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Following Germany 's defeat in World War II and the beginning of the Cold War , Germany was split, representing the focus of the two global blocs in the east and west. Only in 1990 would Germany be reunited. GERMAN DIVISION Four occupation zones (click to enlarge)]] At the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, after Germany's Unconditional Surrender on May 8 , 1945 , the Allies divided Germany into Four military Occupation Zones – French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the south, and Soviet in the east. The former (1919-1937) German Provinces East of the Oder-Neisse Line ( East Prussia , Eastern Pomerania and Silesia ) were transferred to Poland , effectively shifting the country westward. Roughly 15 million ethnic Germans suffered terrible hardships in the years 1944 to 1947 during the flight and expulsion from the Eastern German Territories and the Sudetenland . {Link without Title} Of the roughly 12.4 million Germans who in 1944 were living in territory that following the dismembering of Germany would become part of post-war Poland, an estimated 6 million fled or were evacuated before the advance of the around Königsberg was annexed by Soviet Union. ]] The ongoing expulsion of Germans from Poland and Soviet Union , from the Sudetenland , and from Hungary , Yugoslavia and Romania , was authorized by the Allies in Potsdam, but the countries were urged to stop the expulsions at that particular moment due to the strain the exhausted refugees put on available resources in Germany. Many of the remaining Germans, mainly women and children, were subject to severe acts of mistreatment, until finally deported to Germany in the 1950s. They were forced to wear identifying armbands and thousands died in forced labor camps such as Lambinowice , Zgoda Labour Camp , Central Labour Camp Potulice , Central Labour Camp Jaworzno , Glaz, Milecin, Gronowo, and Sikawa. {Link without Title} In addition, 2 - 2.5 million died as a result of ill-organised German evacuation, bombing, sinking of refugee ships, of hunger and deprivation during long marches in bitter cold, in the expulsion trains, in resettlement camps, or murdered by rampaging troops or populace. Another 165,000 were transported by the Soviets to Siberia. The intended governing body of Germany was called the Allied Control Council . The commanders-in-chief exercised supreme authority in their respective zones and acted in concert on questions affecting the whole country. Berlin , which lay in the Soviet (eastern) sector, was also divided into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet sector becoming East Berlin , capital of East Germany . A key item in the occupiers' agenda was Denazification ; toward this end, the Swastika and other outward symbols of the Nazi regime were banned, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was established as a temporary German flag; the latter remained the official flag of the country (necessary for reasons of International Law as German ships had to carry some sort of identifying marker) until East Germany and West Germany (see below) came into existence, separately, in 1949. (in the French zone) is shown with stripes as it was removed from Germany in 1947 as a French Protectorate . Historical Eastern Germany , not contained in this map was annexed by Poland, Lithuania and the Soviet Union.]] The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union had agreed at Potsdam to a broad program of decentralization, treating Germany as a single economic unit with some central administrative departments. These plans broke down in 1948 with the emergence of the Cold War . In order to impress the German people with the Allied opinion of them, a strict non-fraternization policy was adhered to by General Eisenhower and the War department. However, thanks to pressure from the State Department and individual US congressmen this policy was eventually lifted in stages. In June 1945 the prohibition against speaking with German children was made less strict. In July it became possible to speak to German adults in certain circumstances. In September 1945 the whole policy was completely dropped in Austria and Germany. Only the prohibition on marriage between Americans and German or Austrian civilians remained for some time.Perry Biddiscombe "''Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948''", Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) p. 619 Industrial Disarmament in Western Germany | |||
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