Allied Control Council

Foundation and composition

The Council's origins lay in the Agreement on Control Machinery in Germany, drafted by the European Advisory Commission and signed in London on 14 November 1944. After Germany's surrender, the Berlin Declaration of 5 June 1945 vested the four powers with supreme authority over Germany within its borders of 31 December 1937, fixed the boundaries of the occupation zones and Berlin sectors, and assumed all powers of the German government, High Command, and state and local authorities. This was not an annexation: the final borders and status were to be settled by a peace treaty, which was never concluded before the 1990 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

The Council convened informally on 30 July 1945 and officially began work on 30 August 1945, issuing its first proclamation to inform the German people of its existence. Its members were the zone supreme commanders, initially Zhukov (USSR), Eisenhower (US), Montgomery (Britain), and de Lattre de Tassigny (France). The seat was the former Kammergericht building in Schöneberg, Berlin, and Luxembourg, itself a small occupying power, kept a permanent representative in Berlin.

Activities

The Council legislated through proclamations, laws, orders, directives, and instructions. Directive No. 10 of September 1945 set out these five categories, and Directive No. 11 of the same month made English, French, Russian, and German the official languages and established an official gazette; Directive No. 51 of 29 April 1947 reduced the categories to proclamations, laws, and orders. The Russian source dates Directive No. 10 to 22 September 1945, the English source to 20 September 1945, so the exact day is uncertain.

Its legislative output covered the abolition of Nazi laws and organisations, demilitarisation, and denazification: Law No. 2 (10 October 1945) dissolved the NSDAP and prohibited its revival, Law No. 8 (30 November 1945, effective 1 December 1945) dissolved all German military units, Law No. 4 (30 October 1945) re-established German courts, and Law No. 10 (20 December 1945) allowed each occupying power to try war criminals in its own system. Law No. 46 (25 February 1947) abolished Prussia as an administrative unit, citing the militarism associated with the name; the Free State of Prussia and its government had already been abolished by Hitler in 1934, and parts of the former Prussian territory had passed to Poland and the Soviet Union.

One major issue was the Potsdam decision on the transfer of German minorities out of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. On 20 November 1945 the Council approved a plan for the resettlement, to be completed by July 1946, but France, not a party to Potsdam, reserved the right not to be bound and refused to accept expellees into its zone. More than 80 sessions were held before 1948, dealing with provisional borders such as the Oder-Neisse line, legitimising deportations and resettlement, and demilitarising the German economy. But as with reparations, the dismantling and removal of industrial equipment was carried out autonomously by each occupation power, so no unified Council policy existed on the question.

Paralysis and dissolution

Because every decision required unanimity, cooperation soon faltered. In September 1946 disagreement arose over the distribution of coal for industry, and the Soviet representative withdrew his support for the plan agreed by the United States, Britain, and France. On 1 January 1947 the British and American zones merged into the Bizone (France joined its zone on 8 April 1949), and over 1947 and early 1948 the two prepared the currency reform introducing the Deutsche Mark.

The 82nd meeting of 20 March 1948 was held at the request of the Soviet chairman after the Coordinating Committee found no regular business for the agenda on 17 March, in order to discuss the Prague declaration by the Czechoslovak, Polish, and Yugoslav governments on Germany and the results of the recent London tripartite conference. Western delegates refused to discuss the Prague declaration as propaganda handled at governmental level, and the Soviet member withdrew the item. The Soviet member, Sokolovsky, then demanded that his colleagues inform the Council fully about the decisions of the London Conference. The British and US delegates replied that the London Conference was provisional and had only made recommendations to the governments concerned, so no 'directives' had yet been received, and the British member charged the Soviet side with failing to advise the Council of unilateral actions in its own zone.

Sokolovsky then charged that the London decisions concerned matters within the Council's jurisdiction, that the Western refusal to discuss them showed a desire to conceal a tripartite agreement reached contrary to Potsdam which would prevent the establishment of a peaceful democratic Germany, and that the Western powers had broken away from the Council machinery and taken responsibility for the consequences, so the Control Council no longer existed as an organ of government. He declared 'today's meeting' adjourned and the entire Soviet delegation left the conference room; the three Western powers held the chairman's unilateral action terminating the meeting improper. The Council never met again in its governing capacity, and the principle that matters affecting Germany as a whole had to be decided jointly ceased to operate. It was never formally dissolved, however: a meeting on 3 September 1971 led to the Four Power Agreement on Berlin, and the Council remained the institutional framework of four-power rights over occupied Germany. Its only remaining joint functions were the management of Spandau Prison, where the Nuremberg convicts were held until 1987, the last being Rudolf Hess, and the Berlin Air Safety Centre.

After the separate currency reform in the three Western zones on the night of 20-21 June 1948, which led to a currency reform in the Soviet zone and the blockade of West Berlin, the division of Germany became inevitable. The Council's breakdown also created a constitutional dilemma: the Allied Powers of 1945 had envisaged passing German national sovereignty to a new unified German state, so neither the Federal Republic nor the GDR could claim formal approval of its constitution from the full Control Council. After 1948 the Western zones and West Berlin sectors were governed by the Allied High Commission, instituted by September 1949, while the Soviet Zone and Soviet sector were governed by the Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission and later a Soviet High Commissioner; these roles ended as the two German states acquired de facto sovereignty in 1955.

The Council held its final meeting on 2 October 1990, on the eve of German reunification, promulgating the formal documents authorising the inclusion of Berlin in reunification. Germany remained under nominal military occupation until 15 March 1991, when ratification of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, signed 12 September 1990, was lodged, restoring full sovereignty and ending the Council. The Russian source instead says the Council was formally liquidated only with unification, after Germany regained full sovereignty under the Two Plus Four Treaty of 1990.

Conflicting end dates

English sources give the de facto dissolution as 20 September 1949 and the de jure date as 15 March 1991, and state that after Sokolovsky's walkout on 20 March 1948 no further Soviet representative attended until the 1970s. The Russian source gives 7 October 1949 as the abolition date, while the German History Documents site says only that the Council discontinued its work after 20 March 1948. The current record's 1945-1990 is one of these alternatives. The end should not be forced into a single exact year.

Distinctions

• The Allied Control Council for Germany is distinct from the Allied Commission for Austria, established by the Agreement on Control Machinery in Austria signed in London on 4 July 1945, in force from 24 July 1945, and dismantled after the Austrian State Treaty of 15 May 1955, its last meeting being 27 June 1955. It comprised an Allied Council, an executive committee, and four occupation staffs.
• After Sokolovsky's walkout the Council was replaced in the Western zones by the Allied High Commission and in the Soviet zone by the Soviet Control Commission and later a Soviet High Commissioner.
• In international law, 'Germany as a whole' remained under four-power rule after 1948; the Berlin Air Safety Centre continued in the same Schöneberg building until 31 December 1990, and the Four Power Agreement on Berlin was signed at the Council's headquarters building on 3 June 1972.
• The Council's Schöneberg seat had earlier been the site of the Nazi People's Court show trials. After all occupying powers withdrew to their own sectors in 1948, the Berlin Air Safety Centre alone remained there until 31 December 1990, the four national flags still flying daily; the building was returned to the German government after the Russian troop withdrawal in August 1994 and reoccupied by the Kammergericht in 1997.