American military government

After the German Reich capitulated on May 8, 1945, Germany was divided into four occupation zones and Berlin into four sectors by the occupying powers USA, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France. The American occupation zone included Bavaria east of the Rhine (excluding the district of Lindau), Württemberg-Baden, Greater Hesse (excluding the parts of the Nassau and Rhine-Hessian territory that fell to the French zone) and the Bremen enclave. The American sector of Berlin was not formally part of the American zone.

The task of the American military government or the American military governor and Commander-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces in Germany was to exercise supreme power. This was initially intended to take place in their own occupation zone, but at the same time together with the military governors of the other three occupation zones in the Allied Control Council in Berlin regarding all matters relating to Germany as a whole.

With the declaration of June 5, 1945, the representatives of the four occupying powers officially assumed supreme government power; just under four months later, a unified executive branch and organization of the entire American military government for Berlin and the US zone was created in the form of the Office of Military Government/United States (OMGUS) on October 1, 1945.

Under the leadership of Lieutenant-General Lucius D. Clay, OMGUS united the two competing planning staff units that had existed since February and August 1944, respectively, which dealt with the future administration of the American occupation zone and the activities of the US group in the Allied Control Council in Berlin. Previously, the occupation administration had been carried out by military governor Dwight D. Eisenhower, who resided in the Heidelberg headquarters of the United States Forces/European Theater (USFET). However, it was Clay who was actually in charge, appointed deputy to Eisenhower in April 1945 and working primarily at the place of military government in Berlin.

Also on October 1, 1945, the parts of USFET that remained in Frankfurt am Main were renamed Office of Military Government/US Zone (OMGUSZ) and given the task of carrying out policies decided by OMGUS in the American zone. Major General Clarence L. Adcock became the head of this Frankfurt department. The personnel of OMGUS in November 1945 consisted of more than 4000 Americans, 8000 German civil servants and 1200 German POWs.
The Office of Military Government/Bavaria (OMGBY) was a regional subunit of OMGUSZ, with its headquarters in Munich, divided into divisions , and these in turn into branches . The first head of the military government in Bavaria was General Walter J. Muller, with Murray D. van Wagoner becoming his successor on November 20, 1947 (until September 1949). Administration in the country was undertaken by what were known as ‘detachments’. OMGBY lasted until September 1949, thereafter their powers were exercised by a Land Commissioner. On June 30, 1952, their remaining tasks were transferred to the Consulate General of the United States in Munich.

In March 1947, Clay become the third American military governor in Germany after Eisenhower and General Joseph T. McNarney. Towards the end of the occupation period, John J. McCloy, who subsequently served as American High Commissioner, followed him in this office for a short time. The occupation statute issued on September 21, 1949 governed the relationships between the recently founded Federal Republic of Germany and the three occupying powers USA, Great Britain and France. Then the remaining powers of the USA bestowed as per occupation law went from OMGUS to the American High Commissioner, the High Commissioner for Germany (HICOG), now subordinate to the US State Department.

For the first four years after the end of the war, OMGUS was subordinate to the US War Department with essentially a fivefold form of organization. At the top was the military governor, who, combining the army and occupation administration, was the Commander-in-Chief of the American Armed Forces in Europe and at the same time a representative of the USA in the Allied Control Council. The responsibility for managing the day-to-day administrative operations of the US zone fell to the deputy military governor (Clay). As a third level of organization, OMGUS itself was divided into offices and divisions, for example for finance, business, reparations, judicial affairs and transportation. The field offices, i.e. the military governments for Bavaria, Württemberg-Baden, Greater Hesse, Bremen and the US sector of Berlin formed the fourth level. The local military governments in the districts were at the bottom of the OMGUS pyramid. With the help of this administrative organization, the American occupation zone and the US sector in Berlin were to be governed according to the policies agreed with the other three Allies, but primarily according to the specifications of the offices in Washington instructing OMGUS.

After a long and heated argument, they initially agreed on the Occupation Directive JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff) 1067, which clearly reflected the basic ideas of the Morgenthau Plan, as it came to be known, in its restrictive economic and political regulations. However, weakened by the regulations made in the Potsdam Agreement regarding the treatment of Germany as a political and economic unit, JCS 1067 was implemented in more of a pragmatic way in actual occupation policy practice. Clay in particular quickly came to the conclusion that post-war policies aimed exclusively at punishing the German people would ultimately go against the interests of the USA in Germany and Europe. The Occupation Directive JCS 1779 in force from July 1947 was instead designed to be more constructive and provided for measures to promote the economic recovery of the - western - occupation zones, also making an adjustment for the emerging East-West conflict.

With the establishment of workable governments in the three federal states of the US zone (Bavaria, Württemberg-Baden and Greater Hesse), the American military government transferred to the Germans almost all responsibility in the administration of Germany and at the same time limited the intervention of the control authorities to a minimum. With the votes on the federal state constitutions towards the end of 1946, the federalist process of establishing German political authorities and their democratic legitimization was complete. The reorganization of the state from below and the close collaboration between American and German administrative professionals reduced the risk of animosity from the occupied against the occupying power, which would paralyze reconstruction.

OMGUS was relatively successful in shaping the German government and administration apparatus. In contrast, interventions in the deep structure of society after the end of Nazi rule were either only undertaken half-heartedly, as in the case of the dissolution of the cartels, remained ineffective or were even reversed with the beginning of the “Cold War”. Above all, the inadequacies of the denazification proceedings, instead of allowing for a processing of guilt and cleansing, led to defensive attitudes and a gigantic rehabilitation campaign.