmates.
• Political chaos no authority or administration,
  need for restoration of law order.
• Basic necessities of life had to be restored
  gas, electricity, water, food supplies, housing
  etc.

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The Potsdam Conference

• The Allies agreed on the broad principles for the
  treatment of Germany
• Demilitarization disarmament.
• Denazification democratization.
• Industry to be decentralizaed reconstruction
  focus on peaceful domestic industries.
• No central government for the time being.
• Reparations in kind rather than cash each power
  authorized to seize goods from their own zone.
  The USSR to get 50 of the total amount.
• All decisions to be taken collegially within the
  Allied Control Council.
• These temporary measures, pending a formal peace
  conference.

Attlee, Truman and Stalin at Potsdam.
Standing behind them are their respective foreign
ministers Ernest Bevin, James Byrnes
Vyacheslav Molotov.
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Denazification

• Nuremberg Trials 22 Nazi leaders put on trial,
  12 condemned to death.
• Four-power agreement on the need to remove Nazis
  from the civil service, judiciary, education etc.
• Differences in approach
• Russians saw Nazism as an outgrowth of German
  capitalism radical structural reforms.
• Americans wanted to remove Nazism but maintain
  the existing social economic structure a more
  bureaucratic approach.
• British French saw Nazism as inherent in the
  German national character an emphasis on
  re-education.
• Denazification ultimately devolved to German
  tribunals.

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Democratization

• 1947 Break up of the old state of Prussia.
• Creation of new administrative areas (Länder)
  within the zones of occupation.
• Differences in approach
• A more centralized approach in the British zone
  unelected German officials made up Central
  Economic Office Zonal Advisory Council.
  Municipal elections in autumn 1946, elections to
  state assemblies in May 1947.
• The Americans keen to introduce democracy as soon
  as possible elections held in Jan. 1946. By the
  beginning of 1947 power had been devolved to the
  Länder in the US zone.
• The Russians established a central authority, the
  Soviet Military Administration of Germany (SMAD),
  in July 1945 at the same time as governments in
  the Länder in their zone.

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The Economy

• Major dislocation in the economy after 1945
  food shortages, valueless currency etc. led to a
  thriving black market.
• Ongoing disagreements over reparations the
  Americans saw the revival of the German economy
  as a priority whereas the Russians wanted
  reparations as soon as possible.
• July 1946 the USA suspends reparations
  deliveries to the Russian zone and offers an
  economic merger of the zones. Only the British
  agree, leading to the creation of the Bizone on 1
  Jan. 1947.
• The French and Soviets continued to extract
  reparations in kind from their zones by 1949
  the Russians had secured over 10 billion worth
  of resources and equipment.
• In the Soviet zone a radical programme of
  nationalization and land reform.
• In the western zones an insistence from the
  Americans that reconstruction and reform be
  achieved within the framework of the free market.

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Steps Towards Division

• 21 April 1946 Merger of the SPD and KPD in the
  Soviet Zone to form the Sozialistische
  Einheitspartei Deutschlands (Socialist Unity
  Party, SED)
• Establishment of the Bizone interpreted by the
  Russians as an attempt to create a separate state
  hostile to the USSR
• July 1947 Centralization of Bizonia with new
  political economic institutions set up.
• In response the Russians establish the German
  Economic Commission (DWK) in their zone.
• Nov-Dec. 1947 Failure of the London Foreign
  Ministers Conference Convinces the Western
  Allies that the Russians are trying to establish
  a Communist puppet state. They determine to
  devolve more power to West Germany integrate it
  into Western Europe to provide a buffer against
  the spread of Communism.
• Feb-March 1948 London Conference Western Allies
  meet to decide the fate of Germany.
• April 1948 The Bizone included in the
  Organization for European Economic Cooperation
  (OEEC) accepts Marshal aid.
• June 1948 The Western powers announce their
  intention to convene a constituent assembly to
  draw up a constitution for a separate West German
  state.

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The Berlin Blockade

• 20 June 1948 A new currency, the Deutschmark,
  introduced in Bizonia, the French Zone and West
  Berlin.
• The Russians fear that this will destabilize the
  economy in their zone move to cut off road
  rail access to West Berlin in the hope of
  pressuring the west to abandon their plans for a
  separate state.
• June 1948-May 1949 The allies airlift fuel
  food into West Berlin.
• A symbolic struggle that back-fired on the
  Russians only accelerated the integration of
  West Germany into the Western European system.

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The Formation of the FRG

• July 1948 65 member Parliamentary Council
  established to draw up a constitution for the
  Western zones.
• 10 Feb. 1949 The proposed constitution presented
  to the Military Governors for their approval.
• 8 May 1949 The Parliamentary Council adopts the
  Basic Law by a vote of 53 to 12.
• Elections in August return a majority for a
  centre-right coalition of the Christian Democrats
  (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP).
• Konrad Adenauer elected first Chancellor of the
  Federal Republic of Germany on 15 September 1949.

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The Formation of the GDR

• Despite the long build up, the establishment of
  the FRG took both the Russians and the East
  Germans by surprise.
• Stalin still hoped that a single neutral German
  state could be formed and was reluctant to agree
  to proposals from the SED leadership for a
  separate state in the East.
• But establishment of the Federal Republic ended
  such hopes and on 7 October 1949 the
  establishment of the German Democratic Republic
  was announced.
• A draft constitution had already been drawn up in
  the spring on paper this was very similar to
  that of FRG. In practice the GDR was a
  single-party state dominated by the SED backed up
  with Russian tanks.
• 12 October A new government led by Otto
  Grotewohl formed.

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The Berlin Wall

• Berlin remained under four-power control after
  1949 Berliners could move relatively freely
  between the Eastern Western Zones.
• This led to many East Germans fleeing to the West
  via Berlin.
• The East German leadership wanted to plug this
  gap proposed doing so by force.
• 1958-61 Berlin Crisis a stand-off between the
  USSR USA over the position of Berlin.
• The East Germans use this as an occasion to close
  the border crossings erect a wall 140 km (87
  miles) long across Berlin.
• Formalized the division of Germany and became the
  symbol of the Cold War division of Europe.

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Conclusion

• Germanys total defeat in WW2 placed her in the
  hands of the Allies.
• Most Germans were more interested in the
  day-to-day struggle to survive than politics.
• The division of Germany therefore has to be seen
  in the context of emerging Cold War tensions
  between the Superpowers.
• Historiography
• Orthodox school the Soviet Union primarily to
  blame for the Cold War division of Germany.
• Revisionist school the Western powers (and the
  USA in particular) primarily to blame for the
  Cold War division of Germany.
• Post-revisionist school both sides share equal
  blame the division of Germany a consequence of
  mutual suspicion and irreconcilable ideological
  differences.