What did the US want to happen in Germany at the end of World War 2?

Answer 1

What occured after WWI was that the German people felt that the loss of the war was the result of politicians and high level military personnel, along with the Jews, back stabbing the people by attempting to come to a surrender agreement before the military lost the war. Also, the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh restrictions and reprerations on Germany and it's military. Government became non-functioning because of it's incredible fragmentation of political parties. Economic inflation reached a point where money was essentialy useless, and housewives would use it to literally start fires. No assistance of any kind was given to help rebuild or repair their economic, political and social infrastructure. It was very unstable and volitile. After WWII, it was critical to show the people that their military was completely defeated and no win was possible. Secondly, harsh penalties were avoided to keep the German people from resorting to extremist political groups for direction. Germany was thus spilt into 4 states controlled by the US, UK, France and USSR. The goal of the US, in short, was to create a new political system and gradually allow Germany a military. Also, to assist in the rebuiling of their economic infrastructure and to help rebuild their country after 6 years of a very destructive war, so that one day Germany would be a self-governing and stable state.

Answer 2

Nobody does anything for one reason; there are always several reasons, sometimes inconsistent, for most actions.

An impoverished, war-wracked society is prime breeding grounds for tyrants; look at Syria, Iraq or Libya these days. Historically, the German culture has always been warlike; Germany started three European wars between 1870 and 1940. If the Allies had destroyed Germany and then gone away, the Germans would have raised up another tyrant to rule them to replace the one we'd just deposed.

If we had abandoned Germany, the Soviet Union would have taken over ALL of Germany, not just the eastern part.

Poor Germans from a devastated Germany wouldn't have been able to afford anything that Americans wanted to sell them. Rebuilding Germany was in America's best interests, just in terms of creating markets for our products.