CCG ORGANISATION
Creation
The War Office was responsible for preparing detailed plans for the Control Commission, both for its military functions and the creation of political, economic and other civil divisions. Meanwhile, under the auspices of the Foreign Office, the Economic and Industrial Planning Staff had been working since 1943 on economic and industrial policies to be adopted following a German surrender.
The two strands were brought together in the embryonic Control Commission by the appointment in 1944 of two Deputy Commissioners with responsibility for military and civil matters respectively. They were under the departmental control of the Foreign Office, but had dual responsibility to the to the Chiefs of Staff and to the Cabinet Armistice Terms and Civil Administration Committee.[1]
COGA
After CCG’s deployment to Germany the Control Office for Germany and Austria (COGA) was established in October 1945 to provide the dedicated administrative and political direction needed to oversee the implementation of the Control Commission’s immense and complex mandate.[2] COGA was headed by John Hynd MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (CDL). As a junior (non-Cabinet) Minister, Hynd had the unenviable task of manoeuvring between the often conflicting interests of three of the most powerful Government departments: Foreign Office, War Office and Treasury. He was, in the words of one commentator, like ‘a minnow floating about amongst the whales’.[3] The situation was substantially improved in mid-1947 by absorbing COGA into the Foreign Office as the Foreign Office German Section (FOGS).
Evolution
Planning for the Occupation had been based since 1943 on the assumption that the administration of Germany would be through either a residual German government or reconstituted German Ministries, and CCG’s organisation structure was designed accordingly, as shown in Appendix A. The alignment was broadly maintained, even when it became clear in early 1945 that central Government in Germany had completely collapsed and, later that year, when the Potsdam Conference failed to agree on its restoration. By September 1944, plans for five Divisions and twelve Branches had been drawn up.
DIVISIONS
Finance
Transportation
Manpower
Interior
Economic
BRANCHES
Education
Legal
Posts & Telegraphs
Health
Public Safety
Food & Agriculture
Monuments & Fine Arts
Roads
Railroads
Administration & Local Government
Inland Water Transport
Shipping
But CCG was an organisation in flux from the outset, and its structure evolved frequently between 1945-1949 as functions changed. Tracking all the changes was daunting, and the organisation charts published in CCG Monthly Reports (some of which are reproduced here) included only the main units.[4]
The first major change came in August 1945, when the Civil Affairs element of 21 Army Group was integrated with the Control Commission, thereby facilitating an operational separation between CCG and the purely military functions in the British Zone: BAOR (British Army of the Rhine); BAFO (British Air Forces of Occupation); and BNG (British Naval Group). All the elements were brought together at the top in the person of the Military Governor, who was also Commander-in-Chief, British Forces Germany.
Civil Affairs units, with responsibility for establishing law and order and ensuring the provision of essential services, had become part of the Military Government when 21 Army Group crossed into Germany February 1945.[5] The function evolved into the Control Commission’s regional organisation, which subsequently spearheaded the development of local government at Land, Kreis and Regierungsbezirk levels. It was led by military Corps Commanders who became Regional Commissioners as the organisation was civilianised, although some continued to use their military titles.
CCG’s June 1946 organisation chart (see Appendix B chart A) shows the six Regional Commissioners supported by twelve Regierungsbezirk offices; as well as ten civil Departments clustered under the Presidents of the Economic and Governmental Sub-Commissions respectively, with a further three – Legal, Finance and Intelligence - reporting direct to the Deputy Military Governor.[6] By the end of 1946 (see Appendix B, chart B), CCG numbers had risen to a peak of almost 25,000, and the organisation structure had grown considerably: Deputy Presidents were added to the Economic and Governmental Sub-Commissions; as well as four Directors (for Organisation, Personnel, Maintenance and Welfare) under a Chief Administration Officer to cope with the large volume of staff, and the families beginning to join them.
A further major evolution took place at the beginning on 1 January 1947 when the economies of the American and British zones were fused into a single ‘Bizone’, in order to reinvigorate growth and thereby reduce occupiers’ costs.[7] This involved formidably complex 3-way working arrangements between British and American staff, and the German Länder, as shown in Appendix B chart C. By mid-May 1947 (see Appendix B chart D), the three military Divisions had been combined into a single Service Division, and the number of Regional Directors had been reduced from six to five following the creation of Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, although the number RB (Regierungsbezirk) offices remained the same. But the rest of the organisation had expanded yet again.
The President of the Economic Sub-Commission was now supported by a Vice President, Deputy President and Assistant President, perhaps reflecting the additional demands of the Bizone. Moreover, the number of civil departments had risen from 12 to 18: the former Trade & Industry Department was split into three: Fuel & Power, Commerce, and Industry; and additional Advisers were appointed for Education, Religious Affairs, Health and Public Safety.
And then, at the end of the year, and with the first signs of a post-Military Government scenario emerging, the structure underwent a marked change: all the civil Departments were brigaded under three senior officials: the Presidents of the two Sub-commissions, the Chief of Staff, who was also the Deputy Military Governor. The latter became responsible for functions that would not be transferred to a future German government, such as Intelligence, Finance and Legal; or those over which the Military Government would need to exercise continued oversight for a sustained period, such as Posts & Telecommunications, Manpower, Public Safety, and Public Health (see Appendix B chart E).
By October 1948 numbers were reducing rapidly: the Control Commission’s strength had fallen by around 2,600 in six months to 15,000.[8] On 20 June the new west German currency was launched, prompting the Soviet attempt to cut Berlin off from the west and triggering the year-long Berlin Air Lift. A division of Germany between eastern and western zones had become all but inevitable. When the airlift ended in May 1949, west Germany’s new Constitution had been drawn up, and the end of Military Government was in sight.
The October 1948 organisation structure at Appendix B chart F shows a three-way split between Zonal Executive Offices, and HQ functions divided between Berlin (Allied matters and Intelligence) and Frankfurt, where the US HQ was located, and which was at that point in time expected to be chosen as the capital of West Germany. The regional organisation remained in place: its role would evolve after the end of military government to provide a continuing liaison function between the Land authorities and BAOR, and to monitor the inner-German frontier.
CCG Locations
Even before Potsdam, where the Allies had failed to agree on the establishment of a central German administration, concerns were being raised about Berlin as the location of the Allied Control Commission. In its favour, Berlin would ensure a common occupation of the Reich capital, which might otherwise not be achieved; would be in line with Teheran decisions embodied in the EAC agreements[9]; and, as capital of the Reich and former seat of Ministries, Berlin was unrivalled as a centre of communications. On the other hand, it was doubtful whether sufficient accommodation could be found in the city for the Allied Control Commission and Allied Occupation Forces, as well as the German Ministries which would be operational in due course. From the Western Allies’ point of view, it would also mean moving the Ministries that had been discovered in the American and British zones into the Russian Zone, and would shift the centre of gravity in Germany eastwards, involving long lines of communication through the Russian Zone. A more central location for the Control Commission in the British Zone would not only be prestigious for the British, but would make it easier to co-locate the German Ministries. However, it was unlikely that a single city could accommodate the numbers, so the answer might have to be an ‘area’ including a city and satellite towns.[10]
Although CCG’s Advance HQ was established in Berlin alongside the inter-Allied institutions, the majority of CCG personnel remained in the British Zone, with a Zonal Executive Control Office (ZECO) Headquartered in Lübbecke, and functional units spread among the nearby small towns: Minden, Bünde, Bad Oeynhausen, Herford, Bad Salzuflen, Bielefeld and Detmold. This arrangement made coordination difficult, and required much unnecessary travelling, and was seen as temporary until a single location could be found. Hamburg was quickly identified and, in October 1945, plans were drawn up for construction of suitable accommodation, but the idea, although supported by the Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Montgomery, ran into horrified opposition when it was pointed out that, quite apart from the projected RM140m cost, the project would involve the demolition of 750 houses and the continued requisition of a further 351, in order to provide accommodation for over 9,000 officials and their families; the requisition of seven large existing buildings as offices, affecting 562 German firms; and the eviction of around 50,000 Germans. 35,000 German labourers would be required to execute the plan, to be accommodated in 18 hutted camps around the city.[11]
The Deputy Military Governor, General Robertson, instructed that an alternative plan be drawn up for a permanent HQ for CCG in the Minden-Detmold-Bielefeld-Bunde area. Meanwhile, it would be necessary to continue in Lübbecke-Minden, so refugees and displaced persons must not be sent into the area. Although planning continued, the Hamburg proposal was dropped after the Deputy Military Governor reported to COGA that there was no prospect of completing the project by late spring 1947, ‘by which time central [German] administration, if not a central German government will have been set up in Berlin, zonal administrations will have disappeared, and the size of the Control Commission will have reduced’.[12]
With the Ruhr and other cities badly bombed, and no other single location on offer, there was little choice but to remain in the towns that British occupation troops had entered in April 1945, and this is where CCG was now settled. In addition to ZECO HQ in Lübbecke[CK2] , the head offices of its functional divisions were mainly located in the nearby towns: Trade & Industry Division in Minden; Food & Agriculture in Hamburg; RD&R (Reparations, Deliveries & Restitution) in Detmold; Transport in Herford, Bielefeld and Hamburg; Internal Affairs & Communications in Bunde; Manpower, Prisoners of War & Displaced persons in Lemgo; Finance in Hamburg; Legal in Herford; Public Relations & Information Services in Bunde; and Intelligence in Herford.
But hundreds of their regional and subsidiary offices were spread among other locations throughout the British Zone, as shown in Appendix C. These also included specialist units, such as the North German Coal Control in Essen, the North German Timber Control in Hamburg, a German Personality Research Branch, a Public Opinion Research Office, Broadcasting Control Units in Hamburg and Cologne (Köln), a stationery and printing section near Bielefeld, units collecting historical documents, units collecting industrial information, nutrition surveys, and many more. The 1946 Location Statement (see Appendix C) lists over 450 units in around 120 locations, of which the Intelligence Division accounted for 195 units, including 147 intelligence teams in over 90 locations.
In February 1946, there were plans for the Deputy Military Governor’s office to be transferred to Herford, and other branches to be dispersed to other towns, so that Lübbecke could be handed over to BAOR.[13] In the event, the move did not take place, and the town remained CCG’s zonal headquarters until September 1949 when, with Military Government at an end, the residual functions were transferred to the UK High Commission in Wahnerheide[CK3] , an ex-Luftwaffe base and airfield, sixteen kilometres to the north-east of Bonn, where it was relocated after Bonn became the West German capital in 1949.
Footnotes
[1] FSV Donnison. Civil Affairs and Military Government North-West Europe 1944-1946
[2] CDL is a Minister without portfolio, so the posts can used to assign Minister to any special function which cannot be assigned to a particular Department. For example, the current CDL is Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove MP.
[3] Michael Balfour, quoting Oliver Lyttelton MP. Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946
[4] “In an organisation which had grown from almost nothing to be, a few weeks later, the government of 23 million people it was difficult to keep track… Anyone who had attempted to draw up a complete and coherent organisational chart would… have produced something remarkably like crazy paving” Michael Balfour Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945-1946
[5] Handbook for Kreis Resident Officers Part I, November 1946
[6]
[7] The UK was initially the only Allied Government to respond to the US offer of zonal economic fusion. Later the French joined to form a western ‘Trizone’
[8] CCG Monthly Report Vol 3 No. 10, October 1948. IWM
[9] The European Advisory Commission (EAC) was agreed on at the Moscow Conference on 30 October 1943 between the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and confirmed at the Tehran Conference in November 1943.
[10] Location of the Control Commission, March 1945. National Archives file FO1032/961
[11] Signal to COGA 18.2.46: “It is exceedingly doubtful whether a democratic government, either in Germany or Britain, would sanction the diversion of resources in this way” National Archives File FO1032/381 Move of Zone HQ Control Commission to Hamburg.
[12] Move of Zone HQ Control Commission to Hamburg. National Archives File FO1032/381
[13] 25.2.46 First Key Plan for re-accommodating Main Headquarters CCG. National Archives File FO1032/494