The Berlin Crisis, 1948-1949
There was one place in the world where communistSupporters of the communist movement or party. and capitalistThe economic idea that countries should be run based on private business, trade, stocks and shares, and profit. governments operated side by side - the divided city of Berlin, in Germany. This became the focus of tensions in Europe in 1948.
Division of Germany and Berlin
At the conferences in Yalta and Potsdam:
- it was decided to divide control of Germany between the USA, Britain, France and the Soviet UnionThe group of 15 communist republics formed from the Russian Empire after the revolution of 1917.
- the city of Berlin was also divided up, even though Berlin was inside the area of Germany controlled by the Soviet Union
- the USA, Britain and France were allowed access though the Soviet sector of eastern Germany by using roads, canals, railways and aeroplanes
The Soviet Union wanted to keep Germany economically weak to prevent it from starting another war, while the other countries hoped to rebuild the German economy to stop its people choosing communism in the future. As a result, the people living in the western sectors of Germany and Berlin became much better off than those living in the Soviet sectors. The introduction of the Marshall Plan in 1948 made this divide even greater.
New western currency
The USA, Britain and France announced that they were joining their sectors of Germany and Berlin together to create a new West German state called TrizoniaThe merging of the American, British and French zones of western Germany and western Berlin in 1948. in March 1948. As part of their plan to improve the economy of their part of Germany, they planned democratic elections and a new currency that they would call the DeutschmarkThe currency of West Germany and West Berlin.
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, was concerned that this economic recovery and new currency would disrupt his plans for the Soviet sectors of Germany and Berlin. He thought that the people under his control in Germany would be able to see the effects of the changes and get access to the new currency through capitalist West Berlin.
Blockade and airlift
Stalin decided that he had to remove capitalist influence from eastern Germany. However, he could not attack directly as the USA had nuclear weaponsAn explosive device used as a weapon. The most deadly and destructive weapon developed by humankind. (the Soviet Union didn’t have them until 1949) and was in a much better position to fight another war. In June 1948, Stalin ordered a Berlin BlockadeOne of the first Cold War crises when the Soviet Union blocked the Allies access to West Berlin in 1948. It ended in 1949 after daily western airlifts of supplies to their zones made continuing the Blockade pointless. This cut off all transport links with western Germany, in an attempt to force West Germany into removing the Deutschmark from circulation and therefore halt their economic recovery.
President Truman did not want to concede Berlin to the communists as he was worried that communism would spread to western Germany. So, the USA organised the Berlin AirliftWhen the USA and its allies flew supplies into West Berlin when it was blockaded by the Soviet Union in 1948. to take supplies to West Berlin by air, hoping that the communists would not try to shoot down the planes.
- By April 1949, this involved 1,398 flights a day, carrying almost 13,000 tons of supplies that included food, clothing and building materials.
- As a result, in May 1949, Stalin ended the blockade.
- The airlift lasted for ten months, involved 275,000 flights and over 2 million tons of supplies.
West Germany and East Germany
containmentAn American policy to try and stop communism from spreading, to restrict it from spreading to other countries. in Berlin had worked. In May 1949, the western sectors of Germany became a new country, the Federal Republic of Germany, which was more commonly referred to as West Germany. Later on that year, the communist sector became a new country, the German Democratic Republic, more commonly known as East Germany.
NATO and the Warsaw Pact
To block the Soviet threat to Western Europe, the NATOA military alliance of western powers that was originally created to provide a counterforce to the Soviet armies of Eastern Europe. was established by a treaty in April 1949. The capitalist countries that signed it promised to protect each other if any of them was attacked. This created a powerful military alliance that was seen as very threatening by the communist countries of Eastern Europe.
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.
In May 1955, the communist countries of Eastern Europe joined with the Soviet Union in their own defensive alliance known as the Warsaw PactA collection of 12 communist countries that agreed to defend each other if one of them was attacked. The creation of these alliances formalised the divisions in Europe that Winston Churchill had described as the iron curtain.
