The conclusion of the Potsdam Conference
Two months after Germany’s surrender, the heads of government of the three main Allied powers — the USA, the Soviet Union and Great Britain — gathered at Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam to discuss their next steps. The results were published as the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. Whilst confirming a number of decisions that had already been partially implemented, such as the establishment of four zones of occupation in Germany, the Allies also reached compromises intended to conceal their disagreement over the key of issues of denazification, demilitarization, democratization, decentralization, and whether to dismantle or rebuild German industry.
One of the most significant provisions of the Potsdam Agreement was the decision to recognize the Oder and Neisse rivers as constituting Germany’s eastern border, resulting in the transfer of a quarter of its territory to Poland and the Soviet Union. In so doing, Britain and the USA accepted the almost-completed Soviet programme of expelling the German populations of East Prussia, Silesia and Bohemia. Although the agreement stipulated that this should be carried out in an “orderly and humane” manner, the process was largely chaotic, violent, and sometimes even murderous. Some twelve million refugees and displaced persons who would never be able to return home had to be accommodated in western and central Germany.
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