Allied Control Council

It has been suggested that Four-Power Authorities be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2025.

Allied Control Council
Military occupation of Germany and Austria
Military occupation zones of Germany (1945–1949) and Austria (1945–1955)
Date formed	5 June 1945 (1945-06-05)
Date dissolved	20 September 1949 (1949-09-20) (de facto) 15 March 1991 (1991-03-15) (de jure)
People and organisations
Military Governor	See list of administrators
High Commissioner	See list of administrators
History
Predecessor	Flensburg Government
Successor	Allied High Commission First Adenauer cabinet (from 20 September 1949) Council of Ministers of East Germany (from November 1950)

The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority (German: Alliierter Kontrollrat), also referred to as the Four Powers (Vier Mächte), was the governing body of the Allied occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Austria (1945–1955) after the end of World War II in Europe. After the defeat of the Nazis, Germany (less its former eastern territories) and Austria were occupied as two different areas, both by the same four Allies. Both were later divided into four zones by the 1 August 1945 Potsdam Agreement. Its members (Four-Power Authorities) were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and France. The organisation was based in Schöneberg, Berlin.^[1]

The council was convened to determine several plans for postwar Europe, including how to change borders and transfer populations in Central Europe. As the four powers had joined themselves into a condominium asserting supreme power in Germany, the Allied Control Council was constituted the sole legal sovereign authority for Germany as a whole, replacing the civil government of Germany under the Nazi Party. In 1948, the Soviets withdrew from the ACC due to its conflict with the western Allies, who then established the Allied High Commission. In 1949, two German states (West and East Germany) were founded.