1948 Gatow Air Disaster - Historical Background

Historical Background

The historical backdrop of the air disaster was the intensifying clash over the future of Berlin and Germany. At the end of World War II, the Allied Powers agreed to divide and occupy Germany, including the capital Berlin. Through a series of agreements it was decided to divide Berlin into four sectors: the Americans, British and French shared the western half of Berlin, while the Soviets occupied East Berlin. The division of Germany placed Berlin well inside the Soviet zone of occupation and supplies to West Berlin had to be brought in either overland or by air from the American, British and French zones in the western half of Germany. Germany was jointly governed by the wartime allies through an Allied Control Council, which periodically met to coordinate events and discuss the future of Germany, while Berlin was jointly governed by the Allied Kommandatura. In 1947, a tense diplomatic and military standoff began to unfold between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union over the future of Germany. The Americans and Western European allies wanted to include West Germany in the Marshall Plan, an economic plan to rebuild Europe after the devastation of the war. The Soviets perceived the Marshall Plan as the foundation for an anti-Soviet alliance and pressured the Americans, British and French to back down. On 20 March 1948, the Soviet representative walked out of the meeting of the Allied Control Council, and on 31 March 1948, the United States Congress approved funding for the Marshall Plan. On 21 June 1948 the West German Deutsche Mark was introduced in what was to become West Germany, and on 24 June 1948 in the Western sectors of Berlin. Soviet troops began to block the corridor that brought supplies from the western zones of Germany to West Berlin that same day as a direct reaction to the unilateral introduction of western currency into West Berlin. In response, an increased number of planes brought supplies by air from west Germany to Tempelhof airfield in the American sector and Gatow airfield in the British sector of Berlin. At the same time Soviet military aircraft began to violate airspace in West Berlin and harass, or what the military called "buzz", flights in and out of West Berlin. Despite the danger of flying in such conditions, civilian aircraft continued to fly in and out of Berlin.