Germany and Berlin are separated into zones
The Allies of the U.S., Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union/Russia were victorious over The Axis of Germany, Italy and Japan in World War II. After the War, there was dispute among the victors over how the country of Germany should be reorganized. At the Yalta Conference, the Allies decided to establish four occupation zones of Germany, each to be administered by the commander-in-chief of the respective Soviet, British, U.S., or French army of occupation. Berlin was also divided into four occupation zones. As a result Germany and Berlin were separated into four zones. Thereafter, at the Potsdam Conference, which was held from July 17 to August 2 of 1945, it was declared, “It is the intention of the Allies that the German people be given the opportunity to prepare for the eventual reconstruction of their life on a democratic and peaceful basis” ("Potsdam Conference | World War II | Encyclopedia Britannica."). In 1946, the Soviet and Western zones disagreed on how to handle Germany’s reparations. To enable the three Western zones to work more efficiently on the way they wanted to run their zones of Germany and Berlin, they merged in 1947. The Soviets and Allies of the U.S., Great Britain, and France, ran the zones they controlled differently because of their different points view on how Germany was to be restored. The Soviets were afraid that if Germany became strong again, they would again attack Russia. Therefore, the Soviets decided to keep their zone weak and impoverished. The Soviets were able to impose their will by managing their sector with a communistic government. On the other hand, the Allies believed Germany should become strong to recover from the Nazi dictatorship, so the Allies established a capitalistic economy in their combined zone which resulted in more economic prosperity and more freedom.