July 9, 2023 - Germany
Potsdam Conference
Southwest of Berlin is Potsdam, Berling's holiday retreat, now famous for the Postdam Conference held from July 17 to August 2, 1945, where the three leading Allies planned the postwar peace. The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were represented respectively by General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. They gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had agreed to an unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier.
The conference was held in Cecilienhof Palace, which was built in the style of an English Manor House from 1913 to 1917. Cecilienhof was the last palace built by the House of Hohenzollern that ruled the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire until the end of World War I. It's famous history has been preserved and is open to the public.
Crown Prince Wilhelm and his family lived here until 1945. The palace was named after his wife, Crown Princess Cicilie. Crown Prince Wilhelm was the oldest child of the last Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the outbreak of the German Revolution in 1918, both Emperor Wilhelm II and the crown prince signed the document of abdication and exiled to the Netherlands. After World War I, Wilhelm was allowed to return to Germany after giving assurances that he would not engage in politics. A settlement between the state and the family made Cecilienhof property of the state but granted a right of residence to Wilhelm and his wife Cecilie. Adolf Hitler visited Wilhelm at Cecilienhof three times, in 1926, in 1933 (on the "Day of Potsdam") and in 1935.
When Wilhelm realised that Hitler had no intention of restoring the monarchy, their relationship cooled. Upon his father's death in 1941, Wilhelm succeeded him as head of the House of Hohenzollern, the former German imperial dynasty. He was approached by those in the military and the diplomatic service who wanted to replace Hitler, but Wilhelm turned them down. After the ill-fated assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, Hitler nevertheless had Wilhelm placed under supervision by the Gestapo and had his home at Cecilienhof watched.
In January 1945, Wilhelm left Potsdam for Oberstdorf for a treatment of his gall and liver problems. His wife Cecilie fled in early February 1945 as the Red Army drew closer to Berlin, but they had been living apart for a long time. At the End of World War II in Europe, Wilhelm's home, Cecilienhof, was seized by the Soviets. Wilhelm died there in 20 July 1951, of a heart attack.
Here are pictures of him and his family in happier days.
The foreign ministers and top military men played key roles. The foreign ministers were Vyacheslav Molotov, Anthony Eden and Ernest Bevin, and James F. Byrnes. Top military men were Admiral William D. Leahy (Chief of Staff to the President), General George C. Marshal (Chief of Staff of the Army), General Georgy Zhukov (Commander of the Soviet Occupational Forces), and Sir Alan Brooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff).
From July 17 to July 25, nine meetings were held, when the Conference was interrupted for two days, as the results of the British general election were announced. By July 28, Attlee had defeated Churchill and replaced him as Britain's representative, with Britain's new Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ernest Bevin, replacing Anthony Eden. Four days of further discussion followed. During the conference, there were meetings of the three heads of government with their foreign secretaries, as well as meetings of only the foreign secretaries. Committees that were appointed by the latter for precursory consideration of questions before the conference also met daily. During the Conference, Truman was secretly informed that the Trinity test of the first atomic bomb on July 16 had been successful. He hinted to Stalin that the U.S. was about to use a new kind of weapon against the Japanese. Though this was the first time the Soviets had been officially given information about the atomic bomb, Stalin was already aware of the bomb project, having learned about it through espionage long before Truman did.
Key final decisions included the following: Germany would be divided into the four occupation zones (among the three powers and France) that had been agreed to earlier; Germany's eastern border was to be shifted west to the Oder–Neisse line; a Soviet-backed group was recognized as the legitimate government of Poland; and Vietnam was to be partitioned at the 16th parallel. The Soviets also reaffirmed their Yalta promise to promptly launch an invasion of Japanese-held areas.
Views were also exchanged on a plethora of other questions. However, consideration of those matters was postponed into the Council of Foreign Ministers, which the conference established. The conference ended with a stronger relationship among the three governments as a consequence of their collaboration, which renewed confidence that together with the other United Nations, they would ensure the creation of a just and enduring peace. Nevertheless, within 18 months relations had deteriorated and the Cold War had emerged.
... Wikipedia
Churchill and Clement Attlee (Deputy Prime Minister and soon to be Prime Minister) went out to the New Palace in Sanssouci Park for some sightseeing during a break in the conference.
:Looking at the rear of the Palace where the Great Hall is.
We enjoyed visting Cecilienhof. Recommended.
