The Potsdam Conference at Cecilienhof Palace

It was the final act of the Second World War in Europe: the Potsdam Conference at Cecilienhof Palace, in which U.S. President Truman, Generalissimo Stalin and British Prime Ministers Churchill and Attlee wrestled for two weeks in the former Hohenzollern palace to establish order for lasting peace. The course of the controversial negotiations is thoroughly traced for the first time in an extensive publication, which meticulously presents both the common ground and differences between the individual positions of the Allies. The historian Matthias Simmich succeeds in drawing a detailed picture of this epochal turning point, using convincing contemporary eyewitness accounts, numerous historical documents and unknown photographs, as well as cartographic materials. With the help of a variety of authentic voices, it becomes clear how decisions were reached about borders, political systems and enforced population transfers in Europe. Not only are the perspective of the negotiators taken into account, but the effects of the Potsdam resolutions on the population it affected are also clearly illustrated