History: The Berlin Blockade (24th June 1948 – 12th May 1949)

1. History: The Berlin Blockade (24th June 1948 – 12th May 1949)

2. Stimulus • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HchGsN7eM4&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop

3. http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-blockadehttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/coldwar/archive/default.htmhttp://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-blockadehttp://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/coldwar/archive/default.htm

4. Joint Allied Control Commission • At the conclusion of World War 2, the administration of Germany was divided between France, Britain, the USSR and the United States which made up the Joint Allied Control Commission. • Berlin was further divided into four zones, with each of the allied countries having a section of the city. • Whilst Berlin was in the heart of the USSR division, corridors were created so that the other three powers could get access to the city.

5. Conflicting Motivations for Germany

6. Short-term Causes of the Crisis • On the 6th March 1948, the American, British and French zones merged to create a separate state of West Germany that would have its own government. This infuriated Stalin, as he did not want the allies to consolidate their power and influence in Germany. • On the 23rd June 1948, the West introduced a new currency, the ‘Deutschmark’ into West Germany and West Berlin. According to the Potsdam Agreement attended by both the Western Allies and the Soviets from 17 July to 2 August 1945, Germany had to be treated as one economic entity.

7. Long-term Causes of the Conflict • The two superpowers had rival plans for Germany. Whilst the United States wanted a divided Germany the USSR wanted a unified Germany. • Stalin was becoming increasingly agitated with the strengthening alliance between the US, French and British zones. • Neither side wanted the other to gain a geopolitical advantage.

8. Nature of Conflict – Soviet Action • The Soviets responded to the actions of the allies by blockading all road, rail and canal traffic crossing their zone. In addition, they also cut off all electricity and coal supply to West Berlin. • These aggressive Soviet actions resulted in 2.5 million West Berliners being trapped in the Soviet zone. • Desired effect → force the allies to abandon their plans for a separate state as well as squeezing out Western nations from West Berlin

9. Nature of conflict - American Response The American President, Harry Truman, ordered US aircraft to start carrying supplies into West Berlin by air. The airlift lasted 11 months. ‘In the early weeks of the airlift one plane was landing in West Berlin on average every three minutes for 24 hours a day, each plane loaded with up to 1090 kilograms of supplies’ ‘At the peak of the airlift the planes were landing every 45 seconds, and almost 12 000 tones of supplies were being distributed every day’

10. Map of the flight corridor during the Berlin Airlift

11. Photographs from Berlin This little girl, leaving a bakery with loaves of bread, knows that the flour for the bread was flown in by US pilots. This Soviet-inspired headline, a glaring contradiction of fact, reads: "Airlift a Failure." June 26, 1948

12. Photographs from Berlin

13. Photographs from Berlin American pilots known as ‘Candy bombers’ would drop candy attached to parachutes to children below.

14. Nature of Conflict • Whilst the conflict fell short of being direct military confrontation, the crisis was serious. • The conflict was costly and highly intense and placed Germany under great strain.

15. Quick Facts • The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months). • In the winter of 1948–49 Berliners lived on dried potatoes, powdered eggs and cans of meat.   They had 4 hours of electricity a day. • 275,000 flights carried in 1½ million tons of supplies.   A plane landed every 3 minutes. • On 16 April 1949, 1400 flights brought in 13,000 tons of supplies in one day – Berlin only needed 6,000 tons a day to survive. • Some pilots dropped chocolate and sweets. • The USA stationed B-29 bombers (which could carry an atomic bomb) in Britain.  

16. Resolution & Consequences • After 11 months, Stalin eventually relented and called the blockade off on 12th May 1949. • Two separate German states were created in the aftermath of the blockade. The western powers created the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), which came into existence on 23rd May 1949. Similarly, the Soviet Zone became the German Democratic Republic of East Germany (GDR) in October 1949. • By the mid-1950s both of these states became fully fledged independent nations and came to symbolize the clear division of Europe into two hostile camps.

17. Consequences • The blockade backfired for the Soviets, as they were seen by the Americans, and others, as aggressive and senseless human beings. • In contrast, the US airlift was a huge publicity stunt for the Americans as democratic countries were ‘inspired by the spirit of the rescuers’ (Evans 1998). • The Berlin Blockade hastened the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), which was a defensive alliance.

18. Consequences • The USSR created the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949. The objective of this alliance was to ensure that the economic policies of eastern bloc states were in line with Soviet economic policies. • In 1955 the Warsaw Pact came into existence – which was Stalin’s response to NATO • It would appear that Truman’s containment policy had worked, as the western allies were able to maintain their power and influence within Germany.

19. Cartoons on the blockade Britain and America tried to restore German prosperity in their sectors, but the Russians systematically looted their zone.  This cartoon of 1946 shows Britain and America trying to get the 'lorry' (representing the German economy) going, while the Russian sits smugly on his motorbike, having stolen the wheels.

20. Cartoons on the blockade In this British cartoon from 1948, Stalin watches as the storks fly coal and food into Berlin, but he dares not shoot them down.

21. Truman’s Analysis ‘When we refused to be forced out of the city of Berlin, we demonstrated to the people of Europe that with their co-operation we would act, and act resolutely, when their freedom was threatened. Politically it brought the peoples of western Europe more closely to us. The Berlin blockade was a move to test our capacity and will to resist. This action and the previous attempts to take over Greece and Turkey were part of a Russian plan to probe for soft spots in the Western Allies’. (H.S Truman 1965)

22. Questions Using this PowerPoint and the Pearson textbook to answer the following: • Describe why Germany was so important to the two superpowers. • What were Stalin’s motives for the blockade? • Explain the significance of the NATO Pact as a consequences of the Berlin Blockade. • Write a small paragraph, explain how the Berlin Blockade contributed to the development of the Cold War. And of course as you explore counterargument, always ask: “So, what’s the other side of the story??!”