Berlin crisis

• Berlin Crisis, 1961


  Hostility between the Superpowers over Berlin, which was the centre of this hostility
• There had been the Blockade and Airlift in 1948-9
• The Soviet Union remained concerned by the western allies having political, military and economic influence in West Berlin
• West Germany joining NATO in 1954 and becoming a member of the European Economic Community were viewed with suspicion
• In the years before 1961 Khrushchev had tried to persuade the allies to leave Berlin voluntarily
• Khrushchev hated the fact West Berlin was an area of capitalist prosperity and a symbol of success for the west within the communist zone
• The Soviet Union claimed that the USA and its allies used West Berlin for espionage
• Khrushchev wanted to control movement in and out of East Berlin
• Between 1949 and 1961 4 million dissatisfied Germans left East Berlin dissatisfied with political and economic restrictions
• Collectivisation and control of state industry was hated; lack of consumer good was also seen as unfair
• From January 1961 there was an increase in the number of refugees leaving i.e. to 20,000 a month
• These refugees were professional people and skilled craftsmen so being a drain on labour - economic collapse looked likely
• Khrushchev was determined to solve the problem in Berlin – he saw West Berlin as the gap in the Iron Curtain