Trade as a Bargaining Tool in the Second Berlin Crisis, 1958–61

Abstract

The second Berlin crisis of 1958–61 marked a turning point in West Germany’s Deutschlandpolitik and Ostpolitik. The use of East-West trade as a bargaining tool to gain concessions from the Soviet Union on the question of German unity and the status of Berlin was part of Adenauer’s ‘policy of strength’. The second Berlin crisis illustrated the failure of this policy.