The Belarusian Central Council (Belarusian: Беларуская цэнтральная рада, romanized: Biełaruskaja centralnaja rada; German: Weißruthenischer Zentralrat) was a puppet administrative body in German-occupied Belarus during World War II. It was established by Nazi Germany within Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1943–44, following requests by collaborationist Belarusian politicians hoping to create a Belarusian state with German support.

Immediately after the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, the mass persecution of Jews by the forward units of Einsatzgruppe B began under the command of the SS functionary Arthur Nebe. Jews were massacred and ghettos were formed in dozens of towns with the participation of Belarusian collaborators who were given various prominent roles. The Belarusian Auxiliary Police was established and deployed to murder operations particularly in February–March 1942.

The Generalbezirk Weißruthenien district of RKO was soon formed. The district included the western and central parts of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic in its 1941 borders (which included the towns of Hlybokaye, Vileyka, Navahrudak and other territories earlier annexed by the USSR from Poland). In 1942, the German civil authority was extended to Minsk, Slutsk and Barysaw. The area was to be made part of the Nazis' project of Lebensraum ("living space"), in which those deemed non-Aryan would be exterminated or expelled to make way for German colonists, while the remaining locals would be subject to forced Germanization. All attempts by the Belarusian representatives to request self-governance for the occupied Belarus led to German repressions against those who voiced such requests.

A Nazi politician Wilhelm Kube was appointed the German administrator of the area (Generalkommissar). He had his command center established in Minsk with a second Kommissar in Baranovichi. In September 1943, Kube was killed by his Belarusian housemaid, Yelena Mazanik, who planted a bomb in his bed.

In order to drum up fresh troops for the front inside Reichskommissariat Ostland and to stimulate support from the Belarusian population and elites, General Reinhard Gehlen suggested to the German High Command that some concessions be made to the Belarusian collaborators in the form of a puppet state. The "semi-autonomous" local government was established by Nazi Germany in December 1943, and named the Belarusian Central Council. Radasłaŭ Astroŭski, the mayor of Smolensk at that time, was appointed its president. SS-Gruppenführer Kurt von Gottberg who replaced Kube named the Belarusian politician Ivan Yermachenka, arriving from Prague, the "Advisor on Belarusian affairs".

The Belarusian Central Council only had a limited role in governing, with the key decisions being taken by the German administration of the Generalbezirk Weißruthenien. The Council mostly managed social affairs as well as culture and education. The Council had twelve departments including: Education, science and culture; Propaganda and press; Social security; Finance; Youth affairs; Religion; Control; Administrative issues; Economy; National minorities; and Home Defence.

The Belarusian Central Council oversaw the activities of Belarusian civic organisations established earlier with German permission including: Union of Belarusian Youth; Belarusian Scientific Society; Belarusian Cultural Association; Belarusian Self-Help; and labour unions. The Council managed to widen the usage of the Belarusian language in schools and in public life, worked on the opening of a university.

The Germans authorised the reformation of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, independent from the Patriarch of Moscow which, similarly, was used by the Soviet atheists to rally Russians against the Germans. The priests had considerable influence with the peasantry and actively supported the defeat of Soviet Russia, which had terrorized Christians in West Belarus after the joint Soviet invasion of Poland of September 17, 1939.