The Berlin Blockade

In 1948, the Soviets blocked off the Allies’ two land routes into West Berlin, leaving West Berliners with a supply of food that would last them less than 36 days and less than 45 days’ worth of fuel. This tense situation and the Western Allies’ reaction to it made the Berlin Blockade the first major crisis of the Cold War and determined for many that the Soviet Union was the aggressor. What led to the Berlin Blockade, how did the West deal with it, and why was it so significant?

Background to the Berlin Blockade

After the Second World War, Germany was split into four occupation zones, each controlled by one of the Allied powers: France, the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union (USSR). Berlin was also split between the four powers but was 100 miles deep within the Soviet zone. It was set to become a key arena for Cold War tensions due to its location and disputes about its division. Prior to World War II, Berlin had served as the capital of Germany and been an important centre for trade with advanced transportation and a renowned university. After the division, East Berlin became the capital of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) whilst the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) chose Bonn as their administrative centre.

Why and how was Germany divided?

After World War II, the allied powers, who had suffered significant losses to Germany, had to decide what to do with the defeated country and how to prevent it from rising to its former power. The fate of post-war Germany was decided in two key wartime conferences by the Big Three - the leaders of the US, the UK, and the USSR.

Yalta Conference

In February 1945, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin met in Yalta to decide how to end the Second World War and reorganise Europe. The post-war fate of Germany was their highest priority.

It was agreed that Germany would pay reparations and be divided into Soviet, American, British, and French zones of occupation. France, which had been liberated from Nazi Germany, was given a zone due to pressure from the French leader General de Gaulle and because Britain wanted a European ally to help them pay for post-War reconstruction in Germany.

Potsdam Conference

The Potsdam Conference followed on from Yalta in July 1945, intending to finalise and apply the actions agreed upon now that the Second World War had finished. The three allies returned but with the new US President Harry S. Truman and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee now joining Stalin. Although arguments dominated this conference, eventually Germany’s division between France, the UK, the US, and the USSR was negotiated.

The Sectors

Following the decisions made at Yalta and Potsdam, Germany was split into four zones in 1945. The Soviets controlled the East of Germany, America the South, Britain the Northwest, and France the Southwest (as shown in the diagram below). Each country’s forces exercised sovereign authority over their post-War zones, overseen by the Allied Control Council (ACC) that dealt with Germany as a whole.

Fig. 1 - Division of Germany into the four zones of occupation.

Causes of the Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Blockade had roots well before it began in 1948. The US and its allies (the West) and the USSR and its allies (the East) emerged from the Second World War as two opposing factions charged with the task of working together. These two global superpowers had opposing ideologies and global interests, which became increasingly apparent at the peace conferences of Yalta and Potsdam in 1945.

The capitalist US was interested in preserving the security of Western Europe whilst the communist Soviet Union was extending its influence in Eastern Europe. Although Germany has split four ways, there was a clear two-way division between the similar ideologies of France, Britain, and the US, and the ‘outsider’: the USSR. Let's have a look at their disagreements.

Disagreements over Germany

The Potsdam Conference was characterised by disagreements between the Allied powers over Germany. The USSR had specific intentions for the future of Germany that were very different from the intentions of France, the UK, and the US.

As well as these fundamental conflicts, further disagreements over Germany emerged.

Soviet expulsion of Germans

Many ethnic Germans were expelled from Eastern and Central Europe and transferred back to Germany as part of the Potsdam Agreement. The Soviets did not engage in humanitarian efforts to support the influx of ethnic Germans entering the country, hence the British and American zones absorbed them into their populations.

France refused to resettle any of the expelled Germans from the east as they felt no obligation to comply with the Potsdam Agreement that they were not invited to participate in. The American and British zones desperately needed extra agricultural produce, fuel, and other products to support the increase in their population.

Trade deals

As most of Germany’s heavy industry was based in the US and British zones, a deal was struck to dismantle parts of it and send this to the Soviet zone to help regeneration efforts. In return, the Soviet zone agreed to send agricultural produce, fuel, and other products to the US and British zones. This could help them support the influx of German expulsions.

However, whilst the US and UK delivered their goods in early 1946, the Soviets failed to keep up their side of the bargain but continued expelling Germans. In May 1946, the US (under military administrator Lucius D. Clay) stopped sending industrial goods to the Soviet zone, prompting them to start a public relations campaign against American policy.

French obstructionism

France, perturbed by not being invited to join the Potsdam Conference, refused any attempts by the ACC to run common initiatives across Germany. This meant that any attempts to coordinate running Germany across states were thwarted.

British and American cooperation

Britain and the US were finding it increasingly complicated to run their sectors independently. At a conference within the American and British zones in September 1946, US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes gave a speech on the ‘Restatement of Policy on Germany.’ Western powers feared that poverty and hunger arising from the plans to de-industrialise Germany might turn Germans to communism, and they needed to radically improve the economy in West Germany. The decision was made in December 1946 to unify the British and American zones to advance the economy.

Bizonia and Trizonia

The US and the UK merged their zones in 1947, creating Bizonia or Bizone. This was an economic decision: both the USA and Britain hoped that it would streamline their economy and lighten their administrative load. Trizonia or Trizone was created in 1949 when the French zone merged into Bizonia, essentially dividing Germany into two zones of occupation: the Western Trizonia and the Soviet zone.

Stalin was not invited to meetings about the mergers and was denied access to minutes from them. He felt that the Western Allies were consolidating their power and that he was being ostracised; he became increasingly concerned about the prospect of the Western Allies combining forces and taking over the Eastern zone.

Marshall Aid

For the Western Allies who saw Germany as a potential trading partner, rebuilding Germany and helping its economy became an important part of their governance.

The USSR, on the other hand, was focused on rebuilding the Soviet Union and keeping Germany weak so it could act as a buffer zone between it and the West.

The Marshall Plan, an American economic recovery programme for Europe enacted in 1948 and used by the Allies to rebuild Germany, further stoked Stalin’s paranoia about the West. He worried this influx of money might make West Germany far stronger than the East and threaten the Soviet occupation zone.

Currency reform

To facilitate the Marshall Plan, the Western zones introduced a currency reform and replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutschmark on 20 June 1948. This currency reform further indicated that the Western zones wanted to work independently from the East and was arguably the last straw for Stalin’s paranoia.

Berlin Blockade and Airlift

After Stalin blocked the two main corridors to West Berlin, the Western Allies had a choice to make. They had a responsibility to help the people within West Berlin, who were at risk of poverty and starvation, as well as to protect Germany from the threat of increased Soviet control.

How did the Western Allies decide on the Berlin Airlift?

The Western allies had four main options to respond to the blockade, all with potentially critical consequences. Below is a brief summary of the possible options and consequences.

The Truman Doctrine of 1947, which stated that the US would provide aid to any state standing up against communism, meant that the US was committed to a policy of containment and stopping Soviet expansionism. This meant that surrendering or doing nothing was not an option. Airlifting supplies was the only way to intervene without potentially starting a war and the US is seen as the aggressor.

The Berlin Airlift

The Western Allies began what was known as the Berlin Airlift, using thousands of planes to deliver supplies to West Berlin.

Whilst there were initial problems, the airlift was successful and West Berliners managed to subsist on the supplies dropped by thousands of planes each day for 11 months. At the airlift’s height, one plane was landing at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport every minute. Soviets refused to intervene as they did not want to risk starting a war.

Fig. 2 - A Short Sunderland airplane from the RAF moored on the Havil in Berlin, Germany, during the Berlin Airlift.

Trade embargo

The Western powers also launched a trade embargo against East Germany and other Soviet bloc countries as a countermeasure against the Blockade. This embargo eventually put enough pressure on the USSR to end the Blockade as Soviet bloc countries were struggling without Western trade.

On 12 May 1949, wanting to restore trade and prevent a full-blown war, Stalin ended the blockade of Berlin.

Fig. 3 - Berlin Airlift monument

Consequences of the Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Blockade helped to finalise the split between East and West Germany. After the Blockade in September 1949, American, British, and French zones formally consolidated their power and created the German Federal Republic (West Germany).

In October, the Soviet zone became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) but was not recognised as a state by the West. These two states differed enormously in their political systems and Germany remained divided for the rest of the Cold War with Berlin being a key point for tension throughout.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

The Berlin Blockade divided Europe and encouraged the formation of two opposing armed camps. It had threatened a conflict between the Allied Powers and arguably marked the start of the Cold War.

In April 1949, the US formed an alliance of countries around the North Atlantic called the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). They considered any attack on any of its members an attack on them all and agreed to go to war if that were to happen. In 1955, the USSR created the Warsaw Pact, mainly as a response to NATO, to protect the Eastern Bloc countries from attack.

Significance of the Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Blockade was a low point for international relations. Germany and Berlin remained a source of contention throughout the Cold War, and the Berlin Blockade certainly emphasised this. It also held significance in the Cold War for several other reasons.

The Western Allies’ peaceful and humanitarian reaction to the Berlin Blockade generated a positive PR image for the West at the start of the Cold War. This essentially defined the West as a ‘force for good’, which was the opposite of what the Soviets had intended.

One of the aeroplane pilots dropped candy for the children waiting at the airport and became renowned as the Candy Bomber. The Allied Powers encouraged other pilots to do the same, recognising the huge positive publicity potential of these drops.

Ultimately, the Berlin Blockade consolidated in many people’s minds that the USSR was repressive and contributed towards the large numbers of refugees fleeing East Germany for West Germany. West Germany was capitalist, had more freedom, and had an economy that was thriving with more job opportunities and better wages.

Future Cold War Conflict in Berlin

The differences between West and East Germany continued and Berlin offered East Germans a ‘window’ into the life of West Germans, where wages and employment were better and the standard of living higher.

Between 1949–61 around 2.7 million East Germans (many of whom were well educated or highly skilled) fled East Germany for West Germany using West Berlin as a gateway. This eventually led to the building of the Berlin Wall (separating East and West Berlin) to stop the flow of refugees. The wall remained until 1989, becoming one of the most influential symbols of the Cold War.