When it became evident that the West was not going to take any major action to protest the closing, East German authorities became emboldened, closing off more and more checkpoints between East and West Berlin. The Soviets responded that such an embargo be answered with a new land blockade of West Berlin. The West, taken by surprise, threatened a trade embargo against East Germany as a retaliatory measure. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the border was drastically reduced. On the night of August 12-13, 1961, East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. To halt the exodus to the West, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev recommended to East Germany that it close off access between East and West Berlin. Many of the refugees were skilled laborers, professionals, and intellectuals, and their loss was having a devastating effect on the East German economy. By August 1961, an average of 2,000 East Germans were crossing into the West every day. Between 19, some 2.5 million East Germans fled from East to West Germany, most via West Berlin. For East Germans dissatisfied with life under the communist system, West Berlin was a gateway to the democratic West. However, a massive airlift by Britain and the United States kept West Berlin supplied with food and fuel, and in May 1949 the Soviets ended the defeated blockade.īy 1961, Cold War tensions over Berlin were running high again. In response, the USSR launched a land blockade of West Berlin in an effort to force the West to abandon the city. The future of Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, and tensions grew when the United States, Britain, and France moved in 1948 to unite their occupation zones into a single autonomous entity–the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Berlin, the German capital, was likewise divided into occupation sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet zone. The end of World War II in 1945 saw Germany divided into four Allied occupation zones. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War-a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe. Two days after sealing off free passage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities begin building a wall-the Berlin Wall-to permanently close off access to the West.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |