Developments in the Zones (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes
Developments in the Zones
Post-war Germany was divided into four occupation zones, each controlled by one of the victorious Allied powers: the USA, Britain, France, and the USSR. While each zone had its own military governor who could administer the territory differently, coordination was meant to occur through the Allied Control Council (ACC) - a body designed to maintain economic and political unity across Germany. However, the ACC required unanimous agreement for all decisions, which meant that any single power could block proposals and remain independent of the others.
Critical Structural Weakness: The requirement for unanimous agreement in the Allied Control Council created a fundamental flaw in the occupation system. This meant that any single power could effectively paralyze decision-making and pursue independent policies in its zone, making coordinated governance of Germany virtually impossible when the Allies' interests diverged.
This structural weakness would prove critical as the zones developed in increasingly divergent directions.
The Soviet Zone
Stalin recognised early, from 1945 onwards, that a centralised German party system would serve Soviet interests. The USSR initially permitted four political parties to operate in the Soviet Zone:
- Communists (KPD): The Communist Party of Germany
- German Social Democrats (SPD): The main left-wing democratic party
- Liberals (LDPD): The Liberal Democratic Party
- Christians Democrats (CDU): The Christian Democratic Union
Stalin's Political Strategy: Stalin's strategy was for the communist group to emerge as the dominant force, which would then form the nucleus of a broader all-German communist movement. This apparent tolerance of political diversity, however, masked the USSR's determination to control German politics.
When it became clear that the separate parties were not producing the desired Soviet dominance, Stalin moved decisively. In February 1946, the Soviet Military Administration of Germany (SMAD) forcibly merged the SPD and KPD into a new party: the Socialist Unity Party or Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland (SED).
The Forced Merger: There was substantial opposition to this merger within the SPD, led by Kurt Schumacher, but Soviet pressure proved overwhelming. The creation of the SED demonstrated that Soviet attempts to influence and control German politics through apparently democratic means had failed, prompting more direct intervention.
Beyond party politics, the USSR implemented a series of unilateral policies in its zone, acting outside the ACC agreement:
- Land reform: Redistributing agricultural land to break up large estates
- Nationalisation of large industrial production: Bringing major industries under state control
- Compulsory tuition in the Russian language: Imposing Russian as a mandatory subject for German school pupils
These measures made it increasingly apparent that the Soviet Zone was being subjected to the Soviet model of peoples' democracies - authoritarian communist regimes that had emerged across Eastern Europe after 1945. The communists gradually took control of other left-wing groups and subsumed them under their authority. What had begun as an occupation zone was being transformed into a satellite state of the USSR, a place perceived by Germans in the Western zones as one of tyranny and repression.
Stalin's Directive - April 1946: In April 1946, Stalin issued a directive to SMAD that made Soviet intentions explicit. The directive stated that it was time to establish central authorities and continue with a policy of centralisation in Germany. The immediate goal of securing effective Soviet control over the occupation zone had been achieved; now the moment had come to extend Soviet influence into the Western zones through the instrument of the United Socialist Party. Stalin's vision was that once the Unity Party had established itself in the Western zones, the time would be right to address the question of central administrations across all of Germany and to secure effective Soviet support for a policy of centralisation.
The British Zone
The British Zone, located in the north-western part of Germany, encompassed approximately 22.5 million people and included the major port of Hamburg and the Ruhr industrial area. This responsibility brought substantial problems for Britain. The large population was costly to feed, and this burden increased Britain's dependency on American financial assistance.
The Ruhr's Strategic Importance: Britain faced concerns from two directions: both Soviet and French efforts to influence the control of the Ruhr, the industrial heartland of Germany. The Ruhr region in the British Zone was the centre of Germany's economic recovery. The economic importance of the Ruhr had direct political implications.
If the Soviet Union gained influence over this region, it would secure access to further reparations from Germany, which might weaken Germany's economic recovery and strengthen the possibility of a shift towards support for communism among disaffected Germans. By the spring of 1946, Britain's primary fear was that a revived Germany might either cooperate with the USSR or, in a worse scenario, become dominated by it.
Responding to these concerns, on 23 August 1946 Britain's military government in Germany created the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. This administrative reorganisation demonstrated British commitment to establishing stable governance structures in its zone. It was at this juncture that Britain committed itself to the merger of the British and American zones, recognising that cooperation with the USA offered the best prospect for securing the Western zones against Soviet expansion.
The American Zone
American policy towards its zone and the broader question of joint occupation of Germany contained considerable ambiguity. In the summer of 1945, diplomat George Kennan argued clearly that the USA must develop in its zone a degree of independence and economic security that would ensure Germany's ability to resist any potential threat from the Eastern Bloc communist states in Europe. Initially, however, the US administration remained committed to making joint occupation work through the Allied Control Council.
The administrative organisation for managing the American zones of Western Germany and West Berlin was the Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS), led initially by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and subsequently by his deputy, General Lucius Clay. OMGUS had multiple responsibilities, including carrying out surveys to establish the extent to which Nazism and Nazi sympathy had been removed from Germany following defeat, and monitoring the appointment of new officials from among the German population.
Key Figure: Lucius Clay Lucius Clay (1897–1978), the military governor of the US Zone from 1947 and Commander-in-Chief of US forces in Europe, became highly influential in shifting US policy towards Germany. He advocated for the reconstruction of the German economy rather than its dismemberment, and his influence on George Marshall contributed substantially towards the division of Germany by 1949.
By the spring of 1947, Clay's position had changed markedly. He now opposed three specific Soviet demands:
Clay's Opposition to Soviet Demands:
- The Soviet demand that the Ruhr should be placed under joint allied control
- The continued social and economic deprivation of the German populations in the US and British zones
- The Soviet desire to create a centralised Germany under communist influence
Clay's changing stance reflected broader shifts in American thinking. The USA allowed free elections in its zone and regarded the German Lander (state) as the basis for a future national structure based on federalism - a system of government with a central government dealing with laws covering the whole country, while individual state governments make laws specific to their state. This approach contrasted sharply with the Soviet preference for centralised control.
The French Zone
France's position on Germany differed markedly from that of the other Western powers. Up to 1947, France had called for the complete dismemberment of Germany and for the internationalisation of the Ruhr in particular, with a strong French influence on its administration. For France, Germany was to become a collection of small autonomous (independent) states rather than a unified nation.
France was a major factor in ensuring that the ACC could not function effectively. French obstruction meant that the four-power system of coordinating occupation policy broke down repeatedly. Ultimately, the French position evolved to support the creation of two German states, with the Western part closely allied to and influenced by the Western powers.
French Security Concerns: This stance conformed to French determination to secure the dismemberment of Germany and to pursue a strategy that would ensure France's long-term security against a resurgent German state. French fears of renewed German aggression, rooted in the experiences of 1870, 1914, and 1940, drove this uncompromising approach.
Bizonia and currency reform
By 1946, the USA and Britain were determined to establish a degree of economic recovery in their zones. The British were absorbing substantial numbers of German refugees who had been expelled by the Poles and the Czechs from territories now under their control. Additionally, there was continuing dispute with the USSR over the scale of reparations that could be demanded from the Western zones.
The Soviet Union systematically removed industrial plant and other resources from Germany to restore its own industrial recovery. Such reparations had been agreed at Potsdam, but the USSR wanted more reparations than the other allies could accept. In May 1946, General Clay announced that no further reparations to the USSR would be allowed until there was an overall plan agreed for Germany's economic recovery. The USSR interpreted this as an American strategy designed to create a German economy based on the Western capitalist system rather than Soviet-style central planning.
The Creation of Bizonia: In January 1947, the British and American zones were merged economically into what became known as Bizonia. The American rationale was that this merger was consistent with the Potsdam Agreement of 1945. However, it was also unmistakably a signal that the four-power control of Germany had failed. This development, alongside the Marshall Plan for European economic recovery, was a determining factor in the evolution of a divided Germany.
The Soviet response was to oppose Bizonia vigorously. At the Moscow Conference, held during March and April 1947, the Council of Ministers consisting of Britain, France, China, the USA and the USSR met to address Germany's future. The USSR demanded that a new central administration should be created under Soviet influence. This Soviet attempt failed, and no firm decisions on the future of Germany were reached.
Another conference was convened in London during November and December 1947, but this too ended in failure. The USSR accused the West of unjustly denying it the reparations it was owed, while the West feared that a centralised administration would lead to a Soviet-controlled Germany.
The Path to Division: The outcome of this conference confirmed what the Western powers had already recognised: that four-power control of Germany would not work, and that there was now urgent necessity to strengthen the economy of the Western zones of Germany and move towards the creation of a West German state aligned to a Western alliance.
Between February and June 1948, Britain, France, the USA and the Benelux states (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) met in London to discuss the establishment of a West German state. This conference, known as the London Conference of Western Powers, marked a decisive step towards German division.
Key Points to Remember:
- The Allied Control Council required unanimous decisions, enabling any single power to block agreements and pursue independent policies in its zone.
- The Soviet Zone underwent rapid transformation through the forced merger of the SPD and KPD into the SED in February 1946, alongside unilateral policies including land reform, nationalisation, and the imposition of Russian language instruction, creating a peoples' democracy on the Soviet model.
- The British and American zones merged economically into Bizonia in January 1947, signalling the failure of four-power control and representing a decisive move towards the creation of separate German states.
- By spring 1947, American policy had shifted significantly, with General Lucius Clay opposing Soviet demands for joint control of the Ruhr, continued economic deprivation, and centralisation of Germany.
- France consistently obstructed the ACC and advocated for German dismemberment, whilst the failure of the Moscow Conference (March–April 1947) and London Conference (November–December 1947) confirmed that four-power cooperation over Germany had broken down irretrievably.