Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift in pictures and film
16 min. video on the Berlin Airlift
(With the kind permission of the Berlin State Archives)
(26 photos with the kind permission of the Berlin State Archives)
Chronology of the Berlin Airlift
Download (PDF) a chronological overview of important events during the Berlin Airlift With the kind permission of Dr. Wolfgang Huschke Huschke, Wolfgang Dr.: The Candy Bombers. The Berlin Airlift 1948/49. 2nd edition, Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, S. 299-309, 2008.
The Berlin Blockade and the Airlift of 1948 / 1949
Almost seventy years ago, from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949, the sound of Allied aircraft overhead day and night was audible proof for the people of Berlin that America, Great Britain, and France were standing up to the Soviet blockade that threatened the city’s freedom. Taking a look back at the first Berlin crisis illuminates some basic facts that are fundamental to understanding the political situation in today’s unified city. The four victorious powers had agreed already during World War II to divide Germany into four zones and to make Greater Berlin a quadripartite administrative area. The zones to the west were occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France, while the Soviet Union took the zone to the east. In each of those zones, ultimate authority lay with the zone’s military government. Berlin, located inside the Soviet zone about 180 km from that zone’s western border, was divided into four sectors headed by the city commandants of each occupying power. An Allied Kommandatura made up of the four city commandants was to be jointly responsible for Berlin as a whole. There were serious differences even on the subject of political geography: according to the Soviets, Germany’s capital city was located “on the territory of the Soviet zone” (which later became the GDR), while the Western powers saw Berlin as an area under joint four-power administration that was surrounded by the Soviet zone. ……… (CONTINUE READING)
Download (PDF) another detailed chronology compiled by
Dr. J. Provan and the “Luftbrücke Frankfurt - Berlin 1948-1949 e.V. “
With the kind permission of Dr. John Provan, Kelkheim
and "Lufbrücke Frankfurt - Berlin 1948-1949 e.V.”
