Nicolas Bouliane explores the story of The Berlin Airlift…
How it all Began
Shortly after the end of World War Two, the victorious Allies met in Potsdam to organise the administration of post-war Germany.
Its territory would be divided in four occupation zones controlled by the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Even though it sat about 160km into the Soviet sector, Berlin would also be split in four. The German capital would only be accessible to the Western Allies by air and through narrow road and rail corridors.
The Americans and the British quickly realised that a stable and productive Germany was essential to Europe’s economic recovery and shifted their policy accordingly. The American, British and French zones were merged into what would become West Germany, and the United States extended its Marshall plan to also support the new trizone.
Tensions Arise
The Soviets strongly opposed these measures. After suffering devastating losses in World War Two, they had no interest in seeing their former enemy rise again. Moreover, Stalin feared that these western policies would erode the Soviet Unions’s influence in Germany, which he intended to be Soviet-controlled and communist.
On 21st June, 1948, the Deutschmark was introduced in West Germany to replace the over-circulated Reichsmark. The old currency was so debased that people bartered goods and used cigarettes as currency.
A day prior, American military lorries had delivered 23,000 crates labelled ‘doorknobs’ all over West Germany. These actually contained a total of 10.7 billion freshly printed Deutschmarks. Each West German received forty Deutschmarks, and could trade in their old Reichsmarks for the new currency.
Since the Reichsmark was still legal tender in the Soviet sector, the old currency flooded into the east, further devaluing it for East Germans. In Berlin, the Deutschmark became the de facto currency, even in the Soviet zone.
Stalin considered this move a provocation, and wanted the West completely out of Berlin. The Soviets completely shut down access to Berlin. All rail, road and water traffic was halted immediately, and Berliners were left without food or electricity supply.
Stalin rejoiced, believing the Western powers had no choice but to abandon Berlin. However, four days later, president Truman confirmed that backing out was ‘out of the question.’
‘We can Haul Anything’
The greatest…