The three leaders of the Western Allies, met in the Postdam Conference in summer 1945 and reached certain agreements to ensure that Germany did not become a threaten anymore. The participants were the United Kingdom (represented by Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee), the United States (president Harry S. Truman) and the Soviet Union represented by Joseph Stalin.
They reached the following agreements according to how to administer Germany:
- The German territory was divided in 4 occupation areas that would be under the control of US, UK, URSS and France respectively. Berlin, the capital was located inside the territory controlled by the URSS but it was also divided in four zones, each controlled by one of the allies.
- It was agreed that the objectives of this occupation had to be: demilitarization, denazification, construction of a democratic nation and power decentralization.
- All Nazi authorities would be judged and German anexations of territories reversed.
