Creation of the FRG 1945-49

• Germany surrendered to the Allies on the 8th May 1945. The country was in ruins:

  • 4 million Germans dead
  • Many cities destroyed through mass bombing
  • No functioning institutions or economy
  • Collapsed currency
  • Widespread fear of starvation and outbreak of disease
  • As many as 7 million adult men were missing or prisoners of war - many would either die or not reappear for 10 years
• The Yalta Conference (February 1945):

  During the conference, it was agreed...

  • Germany would be divided into 4 military zones between the USA, USSR, Great Britain and France
  • These occupation zones would be administered by each of the Allies
  • An Allied Control Council representing all 4 powers would be established to oversee all of the zones
• The Potsdam Conference (June 1945):

  The Allies agreed to the following policies:

  • De-Nazification: post-war trials of Nazi leaders
  • Demilitarisation: military reductions to ensure Germany could never wage aggressive wars again
  • Deindustrialisation: large German industrial concerns would be dismantled, partly to keep Germany weak, but also to ship materials to the Soviet Union to pay reparations
  • Democratisation: Germany should be prepared for democracy
• The Potsdam Conference (June 1945):

  It also agreed that the capital city, Berlin, was to be similarly sub-divided. However, it laid within the Soviet zone and there was no formal agreement about how the Western Allies would access their zones.

  It was further agreed that each country would take reparations from their own zones. USA and Great Britain would also give the Soviet Union 10% of industrial machinery from their zones and another 15% in return for food and raw materials from the Soviet zone.
• Initial Division of Germany Post-War

  A) Great Britain

  B) USSR

  C) France

  D) USA

  
• The cost of rebuilding and reparations were destroying the German economy in the immediate post-war years. Western Germany was dependent on food imports from the east and as these dried up, conditions of semi-starvation ensued. Many Germans existed on less than 1000 calories per day. It was quickly realised that starving Germany benefited no one and the country had to recover.
• In the summer of 1946, the USA and Great Britain merged their zones economically into 'Bizonia', using co-operation in an attempt to help Germany recover. The French joined their zone to Bizonia in April 1949 to create 'Trizonia'. With 3 western zones joined economically, political unification seemed more likely. This created the possibility of 2 Germanies, one capitalist and western and the other communist and dominated by the Soviet Union.
• Co-operation between the Russians and the Western Powers was breaking down in the Allied Control Council (ACC). For example, after the Russian's refusal to deliver food, the US zone suspended reparation payments to the USSR in May 1946. The situation was made worse by external tensions, such as the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia in 1948 and the Treaty of Brussels in March, setting up a military alliance (the Western European Union). The final straw was when the Russian representative waled out of the ACC in March 1948 over plans to introduce a new currency in the 3 western zones.
• As tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA grew, the USA cancelled plans to reduce its military forces and announced its forces would remain in Germany. This period saw the development of the cold war.
• The USA was increasingly concerned that communism may spread throughout Europe, especially since economic recovery was slow and that communist parties were sharing power in Italy and France. The US president Harry Truman was influenced by the Domino Theory, which suggested that if one country became communist, its neighbours would follow. He introduced the Truman Doctrine in 1947, suggesting that the USA would help countries fight communism, as seen when, in 1947, he sent US troops to Greece to fight communist rebels. It became obvious Europe was becoming divided between the USA and USSR.
• Following the harsh winter of 1946-47, influential Americans realised that Europe couldn't recover without help. In June 1947, the Marshall Plan was introduced to finance Europe to aid recovery. The USSR and most of its satellite countries didn't attend the July Conference in Paris where the plan was discussed. This can be seen as the formal division of Europe into Soviet and capitalist zones of influence, which was explained in terms of a cold war - hostility without actually fighting each other directly.
• The Deutschmark was an immediate success and the West began to make rapid economic progress. The Soviet zone, meanwhile continued in comparative poverty, even though they had retaliated by introducing a new currency, the Ostmark.
• The Berlin Blockade:

  Stalin decided to attempt to take all of Berlin and ordered a blockade of west Berlin. He ordered electricity supplies, generated in the east, to be cut off to the west and on the 24th June 1948, all land and canal routes from the western zones to west Berlin were blocked. He intended that the west Berlin authorities would face the alternatives of starvation or agreeing to join the Soviet zone.
• The Airlift:

  However, in response to the Berlin Blockade, the Western Powers organised an airlift. By September, they were flying 4641 tons of supplies every day. In April 1949, they were even managing almost 8000 tons, including items such as coal. Altogether, over 2 million tones were flown into Berlin. By May, Stalin realised the Allies wouldn't give in and restored electricity supplies and allowed convoys to use land and canal routes again. The blockade had failed and the airlift showed the Allies wouldn't abandon Berlin. It also highlighted that Germany had become divided.
• German political parties began to re-emerge in the western zones shortly after the end of the war. They were initially created to participate in elections for the Lander or states in the US zone in 1946, and the French and British zones a year later.
• Two main political parties emerged as the dominant forces within German politics:

  • The CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union / Christian Social Union) - led by Konrad Adenauer. This was a centre-right party, embracing former members of the ZP, nationalists and democrats, which had a genuine feel for social welfare.
  • The SPD (Social Democratic Party) - led by Kurt Schumacher. This party survived from the Weimar Republic and maintained a socialist agenda mixed with elements of nationalism.
• Other political parties that emerged included:

  • German liberal parties, such as the Free Democratic Party (FDP)
  • Smaller parties, such as the conservative German party (DP)
• All major political parties created wanted to avoid the divisions of the 1920s that contributed to Hitler coming to power. A key question facing them and the Allies was how post-war Germany would be structured. This led to the formation of the Basic Law, giving the FRG a new democratic constitution, which led the way to self-governance in 1955.