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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs
April 25, 2008
Famous 1948 Airlift Hangs Over Berlin Vote on Tempelhof
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Lifeline: Planes are unloaded at Tempelhof during the 1948/49 Berlin Airlift. © picture-alliance/dpa |
Tempelhof Airport is a powerful symbol to Berliners, even though its economic significance has declined virtually to nil.
Germany’s first airport is still a place of architectural superlatives. But the special place it occupies in the hearts of many older citizens has more to do with its role in saving West Berlin from slow strangulation by Soviet forces after the war.
After the Soviets closed the land approaches to West Berlin in June 1948, US and British aircraft began landing in rapid succession at Tempelhof, bringing in 2.3 million tons of food and other supplies.
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Vote: "Yes for Tempelhof" mobile placards on display outside of the airport on Friday (April 25) in Berlin. © dpa - Report |
The 15-month operation saw 2 million trapped West Berliners through a hard winter and clearly demonstrated US political commitment at the start of the Cold War.
At its height, "Operation Vittles" saw planes landing virtually every 30 seconds - 277,000 flights in all - in a logistical success that startled the Soviets and took even the Allies by surprise.
West Berliners dubbed the planes, mostly US C54 Skymasters, "Rosinenbomber" - Raisin Bombers - and began to see the Allies as friends and protectors, rather than occupiers.
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Airport: A panoramic view of Tempelhof. © dpa - Report |
On Sunday (April 27), hundreds of thousands of Berliners are to vote in a referendum on whether Tempelhof should be kept open despite repeated political decisions and court rulings that it must close.
The great arc of the complex was once the largest building in the world, and is now said to be the third-largest. But its runways are too short for most commercial purposes, and Berliners in the suburbs that now surround the airport are no longer prepared to put up with the noise.
By the mid-1970s, Tegel Airport to the north had become West Berlin's main airport, and after the Wall came down in 1989, Schoenefeld, built outside the city limits by the former communist government, was ready to take over. Now Berlin is building a major new airport on the Schoenefeld site, but its approval was contingent on shutting down both Tegel and Tempelhof. (dpa)
Links:
 The Mother of All Airports (Spiegel Online International)
 Friends Always - The Legacy of the Berlin Airlift Lives On (Germany.info)
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