When the United States Britain and France merged their zones of Germany in 1948 the Soviet Union responded by?

• Introduction & Quick Facts

• • Relief
    • The Central German Uplands
      • Southern Germany
      • The barrier arc
      • The northern fringe of the Central German Uplands
    • The North German Plain
    • The coasts
    • The Alps and the Alpine Foreland
  • Drainage
  • Soils
  • Climate
  • Plant and animal life
    • Plants
    • Animals

• • Ethnic groups
  • Languages
  • Religion
  • Settlement patterns
    • Rural settlement
    • Urban settlement
  • Demographic trends
    • Migration
    • Population structure
    • Population distribution

• • Modern economic history: from partition to reunification
    • The West German system
    • The East German system
    • Economic unification and beyond
  • Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
    • Agriculture
    • Forestry
    • Fishing
  • Resources and power
  • Manufacturing
  • Finance
    • The central banking system
    • The private banking sector
    • Public and cooperative institutions
  • Trade
  • Services
  • Labour and taxation
  • Transportation and telecommunications
    • Waterways
    • Seaports
    • Railways
    • Highways
    • Air transport
    • Telecommunications

• • Constitutional framework
  • Regional and local government
  • Justice
  • Political process
    • The electorate
    • Political parties
      • The Christian Democratic parties
      • The Social Democrats
      • The Free Democrats
      • The Greens
      • The Left Party
      • Fringe parties
  • Security
  • Health and welfare
    • Insurance and services
    • Additional benefits
    • War reparations
    • Standards of living
  • Housing
  • Education
    • Preschool, elementary, and secondary
    • Higher education
    • Problems of transition

• • Cultural milieu
  • Daily life and social customs
  • The arts
    • Government and audience support
    • Literature and theatre
    • Music and dance
    • The visual arts
    • Architecture
    • Film
    • Arts festivals
  • Cultural institutions
    • Museums and galleries
    • Libraries
  • Sports and recreation
    • Sporting culture
    • Leisure activities
  • Media and publishing
    • Broadcasting
    • The press
    • Publishing

• • Ancient history
    • Coexistence with Rome to ad 350
    • The migration period
  • Merovingians and Carolingians
    • Merovingian Germany
    • The rise of the Carolingians and Boniface
    • Charlemagne
    • The emergence of Germany
      • The kingdom of Louis the German
      • Rise of the duchies
  • Germany from 911 to 1250
    • The 10th and 11th centuries
      • Conrad I
      • The accession of the Saxons
      • The eastern policy of the Saxons
      • Dukes, counts, and advocates
      • The promotion of the German church
      • The Ottonian conquest of Italy and the imperial crown
      • The Salians, the papacy, and the princes, 1024–1125
        • Papal reform and the German church
        • The discontent of the lay princes
        • The civil war against Henry IV
        • Henry V
    • Germany and the Hohenstaufen, 1125–1250
      • Dynastic competition, 1125–52
      • Colonization of the east
      • Hohenstaufen policy in Italy
      • The fall of Henry the Lion
      • Hohenstaufen cooperation and conflict with the papacy, 1152–1215
      • Frederick II and the princes
      • The empire after the Hohenstaufen catastrophe
  • Germany from 1250 to 1493
    • 1250 to 1378
      • The extinction of the Hohenstaufen dynasty
      • The Great Interregnum
      • The rise of the Habsburgs and Luxembourgs
        • Rudolf of Habsburg
        • Adolf of Nassau
        • Albert I of Habsburg
        • Henry VII of Luxembourg
      • The growth of territorialism under the princes
      • Constitutional conflicts in the 14th century
        • Charles IV and the Golden Bull
        • Decline of the German monarchy
      • The continued ascendancy of the princes
        • Southern Germany
        • Central Germany
        • Northern Germany
        • Eastern Germany
        • Continued dispersement of territory
    • 1378 to 1493
      • Internal strife among cities and princes
        • Wenceslas
        • Rupert
        • Sigismund
      • The Hussite controversy
        • Jan Hus
        • The Hussite wars
      • The Habsburgs and the imperial office
        • Albert II
        • Frederick III
      • Developments in the individual states to about 1500
        • The princes and the Landstände
        • The growth of central governments
      • German society, economy, and culture in the 14th and 15th centuries
        • Transformation of rural life
        • The nobility
        • Urban life
        • The decline of the church
        • Trade and industry
        • Cultural life
  • Germany from 1493 to c. 1760
    • Reform and Reformation, 1493–1555
      • The empire in 1493
      • Imperial reform
      • The Reformation
      • Imperial election of 1519 and the Diet of Worms
      • The revolution of 1525
      • Lutheran church organization and confessionalization
      • Religious war and the Peace of Augsburg
    • The confessional age, 1555–1648
      • German society in the later 1500s
      • Religion and politics, 1555–1618
      • The Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia
    • Territorial states in the age of absolutism
      • The empire after Westphalia
      • The consolidation of Brandenburg-Prussia and Austria
      • The age of Louis XIV
      • The contest between Prussia and Austria
  • Germany from c. 1760 to 1815
    • Further rise of Prussia and the Hohenzollerns
    • The cultural scene
    • Enlightened reform and benevolent despotism
    • The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era
      • End of the Holy Roman Empire
      • Period of French hegemony in Germany
      • The Wars of Liberation
    • Results of the Congress of Vienna
  • The age of Metternich and the era of unification, 1815–71
    • Reform and reaction
    • Evolution of parties and ideologies
    • Economic changes and the Zollverein
    • The revolutions of 1848–49
    • The 1850s: years of political reaction and economic growth
    • The 1860s: the triumphs of Bismarck
      • The defeat of Austria
      • Bismarck’s national policies: the restriction of liberalism
      • Franco-German conflict and the new German Reich
  • Germany from 1871 to 1918
    • The German Empire, 1871–1914
      • Domestic concerns
      • The economy, 1870–90
      • Foreign policy, 1870–90
      • Politics, 1890–1914
      • The economy, 1890–1914
      • Foreign policy, 1890–1914
    • World War I
  • Germany from 1918 to 1945
    • The rise and fall of the Weimar Republic, 1918–33
      • Defeat of revolutionaries, 1918–19
      • The Treaty of Versailles
      • The Weimar constitution
      • Years of crisis, 1920–23
      • The Weimar Renaissance
      • Years of economic and political stabilization
      • The end of the republic
    • The Third Reich, 1933–45
      • The Nazi revolution
      • The totalitarian state
      • Foreign policy
      • World War II
  • The era of partition
    • Allied occupation and the formation of the two Germanys, 1945–49
      • Formation of the Federal Republic of Germany
      • Formation of the German Democratic Republic
    • Political consolidation and economic growth, 1949–69
    • Ostpolitik and reconciliation, 1969–89
  • The reunification of Germany
    • Helmut Kohl and the struggles of reunification
    • Chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder
    • The Merkel administration

More

• More Articles On This Topic
• Additional Reading
• Researcher's Note
• Contributors
• Article History