U.S. Military Government and Democratic Reform and Denazification in Bavaria, 1945-47

This thesis studies the efforts of the U.S. Military Government in Bavaria to bring about democratic reform and denazification. It focuses on the period from V-E Day on 8 May 1945 to 5 June 1947, when Secretary of State George Marshall first publicly announced the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). This study reveals that the organizational restructuring and ultimate diminishment of military government played an important role in achieving German political autonomy. The study further reveals that democratic reform efforts along federalist lines were relatively successful in Bavaria, and that, contrary to some critics' assertions, the American military government played a prominent role in this achievement. The study then focuses on denazification efforts. It determines that total denazification failed because, in part, the American military government pursued contradictory policies of attempting to restore political autonomy to Bavarians and at the same time pursuing aggressive denazification. Nonetheless, denazification did not wholly fail and aided somewhat in bringing about democratization through stigmatizing Nazism as a political ideology. This study concludes by pointing out that, despite some failures, especially in denazification, the American military government and Bavarians forged a viable, if imperfect, democracy during the crucial period from 1945 to 1947.