Berlin blockade and airlift,
international crisis that
arose from an attempt
by the Soviet Union, in 1948-49, to force the Western
Allied powers (the
United States, the
United Kingdom, and
France) to abandon their
post-World War II jurisdictions in
West Berlin. In March
1948 the Allied powers decided to unite their different occupation
zones of Germany into a single economic unit. In protest,
the Soviet representative withdrew from the Allied Control Council.
Coincident with the introduction of a new
Deutsche Mark in West
Berlin (as throughout West Germany), which the Soviets regarded
as a threat to the
East German currency,
the Soviet occupation forces in eastern Germany began a blockade
of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and
the West. On June 24 the Soviets announced that the four-power
administration of Berlin had ceased and that the Allies no longer
had any rights there. On June 26 the United States and Britain
began to supply the city with food and other vital supplies
from outside by air. They also organized a similar "airlift"
in the opposite direction of West Berlin's greatly reduced industrial
exports. By mid-July the Soviet army of occupation in East Germany
had increased to 40 divisions, against 8 in the Allied sectors.
By the end of July three groups of U.S. strategic bombers had
been sent as reinforcements to Britain. Tension remained high,
but war did not break out.
Despite dire shortages of fuel and electricity, the airlift
kept life going in West Berlin for 11 months, until on May 12,
1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade. The airlift continued
until September 30, at a total cost of $224,000,000 and after
delivery of 2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other
supplies. The end to the blockade was brought about because
of countermeasures imposed by the Allies on East German communications
and, above all, because of the Western embargo placed on all
strategic exports from the Eastern bloc.
Copyright (c) 1995 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Related Propaedia Topics:
The confrontation in Germany: the Berlin blockade
Germany after World War II (1945-49): occupation by the Allies, partition between west and east zones
Foreign policy aimed at the containment of Communism: the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (1947), the Point Four Program (1949), the creation of NATO, U.S. support of Nationalist China
Economic recovery after the war: Stalin's monopoly of power until his death (1953), Cold War relations with the U.S. and other countries, deterioration of relations with the People's Republic of China