Reorientation after 1945 : Germany

Following the unconditional surrender of the German forces on 8/9 May 1945, the last government of the German Reich, headed by Grand Admiral Karl Donitz, remained in power for another two weeks. Its members were then arrested and, together with other National Socialist leaders, tried by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg for crimes against peace and humanity.

On 5June the victorious powers - the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and France -assumed supreme authority in the territory of the Reich. Their basic objective, according to the London Protocol (12 September 1944) and follow-up agreements, was to exercise total control over Germany. They divided the country into three occupation zones and Berlin, the capital, into three sectors. There was an Allied Control Council composed of the three commanders-in-chief. Once and for all, Germany was to be prevented from again aspiring to world domination as it had done in 1914 and 1939. The Allies wanted to curb the “Teutonic appetite for conquest”, destroy Prussia as a stronghold of militarism, punish the Germans for genocide and war crimes, and reeducate them in the democratic spirit.