Berlin Blockade

Overview-
➢In June 1948, the simmering tensions between the Soviet
Union and its former allies in World War II, exploded
into a full-blown crisis in the city of Berlin. 
➢Alarmed by the new U.S. policy of giving economic aid to
Germany and other struggling European nations, as
well as efforts by the Western Allies to introduce a
single currency to the zones they occupied in Germany
and Berlin, the Soviets blocked all rail, road and canal
access to the western zones of Berlin. Suddenly, some
2.5 million civilians had no access to food, medicine,
fuel, electricity and other basic goods. 
➢Eventually, the western powers instituted an airlift that
lasted nearly a year and delivered vital supplies and
relief to West Berlin. The Berlin Blockade, and the
Allied response in the form of the Berlin Airlift,
represented the first major conflict of the Cold War.
Postwar Division of Germany 
➢At the end of World War II, the United States, Britain,
France and the Soviet Union divided the defeated
Germany into four occupation zones, as outlined at the
Yalta Conference in February 1945 and formalised at
Potsdam later that year. Berlin, though located within
the Soviet-occupied zone, was divided as well, with
the Western part of the city in Allied hands and the
east under Soviet control.
➢But if the agendas of the Soviet Union and its Western
 Allies had aligned in time of war, they soon began to
diverge, particularly over the future of Germany. Led
by Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union wanted to punish
Germany economically, forcing the country to pay war
reparations and contribute its industrial technology to
help postwar Soviet recovery. On the other hand, the
Allies saw Germany’s economic recovery as crucial to
preserving it as a democratic buffer against the spread
of communism from Eastern Europe, over which
Stalin had consolidated Soviet influence.
Impact of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan-
➢In March 1947, after communist rebellions arose in Greece
and Turkey, U.S. President Harry S. Truman
announced in a speech to Congress that the United
States would henceforth “support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or
by outside pressures,” by giving them military aid.
This policy, which became known as the Truman
Doctrine, introduced a new era of global engagement
for the United States and helped articulate the growing
divide between between Western democracies and the
Soviet Union. 
➢That June, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall
announced the European Recovery Program, known as
the Marshall Plan. This economic extension of the
Truman Doctrine aimed to help Germany and other
European nations rebuild after the ravages of war,
foster loyalty among participating states to the United
States and make them less vulnerable to the attraction
 of communism. Implemented in April 1948, the
Marshall Plan directly opposed Stalin’s vision of the
postwar world: He had hoped the United States would
withdraw from Europe entirely, leaving the USSR as
the dominant influence in the region. 

Soviet Decision to Blockade Berlin 

➢Over the first half of 1948, representatives from the United
States, Britain and France met in London to discuss
the future of Germany. As a result, the United States
and Britain agreed to combine their occupied zones to
create Bizonia, with the ultimate goal being a single,
unified West German state incorporating the U.S.,
British and French-occupied zones of Germany and
Berlin, with a single, stable currency.
➢When the Soviets learned of these plans in March 1948,
they withdrew from the Allied Control Council, which
had met since the end of the war to coordinate
occupation policy between zones. In June, U.S. and
British officials introduced the new currency, the
Deutschmark, into Bizonia and West Berlin, without
informing their Soviet counterparts. Viewing this as a
violation of their postwar agreements, the Soviets
immediately issued their own currency, the Ostmark,
into Berlin and eastern Germany. That same day—
June 24, 1948—they blocked all road, railway and
canal access to the Allied-occupied zones of Berlin,
announcing that the four-way administration of the
city had come to an end. 
Impact of the Blockade and the Allied Response
➢With their blockade, the Soviets cut some 2.5 million
civilians in the three western sectors of Berlin off from
access to electricity, as well as food, coal and other
crucial supplies. Though the Red Army far
outnumbered Allied military forces in and around
Berlin, the United States and Britain retained control
of three 20-mile-wide air corridors from West
Germany into West Berlin, according to written
agreements with the Soviet Union from 1945. 
➢Beginning June 26, 1948, two days after the blockade was
announced, U.S. and British planes carried out the
largest air relief operation in history, transporting
some 2.3 million tons of supplies into West Berlin on
more than 270,000 flights over 11 months. Nearly 700
aircraft were used during the Berlin Airlift, more than
100 of which belonged to civilian operators.
➢The airlift changed the relationship between the members
of the Allied Occupation and the people of West
Berlin and by implication the people of Western
Germany. Whatever the politicians believed the
soldiers and airmen of the allied forces looked upon
the airlift as a humanitarian mission.
➢The position of West Berlin was as precarious as ever. The
city remained an area of western influence surrounded
by a Soviet ruled land.
➢On May 12 1949, the Soviet Union raised the blockade.
 While Stalin had hoped the Berlin Blockade would
force the Allies to abandon their efforts to create a
West German state, the success of the Berlin Airlift
confirmed such hopes were in vain. By May 1949,
when the Soviets lifted the blockade, the crisis in
Berlin had hardened the East/West division of
Germany and all of Europe, ushering in the Cold War
in earnest.However, the airlift continued for a further
four months so that stocks could be built up in case the
blockade was re-imposed. The Soviet intention of
'starving out' West Berlin had failed and was seen by
many as a moral defeat. The West Berliners had
spurned all Soviet inducements and only 20,000 had
accepted the offer of East Berlin ration cards.
➢The lasting impact- On April 4 1949, the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) was formed in which
USA, Canada and most non communist European
countries pledged themselves to mutual assistance in
case of foreign aggression.
➢Following the lifting of the blockade political relations
became more and more divided. The western sector
continued to prosper as a result of 'Marshall Aid' and
the economic gap between East and West was very
evident in Berlin. Every day large numbers of skilled
workers and professionals commuted from East to
West Berlin. As a result of seeing what was on offer in
the West in terms of employment, wages and the
standard of living many decided to move to West
 Berlin. By the middle of 1961 as many as 30,000 East
Germans a month were moving to the West. The East
German government had to act to stem this flow as
these were the very people they couldn't afford to lose.
These were the people on whom they were relying to
help build a revitalised East Germany. It was
perceived that the survival of East Germany was
threatened and so the government solution to this
problem was to build the BERLIN WALL.
➢