After the end of World War II in Europe ( 1939 – 45 ) , and the decisions of the earlier Tehran , Casablanca and Yalta Conferences , the Allies by the Berlin Declaration of June 5 , 1945 , had assumed supreme authority over Germany . In the '' Three Power Conference of Berlin '' ( formal title of the Potsdam Conference ) from 17 July to 2 August 1945 , they agreed to and adopted the '' Protocol of the Proceedings , August 1 , 1945 '' , signed at Cecilienhof Castle in Potsdam . The signatories were General Secretary Joseph Stalin , President Harry S. Truman , and Prime Minister Clement Attlee , who , as a result of the British general election of 1945 , had replaced Winston Churchill as the UK 's representative . The three powers also agreed to invite France and China to participate as members of Council of Foreign Ministers established to oversee the agreement . The Provisional Government of the French Republic accepted the invitation on August 7 , with the key reservation that it would not accept '' a priori '' any commitment to the eventual reconstitution of a central government in Germany
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Conference
Potsdam Agreement