Berlin Blockade - Postwar Division of Germany

Postwar Division of Germany

From 17 July to 2 August 1945, the victorious Allied Powers reached the Potsdam Agreement on the fate of postwar Europe, calling for the division of defeated Germany into four temporary occupation zones (thus re-affirming principles laid out earlier by the Yalta Conference). These zones were located roughly around the current locations of the allied armies. Additionally, the German capital of Berlin was to be divided into four sectors: the French sector, British Sector, American sector and the Soviet sector.

Berlin was located 100 miles inside the Soviet occupation zone. The Soviet zone produced much of Germany's food supply, while the territory of the British and American zones had to rely on food imports even before the war. In addition, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the incorporation of part of eastern Poland into the Soviet Union, compensating Poland by ceding to it a large portion of Germany east of the Oder-Neisse line. This area had contained much of Germany's fertile land. The administration of occupied Germany was coordinated by the Four Power Allied Control Council (ACC).