TODAY is the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Declaration in which the UK, USA, USSR and France effectively dissolved Germany as a state. The Declaration was an important moment in world history as it inadvertently – or perhaps deliberately – started Soviet control of what became the Eastern Bloc and also prepared the way for the division of Germany into West and East and started the process which led to the Cold War.

Victory in Europe Day had been signalled less than a month before and even while they continued to fight the Japanese Empire in the Far East, the Allies were anxious to start the work of destroying Nazism and rounding up Germany’s alleged war criminals for trials eventually held at Nuremberg.

There was much talk of co-operation between the Allies and building a new world, exemplified by the United Nations. First of all, however, the big-four Allies had to declare their authority over the beaten country in order that some form of government and the rule of law could be imposed on Germany.

Key to that was the assertion that ‘Germany’ would return to its borders as they were in 1937 and that the country would be divided into four zones, one of each of them to be administered by the four Allied powers.

The USSR insisted that the meeting to ratify the declaration be held in Berlin-Wendenschloss, well inside the German territory it had captured.

WHO SIGNED THE DECLARATION?

THE document was entitled: “Declaration regarding the defeat of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority with respect to Germany by the Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic.”

The four signatories were the supreme commanders of each of the military forces – General Dwight D Eisenhower for the USA, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery for the UK, Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov and General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny of France.

It was realpolitik writ large by the big-four Allies. They had seen themselves as leaders of the free world against the Nazis and were determined to ensure Germany, and especially the Nazi Party, was subdued – destroyed in the case of the latter.

France at that time had only a provisional government but General Charles de Gaulle had insisted on it getting one of the zones. De Gaulle argued France was vital to the Allied cause because of its extensive border with Germany. He got his way as Britain and America agreed the French could have a zone carved out of their proposed territories.

Italy had changed sides to fight against the Axis powers but never claimed to want a bit of Germany. Other countries, such as Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia were also left off the invitation list – the Soviets had plans for them.

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WHAT DID THE DECLARATION SAY?

IT came in three parts. The first proclaimed the unconditional surrender of Germany and the assumption of supreme authority by the Allies. “Germany”, it said, “has become subject to such requirements as may now or hereafter be imposed upon her.”

Second came the establishment of the ruling Allied Control Council while the third document carved up the occupation zones. Berlin was treated as a special area under joint occupation by all four powers. Divided into four sectors, the city was governed by a four-power administration called the Allied Kommandatura. It was a recipe for confrontation.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

THE Allied Control Council was now nominally the highest power in Germany but with each occupied zone being ruled over by a single occupying power, it soon became clear that decisions would be taken by the military commanders of each zone, with the Council becoming increasingly redundant.

The hunt for Nazis, especially war criminals, pre-occupied the Allies, and the Nuremberg Trials briefly united them. The Potsdam Conference was held in July and August and confirmed the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.

The differences between the Soviet Union and the other three Allies widened by the month in occupied Germany, and the division of Germany and the Cold War became inevitable. All the talk of the Allies coming together to build a new world order of peace and stability was just that – talk.