Democratic Reconstruction Under Allied Occupation, 1945–1949: Neither Tradition nor “Degeneration”

The American, British, and French occupation authorities, governing the Western provinces of Germany from 1945 to 1949, shared a common vision of reeducating Germans for democracy. Their common program entailed denazification (removing former Nazis from positions of responsibility), execution or imprisonment of the most guilty, demilitarization, reeducation, and democratization. Both Catholic and Protestant bishops expressed opposition to wholesale dismissals of former Nazis from their positions and were able to effect some softening of denazification. The British and Americans initially thought in terms of imposing democracy by undemocratic means but, facing German opposition at the grassroots, eventually had to give provincial and local German authorities a greater role in developing and running new political institutions.