The Potsdam Conference: August 1st 1945 – The Long Last Day

The Potsdam Conference was the second time in a matter of just under a few decades that the leaders of a victorious coalition faced the problem of what to do with a defeated Germany and a postwar Europe.

The men of 1945 knew perfectly well how poorly the previous generation had handled this same problem, so there was a shared sense of commitment in trying to avoid making similar mistakes this time around, no matter how much tension could be felt on several issues during the seventeen days at Potsdam. Now, in a matter of hours, the loose ends on the final agreements would hopefully be tied, the wording for the protocol finalized, and farewells between the delegations exchanged.

Packing had already been going on at the ‘Little White House’ for several days and everyone, especially President Truman, was extremely ready to leave. So at 3:30PM the President wasted no time calling the twelfth plenary session to order at Cecilienhof.

The first item on the agenda was agreeing on the wording when it came to the drafting committee on the protocol on German reparations. Although significant progress on the matter had been made yesterday when the Big Three agreed on extracting reparations from the occupation zones and on the Soviet Union’s acquisition of industrial equipment from the Western Zones, Secretary Jimmy Byrnes raised the question on the Soviet’s claim to gold and German external assets. Both the American and British delegations felt that – in return for the capital equipment allocated to the Soviets – German external assets should be included as a source of reparations for countries other than Russia and Poland.

“The question which must be made clear is what it is meant by the western zones,” Stalin immediately declared. “The Soviet Union agrees not to claim anything from the western zones.”