Allied Kommandatura
The victorious allied powers established control of post-war Germany and other territories via shared Military Government councils, including for Berlin.
[1] President Roosevelt declared at the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 that the goal of the war was the unconditional surrender of Germany.
To that end, and during the following many months, the leading Allied powers planned and gave form to the task of dividing Germany, and how to govern her after the war.
The London Protocol of September 1944, established the division of Germany into zones of occupation, and the city of Berlin into sectors.
They had removed vital industrial infrastructure on a wholesale scale, and had taken most of what was left in the city in terms of agriculture and livestock.
[8] In any case, Howley's plan was in preparation for the first high-level post-war meeting between the Allies regarding Berlin, and outlined conditions for quadripartite governance.
Howley's plan was carefully worked out and allowed governance on a divided basis when unanimity could not be obtained, but Clay was following orders from Washington.
[citation needed] Their chief representatives were Marshals Zhukov and Sokolovsky, both of whom, according to Howley, had great experience in moving a situation to their advantage.
The deputies were able to decide a vast majority of issues and questions at their own meetings, and passed on to their commanders only the most vital of items or when a decision could not be reached.
Inside the Kommandatura the four commandants met in the main conference room, and sat at a large rectangular table with the chairman at the head.
Groups of experts on diverse topics rounded out much of the remainder of the personnel in the room, along with translators and clerical staff.
There was so much work to get through, they had to develop a streamlined procedure to reduce everything to the bare essentials, else they "would have been swamped by bitter international wranglings," Howley states.
[23] During the Kommandatura meeting of June 16, 1948, the current chairman, French commandant General Ganeval, proposed that the Soviets rescind Order No.
They refused to rescind the order unless all other delegations agreed to the fourteen points unanimously and issued a quadripartite agreement to the effect of the same for the whole of Berlin.
Chairman Ganeval gave permission, and Howley left his deputy, Colonel Babcock, in charge, just as he had done in times past when the situation required it.
[24] After Howley's departure, reports state that Colonel Yelizarov, Kotikov's deputy filling in for the supposedly ill Soviet commandant, held an excited, whispered exchange with their political commissar, L. M. Maximov.
Howely described him as a "big, powerful, bruiser," who hunted wild boar with a machine gun in the woods outside Berlin.
Yelizarov headed for the door with Maximov closely in tow, whilst Ganeval reminded them that Howley had been properly excused.
The Russians departed in a maelstrom of confusion, but the record shows Ganeval closed the meeting due to the departure of the Soviet delegation and not Howley's excused absence.
In the end, the breakup of the Allied Kommandatura had been a planned work in progress for quite some time, according to Howley,[28] as it suited the purposes of the Soviets, period.
It followed the pattern of the breakup of the Allied Control Council, when three months earlier Marshal Sokolovsky staged the walkout then.
[29] For the balance of June, the Soviets did participate in limited quadripartite sub-committee meetings, and their clerical staff remained through July.
The number of agreements at the Allied Kommandatura exceeds 1,200 and even includes agreed loans to Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish churches.
