Key question 6: Cold war Relations

• The Berlin Blockade and airlift

  • The Berlin Blockade in June 1948 was Stalin's order to cut off all links between East and West Berlin in an attempt to force the allies out.
• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

  • The Blockade was his response to Britain, France and America uniting their zones into a new country, West Germany and introducing a new currency.
• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

  • The western allies saw this as an attemptto starve Berlin into surrender, so they decided to supply West Berlin by air; 'Operation Vittles and the airlifting of supplies lasted 318 days with 275,000 planes transporting 1.5 million tons of supplies.
• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

  • Stalin realised the blockade was not working, and not wanting to risk a full scale war, lifted the Blockade in May 1949.
• The Significance of the Berlin Wall

  • The Berlin Wall was a massive stone wall, topped with barbed wire and gun positions. A second barrier created a gap between the walls that was soon nicknamed the Death Strip.
• The Significance of the Berlin Wall

  • There were specially constructed crossing points into East Berlin: special permits were required. The most famous was called Checkpoint Charlie, the only point at which non-Germans could cross into the east. Escape across the wall was highly dangerous.
• The Significance of the Berlin Wall

  • It has been estimated that nearly a hundred people were shot trying to cross into the west between 1961 and 1989, 41 in the first year.
  • Families and friends were forced to live apart for decades.
• The Significance of the Berlin Wall

  One famous example of an attempted escape was that of Peter Lechter on 17 August 1962. He attempted to cross the wall to see his sister. As he climbed the barbed wire he was shot and fell back into the Death Strip where he slowly bled to death only 300 metres from a border post. Crowds gathered, begging the US guards to rescue him, but this would have meant violating the border and risking an international crisis.
• Military Alliances

  • August 1970: USSR- West Germany Treaty in Moscow: both recognise each other's territories and agree to only peaceful methods of border change.
• Military Alliances

  • December 1970: Warsaw Treaty between West Germany and Poland: both recognise each other's territories, agree to only peaceful methods of border change and increased trade.
• Military Alliances

  • Four Power Treaty on Berlin (1971) between US, UK, France and USSR over access from West Berlin to West Germany and relation of West Berlin to West Germany.
• Brandt and Ostpolitik

  • Willy Brandt was a German politician, and chancellor from 1969 to 1974.
• Brandt and Ostpolitik

  • His main policy was that of 'Ostpolitik', as he tried to create closer ties between West and East Germany and improve relations with Poland and the Soviet Union.
• Brandt and Ostpolitik

  • InGermany, Brandt's 'Ostpolitik' was controversial, but in 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his work.
• Brandt and Ostpolitik

  • In late 1989, Brandt was one of the first leaders on the left in German politics to publicly favour reunification of the two halves of Germany.