Brief summary of the complete frame of the German Question (1945-1990)

From a historical and legal standpoint

Johann Albert Wiechers

• Publisher: Difundia Ediciones
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9788412139136
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

At the moment of the publication of this book 75 years have passed since the defeat and beginning of the occupation of Germany by the victorious Allies, and 30 years since the reunification of the country, within restricted boundaries, after 45 years of division. I was born in the New World 20 years after the end of the war, lived most of my youth with the reality of the division, and witnessed the whole reunification process, as a member of a family of German descent living outside Germany.My interest in the subject, plus several logical links to Germany, a vision "from abroad" and obviously my knowledge of German, helped me to start preparing in 1987, well before any possibility of reunification existed, a legal thesis which, unexpectedly, even for me, turned into reality with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification in 1990. I was able to deliver the final work, my professional thesis, personally into the hands of Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker during his state visit to Mexico in 1992. And shortly thereafter I received from him a very rewarding letter.But just now, after 30 years, I am able to publish in English this reworked and updated version of my original thesis, now as a history book. I have tried to condense and explain the facts of 45 years of division so Germans and foreigners can have a full and objective view of all the aspects -historical, political, territorial and legal alike- pertaining to the so-called "German Question" during the period 1945-1990. I hope you enjoy it

CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
OF GERMANY‘S DIVISION

The history of the division of Germany comprises a long period of 45 years, since the defeat of the Reich in the Second World War to the reunification in 1990. But, historically, its origins must be traced back to the contacts held by the allied powers when trying to determine a future order for Europe after Germany‘s defeat. Initially nobody thought that due to said encounters and the resulting agreements the Second World War would not end legally until 45 years after weapons actually ceased to fire. But the allies, without knowing, on one hand opened the way for a long division of the vanquished enemy, but on the other one created the basis for the future reconstruction of the German central government, as we shall see in the next pages.

a) The Atlantic Charter:

The first step with the aim of achieving an understanding on the future of the world after Hitler’s defeat took place between 9 and 12 August 1941, aboard a battleship in waters near Newfoundland, at that time still British territory. The participants were Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, and Winston Spencer Churchill, British Prime Minister, leaders of two countries which were not yet allies. The British Empire was since 1939 in war against Germany, and for one year (until the recent entrance if the Soviet Union into the conflict) after all its European allies had been forced to surrender, the United Kingdom and its overseas Empire had bravely fought a solitary war against the master of continental Europe. The United States, even though still neutral, for a long time had been assisting with its industrial power the war effort of the United Kingdom and of its northern neighbour the Dominion of Canada, and was trying to find a way how to enter into the war on the British side, despite huge internal opposition of the mighty isolationist sector.

On 12 August 1941 the British and U.S. governments made public the so-called «Atlantic Charter», where they expressed their position regarding the war conducted against Nazi Germany. Their countries would not seek any kind of territorial aggrandizement or territorial changes not corresponding to the free wish of the concerned populations, they would respect any government freely chosen by the world nations, and after the destruction of the Nazi regime they hoped to re-establish peace, affording all nations the right to exist safely within their own boundaries. That should mean the establishment of a world system of general security and the disarmament of all peace-threatening nations.

No long afterwards, on 24 September 1941, during the second meeting of the Inter-allied Council held at London’s Saint James Palace, the principles of the Atlantic Charter were officially adopted by the -mostly in exile- governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxemburg, Holland, Norway, Poland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and also by General de Gaulle’s Free France. Nevertheless, this Charter was not be applied to Germany, as we shall see.

Closely connected with this Atlantic Charter, but as an empty statement, on 23 February 1942 the People’s Commissary for Defense of the Soviet Union, Iosif Stalin, issued a public declaration where he rejected press versions that the Red Army had the intention to destroy the German nation and the German state. As Stalin expressed, it was a simple lie created by reactionary forces, inasmuch as the only aim of the Soviet Union was to free its land from Nazi invaders and obviously also to finish with Hitler’s regime. But, in Stalin’s words, it did not mean destroying the German nation or the Reich, as they could not be equalled to Hitler’s government nor blamed for it, since «the experiences of history show that Hitlers come and go, but the German people, the German nation, remains». Unfortunately, this political statement was to have no practical enforcement.

b) The Casablanca Conference:

The second step in the long process was the Casablanca Conference, held between 14 and 25 January 1943 in the well-known city (immortalized in the famous motion picture of even year) located in French Morocco, territory which had recently defected from Vichy’s France and passed to the Allied side. The participants were again U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, now officially allies after the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor and Hitler’s unwise declaration of war to the United States. General Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free France movement, was also invited, but he declined the invitation. The main objective was to settle a common policy of both Anglo-Saxon powers in war against Germany. In this regard, concerning the position of France in the war, it must be taken into consideration that at that moment the legitimate and internationally recognized government of the country was still Marshall Pétain’s Vichy-based regime, and that General de Gaulle’s movement had only restricted recognition. Only after the Liberation of Paris in 1944 did General de Gaulle become the head of an unanimously recognized French Provisional Government.

The most important agreement reached during this Casablanca summit was the decision to prosecute the war until obtaining the «Unconditional Surrender» of Germany and Japan. Regarding Italy the agreement was not to impose said demand, basically with the purpose of leaving the way clear in case Rome decided to abandon its Axis allies, as it actually happened not long thereafter. Even though the exact meaning of this concept «Unconditional Surrender» was not clearly determined at Casablanca, it reached its final shape in the following months and at last fell without mercy on the defeated Reich. Germany and the German authorities, aware of the fate determined by the allies, tried to alter the course of history and several times attempted to reach an understanding with the western allies in order to negotiate a less humiliating peace. The failed attempt on Hitler’s life of 20 July 1944, led by members of the military nobility, sought that goal; and obviously same was the case in the unsuccessful contacts between the government of admiral Dönitz and the British and U.S. top authorities during the first week of May 1945. But fate was finally implacable with Germany and the unconditional surrender became an unavoidable outcome.

c) The Tehran Conference:

The third step in this historical process was the Tehran Conference, held in the capital of Iran (Persia) between 28 November and 1 December 1943, where for the first time U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill met with their Soviet colleague Iosif Stalin. Iran had been recently invaded by the allies and its former pro-Axis government replaced by a pro-Allied one.

President Roosevelt introduced to their colleagues a project prepared by his advisors for the division of Germany into several states: 1) Prussia, reduced in extension; 2) Hanover and Germany‘s north-western part; 3) Saxony and the Leipzig area; 4) Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Cassel (with Nassau) and the Rhine’s southern sector; 5) Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg. These five sections should have self-government, but there would be two additional ones governed by the United Nations: 6) Kiel and its canal; and 7) the Ruhr basin and the Saar. This project was accepted by Stalin, but not by Churchill, who preferred, firstly to isolate Prussia and determine thereafter what to do therewith, and secondly, to separate Bavaria, the Palatinate, Baden, Württemberg and Saxony from its influence.

Parallel thereto, Churchill, not desiring the splitting of Europe into small states, proposed the possibility of establishing a Danube Confederation, probably including Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, etc. Regarding Austria, nevertheless, it had been agreed not to include it in any kind of exclusively German structure. But Stalin, who wanted the dismemberment of Europe, rejected the creation of big states in Central Europe and consequently opposed this confederation, which might have well revived the old Habsburg State.

As to Poland, for several days the three leaders discussed its future boundaries. Stalin demanded the recognition of the borders established in the German-Soviet (Ribbentrop-Molotov) Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, based on the so-called «Curzon Line», ² what meant depriving Poland of thousands of square kilometres of its territory and of millions of inhabitants; but at the same time Stalin proposed that in exchange for that loss Poland were rewarded with German territories, advancing its western frontier to the Oder river. As Churchill himself expressed (in his own brilliant work The Second World War), in principle it was considered that the home of the Polish nation and state should be between the «so-called Curzon Line» and the Oder line, including for Poland East Prussia and Oppeln; though, in Churchill’s opinion, the final tracing of the border line should require careful study and probably exchange of populations in certain points.

As we see, regarding the Oder boundary there was no clear specification where it would start nor which affluent would be part of it, if the western Neisse (crossing Lusatia) or the eastern Neisse (between Breslau and Oppeln), but judging from the talks, the western allies understood that the discussion was regarding the second tributary. Really, the mention of the Oder-Neisse Line came only at the «Yalta Conference».

On the other hand, Stalin, who already in the conference had mentioned his country’s need of obtaining a good warm-water seaport, expressed that the Soviet Union would be satisfied in annexing the seaport of Königsberg, and, provisionally, traced a line on East Prussia’s map.

But neither the Soviet-supported U.S. plan for fractionating Germany, nor the British plan of isolating Prussia and creating a Danube Confederation (or at the same time a Danube Confederation and a Southern German state), nor the Soviet attempt of modifying Germany’s eastern frontiers, were at all considered definitive for the future, at least for the very moment. They did not appear in any official document nor were considered in the allied plans for the occupation of Germany.

d) The Morgenthau Plan:

A next -fortunately dismissed- project for dealing with the future defeated Germany was the so called «Morgenthau Plan», prepared within President Roosevelt’s closest circle. After the Tehran Conference he created a committee integrated by his Secretaries of State, Cordell Hull; War, Henry Lewis Stimson; and Treasure, Henry Morgenthau Jr.; with the purpose of analyzing a prospect for handling with Germany after the war. On 2 September 1944 Henry Morgenthau introduced a plan whose skeleton had been outlined by his under-secretary Harry Dexter White. But the plan was so extremely radical that undoubtedly aimed to dismantle all German industry and to turn the vanquished country into a simple agrarian nation, so protests were immediately raised by Secretaries Stimson and Hull. A second meeting followed on 6 September. Even though the plan remained objected, Roosevelt found some valuable aspects in it.

Between 10 and 16 September 1944, Roosevelt met in Québec (Canada) with Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, British foreign minister, bringing Morgenthau as his advisor. There, Morgenthau introduced his plan to the British, and despite Churchill’s initial apprehensions, on 16 September both Anglo-Saxon leaders approved it. Nevertheless, the opposition by Stimson and Hull forced President Roosevelt to meditate and most of the plan had to be forgotten, even though some of its elements were kept.

According to this plan Germany had to be completely demilitarized, disarming the Wehrmacht and destroying any material or industry which might have military use. Germany should be reduced in extension: East Prussia would be divided between the Soviet Union and Poland; Poland would obtain southern Silesia; France would obtain the Saar and neighbouring regions, and its definitive border would be established on the Rhine and the Moselle; all the Ruhr Basin and its adjacent area would fall under control of the United Nations, and industrial dismantling should be carried on. The remaining part of Germany should be divided into two independent states: a North German state, comprising most of the Prussian state, with Saxony, Thuringia and other smaller states; and a South German state, comprising Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and other small regions. Besides, Austria should be re-established as an independent state within its boundaries of 1938 and associated by a customs union to the South German state. To facilitate this procedure, the Government of the Reich and its administrative structure should be dissolved and replaced by local administrations, re-establishing the 18 existing Länder and turning also into Länder the Prussian provinces, so it that were easier to create two separate confederate-like central organs.

The restitutions and reparations should not be taken from future production, but immediately seized by means of appropriation or confiscation of German territories or German public or private goods, both in Germany and abroad. The allied occupation forces should not be in charge of the economic life of defeated Germany; Germans themselves should take care of their own reconstruction and feeding, while the allied powers would only be responsible for the economic actions indispensable for the military operations and the occupation activities. For twenty years after the unconditional surrender, the United Nations should control the development of German industries; and an ample agrarian reform should take place, dividing the large landed estates among the peasants and eliminating the still existing primogenitures. And, not long after the end of the war, the armed forces of the United States should entrust Germany’s civil administration to the armed forces of Germany’s continental neighbours (Soviets, Poles, Czechs, Belgians, French, etc.) and withdraw as soon as possible from Europe. Provisionally, until an educative reformation could take place, all German universities should be closed, though being German students permitted to go to study abroad; only elementary schools should be allowed to function, and all written German press should be temporarily suppressed.

e) The London «EAC» Protocols:

And now we approach the actually most important agreements for the establishing of an allied occupation structure in Germany, namely the two London Protocols which determined the occupation zones in Germany and the joint administration of the country during the occupation period.

Between 19 October and 1 November 1943 took place in Moscow a conference of the ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Four Great Powers in war against the Axis: Cordell Hull, from the United States; Anthony Eden, from the United Kingdom; Vyacheslav M. Molotov, from the Soviet Union; and Fu-Ping-Sheung, from China. In the course of this conference, and in order to deal with the future defeated Germany, the participants decided to create a so-called «European Advisory Commission», also known as «EAC»; it was formally established in 1944, with seat in London and integrated by representatives of the U.S., British and Soviet governments. This commission was entrusted with the task of preparing separate projects for the division of Germany and Austria into occupation zones and for the administration of both countries during the occupation period.

Regarding Germany, everything was regulated in two basic documents: ³

• the «Protocol on the Zones of Occupation in Germany and the Administration of Greater Berlin» of 12 September 1944, later modified on 14 November 1944 and on 26 July 1945; and

• the «Agreement on Control Machinery in Germany» of 14 November 1944, later modified on 1 May 1945.

Both protocols, with their extant texts, entered into force on 6 February 1945, after being approved by the Three Great at the Yalta Conference, and were confirmed by the Four Powers in their determinations of 5 June 1945.

The «Protocol on the Zones of Occupation in Germany and the Administration of Greater Berlin», in its original text of 12 September 1944, decided the division of Germany and Berlin, respectively, into occupation zones and sectors. The country would be reduced to its boundaries of 31 December 1937, being divided into three occupation zones, one per each power, and a special occupation area in Berlin under joint administration by th...

Table of contents

• INTRODUCTION
• FIRST PART HISTORICAL FRAME
• CHAPTER I HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GERMANY‘S DIVISION
• CHAPTER II THE ALLIED OCCUPATION OF GERMANY (1945-1949)
• SECOND PART THE GERMAN REICH AND ITS COMPOUND PARTS
• CHAPTER III THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
• CHAPTER IV THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
• CHAPTER V GREATER BERLIN
• CHAPTER VI WEST BERLIN
• CHAPTER VII EAST BERLIN
• CHAPTER VIII THE GERMAN EASTERN TERRITORIES
• CHAPTER IX THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA
• CHAPTER X OTHER TERRITORIES OF THE REICH UNDER SPECIAL STATUS
• THIRD PART HISTORICAL EVOLUTION DURING THE DIVISION.
• CHAPTER XI THE «PRETENSION OF SINGLE REPRESENTATION» (1949-1969)
• CHAPTER XII THE «OSTPOLITIK» (1969-1974)
• CHAPTER XIII THE «REGULATED COEXISTENCE» (1974-1989)
• CHAPTER XIV THE GLOBAL FRAME OF THE INTRA-GERMAN RELATIONS DURING THE DIVISION PERIOD (1949-1990)
• FOURTH PART THE OVERCOMING OF THE DIVISION.
• CHAPTER XV THE PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
• CHAPTER XVI THE REUNIFICATION
• CHAPTER XVII HISTORICAL EPILOGUE
• FIFTH PART THE «GERMAN QUESTION» AND INTERNATIONAL LAW.
• CHAPTER XVIII LEGAL STATUS OF THE GERMAN REICH (1945-1990)
• CHAPTER XIX THE QUADRIPARTITE STATUS OF BERLIN (1945-1990)
• CHAPTER XX THE ADMINISTRATION STATUS OF GERMANY‘S EASTERN TERRITORIES (1945-1990)
• CHAPTER XXI THE PEACE TREATY AND GERMANY
• CARTHOGRAPHIC SECTION