740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–1245: Airgram
The United States Political Adviser for Germany ( Murphy ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 22—11 a.m.]
A–17. There is given here below for the Department’s information the substance of instructions recently issued by SHAEF to the 21st, 12th and 6th Army Groups. These instructions order the rapid establishment of German administrative staffs on regional as well as local levels.
The real purpose of Military Government in Germany is not to take over and carry out the responsibilities of government with Allied military personnel but to set up controls over German Government which will make sure that the functions of government will be carried out by German personnel and civil agencies, excluding those who have, because of close Nazi ties, been removed.
It becomes even more imperative, with the cessation of hostilities, to re-establish German administrative functions doing away with the past political control of such functions.
To bring this about, the following are desired:
- 1.
- Regional Teams of Military Government should be activated and employed immediately where such teams have not yet been established, and given the mission to re-establish, at the regional level, the German administrative machinery.
- 2.
- It is particularly important that German administrative machinery be set up to permit the handling, in an effective way, of immediate problems at the regional level, to include effective utilization of available transport, distribution of food, and the re-establishment of industrial production to take care of military needs and to provide the minimum essential civil requirements in Germany.
- 3.
- Consideration must be given, in re-establishing German administrative machinery, to the most likely boundaries between Zones of Occupation; and re-establishment of these administrative functions [Page 941] should permit a separation of administrative responsibility between the respective Zones of Occupation (when established) as the Allied Armies retire to their respective zones.
- 4.
- Boundaries of responsible military units should, to the full extent feasible with Army administration, be adjusted to conform to the regional administrative boundaries for Military Government, and to the regional administrative boundaries of the German administrative units.
- 5.
- It is essential, in order that the German administrative units may operate with the greatest efficiency possible, that those restrictions which do not permit inter-area travel and communication be lifted to the full extent consistent with military security. As these restrictions are lifted, responsibility for carrying out the functions of civil government under the orders of Military Government and subject to such spot-check system as may be instituted by Military Government, should be exchanged to German administrative agencies.
- 6.
- In order that this may be effected, the German administrative agencies so re-established should be given encouragement, and permitted to communicate inter-regionally through the established offices of Military Government, and these latter offices should be given authorization to communicate directly with each other, regardless of the Military Commander to which they are responsible, on problems of civil government.
- 7.
- Far more personnel than can be made available from military sources will be required for the successful government of Germany, and it can be carried out only through the prompt creation of qualified German staffs under such controls as will insure, for the treatment of Germany, the full execution of the presently established policies.