The case of occupied Germany provides the best example of truly international history. Following Nazism's collapse, the three principal allies (soon joined by the French) assumed full sovereignty over Germany as a whole. At Potsdam, in July and August 1945, the Allies agreed to govern Germany as a united country and created the quadripartite Allied Control Council (ACC) for that purpose. Owing to the unprecedented physical devastation of the country, each Allied power soon became deeply involved in the minutiae of political and economic reconstruction. At the same time, each Allied power wished to involve Germans in the politics and/or administration of its respective zone. The result was a system of relationships so complex as to transcend the boundaries of traditional diplomacy or national politics. The interplay between Germans on the ground, who confronted each other within the context of basic political, economic, or social debate; between Germans and the occupiers of their zones, who played the twin roles of supervisor and advocate; between the Allies themselves in the ACC, where decision making required unanimous agreement; and Allied representatives and the home capitals represented a process that historians have long tried to disentangle and explain.

For decades, a cold war paradigm offered an analytical framework within which to analyze and judge the history of occupied Germany. At war's end, each occupying power focused on reforming German institutions in order to eliminate the German threat to European security.