The Cold War was political rivalry between the US and the USSR that began towards the end of the second world war and only ended in the nineties. There was a particular focus of this wartime conflict on the German city of Berlin. During this chaotic period, there were several powers that dominated Berlin: In this blog post, we are going to examine all of them.
The Division of Berlin
At the end of World War II, Germany was split into four occupation zones controlled by the victorious Allied powers: four sides which are the United States of America, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France. As was the rest of Germany, Berlin in particular, which was situated in the Soviet zone of influence, was also divided into four occupation zones.
The Four Sectors
The four sectors of Berlin were:
The American Sector
The Soviet Sector
The British Sector
The French Sector
Every sector had its own armed forces, the policing mechanism and government structure. This division of power laid the foundation of rivalry that shaped the cold war which is the geopolitical rivalry between super powers.
The Berlin Airlift
Thus in 1948 the cold war heated up when the Soviet Union shut all the overland supply routes to West Berlin. The goal of this blockade was to seize all the territory of the city and depriving Western Allies of their positions.
To challenge the sovereignty of the Soviet, the United States and its Allies started an ideology of a huge airlift by dropping food, fuel and all the thing, which was necessary for West Berlin. This was known as the Berlin Airlift and undertook itself for 11 months helping the city evade the Soviet blockade.
Lessons Learned
The Berlin Airlift showed just how resolved was the West to defend an open and free West Berlin. It also focused its attention on the Soviet Union’s inability to control the city through economic strangulation.
The Division of East and West Germany
In 1949, the Allied-controlled sections of Germany, including Berlin, were formally divided into two separate countries: The two germanies were the Federal Republic of Germany also known as West Germany and the German Democratic Republic also known as East Germany.
The Federal Republic of Germany was a capitalist democracy because of its alliancing with the west. On the other hand, the German Democratic Republic following instructions from the Soviet Union adopted socialism.
The Berlin Wall
Later in 1961, when the people of East Germany were emigrating to West Germany in large numbers, the east Germany government constructed the Berlin wall.. This concrete barrier isolated the city literally, and represented ideological split between communism and capitalism.
Lining the border of east and west Berlin for 28 years the wall served as a conflicting symbolism of concrete to bar aspiration imposed by the Soviets until its demolition in 1989 symbolising the start of the end of the Cold War.
Conclusion
Keeping of Berlin during the cold war meant that the events where shifting and changes in the powers keep on shifting. From the division of the city into four zones up to construction of and finally the tearing down of the famous Berlin Wall, this city was a representation of the global struggle between the United States of America and Soviet Union.
The fight for the possession of Berlin demonstrated the readiness of the Western Allies to protect liberties of people and failed in the same time Soviet’s ability to enslave the population. When the East and West Germany were rejoined in 1990 it signalled the end of the Cold war and victory for democracy in Europe.
