resent the wishes of the whole German people,
whether living in the East or the West. The
Russians could do little but respond in kind by
turning their zone into a communist captive
German Democratic Republic. It was ostracised
by the West.
The changes in West Germany, with her tem-
porary capital, Bonn, marked a giant step forward
in the recovery of sovereignty. The Basic Law,
West Germany’s constitution, came into force on
24 May 1949. In August a general election was
held and Adenauer and the CDU unexpectedly
emerged the winners. In September, Theodor
Heuss was chosen by parliament to become
the first president and Adenauer was elected chan-
cellor; so began his long years in office, which
came to be known as the Adenauer era. On 21
September Western military occupation ceased.
The Berlin blockade was the first great drama of
the post-war years. It ended with a stunning
diplomatic victory, a triumph for power and good
sense. The air corridors between the West and the
beleaguered city were crowded with a continuous
stream of US and British transport planes carry-
ing everything to the city to keep it alive, includ-
ing coal. It was the Germans in Frankfurt,
Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin-Tempelhof,
loading and unloading the planes landing every
few minutes, who were the unsung heroes of the
day. Freddie Laker joined the fun and was later
able, on the profits earned, to found an airline.
The Soviets were careful too to avoid an ultimate
showdown. Soviet air-control towers provided
essential guidance along the twenty-mile-wide
corridors and some services located in the Eastern
sectors of Berlin were kept functioning for the
Western sectors. Before it was all over, 2.3 million
tons of food and supplies had been flown to the
city at a cost of $224 million. At the same time
the hated Germans began to be transformed in
Western eyes into steadfast, courageous, freedom-
loving Berliners. In fact, whether in the East or
West, the German people had little choice; but
credit should not be denied to a number of
sincere democratic leaders such as the charismatic
socialist mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, whose
moral authority symbolised the resistance of the
democratic Western ideals against the brutal chal-
lenges of totalitarianism.
The Berlin crisis painfully demonstrated to
Stalin the West’s determination to contain the
Soviet Union and to resist pressure. The Soviets
had miscalculated. It was also the first crisis that
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1948: CRISIS IN EUROPE – PRAGUE AND BERLIN 373
They said it could not be done. The allied airlift enables a whole city – Berlin – to survive. © Bettmann/Corbis
