Ambassador to the GDR on December 20, On September 25, , President George H. Bush submitted the treaty for ratification, and the U. Senate obliged unanimously on October The treaty finally went into effect on March 15, When discussing future political structures, both sides agreed on many key principles — that individuals should be safeguarded against excessive demands from an authoritarian government, and that the electoral system should be designed to promote stable government with an effective but loyal opposition, and discourage extreme political parties.
In many cases, the outcome was a compromise, containing elements of both the British and pre-Nazi German systems. A policy of introducing democracy by persuasion, not by force or by unilateral decree, appears to have succeeded, despite well-publicised concerns which emerged from the s and continue to the present that some former Nazis remained in positions of authority and influence.
In the first two years after the war, instructions issued to British administrative staff and army personnel regarding personal relations with German civilians changed completely, from non-fraternisation and a ban on all contacts with Germans other than those necessary for their work, to official support for all forms of activity that promoted mutual understanding and personal reconciliation.
British soldiers and administrators have recorded in diaries, memoirs and oral history interviews how they came to know Germans during the occupation through work, meeting socially as friends, as lovers, or eventually as husbands and wives.
Around 10, British soldiers and officials married German women they met during the occupation. Once power started to be devolved to local German administrations, British officials could no longer issue instructions to German subordinates. Relations between British and Germans were not harmonious throughout the occupation.
There were some tense conflicts, hunger strikes and demonstrations. Requisitioning of accommodation for the occupying forces was especially unpopular among the Germans, at a time of massive housing shortages. Many Germans also objected to the privileges of the occupying forces, such as clubs and hotels exclusively for their use, and reserved compartments on some local trains in cities such as Hamburg. But in general, reconciliation worked in post-war Germany, because personal initiatives, at many levels, received official support and encouragement and were combined with active collaboration between the British and local German administrations.
Reconciliation required a conscious effort on both sides. It did not happen automatically. The military occupations of Germany and Japan after the Second World War are probably the most prominent examples in modern times of the economic and political reconstruction of a defeated country.
Historian John Dower, for example, has suggested that they were used by US policymakers in and as examples of successful military occupations. Despite the successful outcome, however, post-conflict reconstruction in occupied Germany should not be seen as a direct model for countries where specific circumstances may be very different. If there had been armed resistance in occupied Germany, requiring British troops to fight back and possibly kill civilians, as has occurred in other post-conflict situations such as Iraq, the outcome might have been very different.
There was no armed resistance because Germany had been completely defeated in war and the Nazi government utterly discredited. Acceptance by a majority of both occupiers and occupied that the previous regime had been illegitimate, together with the establishment of law and order, peace and internal security, adequate supplies of food and measures to prevent disease, were the crucial pre-conditions for the positive work of reconstruction.
The British experience, however, illustrates some general principles which are relevant today. Firstly, political solutions cannot be imposed from above by force or by decree.
Secondly — and correspondingly — there is a need for flexibility. Thirdly, it is important to provide a period of stability after the end of a war and the removal of the previous government, to give local people the space to develop political, economic, social and cultural institutions and practices. Christopher Knowles is a postgraduate research student at Kings College London.
We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than historians with a broad range of expertise. Toggle navigation. Policy Papers. This action marked the effective end to any discussion of reuniting East and West Germany. The city of Berlin was also divided in a like fashion. This arrangement was supposed to be temporary, but as Cold War animosities began to harden, it became increasingly evident that the division between the communist and non-communist controlled sections of Germany and Berlin would become permanent.
In December, the United States and Great Britain combined their occupation zones into what came to be known as Bizonia. France agreed to become part of this arrangement, and in May , the three zones became one. Many of the German representatives at the meeting were subdued, for they had harbored the faint hope that Germany might be reunified. Two communist members of the council refused to sign the proclamation establishing the new state. The Soviets reacted quickly to the action in West Germany.
These actions in marked the end of any talk of a reunified Germany. In , with Soviet strength ebbing and the Communist Party in East Germany steadily losing its grip on power, East and West Germany were finally reunited as one nation. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! On May 23, thousands of LGBTQ activists celebrated as Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage through referendum.
The vote attracted a large turnout, with
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