The quadripartite Allied Control Council began to meet informally on July 30, 1945; it officially commenced its work as the supreme governmental, supervisory, and administrative body in Germany a month later, on August 30, 1945. It consisted of the four supreme commanders of the occupying armies; these men also doubled as the military governors of their respective zones. In light of the Allies’ differing interests and divergent conceptions of the new order in Germany, they eventually decided to give administrative sovereignty to each individual zone. Treating Germany “as a whole” would have been difficult, especially since all Council decisions had to be unanimous. Moreover, general tensions stemming from the East-West conflict were coming to a head at that point, limiting both the Allies’ room and desire for compromise with each other. After the Soviet military governor, Marshal Vasily Sokolovski (second from right), walked out of the Council on March 20, 1948, to protest the prospect of the founding of a West German state, the Allied Control Council discontinued its work. Alongside Sokolovski, we see Military Governor William S. Douglas (Great Britain, at right), Military Governor Lucius D. Clay (USA, second from left), and Deputy Military Governor Charles Jean Roger Noiret (France, at left).