German Border Question and Reunification

Archive Report

Partitioning of Germany After the War

More than two decades have passed since the German Third Reich was defeated in World War II, but the question of the boundaries of a unified German nation still awaits final disposition at a peace conference. The division of Germany, and of its former capital Berlin, into free and Communist areas and the de facto rule by Russia and Poland over large parts of prewar Germany remain the outstanding unsettled problems in Europe left over from the war.

After Hitler's armies were defeated in May 1945, the major victors assumed responsibility for the various zones of occupation which had been agreed upon at Allied conferences. The principal Western allies —the United States, Great Britain and France —assumed administrative power over ...

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