From airlift to freedom: Berlin's mayor remembers

By Eberhard Diepgen
Governing Mayor of Berlin

Flying is, without doubt, among the great marvels of our century. What began a hundred years ago has become a safe way of travel that is taken for granted today. Half a century ago, however, millions of people in a beleaguered city were dependent on supplies from the air under conditions quite inconceivable to us today.

I still remember those days very well, even though I was only 6 years old when the airlift started. We used to live in Spandau, not far from Gatow airport, and day and night we could hear and see the supply planes that landed there. Like all boys in Berlin, I could tell the difference between Dakotas and Skymasters, and I also knew the seaplanes, which landed just beyond Spandau on the Havel and Wannsee lakes. Of course, we schoolboys were fascinated by this spectacle.

However, I also remember the supply shortages, the power cuts and food rationing. One day my brother lost our food ration card. For days we really had trouble at home, because the card could not be replaced. Again and again electricity and gas supplies were cut, also at Christmas in 1948. If you experienced that, you will never forget it. You will always be grateful for those things the following generations take for granted. My generation, in any case, was decisively influenced by the airlift.

The airlift represents an important chapter in the history of our century, but it has also rendered inestimable service to the concept of freedom. It kept alive the hope of a better future. The Berliners were prepared at that time to defy the siege, the hostage-taking. Without the heroic and, above all, prompt action of the Americans, and their readiness to hold out a hand to the defeated Germans, steadfastness would not have been possible for the Berliners.

Today, the Berliners on both sides of the Brandenburg Gate live in freedom. This is thanks to the pilots, the navigators, the wireless operators and cabin personnel who supported the Berliners 50 years ago. Those brave men who lost their lives for the freedom of Berlin remain unforgotten. We remember the dead -- and we thank the veterans for their heroic action.

However, the airlift did more than preserve the freedom of Berlin. It sent a signal of hope for a world without hunger, violence and war. It enabled a dream to grow among the peoples of central and Eastern Europe of a life in which they would be free to make their own decisions, and this dream came true in the peaceful revolution of 1989.

This was anticipated by Ernst Reuter, the mayor, who lent his voice to Berlin's determination to achieve freedom. In May 1949 he said: "The lifting of the blockade is the first and most important step toward the guaranteeing of a real peace in Europe". Even though the path was longer than expected, this sentence became reality 40 years later.