Video: 'The Berlin Blockade (10m)'

(Thursday, June 24, 1948; during the Cold War) — The Berlin Blockade began today in the multinational occupation of post–World War II Germany as the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ land and water access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control.

The Soviet action followed a decision by the three Western powers (the United States, Britain and France) that they would introduce the new Western Deutsche mark into Berlin in an apparent answer to Russian currency reform.

With only 36 days’ worth of food and 45 days’ worth of coal, the Berlin Blockade prompted the Western Allies to organize the Berlin Airlift, which began two days later.

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