Berlin

A City Divided

http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/images/berlinmap_01.jpg

An Ultimatum

• 10 November 1958– Khrushchev, in a public speech, insisted that

the military occupation of Berlin should come to an end.

– He Demanded that the Western powers join in signing a peace treaty recognising the existence of TWO Germany's

– Berlin should become a “free city”, that is from the presence of the West.

• Basically it was – Agree to withdraw or be kicked out.

West Response

• Ultimatum landed like a bombshell• A no surrender line had been drawn at

Berlin.• 10 years earlier was the Berlin airlift• Confirmed the West’s determination to

hold this advance base against communism. Still evident in 1958

• Prevent a permanent division of Germany into two separate states.

Why was Khrushchev acting?

• Concerned by a lack of formal German peace settlement 13 years after the end of the war.

• West Germany was in the midst of an “economic miracle”

• No 1 reason though was a unified , capitalist Germany, armed with nuclear weapons and backed by the US, raised the spectre of an aggressive Germany laying waste to the Soviet Union.

• Khrushchev was committed to establishing a communist state in east Germany.

• He was a supporter of Walter Ulbricht, Leader of East Germany.

• West German’s were heirs to Hitler’s ambitions then East Germany symbolically justified Soviet War scarifies.

• Believed Communism would prevail over Capitalism.

Brain Drain

• Every year tens of thousands of east Germans fled to capitalist West Germany

• 1953 – 300,000

• 1956 – 156,000

• East Germany had constructed a formidable frontier with watchtowers, barb wire, minefields and armed patrols.

• Berlin was easy escape route, no border patrols, virtually unrestricted.

• The vast majority of refugees were young and skilled.

• More than ½ were under 25

• 3 out of 4 were under 40

Why were people escaping?

• In Berlin 1960, it was a tale of two cities.

West Berlin

• The rubble of war had mostly been cleared.

• Kurfursten damm (famous street in west berlin) was full of shops, houses, hotels and restaurants.

• Hilton hotel was built in west Berlin.

East Berlin

• The destruction of the war was still evident

• Buildings stood derelict, next to spaces where others had been destroyed

• Drab new apartment blocks

• An east Berliner who could afford the luxury of a refrigerator would have to wait a year, washing machines 2 years.

The need for Soviet Intervention

• Between 1949 and 1961, 2.8 million Germans crossed to the west.

• 1/6 of the population abandoned the East

• Caused panic in the East

• Humiliating sign of the failure of the East but also a huge labour shortage.