Cay Rademacher's The Murderer in Ruins is not only a brilliant thriller but also accurately describes "Hamburg, 1947.  A ruined city occupied by the British who bombed it, experiencing the coldest winter in living memory.  Food and supplies are rationed; refugees and the homeless are crammed into concrete bunkers ... and trade on the black market is rife".

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And here is a list of books (in both English and German) that I have consulted while working on the website. 

 

The first two (the early chapters of Postwar and The Impossible Peace) provide an excellent general background to the period.  FSV Donnison and Michael Balfour succinctly describe the establishment and initial challenges of the British Zone of occupation.  Other books explore aspects of the occupation in more detail.

 

Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945

by Tony Judt, Pimlico 2007

 

The Impossible Peace: Britain, the Division of Germany, and the Origins of the Cold War

Anne Deighton, Clarendon Press 1990

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OTHER ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 

Civil Affairs and Military Government North-West Europe 1944-1946

F S V Donnison, HMSO 1961

 

Four-Power Control in Germany and Austria

Michael Balfour and John Mair, Oxford University Press 1956

 

Group Captives: The Re-Education of German Prisoners of War

Henry Faulk, Chatto & Windus 1977

 

Britain and the German Churches 1945-1950: The Role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British Zone

Peter Howson, The Boydell Press, 2021

 

Reconstruction in Post-War Germany: British Occupation Policy and the Western Zones 1945-55

Edited by Ian D Turner, Berg 1989

 

Transforming Occupation in the Western Zones of Germany

Editors Camilo Erlichman & Christopher Knowles, Bloomsbury Academic 2018

 

Germany and the North Atlantic Community: A Legal Survey

M E Bathurst and J L Simpson, Stevens and Sons, 1956

 

Selected Documents on Germany and the Question of Berlin 1944-1961

HM Government Cmnd 1532, HMSO 1961

 

A Strange Enemy People: Germans Under the British 1945-50

Patricia Meehan, Peter Owen Publishers, 2001

 

In Darkest Germany: The Record of a Visit

Victor Gollancz, Victor Gollancz Ltd 1947

 

A Most Diplomatic General: The Life of General Lord Robertson of Oakridge

David Williamson, Brassey’s UK Ltd 1996

 

My Short Century: Memoirs of an Accidental Nuclear Historian

Lorna Arnold, Cumnor Hill Books 2012

 

The Bride’s Trunk: A Story of War and Reconciliation

Ingrid Dixon, Cloudshill Press 2016

 

Eight Days in May: How Germany’s War Ended

Volker Ullrich, Allen Lane 2021

(First published in German as Acht Tage im Mai: Die Letzen Woche des Dritten Reiches, Verlag C H Beck, 2020)

 

I have not yet read, but am grateful to Gill Bennett for drawing my attention to a large volume of documents about the Control Commission (CCG(BE)) in Series I, Vol V of Documents on British Policy Overseas, produced by the FCDO (Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office) Historians.  I am looking forward to exploring these.

 

Two books about the British Occupation of the Rhineland after the First World War throw light on the evolution of post-war policies towards the Germans:

 

The British Army of the Rhine After the First World War

Michael Foley, Fonthill 2017

 

The Watch on the Rhine: The Military Occupation of the Rhineland 1918-1930

Margaret Pawley, I B Tauris 2007

 

 

GERMAN LANGUAGE

 

Briten in Westfalen 1945-2017: Besatzer, Verbündete, Freunde?

Peter Fäßler, Andreas Neuwöhner, Florian Staffel, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, 2019

 

Drei Jahre Nach Null: Geschichte der Britischen Besatzungszone 1945-1948

Wolfgang Trees, Charles Whiting, Thomas Omansen, Droste Verlag 1989

 

Nachkriegsland: Ein Spurensuche

Michael Brenner, Ellert & Richter Verlag 2015

 

Wiederaufnahme: Lübbecke 1933-1945

Walter Seger, Books on Demand, Norderstedt, 2017