TheWanfried Agreement (German:Wanfrieder Abkommen) concerned a transfer of territory between the U.S. andSovietoccupation zones afterWorld War II inHesse,Germany, which took place after the determination of the maininner German border at the end of July 1945.
In the U.S. zone theBebra–Göttingen railway line, which linked with lines to the cities ofBremen,Hannover andBebra cut across a small (~ 3 km / 2 mi) portion of the Soviet zone nearNeuseesen andWerleshausen (Thuringia). This situation caused disruptions of traffic on the line, which was important to the U.S. as a link between its occupation zone in southern Germany and a small U.S.-controlledexclave at the port ofBremerhaven on theNorth Sea.
On September 17, 1945, an agreement was signed in the town ofWanfried between the American and Soviet authorities moving the border to resolve the problem. After the agreement was concluded, the participating officers exchanged flasks ofwhisky andvodka, and from then on the railway line was known jokingly inGerman as theWhisky-Wodka-Linie.
Brigadier GeneralWilliam T. Sexton,U.S. Army, signed the Wanfried agreement for the United States, whileRed ArmyMajor GeneralVasily S. Askalepov signed for the Soviet Union.
The Hessian villages ofAsbach-Sickenberg,Vatterode, andWeidenbach/Hennigerode (Kreis Witzenhausen) with 429 inhabitants and 7.61 square kilometres of land fell in Soviet territory. TheEichsfeld villages of Neuseesen and Werleshausen with 560 people and 8.45 square kilometres were transferred to the U.S. zone.
Although other such small exchanges took place afterwards on the inner-German border, only the Wanfried Agreement had the status of atreaty between the occupying Powers, and is considered to have been on an equal footing with thePotsdam Agreement.
