by P P

Created on: August 07, 2009

Berlin was to become the center of the Cold War. First the Berlin Blockade and airlift occurred and later, for the same reason, the Berlin Wall was built. (this article discusses both the Berlin Wall and the blockade/airlift)

The Russians kept Germany poor. They wanted it to be weak so it could never attack them again. They took whatever resources from Germany and thus rebuild the Soviet Union. On the other hand, the allies believed a strong economy, and country of Germany would keep the democracy to prosper in Germany after Nazi dictatorship. They also believed that Europe needed a strong Germany for the economy to prosper. As a result, the Americans, French and British combined their zones and made one currency the Deutschmark. The allies had agreed to inform each other if they were making changes regarding their zones, in this case the 3 zones didn't inform the Soviets. The biggest problem for Stalin was that his part of Germany could not see the prosperity in the rest of Germany BUT they could in Berlin. Therefore it was a problem for Stalin having the allies in the rest of Berlin (his part could see how badly off they were). He now wanted to control the whole city. Stalin could not remove the allies because they had the Atomic Bomb but they did close all Roads, canals and railways. The allies now had no way of giving supplies to their sectors of Berlin, as a result the allies sent supplies by plane. After 11 months Stalin gave in. The allies remained in their sectors of Berlin.

The building of the Berlin Wall and all it symbolized seemed to sum up what the cold war represents. It was a clash between good and evil. This would lure the attention of JFK who would play his part during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After the Berlin Airlift the French, American and British zones of Berlin were united. They called this the German Federal Republic (West Germany) Stalin called his zone of Germany the German Democratic Republic (East German). Life style was better in West Germany than it was in East Germany. The East Germans all wanted to go to West Germany, in an effort to stop this, the Soviets closed the borders. The one place that they could still cross the border was Berlin. 3 million people had crossed the border. 1/6 of the East German population was moving towards West Germany. In one day 4K people crossed into West Berlin. As a result the Berlin authorities placed a barbed wire fence and then a brick was separating East Berlin and West Berlin. The wall was being heavily fortified and was almost impossible to cross. East Germans said they did this to keep out spies. The people from West Berlin called this wall the "Wall of Shame" it was a reminder to people about how inferior life was in East Germany. The Berlin Wall was not taken down until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989.

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