The Second World War ended in May 1945 with the capitulation of Germany. The victorious powers – the Soviet Union, Great Britain, the USA and France – divided Germany into four occupation zones and Berlin into four sectors. Each victorious power assumed control of a zone and a Berlin sector. The Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ) encompassed present-day Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, as well as the eastern part of Berlin. In 1949, the German Democratic Republic developed from the SBZ, which was reunited with the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990.