Just you were enemies, then supplied the United Kingdom and the United States, millions of Germans with food. In the 90 minutes they flew to West Berlin. The “air bridge” was maintained for up to 12. May 1949.
Because they dropped the food in part, also, called many of the aircraft “raisin bombers”
As Britain’s Prince Charles met last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he stressed the close friendship, the “will and must”, since their countries “have experienced so much together”.
Close Friendship? The looked to the end of the Second world war very differently: The relationship stood on shaky feet. But then the Soviet Union, locked at 24. In June 1948, all Land and water connections to West Berlin and used Hunger as a weapon. It was the beginning of the Berlin Blockade. On the other hand, the United Kingdom and the United States began – despite all the tensions, relief supplies to West-Berlin by plane. The Foundation stone for the “air bridge” was laid, a historical bailout.
What happened then is a story that would, in the opinion of the historian Bernd von Kostka from the allied Museum in Berlin today: “food and Were flying in the capital of the former enemy that had just bombed London and Coventry, and in the home, the care of their own people, rationing is a very special Situation,” said Kostka. “To be honest, this is a Situation that would repeat, no country in the world today.”
Berlin Tempelhof airport: Here are the foods flyer arrived
Hunger: A Weapon
After the end of the war, great Britain was the occupier in the North-West of Germany and thus had the responsibility to provide the of Starvation threatened the German population.
In July 1946, the British Labour government introduced rationing of bread, a measure that had not experienced the country during the war. The justification of the government: In Germany, the people were “dangerously close to the Starvation”, you have to prevent. As Susan Cooper says in the book “Age of Austerity”. Next to bread, bacon, poultry, rice, eggs, and fat ratio were exposed.
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70 Years Of Air Bridge
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Meeting bridges the generations, to the air-anniversary
The decision was probably not even necessary, because the rations were much smaller than what the people ate, in the meantime, usually. In a news Film from the year 1946, the tried, the “truth find out, whether Germany is starving”, and were shown to fed on the men and women in long horn, the siechten. In the next scene, a British Baker in his Shop asked her, “What about us?” In the same movie, the commander of the British Zone, Sir Sholto Douglas said that the support of Germany, it was the right strategic decision: “What is happening in this part of Germany is very important for you.”
Shifting alliances
A piece made for the Western allies to assert themselves against the Soviets in the Cold war. It also meant to convince the Public in Germany and in the home that they are former enemies now friends.
“It was an important step to say: If we want to build a democracy, we must ensure that democracy is able to feed the people,” historian of Kostka. This is because: “democracy in Germany was still at the very beginning.”
The Berlin Blockade
Soon after the Soviets had interrupted access to the of great Britain, France and the US-controlled sectors to Land, Rail and water, in June 1948, died in West Berlin in the light. The Plan of the Eastern bloc, it was, the people starve, the support for the allies to undermine and expel it from the divided city.
350,000 people protest in June 1948 against the Blockade
However, the allies could claim that their reaction to the Blockade: the ambitious plan of salvation by air. Had the idea to Waite, the British air force officer Reginald. “It was in 1948, literally unthinkable, to supply a city of more than two million inhabitants, only by air. Waite was the first man who thought this was possible”, tells the story of Kostka.
A bridge in the sky
Around the clock, the USA and the UK food and fuel flown in to West Berlin. The French, who had suffered the direct consequences of the German occupation of stark, soon joined. More than 25 British civilian aircraft were flying in 90 seconds. They started in all the three allied sectors, and delivered daily at least 5,000 tons of food and fuel.
Berlin kept up the Blockade, 318 days, before the Soviets realized how far they had fallen in the View of the Public, and ended the Blockade on 12. May 1949.