Berlin Airlift

Berlin Airlift Definition

The Berlin Airlift was an operation to send supplies to West Berlin, including food, fuel for stoves and heating, and basic supplies such as cooking oil, medicine, and clothing to the people of West Berlin. It was carried out by the US and British governments.

Berlin Airlift Summary

The Berlin Airlift was a response to the forced closing of the roads in and out of West Berlin by the Soviet Union beginning on June 24, 1948. The US and Britain decided to supply the city via airplane beginning two days later on June 26.

The leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, had instituted the blockade of West Berlin in an effort to force the Western Allies to withdraw from the city, which was in the area of Germany under Soviet occupation. In a resolve not to yield to this desire, the US and the British chose to supply the city by air for 15 months, until September 30, 1949.

The episode was a major flash point in the early Cold War, and tensions ran high. There were worries the Soviets may shoot down the planes, escalating things to war between the two post-WW2 nuclear armed superpowers. The incident also made Berlin a major symbol of the Cold War as a city divided, with the US committed to supporting it.

You've learned an overview of the events in this Berlin Airlift summary. Learn more about the Berlin Airlift in the more detailed sections that follow.

Fig. 1 - West Berliners watch a plane arriving during the Berlin Airlift.

The Berlin Blockade and Airlift Background

The Berlin Blockade and Airlift was a result of a build of tensions in the years following the end of World War Two when tensions escalated between the US and USSR, which had united as allies to defeat Nazi Germany but now engaged in conflict over their ideologies and differing visions for the future of Europe.

The Cold War Develops

This period of tension eventually became known as the Cold War, since the US and USSR never engaged in direct warfare with one another, although the Berlin Blockade and Airlift was one of the moments they came closest to war.

Learn more about the background to the Berlin Blockade and Airlift here.

The Division of Europe into Capitalist and Communist Spheres

Tensions over the future of Europe emerged as early as the Yalta Conference of February 1945. Here, the Allies agreed that Eastern Europe would be a Soviet sphere of influence but free and fair elections would be held in the countries once they were liberated from Nazi occupation.

By the time of the Potsdam Conference of August 1945, the wartime alliance was fraying, in large part over Eastern Europe. In Poland, the USSR had eliminated anti-Soviet politicians and indicated that they would impose a communist government. Similar events would follow in the rest of Eastern Europe, and by 1948, all these countries had communist governments aligned to Moscow.

The West Responds

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gave a speech in 1946 in which he declared an "iron curtain" had descended across Europe and called for the US to take action to roll back the expansion of communism.

US President Harry Truman eventually declared the US would work to limit communist expansion, issuing the Truman Doctrine, in which he stated that the US had both an interest in and a duty to support governments resisting communist takeover.

Historians debate to what degree the causes of the Cold War were the fault of one side or the other, or was a misunderstanding. Stalin justified the expansion of communism by arguing Germany had invaded the Soviet Union through Eastern Europe, and installing friendly governments there ensured their safety from a future invasion. However, many US policymakers believed Stalin's actions were merely a power grab and were signs of plans for the further expansion of communism. They believed Stalin intended to take over the world, and they needed to act to stop him.

The Status of Germany

Especially important to early Cold War tensions was the future of Germany. As agreed to at Yalta and Potsdam, the country was divided into four zones of occupation, one each controlled by the US, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, which was located inside the larger Soviet zone of occupation, was divided similarly into 4 zones.

The Western Allies hoped to rebuild Germany into a buffer against the further spread of communism. However, the Soviets hoped to keep Germany weak so that it could never be a threat to them again. While the 4 Allies were meant to work together on Germany's reconstruction and development, they were increasingly at odds and unable to agree on any concrete action.

This deadlock prompted the Western Allies to decide to merge their 3 zones into one area, called Trizonia and introduce their own economic reforms, which angered Stalin. When they introduced a new currency into Western Berlin, it was a step too far for Stalin, who saw it as a provocation and decided to act.

Fig. 2 - Map showing the occupation zones of Germany and the city of Berlin inside the Soviet zone.³

Stalin Institutes the Berlin Blockade

Shortly after the introduction of the new currency, the Soviet Union closed the road and railroad supply lines from the Western zones of German into West Berlin on June 24, 1948.

For Stalin and the Soviets, West Berlin was both a strategic and symbolic threat. Western Allied military personnel and intelligence officers were stationed there, and should standards of living be higher in West Berlin than in the Soviet controlled zones, it would contradict propaganda that communism was better than capitalism. Therefore, Stalin's goal with the blockade was to force the Western Allies to abandon West Berlin, leaving it to become part of the larger Soviet occupied zone.

The Western Allies Debate How to Respond

The Berlin Blockade put the US in a difficult position. If they did nothing, they would look as if they had given into Soviet aggression, which would undermine the Truman Doctrine and cast doubt on the US's commitment to help other countries against the spread of communism.

Meanwhile, if they forcibly broke the blockade by attempting to cross the checkpoints, it could be interpreted as an act of war.

Therefore, they chose a middle ground of using the airlift to take supplies into West Berlin. This choice effectively put the ball in Stalin's court on war. If he chose to fire on the planes and stop the resupplying of West Berlin, he would have shot first.

Fig. 3 - Airplanes lined up at the airport in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift.

The Berlin Airlift

Operation Vittles began on June 26, 1948. Its mission was to take vital supplies to the 2 million people living in West Berlin. The UK joined the effort with their own Operation Plainfare on June 28.

Although the Soviets declined to fire on the aircraft or take other actions to stop the Berlin Airlift, tensions remained high. The US sent a squadron of B-26 bombers, capable of dropping atomic weapons, to Britain. Talks and negotiations to resolve the crisis failed to make any headway.

The Berlin Airlift had meant to be a temporary solution, but due to the continued blockade, it was strengthened and made more effective with round-the-clock flights, including landings every 45 seconds and the delivery of over 8,000 tons of supplies every day during the height of the mission.

Despite this enormous operation, life in West Berlin was still difficult. Food and fuel had to be rationed. leaving many cold and hungry. However, most West Berliners preferred the difficulty rather than being absorbed by the USSR.

Fig. 4 - Crates of milk being loaded onto a plane during the Berlin Airlift.

The Blockade Ends

By the Spring of 1949, the Soviets begrudgingly accepted that the blockade would not succeed in forcing the Western Allies out of West Berlin. Stalin lifted the blockade on May 12, 1949, reopening the land routes into the city.

However, the airlift continued until September to ensure the blockade would not be reimplemented and build up more stockpiles of supplies.

Effects of the Berlin Airlift

The most immediate of the effects of the Berlin Airlift was the lifting of the blockade. It also meant that West Berlin would remain a separate sphere from the rest of the eastern side of Germany.

There were other important effects of the Berlin Airlift, however. Giving up on the possibility of a negotiated agreement on the future of Germany, the 3 Western Allies accepted the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly called West Germany. It was declared on May 23, 1949, just weeks after the end of the blockade. The Democratic Republic of Germany, or East Germany, was declared soon thereafter.

The Western Allies had also created a new defensive alliance. On April 4, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was formed. It was an explicitly anti-Soviet alliance meant to prevent aggression against other European countries. When West Germany joined NATO in 1955, the Soviet Union responded by creating the Warsaw Pact, its own defensive alliance of communist-aligned states.

Fig. 5 - Children watching a plane arriving during the Berlin Airlift.

Berlin Airlift Significance

The Berlin Airlift's main significance was that it confirmed the Cold War was here to stay.

The creation of separate military alliances made it clear that the differences that had emerged at the end of World War II were irreconcilable. A divided Berlin, Germany, Europe, and world, would characterize the next 30 years until the fall of the communist governments from 1988-1992.

The Berlin Airlift was also significant for making Berlin a major symbol of the Cold War. Support for West Berlin was a hallmark of US foreign policy. To the US, Berlin was a beacon of freedom in a sea of communist tyranny. For the Soviets, it was a cancer of capitalist perversion in the egalitarian society they had created.

Berlin's symbolic power only grew after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and it took on a different meaning when that wall was torn down as the communist governments fell, paving the way for Germany to be reunited in 1990.