ABSTRACT
For over two years before the Germans surrendered unconditionally, the Allies had been trying to settle what was to happen afterwards. Some things had been agreed without too much difficulty. Americans, British and Russians all took, for example, the view that the whole country must be occupied. An Allied Control Council in Berlin was, for the time being, to replace a German government and each of the three Powers was to be responsible for maintaining order and for seeing that the Council’s decisions were carried out in a ‘Zone’ approximating to one-third of the country. Berlin was to constitute a special area, occupied and administered by all three Allies, each of whom would be assigned a ‘Sector’ of the city. Then at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 Stalin was persuaded to allow the French a seat on the Control Council, a Zone of occupation and a Sector in Berlin.
