Li Chun Ho (Alvin Li) History Revision: Berlin Crisis past paper questions.

November 2003 (a) Describe how the Berlin Wall affected the people living in Berlin.[5] The Berlin Wall, built on the night of August 12 1961, was a physical symbol of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union. Originally secured with barb wire and later reinforced by concrete walls, it has physically separated West Berlin and East Berlin into half. East Germans who tried to trespass through the wall would be shot by the guards. It has separated families as some of them would have been on the other side. Relatives who wanted to show their children to the other side would have to lift them up over the wall. The Berlin Wall had significantly stopped East Germans from fleeing Communist East Germany to Capitalist West Germany. Back in 1949 to 1960s, there were up to 3 million people who fled to West Germany; the wall has halted this human movement virtually. By far, the Berlin Wall has also condemned East Germans to live with Communist ideals, whether they wanted or not. This may have caused depression among them, as they were trapped by the Soviet Union. (b) Why was the Berlin Wall built?[7] The Berlin Wall was built by the Soviet Union because they believed that the West was using West Berlin as a headquarters to spy on them. To prevent spies from using West Germany as a spying headquarters and have spies infiltrated into the USSR, they believed in building the wall. The wall was also built due to the fact many East Germans, mostly highly educated and well experienced professionals, were departing to West Berlin. The communists believed they were losing great intellectuals who might become the future leaders of the Soviet Union. There were up to 3 million East Germans fleeing through West Berlin as they wanted to benefit from the capitalist values in the West. This prompted the Soviet leaders to build the wall. The wall was also built to prevent people from looking at West Berlin and criticizing the communist values in East Berlin. Capitalist West Berlin was very economically wealthy, as East Berlin was seen as a failure of the Soviet Union. It highlighted the successes of the economic processes in the West. Moreover, the wall was built as US President Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, could not reach a conclusion to the argument they had. USSR wanted the USA to pull out of Berlin, to remove their US zones in Berlin. They threatened Kennedy to remove it by 6 months. However, Kennedy completely rejected the soviet demands. He ordered a massive increase in the US armed forces. At this stage, in July 1961, both sides threatened to have a war. Eventually, Khrushchev decided to build the Berlin Wall. This was not only a turning point in the Cold War as it was a physical symbol of it, but it had also prevented a full scale war between two powerful countries with opposing ideologies. June 2004 (b) Explain why the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin. [7]. The Soviet Union decided to blockade West Berlin through cutting off all railway links, roads and transport links to the city, as it was deep in the Soviet Sector of Germany. They did this in 23 June 1948, because Stalin was concerned about the new currency being introduced in the West,

Li Chun Ho (Alvin Li) History Revision: Berlin Crisis past paper questions. which also included West Germany, but not East Germany; Deutsmark. This meant that there would be a big possibility of a long term or permanent division between West and East Germany. This further increased the risks of a German attack on Russian soil, as it had happened in the past in 1914 and in 1941. Stalin was also concerned that this was an attempt of the capitalists to make West Germany turn towards the western ideals of capitalism instead of communism. This was a threat towards the Soviet Union. Therefore by cutting off all transportation routes and links to West Berlin (with more than 2 million people living in there) it was seen as an act of protest towards the West. Stalin had probably hoped that they would back down and remove the new currency being circulated in West Germany. However this did not happen. Instead, they supplied the city with airlifts which transported food, aid, machinery, and also coal. In total, they carried more than 1.5 million tons of supplies to the city and the British and US planes flew nearly 200000 missions to West Berlin in order to complete this feat. Stalin eventually gave in and removed the blockade in May 1949. June 2005 (c) The Berlin Blockade brought Europe close to war. How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.[8] To some extent we can agree that the Berlin Blockade had acted as a threat to war in Europe due to the tensions between the West and the Soviet Union. Due to the introduction of the new currency by the West which included West Germany, this concerned Stalin as he feared of a permanent division between West and East Germany, further mounting the risk of another German attack on Russian soil. In addition, both sides threatened war. In 1961, the Soviet leader made it clear that they demanded US to pull out of Berlin and to remove their zones in Germany, warning they must act within 6 months. However, Kennedy tested Stalins boundaries by further increasing the amount of US armed forces, to increase the military spending budget to up to 3 billion dollars, to purchase naval ships, aircraft, etc. Therefore there was evidence to suggest that a potentially large-scale war might take place. Furthermore, it was possible that Stalin would have asked the Soviet Union to shoot down the planes carrying food supplies to West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade. This would have quickly escalated the blockade to a more severe, perhaps a full scale war between the West and the Soviet Union. In addition, after the Berlin blockade, when West Germany was admitted to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) in 1955, Stalin retaliated and set up the Warsaw pact. These two armies were against each other, over a contrast of different ideologies, communism versus capitalism. Therefore, war might have had happened NATO was outraged at that and this may have further caused more conflict to occur.