Why did Germany divide in 1949?

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  • Why was Germany divided in 1949?
    • Germany in 1945:
      • population displacement
        • 12 million refuges fleeing from E. Germany
        • former slave labourers and camp prisoners
        • huge number of men killed/iprisoned
      • Urban destruction:
        • allied bombing - firestorms, blanket  bombing
        • Hamburg, 1943, 30,000 killed
        • Dresden, 1945, 150,000 killed and 70% property damaged
        • 20% overall housing destroyed, 30% badly damaged
      • Food and Fuel shortages:
        • Average calorie intake - 1,000 a day
        • thriving black-market
      • Central Government/ authority had COLLAPSED
    • Conferences:
      • YALTA, February, 1945:
        • divide Germany into 4 zones
        • 3 Ds: Denazified, demilitarised and democratised
        • Free elections in E. Europe (PCHERB)
        • Soviet Sphere of Influence
      • POTSDAM, July7, 1945:
        • not very successful...
          • leadership changes - Truman and Atlee
          • Red Army advancing and NO free elections
          • atomic bomb had exploded
          • couldn't agree on reparations...
        • DID agree to...
          • ACC
            • chaired by commanders-in-chief of the armies
            • Upon SOVIET insistance, each commander had complete responsibility for their zone
          • Central German offices for finance, transport, trade and industry
          • Polish border - Oder-Neisse line and reduced Germany's size by 25%
          • German population living beyond new eastern borders - expelled
          • Nazi party outlawed and war criminals prosecuted
          • Germany's economy decentralised and converted to agriculture and light industry
    • It needed to be rebuilt!

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