The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

area, established as a result of the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement (german: Potsdamer Abkommen) was the agreement between three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union on 1 August 1945. A product of the Potsdam Conference, it concerned th ...

on 1 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic (GDR), commonly referred to in English as East Germany, was established in the Soviet Occupation Zone. 1949 Soviet visa from occupied Germany

The SBZ was one of the four

Allied occupation zones of Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...

created at the end of World War II with the Allied victory. According to the

, 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 Poland and its population expelled, pending a final peace conference with Germany. By the time forces of the United States and United Kingdom began to meet Soviet Union forces, forming a 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 upon occupation zone boundaries. The SMAD allowed four

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

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 The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD) and the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

(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. 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. On 7 October 1949, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic. In 1952, the ''Länder'' were dissolved and realigned into 14 districts ''(Bezirke)'', plus the district of

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

. In 1952, with the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

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 disinterest 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.

References

* Brennan, Sean
'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 1940s in East Germany Foreign relations of the Soviet Union World War II occupied territories Aftermath of World War II in Germany Allied occupation of Germany Soviet military occupations Germany–Soviet Union relations States and territories established in 1945 States and territories disestablished in 1949 1945 in Germany 1945 establishments in Europe 1949 disestablishments in Europe

See also

References