The Rosenheim Partition
The Rosenheim Conference, held in the middle of 1945, saw American President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin meet to discuss the fate of post-war Europe. Whilst all three men agreed that Germany's unconditional surrender and subsequent allied occupation was crucial, their ideas for a long lasting peace plan varied. Truman's predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, had suggested months before the conference that Germany should be split into five independent states, with an international zone on the border with France and an independent Austria. The new President, however, understood the need for a reasonably strong German state, in order to protect against growing Communist influence in Europe. Stalin, on the other hand, demanded that Germany be stripped of it's industrial might, in an echo of the planned divisions espoused by US Secretary to the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau. It was thus down to British Prime Minister Clement Attlee to mediate between the two men, settling on a Germany and Austria divided roughly in two, between Soviet and Western spheres of influence.
[1] Rhenish Republic- The primary Western zone of occupation was comprised of the French and the British occupation zones, as well as the northern zone of American occupation. It's capital, Frankfurt, would grow to become the largest administrative and financial sector in Europe under the guidance of the first democratically elected Chancellor of the Rhineland, Franz Blucher, who attracted moderates from both the right and the left, and pursued a heavily American-centric foreign policy.
[2] People's Republic of Germany- The VRD served as Stalin's very own slice of Europe; governed by the Socialist Unity Party (SED) as essentially a one party state, the PRG became one of the leading members of the pro-Soviet Eastern Bloc nations. Constantly on a heightened state of alert, successive Premiers have called for German unification under the socialist banner, causing many diplomatic incidents. It's capital, Berlin, is wrought with poverty after the allied withdrawal in 1946 following negotiations over Austria.
[3] Republic of Bavaria- Officially a neutral country, the Republic of Bavaria was created in order to act as a buffer state between the Soviet client states of Czechoslovakia and Socialist Austria, and the Rhineland. However, it immediately began to pursue pro-American policies, becoming a major exporter of auto-mobiles to the West.
[4] Federal Republic of Austria- With the division of Austria in 1946 following Allied Occupation, America looked to extend it's influence to contain the threat of communism in Europe. Not content with a neutral state that could be easily influenced by the growing Eastern Bloc, Truman sought to divide Austria into two spheres of influence. The Federal Republic of Austria, or the BRO, was thus born; administered from it's capital, Innsbruck, it became a centre of winter tourism to rival Switzerland, however relied heavily on American foreign aid.
[5] People's Republic of Austria- The Soviet half of the 1946 division of Austria, the VRO acted essentially as a military base for Red Army troops during the height of the Cold War. Similarly to the VRD, the People's Republic of Austria was administered as a one party totalitarian state, with Viennese policy, both domestic and foreign, often under the control of Moscow and the Politburo.
