Berlin 1948-1948;A Divided City;By the spring of 1948 the ideological division of Europe into two rival camps was almost complete, except in Germany and the two cities of Vienna and Berlin, where Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States each governed a separate sector. The Potsdam Conference, which had divided Germany among the victorious Big Four into four zones of military occupation, also divided the city of Berlin. Agreements about free access to Berlin, which was deep within the Soviet occupation zone, subsequently were formalized in September 1945, when the four nations concurred on which road and rail lines would be used in supplying areas of the city occupied by the Western Allies. Then, in October, the Allies agreed to the establishment of air corridors across the Soviet zone between Berlin and the Western sectors of Germany. For three years there was free movement along the accepted routes of access to the city.
Germany was the last unanswered question between the United States and the Soviet Union. Throughout the long negotiations of 1946 and 1947, theSoviets had repeatedly shown anxiety over a revivified Germany. Determined to prevent conditions in which extremism might grow again in Germany, the Americans in 1947 wanted to see a revived Germany at the centre of a prosperous Europe.
In his Stuttgart speech of 6 September 1946, James F. Byrnes, then still the US secretary of state, had called for a higher level of industrial activity within Germany, for monetary reform, and for preparations to form a German government. At the Big Four meeting in Moscow in March-April 1947, the Western powers failed to agree on any of these points with the Soviets. The USSR still demanded $10 billion in reparations and joint control of the Ruhr industrial region.
Friction newly stirred by the Marshall Plan put even greater strain on the situation in Germany. The Council of Foreign Ministers met once more in London from 25 November to 15 December 1947.
In January 1948 the British cabinet discussed the situation. Bevin presented a paper that argued for slow movement towards a West German government, and for action on currency reform to undercut the rampant blackmarket. Bevin thought of Britain as an intermediary between the French, who were still fearful of German recovery, and the Americans, who were increasingly frustrated by what they saw as French obstructionism. For the United States, questions of national security were beginning to focus almost exclusively upon the Soviet Union. The French were haunted by an ancient rivalry with Germany and bitter memories of recent defeat and occupation.
On 23 February representatives from the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, along with the United States, met in London to plan for the new West German entity, and for the participation of Germany in the Marshall Plan. News of the Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia added impetus to the urgency for creating this new state..
At a routine Allied Control Council meeting on 20 March 1948, Sokolovsky pressed Clay and his British counterpart, General Sir Brian Robertson, for information about the conference in London - already knowing, of course, exactly what had happened:'When Clay stated that they were not going to discuss the London meetings, Sokolovsky demanded to know what was the point of having a Control Council. To the others' astonishment, the Soviets then got up and, in line behind Sokolovsky, walked out of the meeting, effectively ending the council.
On 12 March, prior to the Soviet walkout, Marshall had informed the British ambassador in Washington that the United States was "prepared to proceed at once in the joint discussions on the establishment of an Atlantic security system." Bevin's dream of committing America to the defence of Europe, which had first been encouraged by the offer of the Marshall Plan, was now becoming a reality, as discussions