Examining the Berlin Wall and the Berlin Airlift

Conflict in Berlin

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Welcome to West BerlinWelcome to West Berlin. While you are here be sure to check out

the history of Post-WWII Berlin and explore the many images of the city.

CAUTION: DO NOT TRY TO CROSS OVER THE WALL TO EAST BERLIN!

THE WALL

Life in the City of Berlin • Berlin was devastated after WWII and much of

the city had to be rebuilt.

• Basic supplies, like food and water, were scarce as well as supplies needed to rebuild the city.

Berlin 1948

Stalin and the Soviet Union wanted complete control of Berlin. In an effort to force the United States, Britain, and France out, he blockaded the whole city.

By blocking the US, France, and the UK from sending troops and supplies, Stalin felt that West Berlin would fall to his control.

On June 24th, 1948, the Berlin Blockade began.

Berlin- 1948

BLOCKADECITY LIFE

The blockade of Berlin was the first serious crisis of the Cold War. By 1948, the Western allies began moving towards uniting their occupation zones in Western Germany into a single independent German state. Stalin feared this Western German State and wanted to prevent it.

The USSR, which had been invaded twice by Germany, was alarmed at the prospect of a strong Germany. They forced a blockade on West Berlin, cutting off all land and rail routes into the Western sectors.

Blockade of Berlin BLOCKADEBerlin ‘48

"When the order of the Soviet Military Administration to close all rail traffic from the western zones went into effect at 6:00AM on the morning of June 24, 1948, the three western sectors of Berlin, with a civilian population of about 2,500,000 people, became dependent on reserve stocks. It was one of the most ruthless efforts in modern times to use mass starvation for political intimidation... “

– American Sector Commander, Lucius Clay

We Are Starving!

For nearly a year, two million civilians and twenty thousand allied soldiers in the city's western sector were fed and fueled entirely from the air.

Western Response

BLOCKADE

The democratic nations that controlled West Berlin made the declaration of not leaving. Truman, President of the United States, was firm on not giving into the Blockade. However, he did not want to use military force, so a new method of re-supplying those trapped in West Berlin had to be developed.

“We Shall Stay” CLICK >>>

BLOCKADE

The Allies would supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. Allied cargo planes would use open air corridors over the Soviet occupation zone to deliver food, fuel and other goods to the people who lived in the western part of the city. This was the first action of Containment.

This project, code-named “Operation VITTLES” by the American military, was known as the “Berlin airlift.” (West Berliners called it the “Air Bridge.”)

The Berlin Airlift Airlift

Response

The Berlin airlift was supposed to be a short-term measure, but it settled in for the long haul as the Soviets refused to lift the blockade. For more than a year, hundreds of American, British and French C-54 cargo planes ferried provisions from Western Europe to three of the remaining airfields in West Berlin.

At the beginning of the operation, the planes delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every day; by the end, those loads had increased to about 8,000 tons of supplies per day. (450 flights per day) The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo in all over the course of the airlift.

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(Go to Website to see Berlin Airlift Video)

By spring 1949, it was clear that the Soviet blockade of West Berlin had failed. It had not persuaded West Berliners to reject their allies in the West and it did not prevent the formation of a Unified Western German State. (The Federal Republic of Germany was established in May 1949.)

On May 12, 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade and reopened the roads, canals and railway routes into the western half of the city.

The Blockade Ends Airlift

YOU ARE NOW LEAVING DEMOCRATIC WEST BERLIN

WARNING: NO FREEDOM ALLOWED NO RE-ENTRY TO WEST BERLIN

NO ESCAPE OVER THE WALL

WELCOME TO THE COMMUNIST EAST BERLIN

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Life in East Berlin was very hard. Life under the communist rule of new Premier Khrushchev and the Soviets was tough on everyone living in war torn East Berlin.

WELCOME TO EAST BERLINBerlin WallNO ENTRY

Look at the numbers of people leaving before the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Number of Refugees

The East Berliners Are Leaving!

If communism is so amazing, why are people fleeing East Berlin with such speed?

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The Democratic West Wanted: Stop the USSR from

gaining control of Berlin

Unify Germany under a unified democratic state

The Communist East Wanted: Maintain control of E.

Germany

Make the West give up Berlin

Stop the flow of refugees from the East to the West

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On August 12, 1961, Soviet Union Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good.

In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall–the Berlin Wall–that divided one side of the city from the other.

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Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth.

After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints. Except for special circumstances, travelers were never allowed to move from East to West.

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The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West. Over time, East German officials replaced the makeshift wall with one that was sturdier and more difficult to scale. A 12-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide mass of reinforced concrete was topped with an enormous pipe that made climbing over nearly impossible.

Behind the wall on the East German side was a so-called “Death Strip”: a gauntlet of soft sand (to show footprints), floodlights, vicious dogs, trip-wire machine guns and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on sight.

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"Ich bin ein Berliner“ “ I am a Berliner”- Speech In 1961, President Kennedy attempts to boost morale in West Berlin

Go to the website to view Berlin Wall video

In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under or around the Berlin Wall. Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.

The Wall itself became a symbol for the Cold War and the battle between Democracy and Communism. It was the real life “Iron Curtain”.

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