Allied Kommandatura The Allied Kommandatura , or often just Kommandatura , also known as the " Alliierte Kommandantur " in German , was the governing body for the city of Berlin following Germany ' s defeat in World War II . The victorious allied powers established control of post - war Germany and other territories via shared Military Government councils , including for Berlin . The Kommandatura was often known as the little brother to the Allied Control Council , which had the same function for the whole of Germany , and was subordinate to it . It originally comprised representatives from the United States , the United Kingdom , and the Soviet Union but later included France . The Kommandatura had its home in the Berlin district of Dahlem . Creation . President Roosevelt declared at the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 that the goal of the war was the unconditional surrender of Germany . To that end , and during the following many months , the leading Allied powers planned and gave form to the task of dividing Germany , and how to govern her after the war . The London Protocol of September , 1944 , established the division of Germany into zones of occupation , and the city of Berlin into sectors . Additionally , Berlin was to be governed by an " Allied Komendatura " ( sic ) . The Soviets fought for and captured Berlin by the beginning of May , 1945 , and set up camp not only their own sector , but took control over the whole of Greater Berlin . The U . S . and British entered Berlin later , on July 1 , and July 24 , respectively . By that time the Soviets had plundered and pillaged the western sectors of Berlin . They had removed vital industrial infrastructure on a wholesale scale , and had taken most of what was left in the city in terms of agriculture and livestock . The U . S . commandant , Major General Floyd L . Parks , tasked his divisional G5 and later deputy , Colonel Frank L . Howley , to prepare a general plan for the basis of an Allied Kommandatura , based on a Russian proposal . Howley had arrived in Berlin July 1 , 1945 , as leader of the joint U . S . – British Military Government detachment , although the U . S . didn ' t take over their sector officially until July 12 , when the Russians finally moved out . By this time the French had also obtained their own sector in the north of Berlin , carved out of the British sector , but were not invited to participate in the initial meetings . In any case , Howley ' s plan was in preparation for the first high - level post - war meeting between the Allies regarding Berlin , and outlined conditions for quadripartite governance . General Lucius D . Clay , Eisenhower ' s deputy , Robert Murphy , Eisenhower ' s political adviser , and others flew in to Berlin for the meeting . Berlin ' s fate was sealed , however , prior to the July 7 meeting . Clay and others let Parks know , in no uncertain terms , that Berlin was to be governed unanimously in all instances . Howley ' s plan was carefully worked out and allowed governance on a divided basis , when unanimity could not be obtained , but Clay was following orders from Washington . General Clay and the British , including Gen . Sir Ronald Weeks and Sir William Strang , were caught flat - footed at the meeting , and subsequently deferred to the Soviets on so many issues . Their chief representatives were Marshals Zhukov and Sokolovsky , both of whom had great experience in moving a situation to their advantage . Howley indicated that the signed " Komandatura agreement put the Soviets in the saddle . " The next meeting on July 11 , 1945 , represented the first actual meeting of the Allied Kommandatura , where the four - power Council of Commandants began governing the city . One major , initial task remained : where to meet . This was left to the Kommandatura deputies to resolve . The Soviets offered one possible location for Kommandatura headquarters , but it was far removed in a distant Berlin suburb . The British offered several damaged buildings and a hotel in their sector . Howley initially offered a building on Lake Wannsee , but others objected that they would never get any work done in such a beautiful setting . Finally he suggested another site not far distant from the American military headquarters , which was accepted by all on the condition that it was made serviceable . Operation . In theory the Kommandatura would decide the issues requiring attention and governance , formulate a response , and formally issue orders to the Lord Mayor and the Berlin Magistrat . At the July 11 , 1945 , meeting , the commandants signed the first of their nearly 1300 such quadripartite orders . That particular order truly put the Soviets in the saddle as it reinforced all preexisting Russian regulations and ordinances put in place throughout the city before the western allies arrived : Thereafter , anytime the Western Allies protested a specific Russian action , they responded that they were simply abiding some statute or regulation that was already in place before the Americans , British , or French arrived . Anytime the Russians were asked to produce the regulation in question , they refused . Of such was the foundation of the newly formed four - power council . At first all Kommandatura meetings were strictly at the highest level , meaning the sector commandants . Out of necessity other meetings grew up , including meetings of deputies and committees , etc . The deputies were able to decide a vast majority of issues and questions at their own meetings , and passed on to their commanders only the most vital of items or when a decision could not be reached . Also , on occasion things were kicked up to the Allied Control Council when a consensus could not be reached on something of crucial importance by the Kommandatura , and perhaps kicked back down when the zonal commanders didn ' t want to be bothered by it . In the beginning meetings were informal , and rules of procedure grew as they went along . The chairmanship changed every two weeks , but later it was monthly . The Russians won a coin toss at the suggestion of General Parks , and they filled the first chair . The Americans and British followed in rotation , along with the French after about three months . Even the position of the flags on the poles out in front of the Kommandatura headquarters rotated along with the chairmanship . Inside the Kommandatura the four commandants met in the main conference room , and sat at a large rectangular table with the chairman at the head . If the Union Jack was flying out front , the British commandant was at the head of the table , with the French commander to his right , and across the table the Russian representative , and next to him the American . Adjacent to each commandant was his deputy and political adviser . Groups of experts on divers topics rounded out much of the remainder of the personnel in the room , along with translators and clerical staff . The myriad committees met in many of the other rooms in the Kommandatura building , and handled routine work , issued orders to the city government , and worked through items not yet agreed upon . All such work was sent to the deputies at their respective meetings twice a month in the main conference room . Many such items were scrutinized for presentation at the commandants ' meetings . There was so much work to get through , they had to develop a streamlined procedure to reduce everything to the bare essentials , else they " would have been swamped by bitter international wranglings , " Howley states . Language translation itself was cumbersome , but obviously necessary . Each commandant had translators selected for him by the respective Chiefs of Staff to handle the various parts of the discussion . These stood behind each respective commandant . When the American spoke , it was translated into French by the Frenchman ' s translator , and into Russian from the French by the Soviet commandant ' s translator . The Russian translator didn ' t understand English , but spoke excellent Russian and French . Each commandant would speak in staccato fashion to make easier work for the translators . Notes flowed constantly from the myriad advisers in the room to the commandants . Howley intimated he likely would have never lasted without those notes . They clarified , and probed , and shattered the arguments of others . Soviet walkout . As time passed , the quadripartite meetings of the Kommandatura got more and more heated and cantankerous . The western allied representatives were more or less unified in their view of how Berlin was to be governed , which often starkly contrasted with the Soviet point of view , not surprisingly so . Issues would be debated for weeks , and even months . One such issue was Kotikov ' s " Fourteen Points " regarding the legal and material position of the workers of Berlin . For eight months the Kommandatura debated this topic making no real headway . Without Kommandatura approval , the Soviet Military Administration issued Order No . 20 in their own sector , making all fourteen points law . This did not sit well with the others , nor did it abide the spirit of quadripartite and unanimous city governance . During the Kommandatura meeting of June 16 , 1948 , the current chairman , French commandant General Ganeval , proposed that the Soviets rescind Order No . 20 , so that the fourteen points could be individually reviewed and discussed . Up until that time the Soviets insisted on an all or nothing approach . They refused to rescind the order unless all other delegations agreed to the fourteen points unanimously and issued a quadripartite agreement to the effect of the same for the whole of Berlin . Discussions on this and other issues had dragged on for over thirteen hours at that point , and it was nearing midnight . That ' s when the American commandant , Colonel Howley , asked to be excused , as he had a heavy schedule planned for the following day . Chairman Ganeval gave permission , and Howley left his deputy , Colonel Babcock , in charge , just as he had done in times past when the situation required it . After Howley ' s departure , reports state that Colonel Yelizarov , Kotikov ' s deputy filling in for the supposedly ill Soviet commandant , held an excited , whispered exchange with their political commissar , L . M . Maximov . Yelizarov then stood and took offense at Howley ' s departure , and labeled it a " hooligan action . " ( Howley and Yelizarov already had a history . Howely described him as a " big , powerful , bruiser , " who hunted wild board with a machine gun in the woods outside Berlin . " He and I always kept one hand on the trigger . " ) At that point Ganeval proposed to close the meeting , but Yelizarov would have none of it . For eight minutes he berated an absent Howley , and offered that the Soviet delegation could no longer remain unless Howley return and apologize to all . Yelizarov headed for the door with Maximov closely in tow , whilst Ganeval reminded them that Howley had been properly excused . The French chairman indicated that it was indeed Yelizarov who was out of order and not Howley . The Russians departed in a maelstrom of confusion , but the record shows Ganeval closed the meeting due to the departure of the Soviet delegation and not Howley ' s excused absence . There were likely many things that contributed to the breakup . There was a rumored currency reform for the western zones of Germany , which actually did happen later . But unbeknownst to the western allies at the time , the Soviets had planned to blockade Berlin in mere days . In the end , the breakup of the Allied Kommandatura had been a planned work in progress for quite some time , according to Howley , as it suited the purposes of the Soviets , period . It followed the pattern of the breakup of the Allied Control Council , when three months earlier Marshal Sokolovsky staged the walkout then . For the balance of June , the Soviets did participate in limited quadripartite sub - committee meetings , and their clerical staff remained through July . But as of August 1 , 1948 , they lowered the red flag , removed their files , and the Soviets were gone for good . After that the three western sectors operated independently and unilaterally for a time . They resumed official Kommandatura meetings on November 8 , 1948 , but then only ever on a tripartite basis . Accomplishments . The differences in goals and methods of the East and the West , which came face to face in Kommandatura counsels so frequently , and which usually always clashed , have their roots elsewhere . But despite the stark philosophical divide that existed at the Kommandatura , much good was accomplished despite the interminable wranglings . The official " Four Year Report " states : Howley stated further , and not surprisingly so , that there was no success in smoothing over the divide between politics and philosophy . They couldn ' t even agree on the control of potato bugs , " because the boys from Moscow insisted on making potato bugs a political issue — which was the first time I ever knew that a slug comprehended the dialectics of materialism according to Marx , " he said . The Soviets instituted a general blockade of Berlin on June 24 , 1948 . The western Allies responded with an airlift , the first time such a thing was ever devised , especially to provide for a city as large as the western part of Berlin . The state of relations continued to devolve from that point on . The Kommandatura building . Until they had devised a new , permanent headquarters , the Kommandatura met in in the Soviet sector for several weeks , in rooms of the Soviet Central Kommandantur . Shortly thereafter the new headquarters was ready to be occupied , and on July 25 , 1945 , the Kommandatura met at Kaiserswerther Str . 16 - 18 in Berlin - Dahlem for the first time . The building was in constant use as Kommandatura headquarters until March 15 , 1991 , when the Two Plus Four Agreement went into effect . The building was formerly the administration building for Public Fire Insurance Carriers in Germany ( " Verbandes der öffentlichen Feuerversicherungsanstalten " ) . It was designed by Heinrich Straumer , designer and builder of the Funkturm Berlin , and was built between 1926 - 1927 . Since 1994 it has been used as the office of the President of the Free University of Berlin ( " Präsidialamt " ) .