“For most of Germany, this act [the March 1948 Soviet walk-out
from the Allied Control Council] merely formalized what had been an obvious
fact for some time, namely that the four-power control machinery had become
unworkable. For the city of Berlin, however, this was an indication for a major
crisis”.
President Harry S. Truman
The First
Berlin Crisis
Alphen,
Netherlands. 28 June. Seventy years ago this week the Soviet Union began the Berlin
blockade by closing the road and rail corridor that linked the American,
British and French occupation zones within the city with their respective
occupation zones in the west of Germany. The same week the blockade began a massive Western airlift started that between 24 June 1948 and 12 May 1949 saw 441 American and 248 British aircraft fly 277,804 sorties delivering 394,509 tons of essential supplies to the people of Berlin.
As my KLM flight from Berlin to Amsterdam taxied onto Tegel Airport’s
long runway last Thursday I suspect I was the only one on the flight who realised
the historical significance of that stretch of tarmac at that moment. What is now (and still so given the sorry
tale of Berlin’s new non-airport) the city’s main airport was opened on 5 November 1948 having been constructed in some
69 days. Tegel was constructed when it
was realised that Berlin Tempelhof could not handle the enormous number of
Allied flights needed to keep Berliners alive in the face of Stalin’s brutal
and clumsy attempt to starve the Western Allies out of the City.
A Crisis
and a Republic
The cause of
the First Berlin Crisis was ostensibly the introduction of the new Deutsche Mark in the city by the Western
Allies. For Stalin, the introduction of the currency was a step on the road to
the eventual re-emergence of a strong Germany that could again eclipse three of
the four occupying powers – Britain, France and the Soviet Union. To some
extent he was right. However, for Stalin, the emergence of a democratic Germany
was as great a threat if not more so than the re-emergence of a functioning and
in time independent German state.
Throughout
1946 the Americans and the British completed work on the so-called Bizone which unified the economies of
their respective occupation zones. On 1 June
1948, the French occupation zone also joined
forming the Trizone and thus
establishing the sovereign space for the Federal Republic of West Germany to
emerge on 23 May 1949 (a month or so
after the Washington Treaty and the founding of NATO). To ensure the Federal Republic would be viable
on 7 March 1948 Stalin’s ire was further provoked
when it was agreed that the Marshall Plan or European Recovery Program would be
offered to the whole of Germany, something Moscow rapidly rejected for its area
of occupation.
In the first
half of 1948, the Soviets increased the
pressure on Berlin. On 5 April 1948 a Soviet Yak-3 fighter collided with
a British European Airways Vickers Viking as it attempted to land in Berlin at
then RAF Gatlow. In what had been a
blatant act of harassment by the Soviets all 14 people on the civilian airliner
were killed together with the pilot of the Soviet fighter.
What was
particularly impressive about the Berlin airlift was that many of the American,
British and crews from other countries taking part had also been engaged in the
great Allied bomber offensives that had sought to destroy Berlin only some
three years prior. In total 39 Britons, 31 Americans and 13 Germans were killed
during an airlift so intensive that normal rules of air safety had to be
relaxed. Given that much of the effort took place throughout a cold and foggy
Berlin winter it is frankly surprising there were not more fatalities.
By May 1949 it
was clear to Stalin the blockade was not working. On 16 April 1949, the air-bridge delivered more supplies than the combined road and rail link prior to the blockade with one Allied aircraft landing every minute. And, given he was unwilling
to provoke an open conflict with the Americans who at the time were still the
only atomic power (the Soviets did not test their first atomic bomb until 29 August 1949) Stalin lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949.
Would Germany
do the Same?
There is a
twist to this story. I have been at the
forefront of those defending Germany and its actions in contemporary Europe. Yes,
Germany can be ruthless when it comes to protecting German interests – one has only
to look at the car emissions scandal to see that. And yet I have always believed Germany’s
assertiveness to be more angst than any concerted plan to dominate Europe. And
yet as I sat on the plane considering history I was still niggled by the
contempt just shown to Britain and me by my German colleagues over Brexit. It led me to wonder if Britons faced a similar
crisis would Germans act with the same largesse and urgency. Indeed, I would like to think so but I really do wonder. As for me, if
Berlin faced the same or any other life-threatening challenge there would be no
question of my offering British support. Ho hum!
In memory of
those who gave their lives so that the people of Berlin could survive the
blockade which in time helped enable that great city to re-emerge and thrive at the heart of a great country.
Julian
Lindley-French
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