The following links will take you to copies of some interesting documents  whose originals can be found in the National Archives at Kew.

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The first three documents show the impressive amount of thought that was given to post-war reconstruction several months before the Allies crossed the Rhine. 

"The German mental attitude during the previous occupation ... ranged from hatred, through friendliness, to fawning subservience"​

"The policy of segregation envisaged [in the draft] will have the effect of making us the prisoners and the Germans the free people"​

"It is the policy of the Allies to break up the German military caste."

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1 & 8 November 1944 - Memoranda re drafting a Post-Hostilities Handbook on Relations with Germans and Living Conditions in Germany​​

​15 November 1944 - Legal View on Fraternisation​

10 January 1945 - Legal View on Germans wearing Uniforms

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Montgomery took a tough line in these instructions issued as the Rhine defences were breached:

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​"Our Army took no revenge in 1918 ... and before a few weeks had passed many soldiers were adopted into German households. ... Our occupation [this time] is an act of war of which the first object is to destroy the Nazi system. ... It is too soon for you to distinguish between "good" and "bad" Germans. ... You must keep clear of Germans  ... unless you meet them in the course of duty.  You must not walk out with them, or shake hands, or visit their homes, or make them gifts, or take gifts from them.":​

March 1945 - Montgomery's Instruction to 21st Army Group re Fraternisation

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The Germans surrendered in May 1945 whereupon the Cabinet was asked to devote significant resources to the Control Commission, despite other huge priorities:​

​31 May 1945 - Papers re drafting a Cabinet paper to be submitted by the Secretary of State for War

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And the strict non-fraternisation policy quickly came under pressure:​

​3 June 1945  - Non-Fraternization - Note by Secretariat

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Montgomery then resolved to tell the Germans why "our soldiers do not smile ... or say "Good Morning" ... or play with the children":​​​

​5 June 1945 - Montgomery minute to Secretary of State for War attaching a draft message to the Germans​

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Most of the non-fraternisation rules were abolished by September:​

28 September 1945  - Memorandum re Non-Fraternization

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​The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) then issued two pamphlets explaining the background to the occupation:

13 November 1945 - The Post-War Task in Germany

22 December 1945 - The Germans Under British Occupation

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By December, Montgomery was planning the transition from military to civilian government:

3 December 1945 - Montgomery re the Evolution of Government in the British Zone

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But he was also warning that "there is still much to be done and there is stormy weather ahead":​​

19 December 1945 - Montgomery to the Control Office for Germany and Austria

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And some senior officials in the Control Commission were concerned about its 'complicated structure, its top-heaviness, the incompetence of many of the senior officials [leading to] the frustration felt by many competent junior officers'.

23 December 1945 - Letter from R G Beerensson (in Minden) to A C Robinson (in London)

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By the following February, Montgomery began to feel that "It may take 10 years, it may well take longer ... to change the heart, and the way of life, of the German people".  "Certainly 60% and possibly even 75% of the German population are out-and-out Nazis.  They preferred the old regime with its prosperity, as against the present regime with its misery and lack of hope for the future":​

1 February 1946 - Montgomery's Strategy for Changing the Germans

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By March, Montgomery was relieved that "The battle of the winter has been won" but foresaw numerous further crises which would have to be handled by the CCG's civilians rather than his military.​

25 March 1946 - Montgomery re Evolution of Government

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In his final dispatch, Montgomery "is not happy ... I consider the general overall picture is sombre, if not black.":​

1 May 1946 - Montgomery's Farewell and Warning

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Later that year, BAOR Headquarters distributed a leaflet which described the journeys that were about to be undertaken by the families who were travelling out from the UK to Germany to join their husbands and parents.

October 1946 - Your Journey to Germany

(Page 11 is missing.  It may have been blank.)​

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The Germans' larger houses were frequently confiscated for occupation by CCG personnel and others.  This led to this anguished letter from one lady who was worried about the possible loss of an important art collection:​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​16 December 1946 - Letter re Caspar David Friedrich's Paintings

(Please get in touch if you have information about what happened next.)

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Questions about fraternisation eventually required more detailed guidance to be issued, including about tipping, dances and the sale of cigarettes to Germans:​

10 January 1947 - Detailed Regulations re Fraternization

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And further relaxations were discussed towards the end of 1947:​

7 November 1947 - Extract from minutes of meeting discussing the relaxation of restrictions on social relations with Germans

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By the following May "It is the policy of His Majesty's Government that German self-governing institutions should be rapidly developed [and] we should behave towards the Germans as the people of one Christian and civilized race towards another , whose interests in many ways converge with our own and for whom we have no longer any ill will."​

7 May 1948 - Routine Order re relations between members of the CCG and Germans

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But: "the admission of Germans to NAAFI clubs [would create] real difficulties.  The chief of these of course is that 80 per cent of all the Germans taken into clubs ... would be girlfriends, and it is of course this possibility which has excited the violent hostility of the British wives":​

22 February 1949 - Relaxing Rules on admitting Germans to NAAFI clubs

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"No dogs or Germans allowed" notices became unacceptable:​

12 May 1949 - Letter re Relaxing Relations with the Germans

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It became clear, by mid-1949, that control would need to be withdrawn in many areas and attempts intensified "to influence Germans towards democratic behaviour":​

19 July 1949 - Paper on Relations with Germans

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The following three reports give a good feel for what was happening on the ground.  (The town of Lübbecke housed the CCG's headquarters.  Further information is here.)​

15 October 1949 - Lübbecke Monthly Report​

13 December 1949 - Lübbecke Monthly Report​

20 April 1950 - Further Report from Lübbecke

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Here are some other interesting documents:

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30 July 1945 - Kirby (CCG) writing to Aynsley (War Office) about the terms and condition of employment of CCG Personnel​

March 1946 - The CCG's Conditions of Service​

28 October 1947 - Letter complaining about the behaviour of Tom Driberg MP

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Notes   

 

The first documents were added to this web page in October 2024.  It is hoped that more will be added every month so please check back to read more.

'Fraternisation' was sometimes spelt with an 's' and sometimes with a 'z'.  The spellings in above links follow those used in the original documents.

NAAFI stood for (and still stands for) the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes.  The order in which the three branches are listed is not, of course accidental.

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