[Music] hi there and welcome to the history teacher this revision video covers superpower relations and the Cold War 1941-1991 from the GCSE Edexcel 9 to 1 course hopefully you'll also find it useful if you're studying any of the other examples or if like me you just love history you can now become a member to support me to continue to make this content you'll get exclusive access to worksheets revision materials and you'll get to vote on forthcoming episodes just click on the join button below this video hi there guys last time we finished up looking at the drawing of the battle lines in the cold war in the form of the treatment Doctrine and the Marshall Plan and the ussr's response to those today we're going to be looking at the first of the flash points in the cold war in the first Berlin crisis you will remember that at the Yalta Conference at the beginning of 1945 it was decided that Germany would be divided into four zones occupied by the USA the USSR France and Great Britain the Allies set up the Allied controlled commission the ACC to oversee management of the zones and Military checkpoints were set up between the Zone the Allies only ever intended the division of Germany to be temporary however by the beginning of the 1950s it was clear that the division would become much longer lasting one of the big causes of the issues to come was that Britain France and the USA had vastly different aims for the future of Germany than the USSR the Western allies wanted to rebuild Germany's economy so that they could be become trading partners while the USSR wanted to use the raw materials produced in their Zone to help rebuild Russia who had suffered economically and militarily during the second world war from 1945 to 1947 the Allies met repeatedly to try to find common ground on the issue of Germany but tensions were already increasing the use of the atomic bomb by the USA without consultation with its allies had angered Stalin added to this with the speeches given by Truman and Churchill which escalated the hostility between the once Allied countries in 1947 Britain and the USA combined their zones to create byzonia Stalin was Furious and the Soviets stormed out of the meetings in March 1948 the French joined their Zone with bizonia to create trizonia Germany and Berlin were now split in two with the USSR control in the Northeast section which included Berlin and the Allies uniting to control the rest the leaders of the trizonia now be began repairing the economy starting with introducing a new currency called the Deutsche Mark in June 1948. this further angered Stalin because trizonia was now a separate economic unit from the East and this essentially created two germanies Stalin saw this as the West ganging up on the USSR he believed the USA was trying to force the Soviet Union into poverty Stalin declared that he would stand firm he wanted to unite Germany under communist ideology Stalin knew that the location of the capital of Germany Berlin in the northeast of the country in the Soviet zone made it vulnerable and Stalin believes that he could use it to humiliate the West there were only two land routes into Berlin from the west and two air corridors in which airplanes were allowed to travel in June 1948 Stalin blocked the land access to Berlin an action which became known as the Berlin blockade this blocks Communications between the capital and the rest of the country and would mean the the people of Berlin would run shorted Basics such as food and fuel he was hoping to prove that the divider Germany could not work and humiliate the leaders of trisonia forcing them to give up control of Berlin U.S President Truman could not ignore the direct challenge following his speech in which he had outlined what became known as the Truman Doctrine he could not allow Russian aggression in Germany to go unchallenged however if the West tried to force the issue by driving military vehicles through the blockade it could be taken as a declaration of war an event which the West did not want however they realized that if they flew supplies into Berlin the only way the USSR could stop them was by shooting the planes down which would make the USSR the aggressor Stalin was confident that there was no way the West could prevent Burling from starving using only airplanes on the 24th of June 1948 the first flight of operation vittles or as it is better known the Berlin airlift landed in Berlin the flights carried food fuel medicines and other necessities into Berlin Pilots knew they were facing the possibility of being shot down by the USSR but 1 000 tons of supplies per day were delivered by the US Pilots with a similar amount being delivered by British Pilots the people of Berlin rallied round and helped to build a new Runway at Berlin templehof airport and a new airport was built at Berlin table the population also helped to unload the planes January 1949 was the height of deliveries with 170 000 tons sent in one month the airlift continued on until the 9th of May 1949 unable to force the Allies to give up Berlin Stalin lifted the blockade the West had responded peacefully it had won the propaganda war and there had been few Allied casualties the blockade led to the formation of East and West Germany it was clear that neither side was willing to give in to the other and so the division became permanent on the 23rd of May three days after the final blockade was lifted the west of Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany in August the Democratic bundestag was established with the first Chancellor Conrad adnar taking his place in September although West Berlin remained part of the FRG the capital was moved to Bonn the areas of Berlin previously controlled by the USA UK and France became known as West Berlin Stalin was Furious and immediately responded by creating the German Democratic Republic in October 1949. however each side considered that only their own section of Germany to be real and it wasn't until the 1970s that the West accepted the existence of the gdr however most of the world referred to these countries as West and East Germany okay that is everything you need to know about the first Berlin crisis and the Berlin left don't forget to check out my website for worksheets and revision guidance and I will see you next time [Music]