Office of Military Government, United States

The Office of Military Government, United States (OMGUS) was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D. Clay, it administered the area of Germany and sector of Berlin controlled by the United States Army.

The Allied Control Council comprised military authorities from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and France. OMGUS previously reported to the U.S. Group Control Council, Germany (USGCC), which existed from May 8, 1945 until October 1, 1945. OMGUS was eliminated on December 5, 1949, and the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany assumed control of its functions.

The Restitution and Reparations Branch of OMGUS located and returned material to countries from which claimed property had been looted by the Nazis during World War II.

OMGUS in 1945 began its own newspaper based in Munich, Die Neue Zeitung. It was edited by German and Jewish émigrés who fled to the United States before the war. Its mission was to destroy Nazi cultural remnants, and encourage democracy by exposing Germans to how American culture operated. There was great detail on sports, politics, business, Hollywood, and fashions, as well as international affairs.^[1]

Notes

1. ↑ Jessica C.E. Gienow-Hecht, "Art is democracy and democracy is art: Culture, propaganda, and the Neue Zeitung in Germany," Diplomatic History (1999) 23#1 pp 21-43

Further reading

• Backer, John H. Winds of History: The German Years of Lucius Dubignon Clay (1983)
• Goldstein, Cora Sol. Before the CIA: American Actions in the German Fine Arts (1946–1949) (University of Chicago Press, 2008)
• Merritt, Anna J., and Richard L. Merritt. Public opinion in occupied Germany: the OMGUS surveys, 1945-1949 (University of Illinois Press, 1970), OMGUS polls
• Gerhardt, Uta. Bestandsaufnahme mit Zeitwert. Ein nachträglicher Blick auf das Kompendium "Public Opinion in Occupied Germany", in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 2 (2005), pp. 143-147.
• Smith, Jean Edward. Lucius D. Clay: An American Life (1990), a major scholarly biography

Primary sources

• Clay, Lucius. The Papers of General Lucius D. Clay: Germany, 1945 - 1949 (2 volumes, 1974)

References

• Records of U.S. Occupation Headquarters, World War II (RG 260)
• Records of U.S. Army Operational,Tactical, and Support Organizations (World War II and Thereafter) (RG 338)
• Papers of the Office of the Military Government; Restitution Claims at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York, NY