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102-630: Michendorf lies in a vast wooded area about nine kilometers south of Potsdam. The civil parishes ("Ortsteile") Fresdorf, Stücken and Wildenbruch lie in the Nature-Park Nuthe-Nieplitz. In the south the town adjacent to the Great Seddiner Lake and to the west by the Lienewitzer lakes. The municipality is composed by Michendorf itself and fivecivil parishes. Population statistics are as of December 31, 2011: During

204-641: A burden on authorities in the German Occupation Zones, including the re-defined Soviet Occupation Zone. Most of the Germans who were being expelled were from Czechoslovakia and Poland, which included most of the territory to the east of the Oder-Neisse Line. The Potsdam Declaration stated: Since the influx of a large number of Germans into Germany would increase the burden already resting on the occupying authorities, they consider that

306-414: A cannon at Santa Anna's army, and wrote in his final dispatches: The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken – I have answered their demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls – I shall never surrender or retreat. The phrase surrender at discretion is still used in treaties. For example,

408-563: A dismembered Germany, but also as a response to the exclusion of France from the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Berlin , which lay in the Soviet (eastern) sector, was also divided into four sectors with the Western sectors later becoming West Berlin and the Soviet sector becoming East Berlin . A key item in the occupiers' agenda was denazification . The swastika and other outward symbols of

510-527: A further 3 million ethnic Germans. 'Wild' expulsions from Czechoslovakia began immediately after the German surrender. The Potsdam Conference subsequently sanctioned the "orderly and humane" transfer to Germany of individuals regarded as "ethnic Germans" by authorities in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. The Potsdam Agreement recognized that these expulsions were already underway and were putting

612-615: A further 3 million in East Germany. In West Germany these represented a major voting block ; maintaining a strong culture of grievance and victimhood against Soviet Power, pressing for a continued commitment to full German reunification, claiming compensation, pursuing the right of return to lost property in the East, and opposing any recognition of the postwar extension of Poland and the Soviet Union into former German lands. Owing to

714-646: A key psychological role in the West German recovery, other factors were also significant. The Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform; in March 1948 they withdrew from the four-power governing bodies, and in June 1948 they initiated the Berlin Blockade , blocking all ground transport routes between Western Germany and West Berlin . The Western Allies replied with a continuous airlift of supplies to

816-495: A massive industrial dismantling campaign in its occupation zone, much more intensive than that carried out by the Western powers. While the Soviet powers soon realized that their actions alienated the German workforce from the Communist cause, they decided that the desperate economic situation within the Soviet Union took priority over alliance building. The allied leaders had agreed on paper to economic and political cooperation but

918-710: A new location for the capital, as Berlin was then a special administrative region controlled directly by the allies and surrounded by the Soviet zone of occupation. The former Reichstag building in Berlin was occasionally used as a venue for sittings of the Bundestag and its committees and the Bundesversammlung , the body which elects the German Federal President. However, the Soviets disrupted

1020-633: A nucleus for a future German government by creating a central Economic Council for their zones. The program later provided for a West German constituent assembly , an occupation statute governing relations between the Allies and the German authorities, and the political and economic merger of the French with the British and American zones. On 23 May 1949, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), the constitution of

1122-500: A rapidly increasing agricultural production were the initial triggers to this 'Wirtschaftswunder' (economic miracle) as it was known, although there was nothing miraculous about it. The era became closely linked with the name of Ludwig Erhard , who led the Ministry of Economics during the decade. Unemployment at the start of the decade stood at 10.3%, but by 1960 it had dropped to 1.2%, practically speaking full employment. In fact, there

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1224-845: A request for terms from Confederate Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner Sr. , the fort's commanding officer. Grant's reply was that "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." When news of Grant's victory, one of the Union's first in the war, was received in Washington, DC , newspapers remarked (and President Abraham Lincoln endorsed) that Grant's first two initials, "U.S.," stood for "Unconditional Surrender," which would later become his nickname. However, subsequent surrenders to Grant were not unconditional. When Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Grant agreed to allow

1326-446: A significant advantage over their adversaries, when victory is thought to be inevitable. In modern times, unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law . In some cases, surrender is truly accepted unconditionally; while in other cases terms are offered and accepted, but forces are declared to be subject to "unconditional surrender" for symbolic purposes. This type of surrender may also be accepted by

1428-415: A single economic unit with some central administrative departments. These plans never materialized, initially because France blocked any establishment of central administrative or political structures for Germany; and also as both the Soviet Union and France were intent on extracting as much material benefit as possible from their occupation zones in order to make good in part the enormous destruction caused by

1530-630: A total of 275 German soldiers died while clearing mines, while 392 had been injured. Norman Naimark writes in The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949 that although the exact number of women and girls who were raped by members of the Red Army in the months preceding and years following the capitulation will never be known, their numbers are likely in

1632-727: A vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book " Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany ", that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $ 10 billion . During the more than two years that this policy was in place, no industrial research in Germany could take place, as any results would have been automatically available to overseas competitors who were encouraged by

1734-594: A whole' to Poland and the Soviet Union. In addition, under the Allies' Berlin Declaration (1945) , the territory of the extinguished German Reich was to be treated as the land area within its borders as of 31 December 1937. All land expansion from 1938 to 1945 was hence treated as automatically invalid, including Eupen-Malmedy , Alsace-Lorraine , Austria , Lower Styria , Upper Carniola , Southern Carinthia , Bohemia , Moravia , Czech Silesia , Danzig , Poland , and Memel . The northern half of East Prussia in

1836-435: Is a surrender in which no guarantees, reassurances, or promises (i.e., conditions) are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary, but it may also prolong hostilities . A party typically only demands unconditional surrender when it has

1938-477: The Battle of Fort Henry . Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote replied, "no sir, your surrender will be unconditional." Even at Fort Donelson, earlier in the day, a Confederate messenger approached Brigadier General Charles Ferguson Smith , Grant's subordinate, for terms of surrender, and Smith stated, "I'll have no terms with Rebels with guns in their hands, my terms are unconditional and immediate surrender." The messenger

2040-648: The Brussels Treaty was modified to include West Germany, and to form the Western European Union (WEU). West Germany was to be permitted to rearm, and have full sovereign control of its military; the WEU would, however, regulate the size of the armed forces permitted to each of its member states. Fears of a return to Nazism, however, soon receded, and as a consequence, these provisions of the WEU treaty have little effect today. Between 1949 and 1960,

2142-637: The Division of Germany (1945–90), Michendorf was in East Germany , although only a few kilometers from West Berlin . The Michendorf rest stop was the last stop in East Germany for travelers driving into West Berlin, and a popular spot for East and West Germans to meet up with friends and family who lived on the other side of the Berlin Wall . Despite efforts by the Michendorf historical society,

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2244-667: The German reunification on 3 October 1990. Following the collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 and its defeat in World War II , Germany was stripped of its territorial gains. Beyond that, more than a quarter of its old pre-war territory was annexed by communist Poland and the Soviet Union . The German populations of these areas were expelled to the west. Saarland was a French protectorate from 1947 to 1956 without

2346-593: The Marshall Plan help from the Allies, the currency reform of June 1948 and helped by the fact that the Korean War (1950–53) led to a worldwide increased demand for goods, where the resulting shortage helped overcome lingering resistance to the purchase of German products. East Germany was at first occupied by and later (May 1955) allied with the Soviet Union . The Western Allies turned over increasing authority to West German officials and moved to establish

2448-547: The Nazi regime were banned, and a Provisional Civil Ensign was established as a temporary German flag. It remained the official flag of the country (necessary for reasons of international law ) until East Germany and West Germany (see below) were independently established in 1949. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union had agreed at Potsdam to a broad program of decentralization, treating Germany as

2550-544: The Potsdam Conference , with the U.S. operating under influence of the Morgenthau plan, the victorious Allies decided to abolish the German armed forces as well as all munitions factories and civilian industries that could support them. This included the destruction of all ship and aircraft manufacturing capability. Further, it was decided that civilian industries which might have a military potential, which in

2652-511: The Rome Statute , in force since July 1, 2002, specifies under "Article 8 war crimes, Paragraph 2.b:" Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts: ... (vi) Killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion; The wording in

2754-666: The Saar Protectorate , but did return to Germany in January 1957 (following a referendum), with economic reintegration with Germany occurring a few years later. In August 1954 the French parliament voted down the treaty that would have established the European Defense Community , a treaty they themselves had proposed. Germany was eventually allowed to rearm under the auspices of the Western European Union , and later NATO . The Soviet Union engaged in

2856-556: The Allied Control Council in Germany should in the first instance examine the problem with special regard to the question of the equitable distribution of these Germans among the several zones of occupation. They are accordingly instructing their respective representatives on the control council to report to their Governments as soon as possible the extent to which such persons have already entered Germany from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary, and to submit an estimate of

2958-632: The Allies at the Yalta Conference Germans were used as forced labor as part of the reparations to be extracted. German prisoners were for example forced to clear minefields in France and the Low Countries. By December 1945 it was estimated by French authorities that 2,000 German prisoners were being killed or injured each month in accidents. In Norway the last available casualty record, from 29 August 1945, shows that by that time

3060-793: The Allies to Poland at the Potsdam Conference and the German population was being forcibly expelled. The International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR) was created as part of the agreement negotiated at the London Six-Power conference in June 1948 to establish the Federal Republic of Germany . French support to internationalize the Ruhr through the IAR was abandoned in 1951 with the West German agreement to pool its coal and steel markets within European Coal and Steel Community . In

3162-594: The British had agreed in July 1942 to support "the General Principle of the transfer to Germany of German minorities in Central and South Eastern Europe after the war in cases where this seems necessary and desirable". In 1944 roughly 12.4 million ethnic Germans were living in territory that became part of post-war Poland and Soviet Union. Approximately 6 million fled or were evacuated before the Red Army occupied

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3264-543: The British were under no legal obligation to either accept his surrender or to spare his life. However, they did so to prevent him from being a martyr and exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena . The most famous early use of the phrase in the American Civil War occurred during the 1862 Battle of Fort Donelson . Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army received

3366-686: The Cold War rhetoric and successful political machinations of Konrad Adenauer , this block eventually became substantially aligned with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany ; although in practice 'westward-looking' CDU policies favouring the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union worked against the possibility of achieving the objectives of the expellee population from the east through negotiation with

3468-636: The Federal Republic of Germany was established in Bonn, after Chancellor Konrad Adenauer intervened emphatically for Bonn (which was only fifteen kilometers away from his hometown). Most of the members of the German constitutional assembly (as well as the U.S. Supreme Command) had favored Frankfurt am Main where the Hessian administration had already started the construction of an assembly hall. The Parlamentarischer Rat (interim parliament) proposed

3570-628: The Federal Republic of Germany, was promulgated. Following elections in August, the first federal government was formed on 20 September 1949, by Konrad Adenauer ( CDU ). Adenauer's government was a coalition of the CDU, the CSU and the Free Democrats. The next day, the occupation statute came into force, granting powers of self-government with certain exceptions. In 1949 the new provisional capital of

3672-553: The GDR nomenclature. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 they hoped to end the loss of labor and in doing so they posed the West German government with a new problem—how to satisfy the apparently insatiable demand for labor. The answer was to recruit unskilled workers from Southern European countries; the era of the Gastarbeiter (foreign laborers) began. Unconditional surrender An unconditional surrender

3774-656: The German Wehrmacht; and the policy broke down completely in 1948 when the Russians blockaded West Berlin and the Cold War began. It was agreed at Potsdam that the leading members of the Nazi regime who had been captured should be put on trial accused of crimes against humanity, and this was one of the few points on which the four powers were able to agree. In order to secure the presence of the western allies in Berlin,

3876-407: The German rationing system (which stayed in place) had much lower supplies of food. The U.S. Army sent in large shipments of food to feed some 7.7 million prisoners of war—far more than they had expected —as well as the general population. For several years following the surrender, German nutritional levels were low. The Germans were not high on the priority list for international aid, which went to

3978-724: The Indian Army under General Jagjit Singh Aurora . This led to the surrender of 93,000 personnel including families of the Pakistan's East Command and cessation of hostilities between the Pakistani Armed Forces and the Indian Armed Forces along with the guerrilla forces, the Mukti Bahini . The signing of this unconditional surrender document gave Geneva Convention guarantees for the safety of

4080-664: The Netherlands) would cooperate in the EDC while maintaining independent control of their own armed forces. Though the EDC treaty was signed (May 1952), it never entered into force. France's Gaullists rejected it on the grounds that it threatened national sovereignty, and when the French National Assembly refused to ratify it (August 1954), the treaty died. The French had killed their own proposal. Other means had to be found to allow West German rearmament. In response,

4182-410: The Polish government-in-exile of their support for this after the Tehran Conference in 1943. It was also agreed at Potsdam that Poland would receive all German lands East of the Oder-Neisse line , although the exact delimitation of the boundary was left to be resolved at an eventual Peace Conference. Under the wartime alliances of the United Kingdom with the Czechoslovak and Polish governments-in-exile,

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4284-401: The Soviet Union. But for Adenauer, fostering and encouraging unrealistic demands and uncompromising expectations amongst the expellees would serve his "Policy of Strength" by which West Germany contrived to inhibit consideration of unification or a final Peace Treaty until the West was strong enough to face the Soviets on equal terms. Consequently, the Federal Republic in the 1950s adopted much of

4386-460: The Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until—one could argue—the present." Some of the victims had been raped as many as 60 to 70 times . According to German historian Miriam Gebhardt , as many as 190,000 women were raped by U.S. soldiers in Germany . On 17 December 1947, the Saar Protectorate had been established under French control, in

4488-429: The Stuttgart speech, where he amongst other things repudiated the Morgenthau plan-influenced policies and gave the West Germans hope for the future. Reports such as The President's Economic Mission to Germany and Austria helped to show the U.S. public how bad the situation in Germany really was. The next improvement came in July 1947, when after lobbying by the Joint Chiefs of Staff , and Generals Clay and Marshall ,

4590-441: The Truman administration decided that economic recovery in Europe could not go forward without the reconstruction of the German industrial base on which it had previously been dependent. In July 1947, President Harry S. Truman rescinded on "national security grounds" the punitive occupation directive JCS 1067 , which had directed the U.S. forces in Germany to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany." It

4692-490: The UK government privately acknowledged in a cabinet meeting that German civilian adult death rates had risen to 4 times the pre-war levels and death rates amongst the German children had risen by 10 times the pre-war levels. The German Red Cross was dissolved, and the International Red Cross and the few other allowed international relief agencies were kept from helping Germans through strict controls on supplies and on travel. The few agencies permitted to help Germans, such as

4794-400: The United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel. West Germany also joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Economic Community . East Germany's economy, centrally planned in the Soviet style, grew increasingly stagnant; the East German secret police tightly controlled daily life, and the Berlin Wall (1961) ended the steady flow of refugees to the West . The country

4896-402: The United States agreed to withdraw from Thuringia and Saxony in exchange for the division of Berlin into four sectors. Future President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the US War Department initially implemented a strict non-fraternization policy between the US troops and German citizens. The State Department and individual US congressmen pressured to have this policy lifted. In June 1945

4998-419: The United States in the south, and the Soviet Union in the east, bounded on the east by the new Poland-Germany border on the Oder-Neisse line . At Potsdam , these four zones in total were denoted as 'Germany as a whole', and the four Allied Powers exercised the sovereign authority they now claimed over Germany in agreeing 'in principle' to the ceding of territory of the former German Reich east of 'Germany as

5100-446: The West German economy grew at an unparalleled rate. Low rates of inflation, modest wage increases and a quickly rising export quota made it possible to restore the economy and brought a modest prosperity. According to the official statistics the German gross national product grew in average by about 7% annually between 1950 and 1960. The initial demand for housing, the growing demand for machine tools, chemicals, and automobiles and

5202-403: The West German population's support for reunification and the eventual return of the Government to Berlin. After the Petersberg agreement West Germany quickly progressed toward fuller sovereignty and association with its European neighbors and the Atlantic community. The London and Paris agreements of 1954 restored most of the state's sovereignty (with some exceptions) in May 1955 and opened

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5304-406: The Western Allies eventually becoming concerned about the deteriorating economic situation in their " Trizone ", the American Marshall Plan of economic aid was extended to Western Germany in 1948 and a currency reform, which had been prohibited under the previous occupation directive JCS 1067, introduced the Deutsche Mark and halted rampant inflation. Though the Marshall Plan is regarded as playing

5406-469: The Western powers, the so-called Morgenthau Plan proposed by Henry Morgenthau Jr. , was one of "pastoralization". The Morgenthau Plan, though subsequently ostensibly shelved due to public opposition, influenced occupation policy; most notably through the U.S. punitive occupation directive JCS 1067 and the industrial plans for Germany . The "Level of Industry plans for Germany" were the plans to lower German industrial potential after World War II . At

5508-415: The area corresponding to the current German state of Saarland . It was not allowed to join its fellow German neighbors until a plebiscite in 1955 rejected the proposed autonomy. This paved the way for the accession of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany as its 12th state, which went into effect on 1 January 1957. On 23 May 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, Bundesrepublik Deutschland )

5610-422: The area. Of the remainder, around 2 million died during the war or in its aftermath (1.4 million as military casualties; 600,000 as civilian deaths), 3.6 million were expelled by the Poles, one million declared themselves to be Poles, and 300,000 remained in Poland as Germans. The Sudetenland territories, surrendered to Germany by the Munich Agreement , were returned to Czechoslovakia; these territories containing

5712-511: The attempt by their inability to extract from the Allies any sort of assurance that such action would improve the treatment meted out to their country." It has also been argued that without the demand for unconditional surrender, Central Europe might not have fallen behind the Iron Curtain . "It was a policy that the Soviet Union accepted with alacrity, probably because a completely destroyed Germany would facilitate Russia's postwar expansion program." It has also been claimed to have prolonged

5814-433: The beginning of the Cold War, the Western policies changed as it became evident that a return to operation of the West German industry was needed not only for the restoration of the whole European economy but also for the rearmament of West Germany as an ally against the Soviet Union. On 6 September 1946 United States Secretary of State , James F. Byrnes made the famous speech Restatement of Policy on Germany , also known as

5916-680: The control council. Many of the ethnic Germans, who were primarily women and children, and especially those under the control of Polish and Czechoslovakian authorities, were severely mistreated before they were ultimately deported to Germany. Thousands died in forced labor camps such as Lambinowice , Zgoda labour camp , Central Labour Camp Potulice , Central Labour Camp Jaworzno , Glaz, Milecin, Gronowo, and Sikawa. Others starved, died of disease, or froze to death while being expelled in slow and ill-equipped trains; or in transit camps. Altogether, around 8 million ethnic German refugees and expellees from across Europe eventually settled in West Germany, with

6018-428: The demand for the garrison to surrender unconditionally to the besiegers is traditionally phrased as "surrender at discretion." If there are negotiations with mutually agreed conditions, the garrison is said to have "surrendered on terms." One example was at the Siege of Stirling , during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion : Charles , thereupon, sent a verbal message to the magistrates, requiring them instantly to surrender

6120-486: The following paragraphs: By thus breaking the convention which had established him in the island of Elba, Bonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence depended, and by appearing again in France, with projects of confusion and disorder, he has deprived himself of the protection of the law, and has manifested to the universe that there can be neither peace nor truce with him. The powers consequently declare, that Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself without

6222-405: The formal occupation of the western allies until 1990, although most day-to-day administration was conducted by an elected West Berlin government. West Germany was allied with the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. A western democratic country with a " social market economy ", the country would from the 1950s onwards come to enjoy prolonged economic growth ( Wirtschaftswunder ) following

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6324-492: The former eastern territories and other countries in Eastern Europe ; an estimated two million of them died on the way there. Some nine million Germans were prisoners of war . With the beginning of the Cold War , the remaining territory of Germany was divided between the Western Bloc led by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc led by the USSR. Two separate German countries emerged: Under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , West Germany built strong relationships with France,

6426-408: The former occupying troops remained permanently stationed there. The former German capital, Berlin, was a special case, being divided into East Berlin and West Berlin , with West Berlin completely surrounded by East German territory. Though the German inhabitants of West Berlin were citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany, West Berlin was not legally incorporated into West Germany; it remained under

6528-444: The hundreds of thousands, quite possibly as high as the 2,000,000 victims estimate made by Barbara Johr, in "Befreier und Befreite". Many of these victims were raped repeatedly. Naimark states that not only had each victim to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, it inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation (the German Democratic Republic ). Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in

6630-429: The indigenous Caritasverband, were not allowed to use imported supplies. When the Vatican attempted to transmit food supplies from Chile to German infants, the U.S. State Department forbade it. The German food situation became worse during the very cold winter of 1946–1947 when German calorie intake ranged from 1,000–1,500 kilocalories per day, a situation made worse by severe lack of fuel for heating. As agreed by

6732-429: The issue of reparations dealt an early blow to the prospect of a united Germany in 1945. The figure of $ 20 Billion had been floated by Stalin as an adequate recompense but as the United States refused to consider this a basis for negotiation The Soviet Union was left only with the opportunity of extracting its own reparations, at a heavy cost to the East Germans. This was the beginning of the formal split of Germany. With

6834-455: The memory of German aggression led other European states to seek tight control over the West German military. Germany's partners in the Coal and Steel Community decided to establish a European Defence Community (EDC), with an integrated army, navy and air force, composed of the armed forces of its member states. The West German military would be subject to complete EDC control, but the other EDC member states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and

6936-468: The men under Lee's command to go home under parole and to keep sidearms and private horses. Generous terms were also offered to John C. Pemberton at Vicksburg and, by Grant's subordinate, William Tecumseh Sherman , to Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina . Grant was not the first officer in the Civil War to use the phrase. The first instance came some days earlier, when Confederate Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman asked for terms of surrender during

7038-459: The men, apart from a few who converted to Islam , were executed, while the women and children were enslaved . The historicity of the incident has been questioned. When Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from his enforced exile on the island of Elba , one of the steps that the delegates of the European powers at the Congress of Vienna took was to issue a statement on 13 March 1815 declaring Napoleon Bonaparte to be an outlaw. The text includes

7140-468: The modern era of "total war" included virtually all, were to be severely restricted. The restriction of the latter was set to Germany's "approved peacetime needs", which were defined to be set on the average European standard. In order to achieve this, each type of industry was subsequently reviewed to see how many factories Germany required under these minimum level of industry requirements. The first plan, from 29 March 1946, stated that German heavy industry

7242-411: The occupation authorities to access all records and facilities. Meanwhile, thousands of the best German scientists were being put to work in the U.S. (see also Operation Paperclip ) During the war, Germans seized food supplies from occupied countries and forced millions of foreigners to work on German farms and factories, in addition to food shipped from farms in eastern Germany. When this ended in 1945,

7344-519: The pale of civil and social relations; and that, as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world, he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance. Consequently, as Napoleon was considered an outlaw when he surrendered to Captain Maitland of HMS  Bellerophon at the end of the Hundred Days , he was not protected by military law or international law as a head of state and so

7446-610: The press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany , Italy , and Japan . When Roosevelt made the announcement at Casablanca, he referred to General Grant's use of the term during the American Civil War. The term was also used in the Potsdam Declaration issued to Japan on July 26, 1945. Near the end of the declaration, it said, "We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now

7548-405: The prohibition against speaking with German children was loosened. In July troops were permitted to speak to German adults in certain circumstances. In September 1945 the entire policy was dropped. Only the ban on marriage between Americans and German or Austrian civilians remained in place until 11 December 1946 and 2 January 1946 respectively. The initial proposal for the post-surrender policy of

7650-557: The recognition of the " Four Powers ", because the Soviet Union opposed it, making it a disputed territory . At the end of World War II, there were some eight million foreign displaced people in Germany, mainly forced laborers and prisoners. This included around 400,000 survivors of the Nazi concentration camp system , where many times more had died from starvation, harsh conditions, murder, or being worked to death. Between 1944 and 1950, some 12 to 14 million German-speaking refugees and expellees arrived in Western and central Germany from

7752-541: The region of Königsberg was administratively assigned by the Potsdam Agreement to the Soviet Union, pending a final Peace Conference (with the commitment of Britain and the United States to support its incorporation into Russia); and was then annexed by the Soviet Union. The Free City of Danzig and the southern half of East Prussia were incorporated into and annexed by Poland; the Allies having assured

7854-551: The rest stop was demolished in 2008. This Brandenburg location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Division of Germany The history of Germany from 1945 to 1990 comprises the period following World War II . The period began with the Berlin Declaration , marking the abolition of the German Reich and Allied-occupied period in Germany on 5 June 1945, and ended with

7956-594: The speech Restatement of Policy on Germany , held in Stuttgart on 6 September 1946, the United States Secretary of State James F. Byrnes stated the U.S. motive in detaching the Saar from Germany as "The United States does not feel that it can deny to France, which has been invaded three times by Germany in 70 years, its claim to the Saar territory". The Saar came under French administration in 1946 as

8058-521: The steel production was located, had argued for a more limited capacity reduction by placing the production ceiling at 12 million tons of steel per year, but had to submit to the will of the U.S., France and the Soviet Union (which had argued for a 3 million ton limit). Germany was to be reduced to the standard of life it had known at the height of the Great Depression (1932). Car production was set to 10% of pre-war levels, etc. By 1950, after

8160-684: The surrendered soldiers and completed the independence of Bangladesh . On 15 August 2021 , the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Afghan National Security Forces unconditionally surrendered to the Taliban . The unconditional surrender brought an end to the conflict and allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan and establish their government in the country. In siege warfare ,

8262-655: The surrendering party under the expectation of guarantees agreed to informally. After the Battle of the Trench , in which the Muslims tactically overcame their opponents while suffering very few casualties, efforts to defeat the Muslims failed, and Islam became influential in the region. As a consequence, the Muslim army besieged the neighbourhood of the Banu Qurayza tribe , leading to their unconditional surrender. All

8364-796: The symbolism of expellee groups; especially in appropriating and subverting the terminology and imagery of the Holocaust ; applying this to post-war German experience instead. Eventually in 1990, following the Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany , the unified Germany indeed confirmed in treaties with Poland and the Soviet Union that the transfer of sovereignty over the former German eastern territories in 1945 had been permanent and irreversible; Germany now undertaking never again to make territorial claims in respect of these lands. The intended governing body of Germany

8466-624: The time and rate at which further transfers could be carried out, having regard to the present situation in Germany. The Czechoslovak Government, the Polish Provisional Government and the control council in Hungary are at the same time being informed of the above and are being requested meanwhile to suspend further expulsions pending the examination by the Governments concerned of the report from their representatives on

8568-458: The town to the last extremity. After a negotiation, which occupied the greater part of Tuesday, the following terms of capitulation were agreed upon:... Surrender at discretion was also used at the Battle of the Alamo , when Antonio López de Santa Anna asked Jim Bowie and William B. Travis for unconditional surrender. Even though Bowie wished to surrender unconditionally, Travis refused, fired

8670-575: The town; but, at their solicitation, they obtained till ten o'clock next day to make up their minds. The message was taken into consideration at a public meeting of the inhabitants, and anxiously debated. The majority having come to the resolution that it was impossible to defend the town with the handful of men within, two deputies were sent to Bannockburn , the headquarters of the Highland army, who offered to surrender to terms; stating that, rather than surrender at discretion, as required, they would defend

8772-689: The unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces" and warned that the alternative was "prompt and utter destruction." It has been claimed that it prolonged the war in Europe by its usefulness to German domestic propaganda , which used it to encourage further resistance against the Allied armies, and by its suppressive effect on the German resistance movement since even after a coup against Adolf Hitler : "those Germans – and particularly those German generals – who might have been ready to throw Hitler over, and were able to do so, were discouraged from making

8874-602: The unpopularity of the policy. Support for dismantling was by this time coming predominantly from the French, and the Petersberg Agreement of November 1949 reduced the levels vastly, though dismantling of minor factories continued until 1951. The final limitations on German industrial levels were lifted after the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, though arms manufacture remained prohibited. Germany's second largest center of mining and industry, Upper Silesia , had been handed over by

8976-574: The use of the Reichstag building by flying very noisy supersonic jets near the building. A number of cities were proposed to host the federal government, and Kassel (among others) was eliminated in the first round. Other politicians opposed the choice of Frankfurt out of concern that, as one of the largest German cities and a former centre of the Holy Roman Empire , it would be accepted as a "permanent" capital of Germany, thereby weakening

9078-475: The victims of the Nazis. It was directed that all relief went to non-German displaced persons , liberated Allied POWs , and concentration camp inmates. During 1945 it was estimated that the average German civilian in the U.S. and UK occupation zones received 1200 kilocalories a day in official rations, not counting food they grew themselves or purchased on the large-scale black market . In early October 1945

9180-401: The virtual completion of the by then much watered-down plans, equipment had been removed from 706 factories in the west and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6,700,000 tons. Timber exports from the U.S. occupation zone were particularly heavy. Sources in the U.S. government stated that the purpose of this was the "ultimate destruction of the war potential of German forests". With

9282-680: The war ended before the Allies had reached Germany. The myth was used by the Nazis in their propaganda. An unconditional surrender was felt to ensure that the Germans knew that they had lost the war themselves. On 16 December 1971, Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi , CO of Pakistan Armed Forces located in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ) signed the Instrument of Surrender handing over the command of his forces stationed in East Pakistan to

9384-412: The war with Japan or to be a cause of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (see debate over the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ). One reason for the policy was that the Allies wished to avoid a repetition of the stab-in-the-back myth , which had arisen in Germany after World War I and attributed Germany's loss to betrayal by Jews, Bolsheviks, and Socialists, as well as the fact that

9486-678: The way for German membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In April 1951, West Germany joined with France, Italy and the Benelux countries in the European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner of the European Union). The outbreak of the Korean War (June 1950) led to Washington calling for the rearmament of West Germany in order to defend western Europe from the Soviet threat. But

9588-400: The western half of the city. The Soviets ended the blockade after 11 months. The Allies confiscated intellectual property of great value, all German patents, both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies. Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the U.S. pursued

9690-402: Was a growing demand for labor in many industries as the workforce grew by 3% per annum, the reserves of labor were virtually used up. The millions of displaced persons and the refugees from the eastern provinces had all been integrated into the workforce. At the end of the decade, thousands of younger East Germans were packing their bags and migrating westwards, posing an ever-growing problem for

9792-547: Was called the Allied Control Council , consisting of the commanders-in-chief in Germany of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union; who exercised supreme authority in their respective zones, while supposedly acting in concert on questions affecting the whole country. In actuality however, the French consistently blocked any progress towards re-establishing all-German governing institutions; substantially in pursuit of French aspirations for

9894-497: Was established in the Soviet Zone. The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and superpower disengagement from Central Europe but Britain, France, and the United States rejected the offer as insincere. Also, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer preferred "Westintegration", rejecting "experiments". In English, the two larger states were known informally as "West Germany" and "East Germany" respectively. In both cases,

9996-576: Was established on the territory of the Western occupied zones, with Bonn as its "provisional" capital. It comprised the area of 11 newly formed states (replacing the pre-war states), with present-day Baden-Württemberg being split into three states until 1952). The Federal Republic was declared to have "the full authority of a sovereign state" on 5 May 1955. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) ), with East Berlin as its capital,

10098-617: Was passed along to Grant, but there is no evidence that either Foote or Smith influenced Grant's choice of words. In 1863, Ambrose Burnside forced an unconditional surrender of the Cumberland Gap and 2,300 Confederate soldiers, and in 1864, Union General Gordon Granger forced an unconditional surrender of Fort Morgan . The use of the term was revived during World War II at the Casablanca conference in January 1943 when American President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated it to

10200-401: Was replaced by JCS 1779, which instead stressed that "[a]n orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." The dismantling did however continue, and in 1949 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer wrote to the Allies requesting that it end, citing the inherent contradiction between encouraging industrial growth and removing factories and also

10302-527: Was reunited on 3 October 1990, following the decline and fall of the SED as the ruling party of East Germany and the Peaceful Revolution there. At the Potsdam Conference (17 July to 2 August 1945), after Germany's unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, the Allies officially divided Germany into the four military occupation zones — France in the southwest, the United Kingdom in the northwest,

10404-400: Was to be lowered to 50% of its 1938 levels by the destruction of 1,500 listed manufacturing plants . In January 1946 the Allied Control Council set the foundation of the future German economy by putting a cap on German steel production—the maximum allowed was set at about 5,800,000 tons of steel a year, equivalent to 25% of the pre-war production level. The UK, in whose occupation zone most of

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