Germany's defeat and the aftermath

The first German defeat in Europe came at Stalingrad in February 1943. Later, in 1945, Germany was invaded from both the east and west.

A time line of the German Army majors victories and defeats between 1943 and 1945

Germany was now occupied and divided into four military zones , each controlled by one of the four allied powers: USSR, USA, Britain and France. Its capital Berlin was similarly divided amongst the occupiers.

Map of how Germany was split into four parts controlled by Britain, France, Russia and the US.

Allied policy of denazification

Denazification was the process of removing Nazi ideology and influence from all forms of public life in defeated Germany. The occupying allies carried this process out in a number of ways:

The Nazi Party was banned and advocating National Socialist ideas was made punishable by death.
The Swastika symbol and other Nazi emblems were banned in public.
Germans were made to complete questionnaires about the extent of their involvement in Nazism.
Ex-Nazis were taken on tours of concentration camps or made to watch video clips of Jewish prisoners.

The policy aimed to force Germans to confront the crimes of the Nazi regime, but also to re-educate them in order to leave Nazism behind. In 1946 five categories of involvement were established:

Major offenders
Offenders
Lesser offender
Followers
Persons exonerated

Those who had been involved in suspected war crimes were tried in the Nuremburg Trials, starting in November 1945. The first hearings concerned the 23 most important political, military and economic leaders of Nazi Germany. Only three were acquitted (found not guilty), whilst 12 were sentenced to death.

As the began and Britain and the USA came to see the newly created West Germany as a key ally, denazificaiton was scaled back so as not to offend the population. This allowed a number of ex-Nazis to regain prominence, though Nazi ideology remained firmly crushed as democracy developed.

The differing experiences of people in East and West Germany, 1945–1955

The three western zones of occupation (US, UK and France) merged in May 1949 to become the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly-known as 'West Germany'. Five months later, the eastern Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic or 'East Germany'. Germany was at the centre of the Cold War battle between the capitalist western allies and the communist Soviet Union, and the people of the two German states had very different experiences:

	West Germany	East Germany
Treatment by the allies	Initially, the allies pursued a policy of de-militarisation and de-industrialisation to ensure Germany could not equip itself to fight a war. However, this policy was relaxed when the allies realised Germany needed to be economically strong to protect against the Cold War threat of communism.	The Soviet Union wanted reparations from Germany for the damage caused during the war and so much of East Germany’s industry was dismantled and taken back to the USSR. This left already shattered country very weak.
Political system	The allies established a democratic, federal constitution and Konrad Adenauer became the country’s first Chancellor, serving until 1963.	The USSR ensured the creation of a communist dictatorship led by the Socialist Unity Party and Wilhelm Pieck became its first President.

Treatment by the allies
West Germany	Initially, the allies pursued a policy of de-militarisation and de-industrialisation to ensure Germany could not equip itself to fight a war. However, this policy was relaxed when the allies realised Germany needed to be economically strong to protect against the Cold War threat of communism.
East Germany	The Soviet Union wanted reparations from Germany for the damage caused during the war and so much of East Germany’s industry was dismantled and taken back to the USSR. This left already shattered country very weak.

Political system
West Germany	The allies established a democratic, federal constitution and Konrad Adenauer became the country’s first Chancellor, serving until 1963.
East Germany	The USSR ensured the creation of a communist dictatorship led by the Socialist Unity Party and Wilhelm Pieck became its first President.

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World War Two and Germany, 1939-1945 - OCR AGermany's defeat and the aftermath