Everything about The Soviet Occupation Zone totally explained
The
Soviet Occupation Zone (
German:
Sowjetische Besatzungszone (SBZ) or
Ostzone;, Sovetskaya zona Germanii, "Soviet Zone of Germany") was the area of eastern
Germany occupied by the
Soviet Union from
1945 on, at the end of
World War II. On
7 October 1949, the Soviet occupation zone became the German Democratic Republic (
East Germany).
Significant areas of what would become the Soviet zone of Germany were not handed over to the Soviets until a few months after the end of hostilities, having first been occupied by
American forces. The Americans withdrew from the
line of contact in July of 1945 to the previously agreed upon occupation zone boundaries.
The SBZ was one of the four
Allied occupation zones of Germany created at the end of World War II. According to the
Potsdam Agreement, the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany (German initials: SMAD) was assigned responsibility for the (present-day) eastern portion of Germany. Shortly thereafter, the SMAD allowed four political parties to develop, though they were all required to work together under an alliance known as the "Democratic Bloc" (later the
National Front). In April 1946, the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) merged together to form the
Socialist Unity Party (which later became the governing party of
East Germany).
Originally,
Joseph Stalin wanted to bring all of Germany under Soviet influence, but when the West resisted this idea, he then sought to create a united Germany which would be non-aligned. When the West again resisted these efforts, Stalin decided to focus his efforts on the Soviet occupation zone.
In
1945, the Soviet occupation zone consisted primarily of the central portions of
Prussia. After Prussia was dissolved by the Allied powers in 1947, the area was divided between the German states
(Länder) of
Brandenburg,
Mecklenburg,
Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt und
Thuringia. On
7 October 1949, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic, usually referred to in English as East Germany. In
1952, the
Länder were dissolved and realigned into 14 districts
(Bezirke), plus the district of
East Berlin.
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