Uprooted: Refugees in Europe 1945–1960 and Indochina 1975–1990 · THE MAP IN AUG 1945

Map of refugees in Europe in August 1945

Potsdam: borders move west

Refugees in Europe in August 1945: Potsdam: borders move west. The map shows who held what: Soviet-occupied or communist, Western bloc or democracy, Germany and Austria occupied.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable Refugee crises study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of refugees in Europe in August 1945: Potsdam: borders move west. Colours show Soviet-occupied or communist, Western bloc or democracy, Germany and Austria occupied. — AUG 1945 · UPROOTED: REFUGEES IN EUROPE 1945–1960 AND INDOCHINA 1975–1990

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Geoportal Berlin: official locality polygons · Berlin State Heritage Office: four sectors1945–1948 · The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall · Cliopatria v0.2.1 historical polities · Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960 · Occupation and reconstruction of Germany, 1945–1948 · Natural Earth v5.1.2 country geography · Natural Earth administrative references · Potsdam Protocol: administration and population transfers · UNHCR: The State of the World’s Refugees2000 · Cliopatria v 0.2.1 — dated political boundaries · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — German territorial expansion

Source details

Geoportal Berlin / ALKIS Berlin Ortsteil. Datenlizenz Deutschland Zero2.0
Berlin State Heritage Office: four sectors1945–1948. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or text reproduced
US government historical publication. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced
Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Selected dated records; documented component selection, unions and shared-edge extraction.
US Department of State, Office of the Historian. US government publication
National Army Museum. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or prose reproduced
Natural Earth contributors. Public domain · Full source components and holes retained; documented historical unions and repairs.
Natural Earth contributors. Public domain
Potsdam Protocol: administration and population transfers. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or text reproduced
UNHCR: The State of the World’s Refugees2000. Historical facts cited; no source artwork or text reproduced
Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY4.0 · Dated polity and constituent territory selections; campaign-dependent occupation overlays reconstructed separately.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Historical dates consulted; no prose or image copied

Territories and displacement hatching are reconstructed from published source geometry. The hatched areas locate historical regions; ethnicity, displacement and control were not necessarily uniform at every point within them.

The layer records give the full source geometry and date choices. Arrows remain schematic routes, using the lesson’s existing volume categories.

Where a 1945 vector was unavailable, German occupation/state boundaries use the nearest 1949/1950 sources. Berlin’s sector-area reference uses official later locality boundaries, leaving small historical exchanges unresolved. The 1961 wall view uses actual 1989 wall segments as an explicitly later reference.

Prewar German, Polish, Finnish and Italian source polygons identify regions of transfer and expulsion. For Istria, the reference combines the published 1929–1939 Italian eastern outline and an IGM Fiume reconstruction with postwar Yugoslav geography. It shows the 1943–1956 exodus region, including the later 1954 Zone B adjustment. The 1947 peace treaty entered into force in September; the hatch does not show a treaty-day or April 1947 sovereignty line.

proxy: Natural Earth v5.1.2 geographic reference · reconstruction: 1937territories / postwar successor references · reconstruction: 1938-10 · reconstruction: 1945–1947, near-date 1949 exterior reference · reconstruction: 1945–1949, later state-union reference · reconstruction: 1945–1949geographic reference · reconstruction: 1945–1990eastern sector; later locality perimeters · reconstruction: 1945–1990western sectors; later locality perimeters · reconstruction: 1945–1991 · reconstruction: 1945–1991 geographic union · reconstruction: 1949–1952 · reconstruction: 1950–1957 · reconstruction: Postwar Yugoslav reference

Layer records and reconstruction methods

On the ground

Former German Pomerania, East Brandenburg and Silesia were placed under Polish administration at Potsdam; their German inhabitants fled or were expelled
Former East Prussia and Danzig were divided between Poland and the Soviet Union; their German inhabitants fled or were expelled
British occupation zone, 1945–49
French occupation zone, 1945–49; the Saar was governed under a separate French regime
Soviet occupation zone, 1945–49
American, British and French sectors of Berlin, 1945–49
The German-speaking borderlands of Bohemia and Moravia, from which about three million Germans were removed in 1945–46
Prewar eastern Poland was ceded to the Soviet Union in 1945; most of its Poles moved west in 1944–46
Finland ceded Karelia and Salla to the Soviet Union in 1940 and 1944; almost all the people living there moved to Finland

The chapters of this moment

CH 2 — Expulsion of Germans after WW2

Related maps

◧ EMBED THIS MAP ON YOUR SITE

<iframe src="https://mapsofhistory.com/embed/displacement/aug-1945/" style="width:100%;aspect-ratio:16/9;border:1px solid #999" loading="lazy" title="Map of refugees in Europe in August 1945 — Uprooted: Refugees in Europe 1945–1960 and Indochina 1975–1990 — Maps of History"></iframe><p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:4px 0 0">Map: <a href="https://mapsofhistory.com/atlas/displacement/">Map of refugees in Europe in August 1945 — Uprooted: Refugees in Europe 1945–1960 and Indochina 1975–1990</a> · <a href="https://mapsofhistory.com/">Interactive history map by Maps of History</a></p>

You may embed this map free if you keep the attribution link. Teachers can find print-ready study guides at /study/.

THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE

Get the printable study guide for Uprooted free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul

NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME

← May 1945 April 1947 →