The
Soviet Occupation Zone was the area of central
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
occupied by the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
from 1945 on, at the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. On 7 October 1949 the
German Democratic RepublicThe German Democratic Republic was a Communist state that originated from the Soviet Zone of occupied Germany and the Soviet sector of occupied Berlin...
, which became commonly referred to as (East Germany), was established in the Soviet Occupation Zone.
The SBZ was one of the four
Allied occupation zones of GermanyThe Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during the period 1945–1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed...
created at the end of World War II. According to the
Potsdam AgreementThe Potsdam Agreement was an agreement on policy for the occupation and reconstruction of Germany and other nations after fighting in the European Theatre of World War II had ended with the German surrender of May 8, 1945...
, the
Soviet Military Administration in GermanyThe Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
(German initials: SMAD) was assigned responsibility for the (present-day) eastern portion of Germany. Significant areas of what would become the Soviet zone of Germany were not handed over to the Soviets until a few months after the end of hostilities, having first been occupied by
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
forces.The Americans withdrew from the
line of contactThe Line of Contact marked the farthest advance of American, British and Soviet Armies into Germany at the end of World War II. This contact began with the first meeting between Soviet and American forces at Torgau, near the Elbe river on Elbe Day, April 25, 1945...
in July 1945 to the previously agreed upon occupation zone boundaries.
The SMAD allowed four political parties to develop, though they were all required to work together under an alliance known as the "Democratic Bloc" (later the
National FrontThe National Front of the German Democratic Republic was an alliance of political parties and mass organisations in East Germany...
). In April 1946, the
Social Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
(SPD) and the
Communist Party of GermanyThe Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period...
(KPD) merged together to form the
Socialist Unity PartyThe Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a Communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
(which later became the governing party of East Germany).
Originally,
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
wanted to bring all of Germany under Soviet influence, but when the West resisted this idea, he then sought to create a united Germany which would be non-aligned. When the West again resisted these efforts, Stalin decided to focus his efforts on the Soviet occupation zone.
The SMAD set up
ten "special camps"NKVD special camps were internment camps in the Soviet occupation zone in post-World War II Germany. They were set up by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany and run by the Soviet secret service . On 8 August 1948, the camps were made subordinate to the Gulag...
for the detention of Germans, some of them former
Nazi concentration campsNazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps were greatly expanded in Germany after the Reichstag fire in 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
.
In 1945, the Soviet occupation zone consisted primarily of the central portions of
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
. After Prussia was dissolved by the Allied powers in 1947, the area was divided between the German states
(Länder) of
BrandenburgBrandenburg is one of the sixteen states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
,
MecklenburgMecklenburg is a region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, and Neubrandenburg....
,
SaxonyThe Free State of Saxony is a federal state of Germany, located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states.Long in the heart of German-speaking Europe, Saxony became one of the new...
,
Saxony-AnhaltSaxony-Anhalt is one of the sixteen Bundesländer that make up the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of , and a population of 2.45 million...
und
ThuringiaThe Free State of Thuringia is located in central Germany. It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen
Bundesländer...
. On 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, usually referred to in English as East Germany. In 1952, the
Länder were dissolved and realigned into 14 districts
(Bezirke), plus the district of
East BerlinEast Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a de facto part of West Germany. Despite its status as part of an occupied city,...
.
Bibliography
- Lewkowicz, Nicolas, The German Question and the Origins of the Cold War (IPOC: Milan) (2008)
See also
- History of East Germany
- Bizone
The Bizone, or Bizonia, was the combination of the American and the British occupation zones during the occupation of Germany after World War II. With the addition of the French occupation zone, the entity became the Trizone or Trizonia...
- Trizone
- Group of Soviet Forces in Germany
The Group of Soviet Forces in Germany , also known as the Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany and the Western Group of Forces were the troops of the Soviet Army in East Germany.The Soviet armies permanently stationed in Germany were the predominant land-based military threat to...
- Stunde Null
Stunde Null is the German language equivalent of "zero hour", a military planning term indicating the beginning of some operation or event. Historically, Stunde Null specifically refers to the capitulation of the Nazi government on May 8, 1945, at midnight, marking the end of World War II in Germany...