After the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the leaders of the Big Three gathered in Potsdam, an old Prussian garrison town in Germany, on July 17, 1945 to discuss the war with Japan and the post-war settlement of Europe. With regard to the four occupation zones of Germany, the principles issued at Potsdam were essentially the same as those decided at Yalta: “Germany was to be disarmed, demilitarized, denazified, and democratized, but kept sufficiently productive to provide the goods and services required to meet the needs of the occupation forces and the German population, whose average living standards were not to exceed those of other European countries”
(Rich, 2003: 297).