GHDI logo
German History in Documents and Images
return to system

Potsdam Conference (July 17-August 2, 1945)
The Potsdam Conference defined the framework for the Allied occupation of Germany. The summation of the protocols of the conference is known as the Potsdam Agreement. (It was not, however, an actual legal agreement.) Its central points were the so-called four D's: denazification, democratization, demilitarization, and decartelization. This photograph, taken in the garden of the Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam, shows (from the left): the new British prime minister Clement Attlee, U.S. president Harry Truman, and the Soviet state and party leader Joseph Stalin. Photographer unknown.