When Khrushchev’s December 1961 deadline passed without incident, the conflict over the future of the city receded with no further Soviet agitation concerning a treaty. A major outcome of the Berlin crisis was a new understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Nearly 700 aircraft were used during the Berlin Airlift, more than 100 of which belonged to civilian operators. By May 1949, when the Soviets lifted the blockade, the crisis in Berlin had hardened the East/West division of Germany and all of Europe, ushering in the Cold War in earnest.

The flood of refugees to the West stopped : the wall kept East Berliners “at home”. East German soldiers obeyed orders to “shoot to kill” anyone trying to cross into West Berlin. The Western powers considered it as a prison wall. Berlin remained a source of tension between the two blocks till the end of the Cold War.

In 1948, the Soviet Union sparked a crisis in the city by cutting off land access between West Germany and West Berlin, necessitating a year-long airlift of supplies to the stranded citizens before the Soviets reopened the passageways. …

The Berlin crisis of 1948-9 was ultimately the fault of Stalin. Despite having legitimate concerns to the re-emergence of a capitalist Germany, heightened by American anti-communist action such as the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, his actions far outweighed the circumstances.

What impact did the airlift have on the people in Germany and Eastern Europe? It gave the people in Germany a sense that they were not on their own. Great Britain flew around 277,000 thousand flights into Berlin, carrying over 2.3 million tons of supplies into the city.

The Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy responded by placing a naval blockade, which he referred to as a “quarantine,” around Cuba. He also demanded the removal of the missiles and the destruction of the sites. But the end of Cuban Missile Crisis did little to ease the tensions of the Cold War.

Berlin however was, and is, the political and cultural capital of Germany and as such was deemed such an important city that despite its location (Deep in the Russian Zone of Germany) it too should be split into 4 parts in order that the most important city in Germany would not be controlled entirely by one power.

Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the …

Dozens Cross the Border in Tunnels Tunnels were another daring mode of escape, and people on both sides attempted to dig them. Many were left unfinished when their makers were ratted out; others failed because of difficult conditions.

1. 10 Great Escapes Across The Berlin Wall. By Charlotte Alfred.
2. DIVERTED A TRAIN. East German police use picks and shovels to tear up railroad tracks used by Harry Deterling to drive a train into West Berlin on Dec.
3. STOLE A TANK.
4. IN A CONVERTIBLE.
5. SWAM.
6. ON AN AIR MATTRESS.
7. BY ZIP LINE.
8. IN FAKE SOVIET PLANES.

The Berlin Wall divided the city in half with no regard to families being split or what would be available on each side of the wall. For decades a wall and guards prevented people from choosing which side they wished to live on and kept families separated. For Berlin, it also meant radically different economic systems.

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