The Berlin Airlift: Empathy and Propaganda

Key Figures of the Airlift

Visual Thinking Strategy

What do you see in this photo?

Gen. Lucius Clay, Military Gov. of Germany

Plans airlift of goods and supplies into West Berlin using military aircraft. Remembered for ordering and maintaining the airlift, which would ultimately last 324 days, ending on September 30, 1949. He resigned his post days after the May 12, 1949 lifting of the blockade.

Mayor of West Berlin, Ernst Reuter

Became their spokesman and leader, a symbolic figure of the "Free Berlin". Memorable is Reuter’s speech in front of the burned-out Reichstag building on 9 September 1948, facing a crowd of 300,000 where he appealed to the world not to abandon Berlin.

Colonel Gail Halvorsen

Analyze & Synthesize

Hearts and Minds

Capitalism vs. Communism

After WWII, Germany is divided into four zones as the four major powers work to rebuild and ensure peace.

Berlin Sectors

• Americans empathized with the people of West Berlin, understanding their want for freedom and choice just like in America.

• Because this battle between capitalism and communism was not a military battle but a Cold War, the only way to win was by showing Berliners that one style of economics was better than the other.

• With rationing of goods in place, simple luxuries like chocolate and chewing gum became highly desired goods, especially for children.

• Necessities like flour, coal, and salt were flown in to West Berlin on aircraft along two corridors going in and one corridor heading out. These air corridors to Berlin were guaranteed under the Yalta Conference.

Each group of four has a different photo or political cartoon.

Briefly analyze your given photo/cartoon on your own, making notes on it or highlighting important points.

As a group, share your thoughts with one another.

As a group answer the question(s) regarding your political cartoon/photo on the exit slip provided using lesson/chapter vocabulary where it applies.

Propaganda

Western Powers unite their three Berlin sectors into one and introduce new German currency on June 20th, 1948 with new notes called Deutsche Marks.

In order to win over the people of West Berlin, both sides employed their own propaganda campaigns through radio, newspapers, and cartoons to show how their way of running the economy was better.

Soviet radio messages and newsreels claimed that there was no shortage of goods in East Berlin and West Berliners could have access to food and coal if they forfeited their Western ration cards.

With the war against the Germans now over, American companies had to convince the American people (whose taxes were funding things) that the Airlift was worth the money, effort, and risk as an act of containment of communism.

Soviets react with a Blockade of Berlin, cutting off access by roads from the west on June 28th, 1948.

In all, countries contributed to the efforts of the airlift, setting a record that still stands to this day for humanitarian aid. The total cost of the Berlin Airlift was $224 million (2,323,738 tons of food, fuel, machinery, and other supplies). In 2017, the cost would be $229 billion. The Allies could outspend the Soviets.

The Berlin Airlift: Empathy and Propaganda

THANK YOU!