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The first major crisis of the Cold War was over the city of Berlin.

Berlin had been divided into four sectors (French, British, American and Russian) following the war and each country was responsible for their own sector.

Berlin however, was 100 miles inside of the Russian zone.

This meant that the Allies had to travel through the Russian zone of Germany to get to their section of Berlin.

By 1948, the Western zones of Germany were recovering mainly as a result of Marshall Aid.

However, the Russians had removed a large amount of resources from their zone.

As a result, living conditions in the Russian zone were much worse than in the other zones.

• Using money from Marshall Aid, the Allies were helping the Germans to rebuild their economy.
• Stalin was worried that the West would take advantage of their stronger position to unite all their zones and eventually take over the eastern part.
• The Allies introduced a new currency, the Deutschmark, that would be used throughout their zones in Germany.
• Britain, France and the USA joined their zones together to create Trizonia. Stalin was angry at being left out of this.

On 24 June 1948, Stalin cut all land access to Berlin for the Allies, citing ‘technical difficulties'.

This became known as the Berlin blockade.

Stalin did not intend to risk war over Berlin, he likely wanted to show that the Soviets also had power in Germany which could match the demonstrations of economic power and unity that the West had just shown.

He was using the blockade to prevent any further Western moves in Germany and hoped that they would abandon the Western zones of Berlin.

• 24 June 1948, Stalin cut all land access to Berlin for the Allies.
• West Berlin only had enough food for 36 days.
• There was rationing amongst West Berliners.
• Planes landed every 2 minutes.
• In total, 2 million tonnes of supplies were airlifted in.
• 101 men died.
• The blockade ended on 12th May 1949 after 324 days.

1. The Berlin airlift was a propaganda defeat for the Soviets and a great boost for the West.
2. North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was formed in April 1949 for the common defence of Europe.
3. It convinced the West that Germany could not be united and declared their zones a separate state. In May 1949, the German Federal Republic – West Germany – was set up. On October 1949, the German Democratic Republic - East Germany – was created from the Soviet zone. Germany was now divided into two states.
4. Berlin remained a flashpoint in east-west relations.
5. The crisis highlighted the dangers of superpower conflict. It also showed the limitations. The Soviets did not use their larger army; the US did not use their atom bomb.
6. Containment was proven to have worked - West Berlin had remained under a capitalist government.
7. The Warsaw Pact established by Soviet Countries - agreed to defend each other if one was attacked.