Friends Always –
The Legacy of The Berlin Airlift Lives On
Video Greeting from the German Ambassador
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift. The heroic efforts of the United States and her Allies saved more than 2 million men, women and children in Berlin.
Click arrow to watch video greeting from Ambassador Scharioth.
When the Soviet Union closed land transport routes to Allied-occupied West Berlin in 1948, they threatened not only the well-being of 2.2 million Berliners, but also the freedom of Germany’s former capital, located deep within the Soviet zone. To save the people of West Berlin from starving and prevent the Soviet Union from absorbing West Berlin into the communist bloc, the American, French and British forces took decisive action. Day and night, planes landed in an unceasing succession to bring food and fuel to beleaguered West Berlin. Learn more about how this heroic effort to defeat the blockade forged a deep friendship between nations that had been enemies just a few years before.
The story of the Berlin airlift is one of ingenuity, sacrifice and gratitude. It is the story of men and women whose heroic efforts saved a city, and whose lives were shaped by this intense time. Read the stories of a pilot who left a farm in Idaho and found himself flying over the rubble of postwar Germany to bring candy to children and a woman who even decades later remembers the taste of pudding flown into Berlin by Americans after years of privation during the war. Learn from historians who keep the memory of the Berlin airlift alive and US Military officers who continue to uphold the Airlift’s legacy of transatlantic cooperation.
The resolve that the Western Allies and the people of Germany showed during the Airlift was the foundation of a partnership that would eventually bring down the Berlin Wall. Sixty years after the Airlift, Germany has reunited in peace and freedom and the cold war has ended, but new challenges make the transatlantic partnership more crucial than ever. Germany and America stand united in confronting international terrorism, and Germany has honored the humanitarian legacy of the Berlin airlift by working with partners in the EU and beyond to solve crises peacefully.
As one of the greatest humanitarian efforts of all time, the Berlin Airlift stands out as an unparalleled logistical feat and act of human kindness that will live on in the hearts and minds of the German people forever. The Airlift cemented a deep transatlantic bond between all Germans and Americans. It reflects America at its best and is something all US citizens can continue to take deep pride in. Find out more here about special 60th anniversary events taking place in 2008/2009 across the United States as part of the "Friends Always" campaign sponsored by the German Embassy in honor of the heroes in the air and on the ground who overcame the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49.
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