West united

• With the Soviets no longer cooperating, the remaining allies (Britain, the USA and France) had to decide how to run their part of Germany.

  The British and Americans had already combined their zones into 'Bizonia' in 1947 and in March 1948, the French added theirs to create 'Trizonia'.
• Although this was never the intention, the result was that Germany was now split into two parts: Western Trizonia and Eastern Soviet-controlled Germany.
• June 1948: The three allies created a single currency, the Deutschmark, to give trizonia economic unity. The decision to make this new currency took place at an ACC meeting in Berlin.

  The Soviets were furious about the decision for 2 reasons:

  1. The new single currency in Trizonia created a separate economic unit from the East
  2. It acknowledged that there were effectively 2 Germanys: West and East
• To Stalin, this was a further example of the west 'ganging up' on the Soviet Union. He saw the formation of Trizonia as a means of developing three zones more effectively and deliberately forcing the Soviet Union into poverty.

  He was now more determined than ever to stand firm and protect soviet interests in Germany.

  He believed Germany should be one country united and should follow the communist ideology.