In what ways did developments in Germany affect the Cold War between 1945?

Magdalena Kupfersberger

History SL – L6

In what ways did developments in Germany affect the Cold War between 1945 – 1961?

On May 8, 1945, the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces, the “Wehrmacht”, was signed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in Berlin, ending World War II for Germany. Due to administrative purposes the Allied powers divided the country into four occupational zones. While located wholly within the Soviet zone, because of its symbolic importance as the nation’s capital and seat of the former Nazi government, the city of Berlin was not considered to be part of the Soviet zone. Within this context, the developments taking place in Germany happened to have a vast impact on the tension build-up of the Cold War. To answer the question, not only diplomatic elements but also economic elements and elements of European Integration have to be taken in consideration. But in August 1961 when the conflict faced its climax because Khrushchev unexpectedly closed the borders and only two choices were left for Kennedy; to either surrender or use force against Russia’s threat, the situation found its turning point.

After the Third Reich was effectively abolished in the spring of 1945, the country was placed under military rule and divided into geographical zones reflecting the actual positions of the occupying armies. While the Western Allies France, Britain and the United States established themselves in the West of Germany, the Russians were positioned in the east. Berlin, which is geographically situated in East Germany, the city was similarly divided into four occupational sectors, as the Western Allies tried to avert to leave the capital completely to the Russians. Consequently, Berlin became the headquarters of the Four-power Allied Control Council which was formally established to rule Germany. Since Germany’s future was a problematic issue, the imposition of separate zones of occupation was both practical and administratively sensible, but it was only regarded as temporary arrangement until Germany’s future political situation would be settled and the country would be reunified as a single nation state. Finally, in 1945 at the Potsdam Conference, the nation’s future was established, but the occupational zones still remained. America’s and Russia’s influence on their zones with their ideological differences caused the gradual separation of Germany. Furthermore, both countries showed big commitment towards Germany’s political situation from the beginning and therefore revealed the other that they were clearly interested in the outcome. Since not only America, but also Russia was closely tied to their occupational zones a conflict due to ideological reasons between capitalism and communism became evident very early.

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Due to America’s growing influence in Western Berlin, the conflict between the superpowers intensified. In 1948, the Soviets accused the United Stated not only of selfishly seeking to monopolize the economic resources but also of preparing for the creation of a separate West German political state. Therefore, the Soviet authorities instituted a formal blockade by closing all road, rail and water routes to and from the city. Shortly afterward, the inhabitants of the Western sectors were cut off from all external supplies of fuel, power and food. The Berlin Airlift was America’s reply to the Berlin Blockade, which caused a big problem to the United Stated as they did not want to use their zone. Hence, many developments such as the Berlin Blockade and the Berlin airlift built up the tension between the superpowers and demonstrated how serious both of them were. The airlift demonstrated the economical power and determination of the United Stated that Russia had to deal with. This massively influenced the Cold War as it strengthened America’s position over Russia which had to give in after seeing America’s ability and force.

The Berlin Blockade was followed by the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FDR) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) augmented the bipolarity even further between the East and the West in 1949. From this point on, Germany was officially administratively divided into two single states, which then were physically separated through the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the subsequent “Iron Curtain” leading through more of Europe than just Germany. As a result of these developments, the superpower tension reached a highpoint, which had a massive impact on the relations between Kennedy and Khrushchev and also showed acknowledgement that Cold War won’t end soon. Furthermore, Russia’s position was put under pressure when the 1953 protests in East Berlin against Communist rule took place as the weakness of support for the Communist government was revealed. It demonstrated that Soviet-style communism had not made any significant dent in East German political attitudes and exposed Russia’s failure in a global context. The ‘iron fist’ respond from Russia and America’s struggle to proceed made the ideological differences between the two superpowers even more apparent.

Not only did the geographical division of Germany build up the tension, but also economical reasons strengthened the conflict. The role of business and ‘corporate’ interests was particularly prominent in the shaping of the Marshall Plan, officially called the European Recovery Program, which was a financial aid from the United States offered to many European, including Eastern European, countries that caused a massive economic boom from 1953 to 1957 in the West. Then again, Russia prohibited the Eastern European countries to accept the Marshall Plan since they did not want their sphere of influence to receive help from the United States. In that way, there was no chance of communist revolution spread by workers through Western Europe, which put the Americans in a stronger position than the Russians. America’s containment policy meant no actions being taken place against the Soviet Union but instead would prevent the further spread of communism by economically backing Western Europe under the Marshall Plan. Also, the economic step up in the American influenced area compared to the poor grievances in the East demonstrated the economic power of the United States and tied many more countries to them. Thus, America’s influence was expanded and Eastern and Western Germany were even stronger separated due to the economic situation of the FDR and GDR.

Furthermore the economic boom in the West was strengthened by the introduction of a new long anticipated currency reform in June 1948 where the old Reichsmark was replaced with the new ‘Deutsch Mark’. “Industrial production was solidly increased – over the period the average annual growth rate was 15 % per year – and therefore German foreign trade recovered dramatically despite the loss of Eastern European markets. Thus West Germany very quickly wiped out its trade deficit and commenced running a trade surplus. Also by the end of the 1950s Western Europe had become the major customer and major supplier for West Germany.” In that way, West Germany became a relatively independent state and managed to develop international trading relations while East Germany lead a quite introverted way with no such improvement. This resulted in the fleeing of many young skilled workers who wanted to work in the West, which let the Eastern German economy bleed to death and lead to an economic collapse. Due to West Germany’s spontaneous growth, East Germany was under competition pressure. All these economic benefits strengthened democracy and isolated the communist East even more. This definitely had a vast impact on the further developments of the Cold War because Russia was jealous on how good the American influenced spheres did with everything, and how poor East Germany was. And also Russia didn’t want to seem weak compared to the US.

Not only did the economic relations bind Germany within the Western Alliance, but also did Konrad Adenauer, the FDR’s chancellor, focus on the realization of far-reaching foreign policy goals such as the membership of the Council of Europe (1951), foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (1952), and Germany's entry into the European Economic Co-operation, the EEC a predecessor of the EU. Furthermore, the Federal Republic of Germany also joined the NATO (1955). If there would be any aggressor, the members of the NATO would go to war together which meant that the USSR would have had to deal with twelve other nations if they would attack the FDR. In that way, no matter how enormous the Red Army itself was, the Russia was threatened by the NATO and West Germany was in a safer position. This European Integration of West Germany strengthened the whole European unity against Russia in a military, political and economical way. Nevertheless, Germany was where the two spheres met.

The developments in Germany can definitely be seen as a key element for the process of the Cold War; its sheer significance is shown by the powerful symbol for seriousness of the Cold War to have a divided country in the middle of Europe. Due to its geographical location, Germany was the negotiating table for the two superpowers and the place where their armies met face to face. In economical comparison the FDR can be seen as the more successful state, whereas the Red Army’s force and men power cast a shadow over the Western plans since it took drastic measures. But not only developments in Germany, but also the spread of communism in Asia and as well the Vietnam War have to be considered to evaluate the tension build-up between the USSR and the United States.

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