germany was split into east and west in 1949.
germany was split into east and west in 1949.
when was germany split into east and west?
1949
at the end of april 1945, near the end of world war ii, the company resumed operations. the u.s. 304th infantry regiment was initially stationed at altenburg, then, in july 1945, altenburg became part of the soviet occupation zone. after germany split (into east and west germany), the firm, domiciled in east germany, was forced to provide extensive reparation services to swa-verlag in weimar, publisher for the soviet military administration in germany, and, to that end, printed more than 28 million books from 1947 to 1949.
fürstlich sächsischer hofbuchdruckerei zu altenburg
denazification edicts promptly declared the wear and display of former nazi decorations as strictly prohibited - an example of this was in regards to the 1939-1945-awarded examples of both the iron cross and its knight's cross advanced awards, as the now-forbidden "hakenkreuz" at the center of both of these was replaced with a three-leafed oakleaf cluster. as germany split apart into east and west germany, each of these new countries issued directives concerning the status of former awards and decorations of nazi germany. within east germany, these awards were all but abolished with a new era of german communist decorations created to take their place. however, in west germany, by 1948 laws had been passed permitting the display of certain combat and military service medals from world war ii, but also prohibiting continued display of nazi political awards, awards directly associated with the sa or ss, as well as occupation service medals directly associated with the expansion of nazi germany in the 1930s.
awards and decorations of the german armed forces