On the Role of Sociocultural Aspect in the Process of Democratization in the Zones of American and Soviet Occupation in Germany

Abstract

After the end of the war Germany was divided into four zones of occupation: British, American, French and Soviet. There were established military administrations, each of which pursued the policy of democratization, demilitarization, denazification and decentralization, which was specified in the Potsdam Agreement after the Potsdam Conference. When adopting a policy, it is necessary to realize that any region it is the people who live there and who form the main features of regional development, the same can be seen in Germany after the Second World War. In this regard dynamic cultural and social policy can be regarded as an essential part of the whole policy concerning the economy of Germany and political aspect in the divided country. However, the approaches to the sociocultural aspects differed in the Soviet military administration and in the American military administration. The article deals with these differences, the author makes a conclusion about the common and distinctive features of these approaches.

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