At the end of the Second World War - in the so-called zero hour - Germany was almost completely destroyed. There was a lack of food and clothing, the necessities for survival could only be obtained on the black market.
Denazification and the Nuremberg Trials
On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler kills himself in Berlin. The Second World War is lost for Germany. The German high command signed the unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945 in Reims, France and on the morning of May 9 in Berlin.
Almost 60 million people died as a result of the war and National Socialist rule.
The Big Three decide the further fate of the country:they are the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt - after his death in April 1945 his successor Harry S. Truman takes over.
They initiate demilitarization and denazification and determine the further economic and territorial development of Germany. One of the most urgent tasks of the occupying powers is the legal investigation of the war crimes and the murders in the concentration camps.
In November 1945, the trials of the main war criminals began in Nuremberg. 177 people were indicted before the Allied International Military Tribunal, including Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Twelve of 24 people sentenced to death are executed.
The denazification of the general population carried out by the occupying powers was only partially successful:questionnaires and hearings were to be used to decide who was involved in National Socialist crimes and to what extent. Numerous active National Socialists escape persecution in these large-scale proceedings, and conversely, many people are prosecuted who were actually victims of the Nazi regime.
Cologne after the Second World War
From the zone to the social market economy
Life in the four occupation zones developed differently in the first few years after the end of the war. With the founding of the states and the holding of municipal and state elections, a federal system is established in the western zones, while a centralized power structure emerges in the Soviet occupation zone, which is steered by communist cadres.
With the slogan "Junkersland in the hands of farmers" more than 7000 large landowners are expropriated, agricultural production cooperatives (LPG) and state-owned enterprises (VEB) are set up.
All Allied plans to create an all-German administration fail. The cornerstone for the Cold War and the later division of Germany is laid in the different policies of the occupying powers France, Great Britain, the USA and the USSR. The serious ideological differences between the aspiring superpowers USA and USSR crystallize clearly in post-war Germany.
At the London Foreign Ministers' Conference in December 1947, the Western powers and the Soviet Union finally broke. As a result, on June 3, 1948, the three Western powers announced the political alignment of their zones and thus created the basis for a West German state.
On June 18, the Deutsche Mark is introduced in the western zones as part of the currency reform. Every West German receives a bounty of 40 Deutschmarks, credits in Reichsmarks are exchanged at a ratio of 1:10. In the course of the currency reform, the black market disappeared and the shop windows gradually filled up again. Ludwig Erhard, at that time economic director of the western zones, proclaimed the social market economy.
Germany's division into occupation zones
From the D-Mark to the Basic Law
The introduction of the D-Mark led to a confrontation with Stalin, who began to block access to Berlin as early as March 1948. After the currency reform, the Berlin blockade intensified. Stalin wants to strengthen his claim to Berlin and hopes that the western powers will be weak.
For almost a year, West Berliners were supplied with the essentials via an airlift. The raisin bombers fly to Berlin 277,000 times and bring over two million tons of food into the city. On May 12, 1949, Stalin ended the blockade.
He realizes that a division of the state and the city of Berlin can no longer be prevented, because a parliamentary council in Frankfurt is already working on the Basic Law. 65 delegates elected by the state parliament formulate the details of a constitution.
Under the leadership of Konrad Adenauer (CDU) and Carlo Schmidt (SPD), politicians in post-war Germany are struggling to establish the basic principles for the new state. Finally, on May 8, 1949, the Basic Law was passed. It comes into force on May 23, 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany is founded.
The USSR reacted to the emergence of the Federal Republic with its own constitution for the Soviet occupation zone and on October 7, 1949 the German Democratic Republic was proclaimed. The immediate post-war period ends with the division of Germany.
Konrad Adenauer reads out the decision on the Basic Law