Anglo-American views of Germany at Potsdam

This first chapter examines Anglo-American views of Germany from the Potsdam Conference, which opened on 17 July 1945 and ended in August with an agreement between the Three Powers, establishing quadripartite rights and responsibilities through France's association, to the FRG's inclusion into NATO in May 1955. Although US and British views were powerfully influenced by the dynamics of their relationship with the Soviet Union, in the early stages of the Cold War there was not a consolidated Anglo- American consensus about Germany. The East–West structure powerfully shaped almost every aspect of Anglo-American policy in Europe, making Germany's unification for a number of years a remote possibility. Furthermore, both US and British decisionmakers ostensibly pursued national strategies, which were not always inspired by a shared vision about Germany's place in the post-War order. From the early stages of the Potsdam Conference US decision-makers endeavoured to constrain Soviet influence and after 1948 they favoured West Germany's rehabilitation and rapid integration into the Western security system. In contrast, Britain was driven by the concern to preserve its world standing and by a persistent distrust of the Germans. As a result, London initially attempted to preserve a degree of cooperation with Moscow and only gradually supported American initiatives to restore West German sovereignty.

The Potsdam Conference – convened ten weeks after Admiral Karl Dönitz signed the Third Reich's act of surrender on 8 May 1945 – was the first chapter in a long story of failed Anglo- American and Soviet endeavours to reach an arrangement on Germany. However, East–West disagreements there quickly turned the German question into one of the most pressing and intricate issues of the emerging post-War settlement in Europe.