What’s the Matter with Germany?

A Review of the German Question from 1945-1961

Germany has been at the center of conflict throughout the 20th century. This is a brief review of the major issues concerning Germany in the

early years of the Cold War.

“Underlying all the questions that separated the Great Powers in the first 16 years of the Cold War was

Germany.”- Colin Brown and Peter Mooney

Yalta Conference, 1945

The Big Question – what to do with a defeated Germany?

De-militarization and Occupation Zones

Reparations A temporary situation administered

by the Allied Control Commission (ACC)

Potsdam, 1945

“Bad tempered” conference Zones of control would be independently

administered Strong Germany vs. Weak Germany issue

Marshall Plan Aid, 1948

US viewpoint – to revive European economies; not aimed against any country or doctrine

USSR viewpoint – “dollar imperialism” meant to tie countries to US economy and influence

Result: US aid flowed to the US/British/French zones but was kept out of the Soviet

Soviets implement their own plan = COMECON for Eastern Europe/Germany

The Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949

Stalin blocks all land routes to west Berlin to starve the city into (communist) unification and block western influence (especially economic)

US launches an airlift to provide necessities

The USSR lifted the blockade in May, 1949

Impact: West Germany and East Germany officially formed from occupation zones

NATO alliance founded

NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1949 & 1955

US + Canada + north/west European countries

Joint military assistance/defense pack

First US peacetime commitment West Germany, created in 1949,

joins in 1954 East Germany, created in 1949, joins

the Warsaw Pact (founded in 1955 in response to NATO)

East German Uprising, 1953

Walter Ulbricht pushed unpopular and unsuccessful policies of forced collectivization and high production quota targets

Mass exodus of East Germans through West Berlin

Workers throughout the East Berlin and Germany rose up in revolt

Brutally repressed by East German and Soviet security forces; very embarrasing

Walter Ulbricht, leader of East Germany (GDR), 1950-

1971

Khrushchev Ultimatum

The Problem: many East German citizens were fleeing to the more prosperous and free West Germany through Berlin’s open border

1945-1961 = 1/6 of the population “moves” Khrushchev wanted a regional solution in the context

of the superpower rivalry Ulbricht wanted an immediate solution (and more

power) The Ultimatum: Berlin demilitarized, Western forces

withdrawn, Berlin is a “free city”. OR the USSR would turn over control to the East German government (and the West would be forced to recognize it’s legitimacy).

Increasingly tense conferences are held between the US and USSR over this issue in 1958, 1959, and 1960