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Berlin Crisis 1958-61

The Berlin Crisis from 1958-1961 stemmed from Khrushchev's dissatisfaction with the status of divided Berlin. He threatened to give East Germany control over access routes to West Berlin, which increased tensions. As more East Berliners fled to the West, over 40,000 in August 1961 alone, the Soviet-backed East German government built the Berlin Wall to stem the flow of refugees and effectively divide the city. The Wall symbolized the division of Europe and the failure of Soviet propaganda to retain East German citizens.

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81 views2 pages

Berlin Crisis 1958-61

The Berlin Crisis from 1958-1961 stemmed from Khrushchev's dissatisfaction with the status of divided Berlin. He threatened to give East Germany control over access routes to West Berlin, which increased tensions. As more East Berliners fled to the West, over 40,000 in August 1961 alone, the Soviet-backed East German government built the Berlin Wall to stem the flow of refugees and effectively divide the city. The Wall symbolized the division of Europe and the failure of Soviet propaganda to retain East German citizens.

Uploaded by

Sasha ROCHETTE
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Berlin Crisis 1958-61

A divided Germany
● Germany was permanently divided in 1949 between West Germany and East
Germany with Berlin maintaining its 4-power occupation
❖ West Germany: Larger population, economically larger, greater industrial
output, receipt of marshall plan aid, democratic
❖ East Germany: Forced collectivisation of farls stagnated agricultural
production; no free elections since 1946; workers revolt in 1953 suppressed
by soviet tanks
● Khrushchev: Berlin is a fishbone on an East Germanies gullet

The Crisis of 1958

● Easy border crossings between East and West Berlin led to the ligation of young,
educated East Germans to the West
● November 1958-Khrushchev petitioned that Berlin should be demilitarised and
become a ‘free city
❖ He threatened that this needed to happen within 6 months or he would give
control of access to routes to West Germany to the East German government
❖ Khrushchev ultimately backed down but it forced a conversation about Berlin
❖ Discussions continued in the 1959 Camp David summit but ceased with the
May 1960 U2 crisis
● East Germans continued to flood into the West

The Kennedy Presidency

● Elected in November 1960, Kennedy promised a new foreign policy approach based
on a ‘flexible response’
❖ More spending on conventional forces
❖ Enlarged nuclear arsenal
❖ Continued to aid to countries resisting communism
● A move to Brinkmanship’s “massive retaliation”
❖ “We intend to have a wider choice than humiliation or all-out nuclear war”
● Khrushchev hoped he could push the inexperienced Kennedy
Migrations Escalate & The Wall is Built

● With no resolution to the Berlin questions, 10s of thousands of East Berliners


continued to flee to the West
❖ 40 000 alone on august alone 1961
❖ The border was closed on August 13th
❖ West berlin was surrounded, by barbed wire, later by a concrete walln that
locked East Berliners out of the West

The Meaning of the Wall

● For Khrushchev, this was an admission that Soviet propaganda had failed. A wall was
needed to keep people from fleeing the communist East.
● For Berlin, it became a permanent division of the city and between family and
friends.
● This eased tensions during the Cold War, as the biggest question in Europe was
resolved.
❖ Americans protested the building of the wall, but threats of future conflict
eased. The focus of the Cold War again moved from Europe to Asia
● The Wall became a symbol of the division between East and West and for the US, a
propaganda victory.

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