Control, Disempowerment, Fear, and Fantasy: Violent Criminality During the Early American Occupation of Germany, March-July 1945

Abstract

To date, scholars have provided seemingly contradictory accounts of violent crime during the US occupation of Germany. Social disorder and violence are commonly described extending for months or years after the war. For scholars of US Military Government, however, the imposition of a strict military regime precluded such crime. Meanwhile, Alan Kramer's quantitative study suggests lower rates of violent criminality and Jose Canoy found fear of crime may have exaggerated perceptions of violence. Both studies reveal how little is known about criminality during the early occupation. This article seeks to clarify divergent accounts by examining new records from German and American archives, and providing a more comprehensive account of criminal violence in the US Zone during the transition from war to peace, March to July 1945. This narrow window of time complements a well-documented increase in American-perpetrated violent crime. The present study uses data of civilian criminality alongside discovery of higher rates of American crime. It reveals a wave of severe disorder that Military Government rapidly brought under control. But in the process, Germans were disempowered and left at the mercy of American soldiers. Consequently, society remained violent even as civilians were forced to live by tight military standards.