Figure 1.--Here we see two German boys with French soldiers. We are not sure when the photograph was taken. We suspectvit was several years after the War because the Allies, especially the French, were not very friendly with German civilians when they first arrived.

The initial plan for occupying Germany involved three occupation zones for each of the principal Allied powers (American, British, and Soviet) that waged the War against NAZI Germany. The Allies subsequently decided to give the French, who had been occupied ny Germany, an occupation zone as well. The French Zone was cut out of the previously determined American and British zone. Each country was responsible for administeing the occupation in their zone ahnd hsd the authority to develop policies on their own. The plan was to coordinate policies in German through the Allied Control Council, but this effort proved difficult because of the instrasigent Soviet position and program that differeed from the more democratic effort pursued by the Western allies (1946-47). Finally with the Western currency reform Soviet blockade of Berlin, cooperation ended entirely (1948). The Western Allies decided to join their occupation zone. First the Americans and British (Bizone) combined their zones and then the French zone (Trizone). The three western zones were finally joined to form the Federal Republic of Germany (May 1949). This mean that occupation policies had to be coordinated by the Western Allies. The Soviets proceeded to set up the German Democratic Republic (October 1949).

American Zone

The American occupation zone was located primarily in the south. President Roosevelt wanted the north. He found out too late that the placment of American troop camps in the west of England meant that they would get the Western D-Day invasion beaches and any crossover posed a logistiucal nightmare. So Britain got the north and the Americans the south. This corresponded to the opperational area of American combat units. It consisted of Bavaria and Hesse in the south as well as the northern area of Baden-Württemberg. American authorities decided that they wanted a presence in the north. The port cities of Bremen (Weser River) and Bremerhaven (junction of the Weser and North Sea) thus came under American comtrol. The American military government was headquartered at the former IG Farben Building in Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main). The initial thought behind the occupation was that the largely agricultural Soviet eastern zone would help feed the more industrialized western zones which would provide industrial reparations to the Soviets. When the Soviets began stripping their zone of whatvwas left of industry there and provided very little in food, this trade off never occurred.

British Zone

Britain was the only one of the three major Allied powers to have fought the NAZIs from the begining of the War. The British occupation zone was located in the north. The British Military Government (Control Commission for Germany – British Element--CCG-BE) was headquartered in Bad Oeynhausen. Field Marshal Montgomery was the first British Military Governor. Montgomery had served as a young officer in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) after World War I as part of the occupation of the Rhineland (Cologne and surrounding areas). Their task had been to ensure compliance with the Versailles Peace Treaty. Montgomery decided that he would take the approach the occupation as if it were a military operation. The first major priority was the ‘Battle of the Winter’ and set about securing food, work and homes for the Germans. He had the British Army to work with and the civilian CCG-BE which had been established in Britain and transferred to Germany (July and August 1945). The northern zone was not based on any Allied decision. The north was the operational area of British and Canadian combat units when they fought their way into the Reich. The British zone included Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia Hannover, parts of the Rhineland, and Westphalia. Some of these had their borders changed or merged with the states before the occupation. While the Britih and Canasuan forces were primarily in the north, there were unit in other sections of Grmany, including areas in the Soviet Zone. These forces with drew into the British Zone (July 1945). They ceded some small sections of their zone to the Soviets. Bremen and Bremerhaven in the north were turned over to the United States so that they had a port. The Rhineland-Palatinate was to be a part of the British Zone, but they turned it over to the French. At Yalta the Americans and British pushed for a French occupation zone. Stalin objected, but relented as long as it would be formed from parts of the Anmerican and Britih zones. The CCG-BE did some border changes such as restituting the traditional German state of Hamburg. We are not sure why these birder changes were made. The British redeployment to turn ovr the restituted traditional German state of Bremen to the Americans (1947). It thus became an American exclave in the middle of the British zone (1947). We are not sure why this occurred.

French Zone

France had begun the War along with Britain as one of the two principal Allied powers. It was defeated by Germany and signed an armistice with the NAZIs leaving Britain tgo fight on zalone (June 1940). A Free French movemrnt led by General DeGuslle rose to oppose the policies of Msrshal Petsin'd Vichy regime and participate in the fight with the NAZIs. Initial plans fir the occupation worked out at Yalta was to not grant the French an occupzatiob zoned. German animpsity toward France as well as the relatively small role France plsyed in the Allied victory were the reasoms for this decesion. Responding to French protestatuins, the Americans and British decided to cut a French occupation zone out of their zones. This resulting French zone consisted of a non-contiguous zone. The French zone was the only one of the four zones which shared a border with the occupyig power. This was significant because of the economic decesions that could be made. The French set up the headquarters of their military government in Baden-Baden. The Saargebiet was an economically important area with rich coal deposits was in the French zone. It had been occupied by France after World War I. The French enlarged it and in 1947 turned into the Saar protectorate. Under French administration it was a theoretically a nominally independent state, but the the French move to integrated it with the French economy.

Unified Zone

The Western Allies joined their occupation zones to form the Federal Republic of Germany (May 1949). The military governors were replaced by civilian high commissioners. The occupation officially continued (until 1955). Atvthis time the Federal Republic became a fully sovereign state. The western occupation zones ceased to exist, and the high commissioners were replaced by ambassadors. A Final Settlement was, however, notvreached until the Soiviets agreed to withdraw from their occupation zone (1990).

Created: 8:48 AM 9/17/2009
Last updated: 7:20 AM 9/10/2018