A repost from 2018.
At the time it wasn't known as West Berlin but rather the French,
British and American Zones of Occupation. But the Sov's did cut it off
from from what, less than a year later, May of 1949, was to become West
Germany
As with many crises, this one began with a disagreement over money,
specifically the surprise currency exchange by the Western powers of the
new Deutsche Mark to replace the seriously debased (by the Russians
overprinting) Reichsmark.
We mentioned the currency swap in 2016's "Whoa: India Messes With Currency Big-Time":
Although not as dramatic* as the 1948 German currency reform when 10 Reichsmarks were swapped for 1 Deutsche Mark in the Western zones of occupation, this is still a stunning move....
...*Four days later the Soviets blockaded the city of Berlin to starve and/or freeze the population into submission which led to one of my favorite examples of clear thinking.
More to come as the year progresses. It was a pretty big deal.
