No Yalta agreement is made, the Soviets only take what they occupied. As such, the Soviet occupied zone is too small to form an East Germany. So the Soviets annex it as the East German SSR maybe joining it with Kaliningrad.
No Yalta agreement is made, the Soviets only take what they occupied. As such, the Soviet occupied zone is too small to form an East Germany. So the Soviets annex it as the East German SSR maybe joining it with Kaliningrad.
In that case, perhaps have an earlier POD where the Germans win Stalingrad, yet still lose the war. The 1943 agreements are butterflied away and the Soviet advance slowed down. Then the Soviet zone is small enough to be an SSR.