The Potsdam Conference of July/August 1945 officially recognized the zones and confirmed jurisdiction of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany ( German : '' Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland '' , SMAD ) from the Oder and Neisse rivers to the demarcation line . The Soviet occupation zone included the former states of Brandenburg , Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Saxony , Saxony-Anhalt , and Thuringia . The city of Berlin was placed under the control of the four powers . The German territory east of the Oder-Neisse line , equal in size to the Soviet occupation zone , was handed over to Poland and the Soviet Union for de facto annexation . This territory transfer was seen as a compensation for Nazi German military occupation of Poland and parts of the Soviet Union . The millions of Germans still remaining in these areas under the Potsdam Agreement were over a period of several years expelled and replaced by Polish settlers ( see Expulsion of Germans after World War II )
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
History of East Germany