Allied-Administered Germany
Soviet Occupation Zones of Germany
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Occupation zones in Germany (1945)
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Status
| Military occupation
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Capital
| Berlin
(
de jure
)
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Governors
(1945)
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|
? Soviet zone
| Marshal
Zhukov
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? 1953-55
| Georgy Maksimovich Pushkin
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Historical era
| Cold War
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| May 8, 1945
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| July 5, 1945 1945
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| 23 May, 1949
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| 7 October, 1949 1949
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| September 12, 1990
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ISO 3166 code
| DE
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|
¹
German reunification
took place on October 3, 1990.
The four sectors of Allied occupation in Berlin
|
The
Soviet Occupation Zone
(
German
:
Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ)
or
Ostzone
Russian
:
Советская зона Германии
, Sovetskaya zona Germanii, "Soviet Zone of Germany") was the area of eastern
Germany
occupied by the
Soviet Union
from 1945 on, at the end of
World War II
. It became
East Germany
.
American forces first occupied some of the area. The Americans withdrew in July 1945 to the agreed
occupation zone boundaries
.
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (German initials: SMAD) allowed four political parties to form, but they all had to work in the "All-Party Committee" (the "Nationale Front").
The
Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany were merged into the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
(which became the governing party of
East Germany
). Finally, the SED created other parties, to weaken the
Christian Democratic Union
and
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
.
Originally, Stalin wanted to Sovietize all of Germany, but when the West resisted this idea, he tried to work for a united Germany which would be neutral, but when the West again said no he decided to build a new country out of the Soviet occupation zone. This became
East Germany
The Soviet occupation zone included the central parts of
Prussia
. After Prussia was dissolved by the allied powers in 1947, the area was divided between the German states of
Brandenburg
,
Mecklenburg
,
Saxony
,
Saxony-Anhalt
und
Thuringia
.
On October 8, 1949, the part of the Soviet zone west of the
Oder-Neisse line
became the
German Democratic Republic
, usually known simply as
East Germany
. In 1952, the states were dissolved, and changed to 14 districts, plus
East Berlin
. East Berlin was treated as part of the new East Germany, but technically was part of the Allied-controlled city of Berlin.