At the Yalta Conference , held in February 1945 , the United States , United Kingdom , and the Soviet Union agreed on the division of Germany into occupation zones . Soviet leader Joseph Stalin favored the maintenance of German unity , but supported its division among the Allied powers , a view that he reiterated at Potsdam . Estimating the territory that the converging armies of the western Allies and the Soviet Union would overrun , the Yalta Conference determined the demarcation line for the respective areas of occupation . It was also decided that a " Committee on Dismemberment of Germany " was to be set up . The purpose was to decide whether Germany was to be divided into several nations , and if so , what borders and inter-relationships the new German states were to have . Following Germany 's surrender , the Allied Control Council , representing the United States , Britain , France , and the Soviet Union , assumed governmental authority in postwar Germany . Economic demilitarization however ( especially the stripping of industrial equipment ) was the responsibility of each zone individually
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
History of East Germany