The Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Coal by air

On 24 June 1948 the Soviet authorities closed every road, railway and canal between the western zones of Germany and the western sectors of Berlin, and cut off the electricity the city drew from power stations in the east. Around 2.1 million people in West Berlin had food for about a month and coal for about six weeks. The city lay a hundred miles inside the Soviet zone. Stalin expected the Western powers to leave. Two days later the first American transport aircraft landed at Tempelhof with flour. The Western allies had one thing the Soviets had not blocked, because it had been written down in 1945: three air corridors, each twenty miles wide, from the western zones to the city. For the next eleven months they flew everything a city needs down those corridors, coal above all, at a rate that rose from a few hundred tons a day to a peak of 12,941 tons in twenty-four hours on 16 April 1949. On 12 May Stalin reopened the roads. The exam asks why the crisis happened, what the airlift did, and what followed: NATO, two German states and a divided city. It also asks, through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, why the West had decided by 1947 that it would not leave anywhere. This module gives you the dated evidence and the three question shapes.

Five words the examiners use

Each definition ends with the moment it mattered, because a bare definition earns nothing in an 8-mark answer.

From the Truman Doctrine to two Germanies, in order

Put these six events in the order they happened.

• Truman asks Congress for aid to Greece and Turkey and declares the policy of containment
• Marshall offers American aid to rebuild Europe, and Stalin answers with Cominform
• The western powers introduce the Deutsche Mark in their zones and in West Berlin
• The Soviet Union closes all land routes into West Berlin and the airlift begins
• Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington
• Stalin lifts the blockade, and the Federal Republic and the Democratic Republic are founded

Why did Stalin blockade Berlin?

Stalin had agreed the four-power occupation of Berlin in 1945. Which explanation best accounts for the blockade of June 1948?

• The West was building a separate German state, with Bizonia in January 1947, the Marshall Plan for the western zones, and the London conference of spring 1948 agreeing a West German constitution; the Deutsche Mark of 20 June was the last step and threatened to flood the Soviet zone with worthless old marks; West Berlin was a capitalist island inside the Soviet zone that showed East Germans what they were missing; and Stalin believed that if he squeezed the city the West would either abandon it or abandon the plan for a West German state, both of which he could accept.
• Stalin wanted to start a war with the United States.
• The Soviet zone had a famine and needed the food destined for Berlin.
• Stalin was responding to the creation of NATO.

Fight, leave, or fly: the Western choice

The narrative question rewards knowing why the airlift was chosen. Set the options the West had in June 1948 side by side with what the airlift then achieved.

Consequences of the crisis

Five statements about 1948 and 1949. Tap the TWO that give evidence of consequences of the Berlin crisis, as opposed to its causes or its events.

• On 4 April 1949, with the blockade still in force, twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, agreeing that an attack on one would be an attack on all, the first peacetime military alliance the United States had ever joined.
• The Deutsche Mark was introduced in the western zones on 20 June 1948 and in the western sectors of Berlin three days later.
• The Federal Republic of Germany was founded on 23 May 1949 with Bonn as its capital, and the German Democratic Republic on 7 October, so that the division the blockade had been meant to prevent was made permanent.
• The airport at Tegel was built by around 19,000 Berlin volunteers, mostly women, in 90 days and received its first aircraft in November 1948.
• The Soviet representative walked out of the Allied Control Council on 20 March 1948 and four-power government of Germany ended.

The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

Select the THREE statements that are true of the American policies of 1947 and the Soviet response.

• The Truman Doctrine of 12 March 1947 was prompted by the British announcement that they could no longer afford to support Greece against communist guerrillas, and Congress voted 400 million dollars for Greece and Turkey.
• The Marshall Plan, announced on 5 June 1947, gave around 13 billion dollars to 16 Western European countries by 1952, on the American reasoning that poverty bred communism and prosperous customers bought American goods.
• Stalin forbade Czechoslovakia and Poland to accept Marshall aid, set up Cominform in September 1947 to coordinate the communist parties of Europe, and Comecon in January 1949 as an economic bloc to answer the Plan.
• The Soviet Union accepted Marshall aid and used it to rebuild Ukraine.
• The Truman Doctrine sent American troops to fight in Greece.
• Germany was excluded from the Marshall Plan as a former enemy.

Why Berlin mattered more than Berlin

The importance question on this bullet asks what the crisis meant for relations between the superpowers or for the division of Germany. The strong answer explains what each side learned, and dates the things that followed. What the West learned. That the Soviet Union could be resisted without war, provided the resistance put the choice of war on Stalin; that Western Europe would not defend itself without the United States, which is why NATO was signed on 4 April 1949 with the blockade still on; and that a West German state was worth having, which is why the Federal Republic followed on 23 May. The Truman Doctrine had been a speech in 1947. After Berlin it was a proven method. What Stalin learned. That pressure on the West produced the opposite of what he wanted: he had blockaded Berlin to stop a West German state and an American commitment to Europe, and got both, plus an alliance. This meant that the Soviet Union answered with its own bloc, the Democratic Republic on 7 October 1949 and, after West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the Warsaw Pact, and that the division of Germany and of Europe was fixed for forty years by a crisis that neither side had wanted to fight. A judgement that says what each side got that it had not intended reaches the top level.

In the shoes of Truman and Stalin

Four decisions between March 1947 and May 1949. Choose what was actually done, and notice what each choice led to.

• February 1947. You are Truman. Britain has told you it can no longer afford to prop up Greece against the communist guerrillas. Congress is Republican and reluctant. What do you do?
• June 1948. You are Stalin. The West has just introduced a new currency in its zones and in West Berlin, and a West German state is being planned. You have the roads. What do you do?
• 26 June 1948. You are Truman. Clay wants to send an armoured convoy up the autobahn. The Joint Chiefs say Berlin cannot be held. The British have started flying supplies in. What do you decide?
• Spring 1949. You are Stalin. The airlift has just landed 12,941 tons in a day, NATO has been signed, a West German constitution is agreed, and the Western counter-blockade is hurting the eastern zone. What do you do?

From cause to consequence

Because Britain could no longer pay for Greece, Truman went to Congress in March 1947 and turned a loan into the policy of _____. Because the Marshall Plan offered _____ billion dollars to rebuild the West and Stalin refused it, Europe was already divided economically by the end of 1947. Because the West introduced the Deutsche Mark on 20 June 1948, Stalin closed the roads to Berlin four days later. Because the air _____ had been agreed in writing in 1945, the West could supply the city without giving Stalin an excuse for war. And because the airlift held for eleven months, Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949 and the West founded _____ in April and the Federal Republic in _____.

The Easter Parade

West Berlin needed a minimum of about 4,000 tons of supplies a day. On 16 April 1949 the airlift landed 12,941 tons in twenty-four hours. By how many tons did that day exceed the minimum?

The 8-mark consequences question

Question 1 might read: Explain two consequences of the Berlin blockade. Each consequence is marked as a consequence plus supporting detail, for 4 marks. Which answer scores all four marks for ONE consequence?

• One consequence was the creation of NATO. The blockade convinced the Western European states that they could not resist Soviet pressure alone, and on 4 April 1949, while the airlift was still flying, twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty in Washington, agreeing that an attack on one was an attack on all, which meant that the United States was committed by treaty to the defence of Western Europe for the first time in its history.
• One consequence was that the West won and Germany was divided.
• One consequence was that the West had introduced a new currency which Stalin saw as a breach of the agreement.
• On 24 June the roads were closed, on 26 June the first aircraft landed, and on 12 May 1949 the blockade was lifted.

A narrative paragraph, marked

Question 2: Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Berlin crisis of 1948 to 1949. You may use: the Deutsche Mark; the airlift. The crisis grew out of the Western decision to build a German state in their zones: Bizonia in January 1947 and the Marshall Plan were followed by the London conference of spring 1948, which agreed a West German constitution, and the Soviet representative walked out of the Allied Control Council on 20 March in protest. Because a new state needed a sound currency, the West introduced the Deutsche Mark in its zones on 20 June and in West Berlin on 23 June. This led directly to the blockade, since Stalin treated the currency as a breach of four-power rule and closed every road, railway and canal into the city on 24 June, calculating that two million people could not be fed and the West would give way. As a result the Western allies, who had refused an armoured convoy because it would leave the decision for war to a Soviet sentry, began flying supplies down the three guaranteed corridors on 26 June. The turning point came in the winter, because once the airlift passed the minimum of 4,000 tons a day in the coldest months it was clear the city could be held indefinitely. What earned the marks: events in sequence with dates; each event linked to the next by because, this led to and as a result, so that the account analyses rather than lists; and the turning point named. One more paragraph, from the Easter Parade of 16 April 1949 through NATO to the lifting of the blockade on 12 May and the two German states, and the answer reaches the top level.

Write the narrative account

Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Berlin crisis of 1948 to 1949. You may use the following in your answer: the Deutsche Mark; the airlift. You must also use information of your own.

• The span: from the Western plans for a German state in 1947 and 1948 to the lifting of the blockade and the two German states of 1949
• Detail that counts: a name, a number or a place
• Events of your own: Bizonia, the Control Council walkout, the refusal of the convoy, Tegel, the Easter Parade or NATO

The importance question

Question 3 might read: Explain the importance of the Berlin blockade for the development of the Cold War. Which answer best explains the importance, rather than describing the event?

• The blockade was important because it turned the Cold War from a quarrel into a structure: it proved that the Soviet Union could be resisted without fighting, which made containment a method rather than a speech; it produced NATO on 4 April 1949, the first American peacetime alliance; and it made the division of Germany permanent, with the Federal Republic in May and the Democratic Republic in October. This meant that from 1949 Europe was two armed blocs facing each other along a line that ran through Berlin, and every later crisis on the continent was fought over that line rather than about where it should be.
• The blockade was important because 278,000 flights delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies and 101 people died.
• The blockade was important because West Berliners were saved from starvation.
• The blockade was important because it ended the Cold War by showing Stalin he could not win.