French Mw3 Fr Zone Rar
Yvette Burkhammer
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at the Yalta Conference to discuss Germany's post-war occupation, which included among other things coming to a final determination of the inter-zonal borders.
For obvious practical and logistical reasons, it was soon agreed that the French would occupy those regions of Germany bordering their own country, i.e. southwestern Germany. To create the occupation zone, the British ceded the Saarland, the Palatinate, and territories on the left bank of the Rhine to Remagen (including Trier, Koblenz, and Montabaur). The Americans ceded land south of Baden-Baden, land south of the Free People's State of Wrttemberg (which became Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern), the Lindau region on Lake Constance, and four regions in Hesse east of the Rhine.[1] French Forces in Germany took possession of the area on 26 July 1945.[1]
Also included in the French zone was the town of Bsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government refused to consider annexing the town on the grounds that any transfer of territory could only be negotiated with a sovereign German government - something which had ceased to exist following the German surrender. However, the Swiss shared French concerns that the exclave might become a haven for Nazi war criminals, thus an agreement was quickly reached to allow limited numbers of French soldiers to cross Switzerland for the purpose of maintaining law and order in Bsingen.
In April and May, the French 1st Army had captured Karlsruhe and Stuttgart and conquered territory extending to Hitler's Eagle's Nest and western Austria. In July, the French ceded Stuttgart to the Americans in exchange for control of cities west of the Rhine (including Mainz and Koblenz).[2] This resulted in two barely-contiguous areas of Germany along the French border, which met at a point along the Rhine. After further negotiations, France was also granted an occupation zone in Austria. The French zone in west of that country bordered the French zone in Germany, thus creating a contiguous area of French-occupied territories (besides the aforementioned exclave of Bsingen am Hochrhein) that bordered each other and/or France itself.
Within French-occupied Germany, three German states were established: Rheinland Pfalz in the northwest, Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern in the southeast, and South Baden in the southwest. Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern and South Baden later formed Baden-Wrttemberg when they joined with Wrttemberg-Baden in the American Zone. The French occupation zone initially included the Saar Protectorate, but this was separated on 16 February 1946. By 18 December that year, customs controls were established between the Saar area and Allied-occupied Germany.
On 9 February 1945 the Berlin districts of Reinickendorf and Wedding were assigned to the French.[3][failed verification] By the end of October 1946, the French zone had a population of approximately five million:
On 18 May 1947 the first Landtag elections were held in the French zone. In Rhineland-Palatinate, Peter Altmeier (CDU) formed an all-parties government with CDU, SPD, FDP and KPD; in Baden, CDU won a majority, but Leo Wohleb (CDU) at first formed at first a grand coalition with SPD, but in 1948 decided to govern alone without a coalition and in Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern, Lorenz Bock (CDU) formed a "Germany coalition" with CDU, SPD and FDP.
After representing the French during the signing of the German Instrument of Surrender, which officially ended the conflict in the European theater, Jean de Lattre de Tassigny briefly served as commander-in-chief of the French Forces in Germany[5] before the role was assumed by Marie-Pierre Kœnig.[6] Andr Franois-Poncet, ambassador to Germany during the 1930s, was named French high commissioner to West Germany after the war. Franois-Poncet's position was later elevated to ambassador, and he served in that capacity until 1955.[7][8] Claude Hettier de Boislambert, Guillaume Widmer and Pierre Pne were governors of the Rhineland-Palatinate, Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern and Baden, respectively.[9]
All territories annexed by Germany before the war from Austria and Czechoslovakia were returned to these countries. The Memel Territory, annexed by Germany from Lithuania before the war, was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945 and transferred to the Lithuanian SSR. All territories annexed by Germany during the war from Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Yugoslavia were returned to their respective countries.
In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, United States forces had pushed beyond the agreed boundaries for the future zones of occupation, in some places by as much as 320 km (200 miles). The so-called line of contact between Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of hostilities, mostly lying eastward of the July 1945-established inner German border, was temporary. After two months in which they had held areas that had been assigned to the Soviet zone, U.S. forces withdrew in the first days of July 1945.[2] Some have concluded that this was a crucial move that persuaded the Soviet Union to allow American, British and French forces into their designated sectors in Berlin, which occurred at roughly the same time, although the need for intelligence gathering (Operation Paperclip) may also have been a factor.[3] On 20 March 1948, the Soviets withdrew from the Allied Control Council. The split led to the establishment in 1949 of two new German states, West Germany and East Germany.
The American zone in Southern Germany consisted of Bavaria (without the Rhine Palatinate Region and the Lindau District, both part of the French zone) and Hesse (without Rhenish Hesse and Montabaur Region, both part of the French zone) with a new capital in Wiesbaden, and of northern parts of Wrttemberg and Baden. Those formed Wrttemberg-Baden and became northern portions of the present-day German state of Baden-Wrttemberg founded in 1952.
The ports of Bremen (on the lower Weser River) and Bremerhaven (at the Weser estuary of the North Sea) were also placed under U.S. control because of the U.S. request to have certain toeholds in Northern Germany.At the end of October 1946, the American zone had a population of:
By May 1945 the British and Canadian Armies had liberated the Netherlands and had conquered Northern Germany. The Canadian forces went home following the German surrender, leaving Northern Germany to be occupied by the British.
Within the British zone of occupation, the CCG/BE re-established the city of Hamburg as a German state, but with borders that had been drawn by the Nazi government in 1937. The British also created the new German states of:
The French Republic was at first not granted an occupation zone in Germany, but the British and American governments later agreed to cede some western parts of their zones of occupation to the French Army.[11] In April and May 1945, the French 1st Army had captured Karlsruhe and Stuttgart, and conquered a territory extending to Hitler's Eagle's Nest and the westernmost part of Austria. In July, the French relinquished Stuttgart to the Americans, and in exchange were given control over cities west of the Rhine such as Mainz and Koblenz.[12] All this resulted in two barely contiguous areas of Germany along the French border which met at just a single point along the River Rhine. Three German states (Land) were established: Rheinland Pfalz in the north and west and on the other hand Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern and South Baden, who later formed Baden-Wrttemberg together with Wrttemberg-Baden of the American zone.[13]
The French zone of occupation included the Saargebiet, which was disentangled from it on 16 February 1946. By 18 December 1946 customs controls were established between the Saar area and Allied-occupied Germany. The French zone ceded further areas adjacent to the Saar (in mid-1946, early 1947, and early 1949). Included in the French zone was the town of Bsingen am Hochrhein, a German exclave separated from the rest of the country by a narrow strip of neutral Swiss territory. The Swiss government agreed to allow limited numbers of French troops to pass through its territory in order to maintain law and order in Bsingen.
From November 1945, Luxembourg was allocated a zone within the French sector.[14] The Luxembourg 2nd Infantry Battalion was garrisoned in Bitburg and the 1st Battalion was sent to Saarburg.[14] The final Luxembourg forces in Germany, in Bitburg, left in 1955.[14]
The Soviet occupation zone incorporated Thuringia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg.[citation needed] The Soviet Military Administration was headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, which also came to house the chief rezidentura of Soviet intelligence in Germany.[15]
Saarland, an area in the French occupation zone, was separated from Allied-occupied Germany to become a French protectorate with its constitution took effect on 17 December 1947, however the separation was opposed by the Soviet Union and Germans here were not expelled.
The original Allied plan to govern Germany as a single unit through the Allied Control Council de facto broke down on 20 March 1948 (restored on 3 September 1971) in the context of growing tensions between the Allies, with Britain and the US wishing cooperation, France obstructing any collaboration in order to partition Germany into many independent states, and especially: the Soviet Union unilaterally implementing from early on elements of a Marxist political-economic system (enforced redistribution of land, nationalisation of businesses). Another dispute was the absorption of post-war expellees. While the UK, the US and the Soviet Union had agreed to accept, house and feed about six million expelled German citizens from former eastern Germany and four million expelled and denaturalised Czechoslovaks, Poles, Hungarians and Yugoslavs of German ethnicity in their zones, France generally had not agreed to the expulsions approved by the Potsdam agreement (a decision made without input from France). Therefore, France strictly refused to absorb war refugees who were denied return to their homes in seized eastern German territories or destitute post-war expellees who had been expropriated there, into the French zone, let alone into the separated Saar protectorate.[16] However, the native population, returning after Nazi-imposed removals (e.g., political and Jewish refugees) and war-related relocations (e.g., evacuation from air raids), were allowed to return home in the areas under French control. The other Allies complained that they had to shoulder the burden to feed, house and clothe the expellees who had to leave their belongings behind.
b1e95dc632