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The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
1948-1949

Lesson Plan

Background recap: Yalta and Potsdam

Western and Soviet views of the future of Berlin and Germany

Actions and Reactions: events which led to the setting up of the Berlin Blockade

How to respond: options open to the western allies

The Airlift organization / facts and figures

The end of the crisis: short and long term consequences

The fate of Germany and Berlin
...the outset of the Cold War

Who are the politicians in each photo? Say where and when they met.What decisions had they made concerning the future of Germany?

What happens to Berlin happens to Germany... What happens to Germany happens to Europe. Molotov

The Cold War

The Cold War was NOT a war of weapons It was a Clash of Ideologies a war of words a war of wits

Free-market economyLiberal DemocracyMulti-Party systemFree SpeechFreedom of WorshipIndividual Rights

State planned economy 5 year planSocial DemocracyOne Pary System Marxist-Leninst theoryState controlled press (Pravda)Freedom of the Proletariat atheism/opium of the massesSocial Justice for all

The USA

The USSR

The western view of the future of Berlin and Germany

Describe and analyse the caricature. How would you translate keep in the caption?

The Soviet view of the future of Berlin and Germany

Describe and analyse the caricature. What was the USSR mainly concerned with?

Actions and Reactions towards the crisis

The western AlliesAims: restart market-based economy and maintain western presence in Germany (and Berlin)

The USSRAims: maintain an industrially weak Germany and eventually force the western allies out

January 1948: the USA and the UK unite their zones to coordinate their economies (bizonia)

The Soviet authorities effectively put an end to ACC government of post-war Germany

February 1948 the western allies propose the creation of a new currency to replace the reichmark and help stop the illegal blackmarket

The USSR refuses the offer in an attempt to keep the Germaneconomy in recession

June 18th-21st 1948 the western allies introduce the Deutschmark into their zones and also Berlin (Operation Bird Dog)

June 22nd 1948 the USSR announces its own new currency in Berlin, the Ostmark and begins to control allied transport in Berlin

The Blockade: the Soviet text

Measures to safeguard the Soviet Zone (June 1948)

In order to protect the interests of the population and the economy of the Soviet zone and prevent disorganisation of currency circulation, the Soviet Military Administration has been obliged to carry out the following measures in view of the separate currency reform in the Western occupation zones in Germany :

1. To suspend passenger train traffic between the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and the Western zones.

2. To bar entry into the Soviet occupation zone to all automobile and horse transport from all zones, including traffic along the Helmstedt Berlin motor road. Exit from Berlin to the Western zone along the Berlin-Helmstedt motor road will continue in accordance with previous rules.

3. All means of transport, proceeding along the waterways from the Soviet zone to the Western zones and vice versa, must obtain a licence from the chief of the transport department of the Soviet Military Administration and will be allowed passage only after thorough preliminary inspection of cargoes and ships and personal luggage of ship crews.

4. The passage through control points of demarcation lines of persons proceeding on foot from the Western zones to the Soviet occupation zone in Germany with interzonal passes issued in the Western zones is discontinued. Persons proceeding from the Soviet zone to the Western occupation zones in Germany pass through the control points in accordance with previous rules.

5. Freight train traffic will continue unhindered, but on condition of thorough inspection of all cargoes as well as of personal belongings of train crews and train guards.

6. All these instructions come into force as from midnight of June 18.

The Soviet authorities effectively put an end to all road, rail and fluvial access to the German capital

Options open to the western Allies

The situation:The USSR cut off all road, rail and fluvial access to the western zones of Berlin. It also cut off the electricity supply to the western districts. The western zones in Berlin accounted for some 2 million people in June 1948. The USA army had 140 000 troops in Europe. The USSR had 17 divisions plus thousands of tanks in Germany.

The possible options:

1. Do nothing or retreat from Berlin (political suicide)

2. Smash through the blockade by using a military convoy taking supplies to West Berlin (General Lucius Clay)

3. Use the atom bomb to attack the Soviet Union and destroy it before the Soviets developed their own bomb (Churchill)

4. Supply the needs of West Berlin by using planes the Airlift

The air corridors had been agreed upon at Yalta

The organisation of the Airlift

Using the documents:Which of the allies was responsible for the vast majority of the flights into and out of West Berlin?

How often would planes land in a West Berlin airport?

What were the two main goods flown into West Berlin?

The Airlift in facts and figures

The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months). In the winter of 194849 Berliners lived on dried potatoes, powdered eggs and cans of meat. They had 4 hours of electricity a day. The airlift was codenamed 'operation Vittles'; the first flight was on 26th June 1948.The Soviet authorities offered to provide West Berlin with essential supplies - this offer was rejected.Over 275 000 flights carried in 2 million tons of supplies. A plane landed every 3 mins. On 16th 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 airlift continued until 30th September 1949, in order to build up a reserve of supplies.The USA stationed B-27 bombers (which could carry an atomic bomb) in Britain.

Short and long term consequences of the crisis
- a German tragedy

West Germanycreated Aug 1949

East Germany created Oct 1949

The military division of the world

NATO was created in April 1949

The Warsaw Pact came into being in 1955 (following West Germany's entry into NATO)

Differing interpretations

One caricature is American, the other is Soviet.Which is which? Why?

Conclusions...

A diplomatic victory for the western bloc

The west was in Berlin to stay it had become a matter of pride and principle

The German state was divided into two independent countries

The political divide of the bi-polar world became complete: economic and military

1949... China went communist and the USSR exploded its first atomic device

The world now ran the risk of atomic and nuclear destruction... if the two blocs ever went to war!