Blockade of Berlin

Origins of the blockade

The origins of the blockade go back to the negotiations undertaken by the allies at the end of the Second world war to regulate the fate of the Nazi Germany.

Fate of Germany and Berlin after the war

Whereas the German defeat becomes possible, the governments of the the United Kingdom, the the United States and the Soviet Union are found with London and start to discuss the fate of the Germany overcome. They sign the Protocole of London on September 12th, 1944 which stipulates: Germany, inside its borders such as those existed at December 31st, 1937, will be divided for the needs for the occupation into three zones, one of these zones being allotted to each of the three powers, and in a special zone for Berlin which will be jointly occupied by the three Powers . Berlin is him also divided into three sectors of occupation. At the time of the Conference of Yalta (4 February 11th, 1945) on the coast of the Crimea, in Ukraine, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, begin again the agreements of London concerning the Germany with a possibility for France of taking part in the “division”, by constituting a zone resulting from the zones British and American. The objective is of to destroy militarism and the German Nazism and to make so that the Germany can disturb world peace never again .

When the Second world war ends in Europe on May 8th, 1945, the Soviet troops and their Western allies give an opinion in the zones envisaged by the agreements. Berlin located in full Soviet zone according to the agreements is divided into four sectors of occupation with a quadripartite direction. July 17th at August 2nd, 1945, the Conference of Potsdam draft post-war period, whereas the first tensions are already felt. Indeed, the Soviet forces, arrived the first at Berlin, start to dismount factories and to plunder the zone which was allotted to them whereas no agreement was concluded on the war reparations which had by Germany and their methods from covering. Harry Truman, new the President of the United States, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, replaced in the course of conference by the new British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, decides that each occupying power is free to take war reparations in its own zone, provided that the German economy can remain. It moreover is envisaged the dismantling of German heavy industry. The allies envisage to be deprived of their capacities to the fur with measurement of the demonstrations of confidence of the Germans. In November 1945, an agreement allows the free overflight of the Soviet in air lanes to connect the zones Frenchwoman, English and American zone of Germany to their respective sector of occupation in Berlin.

Disagreement of the allies

Contrary to the agreements concluded who proclaim freedom for each nation to choose its political regime, Moscow intends to impose the Communisme and to thus create a zone of influence, which will have the advantage of providing an additional protection to the Soviet territory, and to protect it potential invaders come from the West. The first to be warned the “Free world” against the threat which constitutes the Soviet expansion is Winston Churchill in its famous Discours of Fulton pronounced in the in March 1946 United States when he denounces the “iron curtain”. George Kennan, number two of the American embassy with Moscow, sends in February 1946 a message known under the name “Long telegram” and published in July 1947 in the review Foreign Affairs . He alerts Washington on the totalitarian nature of the Stalinist mode and his propensity with unceasingly finding a new enemy to be justified, thus endangering the freedom of the people. He advises a hardening of the American policy in his connection. The Soviets react in the person of Nikolaï Novikov, ambassador Soviet with Washington. In a telegram dated September 27th, 1946, it blames the American policy and points the will of the Americans to want to dominate the world. He affirms that the American imperialism will be illustrated then, inter alia by financial aids brought to control the economies of the helped countries, by the increase in the military budget and establishment in military bases in the world. Novikov ensures that this imperialism will always run up against the USSR, the only State to have preserved its independence with respect to the the United States. The practical application of this policy known as of the damming up is the installation of the Marshall plan, which, as from 1948, grants loans to sixteen countries to help with the industrial rebuilding and free deliveries of products. The Soviet Union refuses this help and obliges the countries occupied by the Red Army, which was long in demobilizing, to make in the same way.

To the advertisement of the Marshall plan, the Soviets react by melting the Kominform whose role is to put in connection the representatives of the various Communist parties and thus to fight more effectively against the expansionist attitude of the the United States. It is at the time of this meeting that Jdanov states the official position of the Soviet Union with regard to, which should be called henceforth the Cold war. Andreï Jdanov denounces the American imperialism and affirms that the Communists must be the leading force which involves all the elements enthusiast antifascists of freedom . This means that the Communists must try to seize the power in all the States where they are present. The world from now on is divided into two irreconcilable camps. As from 1948, the large companies of the Soviet zone of occupation are nationalized, which accounts for 40% of the industrial production; the great properties are shared, the interned political opponents and the freedom of expression removed in the media. However Stalin initially does not seek the partition of the country. He indeed hopes to be able to profit from the exploitation of the coal of the the Ruhr. The Westerners are anxious to see the country overcome to really pay its war reparations, which requires a productive economy. The Marshall plan thus applies also to this part of overcome Germany. The total assistance is estimated at approximately 4 billion dollars. The six Western States taking part in the Conference of London prepare a monetary reform for the West Germany. They recommend that the presidents of Länder of the West can think of the creation of a democratic government in Germany. In reprisals, the Soviet Union is withdrawn, on March 20th, 1948, of the Council of combined control, putting thus fine at the quadripartism. Lucius Clay, the American military governor for Germany, defends the need for holding head with the Soviets. The Western forces join from its point of view, this at the time when the Soviet Union still reinforces its pressure on the communications between Berlin and the Western sector of the Germany. At the beginning of June, the German travellers entering in Soviet zone must obtain a special permit. The reform is essential to withdraw circulation the monetary surplus, to eliminate the black-market and to create an incentive with the production. Stalin protests against what he considers being a violation of the agreements of Potsdam, in virtue of which the four occupying powers hold a collective sovereignty on the Germany. The Westerners however wish to extend this reform to Berlin. In front of the Soviet refusal, they make the decision to apply this measurement only to the sectors of the old capital of the Reich which they control, starting from June 24th. So two different currencies are brought to circulate in Berlin.

In reaction, the Soviets stop all the rail traffic entering to Berlin like that of the barges. They do not supply any more in electric current coming from their factories the western part of the city. The pretext of such a measurement is the presence of technical defects on the railways and, for the road traffic the need for preventing the arrival with Berlin new Western currency, which would be harmful for the economy of the Soviet sector. Lucius Clay thinks that thanks to the airlift, it is possible to provide for the needs for the population, even if this one must suffer from the economic consequences of a prolonged insulation.

The airlift of Berlin

In answer to the blockade, the general Lucius D. Clay, initially suggests sending to West Berlin an armor-plated column; it would avoid any provocation, but would be ready to be defended in the event of attack. This plan receives the agreement neither of the American secretary to the armies, nor of the British authorities which rather consider the installation of an airlift.

Clay is not certain that such a measurement can ensure the supply of two million people. It initially makes a point of making sure to the new mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, that the Berliner population is ready to accept the sacrifices that such a situation will necessarily generate. June 25th, he telephones the general Curtis LeMay, chief of the American Air force in Germany so that he starts to organize the supply by the airs. The first planes arrive at Berlin the following day.

This operation receives the contest of the general Albert Coady Wedemeyer, the Chief off Plans and Operations of the American army, in round of inspection in Europe when the crisis occurs. During the Second world war, Wedemeyer was the chief of staff of Tchang Kaï-chek and could realize of the effectiveness of the airlift supplying the Chinese forces over the the Himalayas. It thinks that a company of comparable nature would make it possible to thwart the blockade. He thinks that the lieutenant-general William H. Tunner, who had been in load of the Air Transport Command in Southeast Asia, is best placed to conclude it, i.e. bombers of dry grapes by the Berliners, transport vivres, material and raw materials, namely of the Blé, of coal, a million and half of tons in all, gasoline and Médicament S.

The routing of these enormous quantities is possible thanks to an effective system: the three air lanes are used in one way, the flights towards Berlin being done in those located at north and the south while that of the center is used with the flights as return. Each pilot has right only to only one attempt of landing. If it fails, it must return with the totality of its loading. Thanks to this system, it is possible to make land a plane on average every three minutes. The parking on the ground in West Berlin is tiny room to half an hour. The April 16th 1949, the allied planes can land at the rate/rhythm of one per minute, and: 12840 tons are transported this day, which constitutes a record. The parcels go from the large container to the package of delicacies with parachute for the small Berliners.

The airlift is primarily assured by the Americans and the British, but from the pilots also come from Australia, of the Canada, South Africa and the New Zealand. The France, whose majority of the transport aircraft are then engaged in Indo-China, hardly takes part in it (424 flights). It can nevertheless supply its own garrisons and it uses German transport aircraft Junkers Ju 52/3m. The major French participation in the allied effort is the installation of the Berlin-Tegel airport in only four months. The airlift is a great success. It seems that the city can thus be supplied indefinitely.

At the end of the blockade, the Allies carried out: 278228 flights, of which close to: 190000 to put on the account of American of freight were conveyed with West Berlin (68 percent of coal and 23 percent of food). In all, more: 8000 tons of goods are thus delivered each day on average. The blockade obliges the military government to entirely take charges the supply with it with West Berlin. The ration cards reappear in order to make it possible the new system of supply to meet the needs for the population. The Berliners are supplied by three different ways: local production of these goods, the airlift and the black-market. On arrival of the winter, the trees of the city are cut to provide firewood to the inhabitants. Some excavate the dustbins in the search of a little food. Westerners and Soviets are rejected each one the responsibility for the situation. Opening of negotiations seems difficult in this tended context. It is only on August 2nd, 1948 that the Western diplomats meet finally Stalin and his Foreign Minister, Molotov. Stalin advances the idea that the Western presence with Berlin is not juridically any more founded and proposes to raise the blockade in exchange of the withdrawal of the circulation of the Western marks to Berlin. The Westerners are ready to accept under condition of the signature of an agreement on the quadripartite control of the circulation and the use of the Soviet currency with Berlin. In spite of many meetings and a second meeting, on August 23rd, in the presence of Stalin the discussions for the drafting of a final text do not lead, Molotov refusing any other text that which it wrote.

The Westerners thus decide on September 29th, 1948 to solicit the Safety advice of UNO. In spite of the Soviet opposition, the Safety advice seizes the question. It is a diplomatic victory for the Westerners. Thanks to the United Nations, they hope to touch the world opinion by proposing the threats for the peace which makes run the Soviet attitude to Berlin. They propose on October 22nd a resolution aiming raising the blockade and at opening negotiations on the problem of the currency. This one cannot lead because of the Soviet veto. November 30th, the Soviets decide to establish a new government in East Berlin, putting definitively fine at the quadripartite government that they had already left a few months before. The negotiations do not reveal any more but the divergences growing between the parts. In February, the discussions are resumed. The creation of NATO in April 1949 weakens the Soviet position. Finally the four occupying powers manage an agreement on May 4th, 1949. They announce “the lifting of the blockade and the against-blockade of Berlin for on May 12th and the meeting of the council of the four Foreign Ministers the next on May 23rd.

End of the blockade

The Soviet Union lifts the blockade the May 12th 1949 to a height of 0 a.m. Circulation between the trizone and the Soviet zone is restored. Journalists come from the whole world cover the event. Le Monde reports in its edition of May 13rd: The Hanover-Berlin highway was transformed this night into motor-racing track. Massed behind the British barrier of Helmstedt an uninterrupted file of cars had waited, encumbering the four unutilised roadways for ten months. At midnight and a minute the barrier was raised. With 1:46, the first allied cars coming from Helmstedt appeared on the highway. Six hundred people had come to acclaim them . However, the Westerners wanting to make sure that West Berlin can face possible a new blockade, the airlift is maintained until the September 30th following accidents and of a collision in flight between a Fighter of the Red Army and a British aircraft at the time of the multiple attempts at obstruction of the Soviet forces.

While raising the blockade, Stalin recognizes his first defeat vis-a-vis the Occident in the cold war

Random links: