Potsdam Conference and the future of Germany

July 17- August 2, 1945

The three newly victorious powers meet at Potsdam to discuss the future of the German state. Building upon the agreements made at Yalta from February 4th th 11th, Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt, 'the Big Three', agree on five prominent aims of the Allied occupation of Germany: demilitarization, denazification, democratisation, decentralisation and decartelisation. The measures taken in order to meet these aims include the division of Germany and Austria, and their respective capital cities, into four occupied zones; the annexation of German territory accrued in the prelude to the war; reparations are to be paid and limits on industrial production are to be enforced. These sanctions seal the fate of Germany's future for the forthcoming decades and entrench the Cold War division between East and West.