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Why did Germany and Berlin become a focus for the Cold War
- 1. WHY DID GERMANY AND BERLIN BECOME A FOCUS FOR THE COLD WAR IN EUROPE? Background ideas
- 2. The ‘Two Camps’ doctrine Cominform Stalin’s ‘Two Camps’ Doctrine
- 3. Mr. X Article, Time Magazine, 1947 Main ideas USA must make a long term, firm commitment to containment Russia has ‘expansionist tendencies’ USA must regard USSR as a rival, not a partner The unused cover for TIME, showing George Kennan
- 4. Czechoslovakian Coup, Feb. 1948 Czechoslovakia expressed interest in receiving Marshall Aid Intense pressure from the USSR led to the formation of a communist led government Jan Masaryk found dead Czech Coup used by Truman to get Marshall Plan funding approved.
- 5. Containment “Stalin fell into the trap the Marshall Plan laid for him, which was to get him to build the wall that would divide Europe.” John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War, 2005
- 6. The Berlin Crisis of 1948 By 1949, Germany was divided into 2 separate states.
- 7. Disputes over Germany Reparations Political Conflict: Stalin’s plans June 1945: established the SED (Socialist Unity Party) Bizonia January 1947 London Foreign Ministers Conference 1947: ended in recriminations London Conferences 1948: Constitution for a new West German government and agreed to introduce a new currency.
Editor's Notes
- Cominform: Communist information bureau set up in Sept 1947. Increased Moscow control over communist parties of other countries. West concerned it could actively spread communism and destabilise democratic govts in western europe,. Two Camps doctrine: Stalin had developed this idea in the 1920s and 1930s. In feb 1946 before iron curtain speech Stalin had emphasized this idea. Idea that USA had organised an anti soviet bloc of countries that were economically dependent on the USA (Western Europe, South America…and China – Civil war). The second campe was USSR and Eastern Europe.
- The steps Stalin took after the Marshall Plan (launched June 47 – approved after Czech coup) increased the USSR’s security problems. Break with Tito
- G invaded on several fronts ACC, Berlin also divided Seen as a temporary arrangement while G’s future being worked out Intention G would be one economic unit, and would eventually be reunited as independent state G geog pos’n in central europe, potential economic strength USSR no wish for gmn resurgence – reparations desire Fr also feared a rising G USA – best hope for Europe peace lay in rapid recovery for G, contain spread of communism UK almost bankrupt, wanted to benefit form USA aid Gaddis notes USSR not happy with their slice – perhaps if had not given land to Poland, then EG would have been bigger Video: Bizonia and financial pressures – note stalin’s motives.
- The SED was founded on 21 April 1946 by a merger of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) which resided in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany and the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin. Official East German and Soviet histories portrayed this merger as a voluntary pooling of efforts by the socialist parties.[8] However, there is much evidence that the merger was more troubled than commonly portrayed. By all accounts, the Soviet occupation authorities applied great pressure on the SPD's eastern branch to merge with the KPD. The newly-merged party, with the help of the Soviet authorities, swept to victory in the 1946 elections for local and regional assemblies held in the Soviet zone. In Berlin, however, the SED got less than half the votes of the SPD. The bulk of the Berlin SPD remained aloof from the merger, even though Berlin was deep inside the Soviet zone. With the economic integration of the British and American zones (Bizonia) in January 1947 and the announcement of Marshall Aid the following June the Americans had given notice that they were not ready to wait indefinitely for an agreement over a united Germany. The British Government, faced with subsidising its densely populated zone in north-west Germany at a time when Britain itself was nearly bankrupt, enthusiastically supported American plans for a self-governing and financially self-supporting West Germany. At both the Moscow and London Foreign Ministers’ Conferences in 1947, Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Secretary, played a key role in preventing any last-minute agreement between the USA and USSR which might have delayed or averted partition. The decision to set up a West German state was finally taken at another conference attended by Britain, France, the USA and the Benelux states, which sat from February to June 1948 in London. London Conference of Ministers 1947 Nov 47 Meeting in what a newspaper report called "an atmosphere of utter gloom," representatives from the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union come together to discuss the fate of postwar Europe. The focus of the meeting was on the future of Germany. The atmosphere never appreciably brightened, and the meeting dissolved in acrimony and recriminations in December. The issue of what would become of Germany, which had been divided into sections occupied by forces from the four nations since the end of the war in 1945, was the key to understanding the failure of the meeting. The American delegation, headed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, insisted on Western Germany's participation in the European Recovery Program (ERP). This was the so-called Marshall Plan through which the United States pumped billions into the war-torn nations of western Europe in an effort to revive their sagging economies and establish a bulwark against the advance of communism in Europe. The Soviets, led by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, responded by proposing an early reunification of Germany with no participation by that nation in the ERP. They also demanded heavy reparations from Germany. Marshall, French foreign minister Georges Bidault, and British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin opposed any plan that sought to economically cripple Western Germany or draw it away from western Europe, since Germany's economic recovery was seen as essential to the recovery of all of western Europe. Since neither side was willing to compromise these positions in any essential form, the talks were doomed to collapse, which is just what happened. A newspaper account of the last minutes of the meeting was telling. Foreign Secretary Bevin asked the group, "Any suggestion as to the time or place of the next meeting?" This query was met with "dead silence." In fact, despite the gloomy predictions for the meeting, it went as well as U.S. policy makers could have hoped. They staved off Russian attempts to push forward with German reunification and steadfastly supported Western Germany's participation in the ERP. They had also decided prior to the meeting that should the talks fail, it should be made to appear that the Soviets were at fault. This they accomplished. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/london-council-of-foreign-ministers-meeting-begins US BR FR and BENELUX embarked on a series of discussions held in London from February to June of 1948 known collectively as the London Conferences. This came at a strategic time because the other occupying powers of Germany were also realizing that cooperation with the Soviets was increasingly difficult, and all three nations were beginning to reexamine their policies as such. The result of these discussions was the London Program. The main goal of the London Program was to establish a West German government, with the means to achieving this goal being the combination of the three western zones of occupation and a reform of the currency. The western Allies wanted to combine their zones so that they could be administered as a single economic unit, and so that the currency exchange would be uniform throughout the western sectors of Germany.