Changes

After Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and France occupied the country and assumed responsibility for its administration. The commanders in chief exercised supreme authority in their respective zones and acted in concert on questions affecting the whole country.  

After Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and France occupied the country and assumed responsibility for its administration. The commanders in chief exercised supreme authority in their respective zones and acted in concert on questions affecting the whole country.  

The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union agreed at Potsdam in August 1945 to treat Germany as a single economic unit with some central administrative departments in a decentralized framework. However, Soviet policy turned increasingly toward dominating the part of Europe where Soviet armies were present, including eastern Germany. In 1948, the Soviets, in an attempt to abrogate agreements for Four-Power control of the city, blockaded Berlin. Until May 1949, the Allied-occupied part of Berlin was kept supplied only by an Allied airlift. The "Berlin airlift" succeeded in forcing the Soviets to accept, for the time being, the Allied role and the continuation of freedom in a portion of the city, West Berlin.  

The United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union agreed at Potsdam in August 1945 to treat Germany as a single economic unit with some central administrative departments in a decentralized framework.  

 

Soviet policy turned increasingly toward dominating the part of Europe where Soviet armies were present, including eastern Germany. From yje Kremlin's point of view, it was the powerful United States rather than devastated Germany that posed the main long-term military threat to the Soviet Union. Stalin wanted U.S. troops withdrawn from Germany and, imdeed, from all of Europe, and to prevent Germany's integratation into the western political, economic, and military system.  This objective followed the basic line of Soviet foreign policy since the 1920s onward: to hinder a united western front against the

 

In 1948, the Soviets, in an attempt to abrogate agreements for Four-Power control of the city, blockaded Berlin. Until May 1949, the Allied-occupied part of Berlin was kept supplied only by an Allied airlift. The "Berlin airlift" succeeded in forcing the Soviets to accept, for the time being, the Allied role and the continuation of freedom in a portion of the city, West Berlin.  

===West Germany===

===West Germany===