Great Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union had divergent aims and visions for postwar Europe, and the focal point for these conflicting conceptions was Germany. Although the Allies disagreed over other issues, such as the political shape of liberated Poland, the problem of the future of Germany, the cultural and industrial heart of Europe, proved so insoluble that the country lost the unity it had enjoyed since 1871, a historical development of major importance. In March, 1945 much discussion in the Oval Office concerned who would act as American proconsul in Germany. President Roosevelt had definite ideas about the post and who should fill it. General Lucius Clay was sent to Germany as General Eisenhower's Deputy Military Governor with a view become later High Commissioner.

On September 6, 1946 Secretary of State James F. Byrnes travelled by train to Stuttgart via Berlin. The site for Byrnes's speech was carefully chosen by Clay. Stuttgart, located in Baden-Württemburg in the U.S. occupation zone (and just a few miles from the French zone) was home to a U.S.-sponsored German government-in-embryo. For nearly a year, "minister-presidents" representing the three states (Länder) established in the U.S. zone had been meeting regularly as the Länderrat, or "State Council,"


Rheinland Pfalz: the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate was established on 30 August 1946. It was formed from the northern part of the French Occupation Zone, which included parts of Bavaria (the Rhenish Palatinate), the southern parts of the Prussian Rhine Province (including the District of Birkenfeld which formerly belonged to Oldenburg), parts of the Prussian Province of Nassau (see Hesse-Nassau), and parts of Hesse-Darmstadt (Rhinehessen on the western banks of the Rhine); the new state was legally confirmed by referendum on 18 May 1947.

Hessen: After World War II the Hessian territory left of the Rhine was occupied by France, whereas the rest of the country was part of the US occupation zone. The French separated their part of Hesse from the rest of the country and incorporated it into the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). Here's the answer to ypir question of Rhine being border between Länder. The United States, on the other side, proclaimed the state of Greater Hesse (Groß-Hessen) on 19 September 1945, out of Hesse-Darmstadt and most of the former Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau. On December 4, 1946 Groß-Hessen was officially renamed Hessen.

Baden-Württemberg: This state combines the historical states of Baden, Hohenzollern and Württemberg, part of the region of Swabia. After World War II Allied forces established three states: Württemberg-Hohenzollern, South Baden (both occupied by France), and Württemberg-Baden (US-occupied). In 1949 these three states became parts of the Federal Republic of Germany. Article 118 of the new German constitution however allowed for those states to merge. After a plebiscite held on 9 December 1951 these states merged on 25 April 1952 into Baden-Württemberg.

Upon founding in 1949, West Germany had eleven states, which were reduced to nine in 1952 as three south-western states (Baden, Württemberg-Hohenzollern and Württemberg-Baden) merged to form Baden-Württemberg. Since 1957, when the French-occupied Saarland was returned (the "small reunification"), the Federal Republic consisted of ten states. West Berlin was in many ways integrated with West Germany, but due to its special status de jure under the sovereignty of the Western Allies, did not officially constitute a Land or part of one.