Allied attitudes to the German people

Fraternisation:

• The general view, amongst the Allies, was that the Germans 'deserved what they got'.
• For America and Britain, the Morgenthau Plan was a guiding policy that the Germans should be shown no sympathy:
  • There should be no socialising or fraternising with the 'enemy'.
• Whereas the Russians had no equivalent ruling on fraternisation:
  • Contact with German civilians was informally permitted, and they stressed that the Germans were not to be treated as the Germans had treared them.
• The German Communists, returning from exile, needed to win hearts and minds if socialism was to triumph over capitalism:
  • Under the direction of the Soviet superiors, were quick to set up a new political structure in Berlin, and to encourage cultural activity.

Fraternisation amongst the French:

• The French showed the most hostility.
• They were determined to punish the Germans:
  • Through retribution for 3 crushing invasions of their country.
  • Reprisal for war crimes such as that committed at Oradour.
• The French believed that the German race were fundamentally militaristic, which was in no hope of being changed.
• In a poll conducted in France, in August 1945, 78% voted in favour of dividing Germany into 3 separate states.

Attitudes towards the Germans, from America and Britain, changed relatively changed:

• This was because of humanitarian concern, which arose over increased contact between the occupying forces and German civilians began to facilitate personal reconciliation.
• Also because of the growing realisation that economic and political reconstruction was vital to counter the new threat:
  • Expanding Communist control throughout the whole of Germany.
• By 1946, it was reached by the British and the Americans, that they needed West Germans as political partners.