Geography in
Mödlareuth, between
Thuringia and
Bavaria, in 1949. The American zone of occupation was more than or about the size of
Pennsylvania, with almost of internal and international boundaries. The largest cities were
Frankfurt and
Munich. The zone encompassed a large section of south-eastern and central Germany: •
Bavaria (including the Thuringian exclave of
Ostheim, but excluding
Lindau and the
Palatinate) • The
Prussian provinces of
Kurhessen and
Nassau (excluding the various exclaves belonging to them and the districts of
Oberwesterwald,
Unterwesterwald,
Unterlahn, and
Sankt Goarshausen) • The portions of the
People's State of Hesse east of the
Rhine river (
Starkenburg,
Upper Hesse, and the parts of
Rhenish Hesse east of the river). • The portions of
Württemberg and the
Republic of Baden north of the Karlsruhe-Ulm
Reichsautobahn (now the
A 8) In addition,
Bremen and
Bremerhaven (including the districts of
Wesermünde,
Osterholz und
Wesermarsch until December 1945) were part of the zone and played a central role as the port through which the occupation zone was supplied. More than 16 million Germans and more than one half million
displaced persons lived in the zone. At the end of October 1946, the American Zone had a population of: • Bavaria 8.7 million • Hesse 3.97 million • Württemberg-Baden 3.6 million • Bremen 0.48 million
Berlin was divided in four between the four occupying powers. The southwestern portion (Zehlendorf, Steglitz, Schöneberg, Kreuzberg, Tempelhof, Neukölln) was the American sector and came under US military administration, but was formally separate from the American occupation zone. Under the
Wanfried agreement on 17 September 1945, some villages on the
Werra river were exchanged for some villages in the
Soviet Occupation Zone, in order to place the whole of the
Frankfurt–Göttingen railway under American control. This also brought part of
Eichsfeld into the zone.
Military government and
Lucius D. Clay in Berlin in 1945 The headquarters of the OMGUS was the former
IG Farben Building in Frankfurt. Command of the OMGUS was initially invested in the later President
Dwight Eisenhower, who was
commander-in-chief of the American forces in Europe at the end of World War II. Eisenhower's successors were: •
George S. Patton (November 1945, acting) •
Joseph T. McNarney (November 1945–January 1947) •
Lucius D. Clay (January 1947–May 1949) •
Clarence R. Huebner (May–September 1949, acting) The four Allied powers coordinated the occupation of Germany through the
Allied Control Council, which ceased to operate after the Soviets withdrew from it on 20 March 1948. In 1949, the military administration of the American, British, and French zones was succeeded by the
Allied High Commission, which remained in operation until 1955. The
United States Constabulary provided security, with soldiers in other fields retraining as military police. The military occupation of the American sector of
West Berlin continued until 2 October 1990.
Political organization Under "Proclamation no. 2" of 19 September 1945, they announced the intention to organise the territory on a
federal model. Between 1945 and 1946, the Americans established four
states in their zone:
Bavaria,
Bremen,
Greater Hesse, and
Württemberg-Baden, which worked together in the (
Länderrat). Württemberg-Baden subsequently merged with the states of
Baden and
Württemberg-Hohenzollern in the
French occupation zone to form
Baden-Württemberg in 1952. On 5 March 1946, the Law for Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism (German:
Befreiungsgesetz) came into force in the American zone, providing the model for
Denazification throughout the western zones: all Germans over 18 years of age must complete a questionnaire giving an account of their role in
Nazi Germany. In January 1946 elections were held for local councils in 10,429 towns smaller than 20,000 people. Nazis were disqualified from voting or running for office. An unexpectedly high 86% of eligible voters participated. CSU received the most votes in Bavaria, CDU in Württemberg-Baden, and SPD in Greater Hesse. While OMGUS observers were dubious of the German people having suddenly wholeheartedly embraced democracy, they were pleased that the elections gave some legitimacy to local governments that until then the American occupation had appointed.
Landkreis and
Stadtkreis elections were held on 28 April and 26 May 1946; while OMGUS remained skeptical of genuine democratic inclination, American Landkreis and Stadtkreis detachments became liaison and security forces. On 30 June 1946, the first state Constituent Assembly elections were held (except in Bremen). In Bavaria, CSU
won a majority; in Württemberg-Baden, CDU won a plurality, whilst in Greater Hesse, SPD won a plurality. In Bremen, the first elections were held on 13 October 1946, resulting in a SPD majority, but
Wilhelm Kaisen still chose to form a coalition with KPD and Bremen's Democratic People's Party (Bremer Demokratische Volkspartei, BDV), a precursor of FDP. Following the passage of state constitutions, new elections were held in Württemberg-Baden on 24 November, resulting in
Reinhold Maier (DVP) continuing the all-party (CDU, SPD, DVP, KPD) government, and on 1 December in Bavaria, where CSU won a majority, but
Hans Ehard still formed a grand coalition with SPD and
WAV, before leading a one-party government from 20 September 1947; and in Hesse, where SPD won a plurality and
Christian Stock (SPD) formed a grand coalition with CDU. On 12 October 1947, Bremen held another election, where SPD came four seats short of a majority and thus formed a coalition with BDV, with Kaisen continuing in office. On 1 January 1947, the American and
British occupation zones were combined to form the
Bizone. This became the Trizone after the French occupation zone joined on 1 August 1948 and became the Federal Republic of Germany ("
West Germany") on 23 May 1949 with the passage of the
Basic Law.
Media Following the complete closure of all Nazi German media, the launch and operation of completely new newspaper titles began by licensing carefully selected Germans as publishers. Licenses were granted to Germans not involved in Nazi propaganda to establish those newspapers, including
Frankfurter Rundschau (August 1945),
Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin; September 1945), and
Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich; October 1945). Radio stations were run by the military government. Unlike the French and British zones, which each established a single channel ( and
NWDR respectively), the Americans established several broadcasters, in line with the system of local radio broadcasters in the United States:
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR, initially
Radio München),
Radio Bremen,
Hessischer Rundfunk (HR, initially
Radio Frankfurt), and
Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR, initially
Radio Stuttgart). The
RIAS in West-Berlin remained a radio station under U.S. control.
Transport From 22 September 1945, there were three long-distance train services operating in the American occupation zone, for the first time since the end of the war. All three routes travelled from Frankfurt am Main and were
third class only: • D 57 / D 58
Frankfurt (Main) Ost through
Nuremberg Central to
Munich Central (ca. 11 hours) • D 369 / D 370
Frankfurt (Main) Süd through
Kornwestheim to Munich Central (ca. 10.5 hours) • D 115 / D 116 Frankfurt (Main) Ost–
Hof Central (ca. 10 hours) == Archives ==