How did the Berlin Crisis affect the Cold War up to 1961?

"There are many people in the world who really don't understand-or say they don't-what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!" This quote by John F. Kennedy just emphasizes why was Berlin was one of the most important issues and factors during the Cold War. Already second Berlin crisis during the years of 1958 until 1961 didn't change the Cold war rapidly, but it had affected it in way of relationships of the Western allies with Russia and the FRG, but also the relationship between two German states (the FRG and the GDR).

One of the main reasons for the changed relationship between USA and Russia during the Berlin crisis was the presidential election in the USA during this time (8th of November 1960). In these elections, John F. Kennedy had beaten Richard M. Nixon with the closest result until that time, by 0,2%. Replacement of the war veteran, republican, Eisenhower by the young democrat Kennedy meant also the different handling with their biggest opponent, Russia. While strict Dwight Eisenhower was refusing all attempts of Nikita Khrushchev of driving off the Americans from Western Berlin and recognizing the boundaries of East Germany as he demonstrated during the Geneva conference (1959) and Paris summit (1960), John F. Kennedy was trying to lower the tension by searching for common conclusion in case of Berlin and two German states. Orthodox historians such as Winston Churchill and also revisionists would argue, that Kennedy's acting was inappropriate, because from the view of possible repeating of the history, if Kennedy would continue in acting like this, it would be comparable to the Chamberlains appeasement of Hitler in the year of 1939. The appointing of the first democrat, Kennedy, since the presidential time of Herbert Hoover is related with the Berlin crisis, because American people started to realise after the tense period of the Cold War (Korean war, Poland uprising, Hungarian uprising, arm racing...) and especially during the tense arguments over the Berlin question, that it is time for change in way of decreasing this tension and Kennedy was representative of this. The change in the seat of US president during the Berlin crisis is one of the reasons, why it is not controversial that the Berlin crisis changed the relationships between these two superpowers during the Cold war.

Also the relationships between USA and Britain with one of their biggest allies the FRG were influenced by the Berlin crisis. This was caused by the inclination of the FRG more to France than to two Anglo-Saxon countries. This cooperation was also supported by the signing of the Franco-German Treaty of Friendship in Paris (14th January 1963) by De Gaulle (France) and Adenauer (FRG). This situation was created by the concern of Adenauer about the role of the FRG, because he thought that Kennedy is going to betray them by making the second-rate state from them, what was caused by the negotiations of Kennedy with Khrushchev over the West Berlin. The Cold War was influenced by this change in these relationships, because since this moment was beginning for the FRG to become independent country with its own decisions not subordinate to the decisions of the USA and Britain. However, military historians such as John Keagan would argue, that FRG or later on united Germany would be always dependent on the military decisions of the USA, what follows from the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (6th May 1955 in Paris) , where the USA is the leading state.

Last but not least was the change in the relationships between the FRG and the GDR in social but also military way. One of the most important social influences on the relationships between the FRG and the GDR was the construction of Die Berliner Maurer (13th August 1961), which was 155km long and 3,6m high. This wall created because of migration of 3mil refugees from the GDR to the FRG was standing in the middle of the city for 28 years and was dividing Berliners into 2 groups what created a big competition and hatred. This hatred could be seen for example on the slogans and posters of Berliners, such as posters of Ulbrich with the wolf ears paraphrasing the Little red riding hood and saying: "Grossmutter, warum hast du so grosse zahne?" = "Granny, why do you have so big teeth?". The building up the Berlin wall in the 1961 caused the social conflict between 2 parts of the city, which changed the relationships between these 2 countries in the Cold War. Other influences that caused the change in their relationships were the military circumstances during the second Berlin crisis. It was caused by stationing the army in the boundary of these two states, by the USSR but also by the USA, because this was one of the most important strategic areas during the Cold War. The USA didn't remove its army from the FRG since the WWII and the USSR stationed 20% of their army in the GDR during the second Berlin crisis. These social and military circumstances made the relationships between the GDR and FRG tenser after the Berlin crisis, because of the social conflicts in divided Berlin and the using of these states as the military base by two world superpowers.

After the Berlin crisis were influenced mainly the relationships between the two superpowers, but also between the FRG and the GDR. This made more tension in the Cold War, especially in Germany, what was caused by the conflicts between two German states.