Berlin and the military division of Europe

H2 History - syllabus 9174, 2027

What this lesson teaches

  • I can judge which causes mattered most in turning the wartime allies into Cold War rivals after 1945.

    Syllabus 9174, Paper 1, Theme I, Learning Outcomes. evaluate the causes of the Cold War

Make a guess

In June 1948 Stalin cut all road, rail and canal links to West Berlin. How do you think the Western powers kept the city going?

  1. They sent tanks down the roads to break the blockade.
  2. They flew in supplies by air for nearly a year.
  3. They gave up West Berlin to the Soviet zone.
Show the answer

They flew in supplies by air for nearly a year.

The airlift avoided a shooting war and ended in a propaganda win when Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949.

The Berlin Blockade turned division into confrontation and led to NATO, two German states and later the Warsaw Pact.

In June 1948, the Western powers introduced a new currency, the Deutschmark, in their zones of Germany. Stalin feared a strong western German state. He cut road, rail and canal links to West Berlin, which lay deep inside the Soviet zone.

The Western powers supplied West Berlin by air for nearly a year. Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949. The airlift was a propaganda victory for the West, and it showed that neither side wanted to start a shooting war.

In April 1949, the USA, Canada and ten Western European states signed the North Atlantic Treaty. Its Article 5 stated that an armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all. This was the USA's first peacetime military alliance.

Put these in order

Put these steps from the Marshall Plan to NATO in order.

  • Communists seize full power in Czechoslovakia.
  • Stalin blockades West Berlin and the West begins the airlift.
  • The Western powers bring in the Deutschmark in their German zones.
  • Marshall proposes American aid to rebuild Europe.
  • The USSR answers by setting up the Cominform, and Zhdanov declares two camps.
  • The USA, Canada and ten Western European states sign the North Atlantic Treaty.
Show the answer
  1. Marshall proposes American aid to rebuild Europe. June 1947: Stalin saw the aid as American influence reaching east, so he made Eastern Europe refuse it and organised his own camp.
  2. The USSR answers by setting up the Cominform, and Zhdanov declares two camps. September 1947: Treating Europe as two camps, Moscow-backed communists stopped sharing power, and in Czechoslovakia they seized it.
  3. Communists seize full power in Czechoslovakia. February 1948: The coup alarmed the West, which pressed ahead with Marshall aid and plans for a western German state.
  4. The Western powers bring in the Deutschmark in their German zones. June 1948: Stalin feared a strong western German state, so he cut the land links to West Berlin.
  5. Stalin blockades West Berlin and the West begins the airlift. June 1948: The crisis convinced Western Europe it needed a lasting American military guarantee. The North Atlantic Treaty followed in April 1949.
  6. The USA, Canada and ten Western European states sign the North Atlantic Treaty.

Germany split into two states in 1949: the Federal Republic in the west in May and the German Democratic Republic in the east in October. The USSR tested its first atomic bomb in August 1949. When West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the USSR formed the Warsaw Pact. Europe was now divided into two armed blocs.

Berlin Blockade
June 1948 to May 1949.
NATO
Signed 4 April 1949; Article 5 collective defence.
Two Germanys
FRG May 1949; GDR October 1949.
Warsaw Pact
May 1955, after West Germany joined NATO.

Real examples to use

Currency reform, 20 June 1948

The Western powers brought in the Deutschmark in their zones. Four days later Stalin cut the land routes to West Berlin.

Airlift scale, 1948-1949

Allied aircraft flew in about 2.3 million tons of food, coal and supplies in roughly 278,000 flights. The blockade was lifted on 12 May 1949.

West Germany joins NATO, May 1955

The Warsaw Pact was signed days later. Use the sequence to argue that each side's alliance answered the other's.

Worked example: Linking Berlin to the alliances

Explain how the Berlin Blockade shaped the Cold War.

  1. Cause: Western currency reform signalled a separate western German state.
  2. Event: Stalin blockaded West Berlin; the West answered with an airlift.
  3. Consequence: Western states formalised their defence through NATO in April 1949.
  4. Wider result: two German states and, by 1955, two military alliances.

Watch out for this

The Warsaw Pact was formed at the same time as NATO.

NATO was signed in 1949. The Warsaw Pact came in 1955, after West Germany joined NATO.

Check your understanding

What did Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty establish?

  1. An armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all.
  2. Members must adopt the Deutschmark.
  3. Members would share their nuclear weapons equally and pool their armies under one command.
Show the answer

An armed attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all.

Right. This is the core of collective defence.

Sources and context

Background reading for this chapter.

  • An American diplomat explains Soviet conduct

    Paraphrase of George Kennan's "Long Telegram" from the US embassy in Moscow to the State Department, 22 February 1946.

  • A Soviet ambassador describes American policy

    Paraphrase of a telegram from Nikolai Novikov, Soviet ambassador in Washington, to Foreign Minister Molotov, 27 September 1946.

  • Truman asks Congress for aid

    Paraphrase of President Truman's address to a joint session of Congress, 12 March 1947.

  • Marshall proposes European recovery

    Paraphrase of Secretary of State George Marshall's speech at Harvard University, 5 June 1947.

  • The North Atlantic Treaty

    Paraphrase of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, 4 April 1949.

  • the Yalta promise, February 1945

    Extract from the Declaration on Liberated Europe, agreed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta (Crimea) Conference, 11 February 1945, as published by the US State Department on 24 March 1947. A US government publication in the public domain; text from the Avalon Project.

  • Truman meets Molotov, 23 April 1945

    Extract from a memorandum of conversation by Charles Bohlen, interpreter and assistant to the Secretary of State, recording President Truman's meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov at the White House, 23 April 1945, eleven days after Truman became president. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945, volume V, document 196. A US government document in the public domain.

  • Kennan explains Soviet conduct, February 1946

    Extract from George Kennan's "Long Telegram" from the US embassy in Moscow to the Secretary of State, 22 February 1946. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, volume VI, document 475. A US government document in the public domain.

  • the Cominform declares two camps, October 1947

    Extract from a telegram from the US Charge d'Affaires in Moscow, Elbridge Durbrow, to the Secretary of State, 6 October 1947, summarising and quoting the declaration issued by the meeting in Poland that set up the Cominform. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, volume IV, document 412. A US government document in the public domain.

  • a Soviet view of American policy, 1947

    An original cartoon drawn for these notes in the style of a Soviet magazine cartoon of 1947, after the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. It is not a copy of a real cartoon.

The Wise Otter

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