Soviet occupation zone in Germany

{{Short description|Allied-occupied area in Germany (1945–1949)}} {{Redirect|Soviet occupation zone|the zone in northern Korea|Soviet Civil Administration}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox former subdivision | native_name = {{nobold|Sowjetische Besatzungszone<br/>Советская оккупационная зона Германии}} | conventional_long_name = Soviet occupation zone in Germany | common_name = Soviet occupation zone | subdivision = Military occupation zone | nation = the Soviet Union | government_type = {{nowrap|Military occupation}} (member of the Eastern Bloc) | life_span = 1945–1949 | title_leader = Military governors | leader1 = Georgy Zhukov | leader2 = {{nowrap|Vasily Sokolovsky}} | leader3 = Vasily Chuikov | title_deputy =  | year_leader1 = 1945–1946 | year_leader2 = 1946–1949 | year_leader3 = 1949 | capital = Berlin | event_start = Surrender of Nazi Germany | year_start = 1945 | year_end = | date_start = 8 May | event_end = German Democratic Republic established | date_end = 7 October 1949 | event1 =  | era = Post-World War II <br /> Cold War | event_pre =  | date_pre = | event_post = | date_post =  | image_flag = Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union_(1924–1955).svg | flag_type = Flag of the Soviet Union | flag = Soviet Union | image_coat =  | symbol_type =  | symbol =  | image_map = Deutschland Besatzungszonen 8 Jun 1947 - 22 Apr 1949 sowjetisch.svg | image_map_caption = The Soviet occupation zone in red | p1 = Nazi Germany | flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg | s1 = East Germany | flag_s1 = Flag of East Germany.svg | today = Germany | demonym = | anthem = "State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"<br /> center }}

The '''Soviet occupation zone in Germany''' ({{Langx|de|Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ)}} or {{langx|de|Ostzone|label=none}}, {{lit|East Zone}}; {{Langx|ru|Советская оккупационная зона Германии|Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii}}) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly referred to in English as East Germany, was formally established in the Soviet occupation zone.

thumb|1949 Soviet visa from occupied Germany in a Polish service-passport

The SBZ was one of the four Allied occupation zones of Germany created at the end of World War II with the Allied victory. According to the Potsdam Agreement, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (German initials: SMAD) was assigned responsibility for the middle portion of Germany. Eastern Germany beyond the Oder-Neisse line, equal in territory to the SBZ, was to be annexed by the Polish People's Republic and its population expelled, pending a final peace conference with Germany.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Politics Today Companion to West European Politics|author=Geoffrey K. Roberts, Patricia Hogwood|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=50|isbn=9781847790323|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q40tDwAAQBAJ}}; {{cite book|title=The United States and Poland|author=Piotr Stefan Wandycz|publisher=Harvard University Press|year= 1980|page=303|isbn=9780674926851|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XaFaNshCrkC}}; {{cite book|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: a reappraisal under international law|author=Phillip A. Bühler|series=East European Monographs|year= 1990|page=33|isbn=9780880331746|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riBpAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

By the time armed forces of the United States and United Kingdom began to meet Soviet Union forces, forming the Line of Contact, significant areas of what would become the Soviet zone of Germany were outside Soviet control. After several months of occupation, these gains by the British and Americans were ceded to the Soviets by July 1945, according to the previously agreed 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 Front). In April 1946, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) were forcibly merged to form the Socialist Unity Party which later became the governing party of the GDR.

The SMAD set up ten "special camps" for the detention of Germans, making use of some former Nazi concentration camps.

[[Image:EAC_Zonenprotokoll_2.png|thumb|right|Originally planned occupation zones according to the London Protocol (1944)]] thumb|left|States ''(Länder)'' of the Soviet zone and later also the GDR until 1952: {{legend|#6D91BC| Mecklenburg }} {{legend|#EF6768| Brandenburg }} {{legend|#FEE276| Saxony-Anhalt }} {{legend|#73A67D| Saxony }} {{legend|#67BEDD| Thuringia }} In 1945, the Soviet occupation zone consisted primarily of the central portions of Prussia. After Prussia was dissolved by the Allied powers in 1947, the area was divided between the German states ''(Länder)'' of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peterson |first=Edward N. |title=Russian commands and German resistance : the Soviet Occupation, 1945–1949 |date=1999 |publisher=P. Lang |isbn=0-8204-3948-7 |location=New York |pages=5 |oclc=38207545}}</ref> On 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone was formally abolished with the proclamation of the German Democratic Republic. In 1952, the ''Länder'' were dissolved and realigned into 14 districts ''(Bezirke)'', plus the district of East Berlin.

In 1952, with the Cold War political confrontation well underway, Joseph Stalin sounded out the Western Powers about the prospect of a united Germany which would be non-aligned (the "Stalin Note"). The West's lack of interest in this proposal helped to cement the Soviet Zone's identity as the GDR for the next four decades.

"Soviet zone" and derivatives (or also, "the so-called GDR") remained official and common names for East Germany in West Germany, which refused to acknowledge the existence of a state in East Germany until 1972, when the government of Willy Brandt extended a qualified recognition under its Ostpolitik initiative. thumb|400px|The occupied sectors of Berlin

==References== {{Reflist}} * Brennan, Sean, [https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/munitions-of-the-mind/2016/11/23/propaganda-in-soviet-occupied-germany/ 'Land Reform Propaganda in Soviet Occupied Germany'], University of Kent * Lewkowicz, Nicolas''The German Question and the International Order, 1943–48'' (Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke and New York) (2008) * Lewkowicz, Nicolas, ''The German Question and the Origins of the Cold War'' (IPOC: Milan) (2008)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet Occupation Zone}} Category:Soviet occupation zone Category:1940s in East Germany Category:Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Category:World War II occupied territories Category:Aftermath of World War II in Germany Category:Allied occupation of Germany Category:Soviet military occupations Category:Germany–Soviet Union military relations Category:States and territories in Europe established in 1945 Category:States and territories disestablished in 1949 Category:1945 in Germany Category:1945 establishments in Europe Category:1949 disestablishments in Europe