when World War II It ended in Europe on May 8, 1945, and Germany was devastated. Many cities were landscapes of ruins after the defeat Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerThat started the war and committed grave crimes against humanity.
Shade cold War Looming over the reconstruction of the occupied country.
The powers that united to triumph over the Third Reich are now spying on each other, brimming with mistrust – Western allies the United States, United Kingdom and France on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. It was not only Germany that was divided between them into occupied territories, but also the city of Berlin. There, the tensions were particularly evident.
About two million people were living in West Berlin at the time, an island in the middle of Soviet-controlled territory.
The crisis caused by the introduction of the German currency
The confrontation between West and East came on June 20, 1948, when the Western Allies decided to form a monetary union – the Deutsche Mark, also known as the D-Mark or DM. The idea was to stabilize Germany’s economy with hard currency. Deutschmark was also implemented in West Berlin.
but Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin He feared that the introduction of the new currency would strengthen West Berlin’s special position as a bridgehead for the Western Allies in the center of Soviet territory.
“This caused a rift between the three occupying Western powers and the Soviet side,” Bernd von Kostka, curator of the Allied Museum in Berlin, told DW in 2018. – With the monetary union, it became de facto impossible.
On the night of 24 June, the Soviets blocked all access to the western part of Berlin. The lights soon went out because 75% of the electricity was provided by the surrounding area. The Eastern Bloc planned to wear down the population of West Berlin and thus force the Allies out of the divided city.
There is no substitute for airlift
But the United States viewed West Berlin as an outpost of freedom, and a shield against communism.
They were pressed for time because the people of West Berlin were threatened with starvation. In consultation with the other Allies, U.S. President Harry S. Truman decided on an astonishing rescue operation: the entire supply of two million people through the three air corridors guaranteed by the Soviet Union.
“There was no alternative to the airlift,” von Kostka said. However, the plan seemed “inconceivable” at first.
On June 26, the first USAF plane left Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden airports in West Germany for Berlin. Soon the planes were flying around the clock. They departed and landed at 90-second intervals at Tempelhof Airport, in the US-held sector of Berlin, Gato Airport in the British sector, and, from December 1948, at the new Tegel airfield, which had been extended by the French.
Every day West Berlin needed on average no less than 5,000 to 6,000 tons of groceries and coal. In mid-April 1949, 13,000 tons of cargo had been delivered by about 1,400 flights over a 24-hour period. Oftentimes, airlift pilots risked their lives to fly into the city in all weather. Some planes crashed.
Chocolate and gum for children
Dubbed “candy bombers” by Berliners, the helicopters flew so low over the city on arrival for landing that the crew and residents could wave to each other. Some pilots threw homemade parachutes containing chocolate and gum to children.
Former US pilot Jill Halvorsen, who died in 2022, said the Berlin Airlift changed the strained relationship between US forces and West Germans, as shipments of essential supplies “turned enemies into friends.”
meet him It can be found in the “Zeitzeugenportal” (eyewitness portal) of the Museum of German History in Bonn, which includes 8,000 eyewitness accounts from First World War Even today.
Besides the main logistical blow to the Allied forces, the tenacity of the beleaguered West Germans played a crucial role in the campaign’s success. With each day of the Berlin Airlift, the Western Allies gained prominence among the international public, while the reputation of the Soviets plummeted.
In the end, Stalin realized that he could not win with such force. On May 12, 1949, after 322 days, Stalin lifted the blockade. Up to that point, the Allies had made some 260,000 flights to West Berlin, delivering more than 2.1 million tons of essential supplies.
Stalin’s historical miscalculation
“Stalin achieved the opposite of his goal. He wanted the Allies to stop preparing a state in West Germany. As it turned out, the state was formed much more quickly, NATO was formed and Western integration advanced. Stalin’s blockade of West Berlin is one of the most important things,” said Walter Hofer, a now deceased Swiss historian, in an interview. His interview found on the website “Zeitzeugenportal.”
As for the Germans, they felt accepted into the Western society of values, explains von Kostka of the Allied Museum. “Then they no longer saw the Allies primarily as an occupying force, but rather as a protecting force,” he said.
Von Kostka also saw the Berlin Airlift as an example of international cooperation that is relevant to today’s crisis and conflict zones. “We have seen that it is quite possible to supply people from the air. Thanks to the transport capacity of modern cargo aircraft, it will be possible to supply the amount that is supplied during an airlift to any city in the world in a fraction of the number of flights.”
This text is based on Previous article from 2018which was translated from German.
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