The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• Superpower relations and the Cold War 1941-1991 were covered in the GCSE Edexcel 9 to 1 course.
• The first Berlin crisis occurred in 1948, following the Yalta Conference where it was decided that Germany would be divided into four zones occupied by the USA, USSR, France, and Great Britain.
• In 1949, the UK and France became known as West Berlin, causing Stalin to be furious and immediately respond by creating the German Democratic Republic.
• Each side considered only their own section of Germany to be real, and it wasn't until the 1970s that the West accepted the existence of the GDR.
• Most of the world referred to West and East Germany as West and East Germany.
• The Allies set up the Allied Control Commission (ACC) to oversee management of the zones and Military checkpoints were set up between the zones.
• The Western allies wanted to rebuild Germany's economy so that they could become trading partners, while the USSR wanted to use the raw materials produced in their Zone to help rebuild Russia, which had suffered economically and militarily during the second world war.
• From 1945 to 1947, the Allies met repeatedly to try to find common ground on the issue of Germany, but tensions were already increasing due to the use of the atomic bomb by the USA without consultation with its allies and the escalating hostility between the once Allied countries.
• In 1947, Britain and the USA combined their zones to create byzonia, which infuriated Stalin and led to the Soviets storming out of the meetings.
• The French joined their Zone with byzonia to create trizonia, further escalating the tensions.
• Germany and Berlin were now split in two with the USSR controlling the Northeast section which included Berlin, and the Allies uniting to control the rest.
• The leaders of the trizonia began repairing the economy, starting with introducing a new currency called the Deutsche Mark in June 1948.
• The Berlin airlift continued on until the 9th of May 1949, unable to force the Allies to give up Berlin, Stalin lifted the blockade.
• The Berlin blockade led to the formation of East and West Germany.
• In June 1948, Stalin blocked the land access to Berlin, an action which became known as the Berlin blockade.
• In January 1949, the height of deliveries during the Berlin airlift, 170 000 tons of supplies were sent in one month.
• The Berlin airlift carried food, fuel, medicines, and other necessities into Berlin.
• The people of Berlin rallied round and helped to build a new Runway at Berlin templehof airport and a new airport was built at Berlin table.
• Stalin declared that he would stand firm and wanted to unite Germany under communist ideology.
• Although West Berlin remained part of the FRG, the capital was moved to Bonn.
• On the 24th of June 1948, the first flight of operation vittles, also known as the Berlin airlift, landed in Berlin.
• Stalin lifted the blockade three days after the final blockade was lifted, on the 23rd of May, and the west of Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany on the 23rd of May.
• The Democratic bundestag was established in September 1949 with the first Chancellor Conrad adnar taking his place.
• Stalin believed that the USA was trying to force the Soviet Union into poverty.
• Pilots knew they were facing the possibility of being shot down by the USSR but 1 000 tons of supplies per day were delivered by the US Pilots with a similar amount being delivered by British Pilots.
• The West had responded peacefully to the Berlin blockade, won the propaganda war, and there had been few Allied casualties.
• Stalin was angered by the creation of a separate economic unit in the East, known as Trizonia, which essentially created two Germanies.
• The Berlin blockade cut off Communications between the capital and the rest of the country, potentially leading to a shortage of Basics such as food and fuel.
• Stalin was confident that there was no way the West could prevent Berlin from starving using only airplanes.
• Stalin knew that the location of the capital of Germany, Berlin in the northeast of the country in the Soviet zone, made it vulnerable and Stalin believed that he could use it to humiliate the West.
• There were only two land routes into Berlin from the west and two air corridors in which airplanes were allowed to travel.