The Allied Control Council begins its work

The Berlin Declaration establishes the Allied Control Council as the source of government authority

Four weeks after the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces, the victorious Allies declared that they had taken over all power from the German civil authorities. The preamble to the Berlin Declaration published on 5 June 1945 set out the rationale for this loss of sovereignty: whilst the defeat of the Wehrmacht had established the victorious Allies as the sole arbiters of future political developments, Germany lacked a functioning government that could maintain order and implement Allied directives. Consequently, the foreign military governments would assume and exercise authority on all levels of government, from the centre right down to local level.

Whilst Germany was reduced to its boundaries of 1937, thereby reversing the annexations and conquests of the Third Reich, the Berlin Declaration announced that Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation and Berlin split into four sectors. Each zone of occupation was subject to the authority of one of the four victorious powers, whilst decisions affecting Germany as a whole were reserved for the Allied Control Council, consisting of the four commanders-in-chief.