GARETH PRITCHARD. Niemandsland: A History of Unoccupied Germany, 1944-1945.

Abstract

In 1945, all of Germany was divided and occupied by the Allied victors, except for a small enclave bordering Czechoslovakia that, due to a misunderstanding about the precise boundaries of the occupation zones, remained free of Allied occupation and was not incorporated into the Soviet zone until June/July 1945. Comprised of 500,000 inhabitants, the western Erzgebirge became what contemporaries called “no man's land” (Niemandsland). In his very readable and deeply researched study, Gareth Pritchard offers the first up-to-date history of this territory in English. The history of Niemandsland, he argues convincingly, can function as a kind of control study for the possible evolution of post-Nazi Germany without Allied influence. One of the important contributions of Pritchard's book is to redirect our attention to the antifascist committees, which emerged all over Germany in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Nazism. While these committees were quickly suppressed in occupied Germany by the Allied victors, they effectively seized power in Niemandsland and ruled during its brief period of autonomy. As such, their history points to potential “paths not taken” in postwar Germany.