In terms of radical plans, the major apparent plan was the 'Morgenthau Plan' of September 1944. This was a memorandum drafted by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr, and advocated complete demilitarisation of Germany, the partitioning of Germany into two states with the Ruhr to be an internationalised zone, and what was essentially the 'de-industrialisation' of Germany. text of the Plan

Morgenthau was able to get both Roosevelt and Churchill to agree to the memorandum at the Second Quebec Conference in September 1944, however it was quickly leaked to the press and both leaders distanced themselves from it once negative public reaction became clear. It was however a propaganda boon for the Germans, and utilised by Goebbels. There was also a concerted effort by more moderate officials within the US government (especially the War Department) against the idea.

Aspects of it still found their way into the official occupation directive JCS 1067 of April 1945 - the moderate officials were able to reject the more harsh aspects of the economic ideas, but largely accepted the more harsh political directives as something of an exchange, and it remained official policy until it was replaced by JCS 1779 in 1947.

Beyond this, 'plans' for Germany are unfortunately not so clearly outlined. There were an array of different proposals for how Germany should be treated after its surrender from a variety of sources - various US government departments, the military, German emigre social scientists, academics and so on.

The Allies held three major conferences before the Nazis surrendered in May 1945. The division of postwar Germany was discussed at each one: Quebec, Canada (1944), Tehran, Iran (1944), and Yalta, Russian Crimea (Feb. 1945). Only Britain, Russia. and the U.S. were signatories. The French were not included in the original partition plans until a few months before the Nazi surrender. The final version of the Occupation Zones was officially designated at the Potsdam, Germany Conference in July-August, 1945. Each of the Allies had their own plans for their particular Zone. The Morgenthau Plan's ideas were incorporated into the Occupation Directive JCS 1067, signed by President Truman and directed to General Eisenhower. Not all of Morgenthau's wishes were included, but he was satisfied. The State Department and War Department were appalled. The British pretty much ignored it, and so did the French and the Russians, who had their own ideas. The French were adamantly opposed to any establishment of a central German government, and deeply resented not being given the Ruhr factories and coal mines (which Morgenthau wanted to be closed and destroyed). The Russians installed a puppet Communist government consisting of German communists who fled the Nazis before the war started, and then blocked food shipments to West Germany in retaliation for Allied refusal to give them access to Ruhr coal. The U.S. followed the JCS 1067 mandates to "take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany [or] designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy." In addition, the Americans were obsessed with denazification and demilitarization, which were of less concern to the other Allies. JCS 1067 hamstrung German recovery by prohibiting production of exports, prohibiting imports of food (including relief packages from U.S. relatives), prohibiting mail between Americans and Germans, and prohibiting "fraternization" between Americans and Germans. These restrictions were gradually relaxed over months and years, but in the interim thousands of people died of starvation and cold. In July 1947 President Truman finally rescinded JCS 1067 "on national security grounds" and replaced it with JCS 1779. The new Occupation Directive emphasized that an "orderly. prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." The State Department introduced the Marshall Plan, designed to stimulate the national economies of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. A new currency for Germany, the Deutsch Mark (DM) was secretly printed in the U.S. in 1948 and produced a virtual explosion of economic growth. During all this, Germany remained divided into four Occupation Zones, which changed to two nations, East and West Germany, in 1949. Meanwhile, Berlin remained a four-Zone occupied city until 1990. As a kind of sideshow, Austria also was divided into four Occupation Zones in 1945, and Vienna (like Berlin) as well. Austria remained technically occupied by Americans, British, Russians and French until 1955, although she was actually the first nation to be invaded ("annexed") by the Nazi Wehrmacht in 1938 and the Allies had never declared war on her, nor she on them.