Since June 24, 1948, the former capital of Germany was undergoing a blockade. It lasted almost a year. The city lacked food, fuel and all those household items, without which people's lives are very difficult.
The war ended three years ago, the need became a familiar condition in its second half, but what Berliners had to survive was not much easier than what was experienced during the collapse of the Third Reich. The country is divided into zones controlled by the military occupation administrations of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France, while each sector has its own problems and its own laws apply.
Former allies were on the brink of war. The reason that later became known as the Berlin Crisis was the mutual desire of the countries of the Western coalition and the USSR to expand their sphere of influence. These intentions were not hidden, Truman, Churchill, and Stalin openly spoke about them. The West was afraid of the spread of communism throughout Europe, and the USSR did not want to put up with the fact that in the center of the sector allotted to it under the terms of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences is the island of capitalism.
The Berlin crisis of 1948 was the first serious post-war clash of the Stalin regime with the countries of a market economy, and primarily with the United States, which was almost outgrown in the military phase. Each side sought to show its strength, and did not want to compromise.
The Berlin crisis began with rather routine recriminations. The economic assistance plan for countries affected by World War II, known by its initiator George Marshall, then secretary of state, called for a series of economic measures, in particular the introduction of a new brand in the territory occupied by the Western Allies. Such "masterly" behavior annoyed Stalin, and the appointment of General W. Clayton, known for his anti-communist views, to the post of head of the American occupation administration, only added fuel to the fire. A series of clumsy and uncompromising actions by both sides led to the fact that the communications of West Berlin with sectors controlled by the Western Allies were blocked by Soviet troops.
The Berlin crisis reflected the irreconcilable contradictions between the former allies. However, his reason was Stalin's strategic mistake in assessing the potential of his potential opponents. They managed to establish an air bridge in a short time , which supplied the besieged city with everything necessary, including coal. At first, even the command of the US Air Force was very skeptical of this venture, especially since no one knew how far Stalin would go if the confrontation escalated, he could well give the order to shoot down the Douglas transport.
But that did not happen. The deployment of the B-29 bombers at West German airfields was sobering, although there were no atomic bombs on them, but, again, this was a big secret.
The Berlin crisis is unprecedented, in less than a year pilots, mainly English and British, made two hundred thousand sorties, delivering 4.7 million kilograms of aid. In the eyes of the inhabitants of the besieged city, they became heroes and saviors. The sympathies of the whole world were not on the side of Stalin, who, convinced of the failure of the blockade, gave the order to lift it in mid-May 1949.
The Berlin crisis led to the unification of all occupation zones of the Western Allies and the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany on their territory.
West Berlin remained the outpost of capitalism and its "window" throughout the Cold War. It was separated from the eastern part of the city by a wall erected thirteen years later. Located in the very center of the GDR, it caused many complications, in particular the Berlin crisis of 1961, which also ended in the strategic defeat of the USSR.