Berlin Blockade, NATO and Warsaw Pact

Occupation of Germany before Berlin Blockade

• Potsdam agreed to split Germany into four occupation zones: BR, FR, USA, USSR

• Each occupying power entitled to take reparations from its own zone

  • USSR entitled to additional reparations from other zones due to great damage suffered in WW2 (20m+ Russians killed)

• Berlin was deep into Soviet zone but city itself split into BR, FR, USA and USSR sectors

  • Allied control was supposed to coordinate GER govt and W Allies entitled access to Berlin through Soviet-controlled E GER by road, air and rail

• Deteriorating relationship between former Allies can be seen in treatment of Germany

  • Western Powers wary about GER recovering too quickly, but also keen to prevent repeat of ToV and help their zones recover quickly to prevent spread of extremism

  • S had greater fear of GER recovery and was determined to keep GER weak + impoverished

    • Drained his zone’s resources

    • Took reparations

    • Continued treating it as a satellite

Events leading up to Berlin Blockade

• 1946: US stopped Soviets taking extra reparations from US zone

• Soviets began nationalising industry + land in their zone and promoting Socialist Union Party

• 1947: W Allies rejected plan to unify GER which would’ve allowed Comm participation in govt

• Jan 1947: Bizonia - BR + USA zones merged

• Mar 1947: Truman Doctrine - tension between Capitalist West and Comm East

• Apr 1947: Marshall Plan - W GER receives $1.5m in aid

• Feb 1948: Soviets claimed whole of Berlin was part of their zone

• Mar 1948: Trizonia - FR combines zone with USA + BR

• June 1948: Deutschmark - new currency for Trizonia divides Germany

• June 1948: Berlin Blockade - USSR shut land routes into Berlin

London Agreement

June 1948

• BR, FR, USA set up democratic govt for their merged zone and set up political parties

• Agreed on new currency for their zone

  • To help regenerate economy

  • To end price controls + rationing

• Soviets objected to this

  • Claimed they wanted to keep old currency in their zone

  • But new currency would depress value of old

    • Wanted to avoid anything that would lead their zone towards economic recovery

• Berlin was becoming prosperous land of capitalism surrounded by poverty of Comm areas, making Comm look bad

Why did USSR believe Western powers had no right to Berlin?

• It was within E GER

• Trizonia threatened power of USSR in GER

  • Deutschmark split Berlin into two economic zones

    • Capitalist Trizonia had better economy

    • Made USSR look weak

Why did USSR decide to blockade Berlin?

• Reliance on food

  • E GER grew most of the food W Berlin ate

    • Blockade would impact Trizonia’s ability to feed W Berlin

• Transport access

  • Allies had to travel through Soviet GER to access W Berlin

    • USSR could prevent Western access to Berlin

• Presence of ‘Red Army’

  • USSR had 1.5m soldiers in GER

    • USSR prepared to fight if West forced access into Berlin

How did the USSR blockade Berlin?

• USSR could control access to Berlin

  • It was deep inside Soviet-occupied zone

  • Trizonia only had two agreed land routes + two air routes to W Berlin

• June 1948 - USSR closed road, rail and canal links across Soviet-controlled GER

• Without support of USA, FR, BR, W Berlin:

  • Only had enough food for 36 days

  • Lacked important resources like fuel + medicine

• S wanted to control whole Berlin

  • Capital city of GER

  • USSR could spread Comm ideas

  • S would gain propaganda victory

    • Could present capture of Berlin as triumph of Comm over Capitalism

How did the West react to the Blockade?

USA, BR, FR in challenging position after announcement of blockade in June 1948

• Risked war if they attempted to break blockade

• Doing nothing would give Berlin to USSR

• Without support of West, W Berlin would quickly run out of food, fuel, medicine

Western options to respond to Blockade

• Withdraw from Berlin

  • Prevent war with USSR

  • Lose control of GER capital

  • Failure of containment policy

• Supply Berlin by land

  • Provide W Berlin with supplies

  • Would make West the aggressors

  • Almost certainly lead to war

• Supply Berlin by air

  • Provide W Berlin with supplies

  • Not entering by land

  • USSR would be aggressors if they shot planes down

  • Could lead to war if USSR shot planes down

Berlin Airlift

• June 1948: West decided to fly supplies into Berlin - clever tactic because:

  • Not an aggressive action

  • USSR would start war if they shot planes down

• From June 1948 - May 1949, Berlin Airlift flew vital supplies into W Berlin

What happened in Berlin Airlift?

• Supplies

  • Jan 1949: 170,000 tons of supplies flown into Berlin

  • USA + BR flew in 1000 tons of supplies every day

  • 2m tons of supplies flown into city over 10 months

• Casualties

  • 78 people killed in aircraft accidents but Soviet military caused no casualties

• Airports

  • Berlin-Tempelhof - aeroplane landed every 45 secs during height of Berlin Airlift

  • Berlin-Tegel - new airport built by FR military

• Soviet reaction

  • Most W Berliners rejected Soviet offer to move to E Berlin to receive food

  • Allies refused S’s offer to lift Blockade if Deutschmark was removed from W Berlin

Impact of Berlin Crisis

• Negative impacts on S

  • Couldn’t stop airlift

    • Shooting down planes carrying supplies would lead to war

  • Humiliated USSR

    • By doing nothing, USSR looked weak

• 12 May 1949: USSR lifted Blockade

  • W Allies continued to fly in supplies until 30 Sept 1949

• Berlin Airlift was massive victory for West over East

  • Worsened tension between two ‘superpowers’

  • S seen as tyrant who’d happily let a whole city starve

  • Pictures of Berlin children receiving food parcels made good publicity

Key events after Berlin Crisis

• Apr 1949: USA created military alliance, NATO

• May 1949: USA created Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

• Oct 1949: USSR created German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

• Apr 1955: USSR created military alliance, Warsaw Pact

Division of Germany

• May 1949: BR, USA, FR zones became German Federal Republic (West Germany)

  • Capital = Bonn

  • Elections held and Adenauer voted in as first Federal Chancellor

• Oct 1949: Soviets replied by setting up German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

  • Capital = East Berlin

  • Led by Stalinist Ulbricht

• W Berlin was island of capitalism in sea of Comm

  • For West, an oasis of freedom, prosperity, democracy

  • In East, it was likened to cancer growing in heart of workers’ state

• Divided city of Berlin was symbol of increasingly divided world

  • Also would become dangerous flashpoint for CW tensions

Formation of NATO

• Berlin Crisis made war between East and West very possible

  • Big threat was USSR seeking to take over whole of Europe

    • Threat increased when Soviets announced development of own atomic bomb in Sept 1949

• During height of Berlin Crisis, Western leaders met in Washington to create plan to coordinate defence policies

• Led to formation of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in Apr 1949

  • 12 nations signed + pledged themselves to regard an attack on one as an attack on all

    • BR, FR, BEL, NED, LUX, USA, CAN, NOR, DEN, ICE, ITA, POR

  • Greece + Turkey joined in 1952 and West Germany in 1955

• Confirmed end of US isolationism

Warsaw Pact

• S warned of ‘grave consequences’ that would follow but took no concrete action

• This changed when W Germany was allowed to join NATO in 1955 (after S’s death)

  • USSR still scarred by WW2 experience + perceived W GER as huge threat

• So formed Warsaw Pact, military alliance of USSR and E Europe ‘satellite’ states which Soviets dominated

  • POL, E GER, CZE, ROM, ALB, HUN

• Like NATO, Warsaw Pact would regard attack on one as attack on all

• Warsaw Pact stressed independence of each member + made promises that each would not interfere in internal affairs of others

  • Reality was different - USSR dominated affairs of all E European states