We will commemorate the berlin air lift this even. First i want to recognize our cosponsors for this event. Deutschelandier. Did i say that right and the allied museum in berlin where our Vice President , our exhibitions and programs Vice President anna slaver is on the advisory board. Anna. I would like to thank you all for your support and coordination in organizing this even this even. At the moment, i would like to introduce the director of the allied museum in berlin. He is in charge currently of the museum which is moving currently from berlin to a hanger at the former airport in berlin, temple hof. A huge complex built in the nazi era. His academic career brought him to washington, d. C. He was a Research Fellow at the United StatesHolocaust Memorial museum working. His latest publication in 2016 dealt with the memorialization of democracy, the history of democracy in museums in memorial sites across germany. Without further ado, i would like to welcome the doctor. Hello. Can i move this up. I think i can move that up a bit. It is nice to be back and to see actually. Thanks that you all came. Thanks chris for the nice introduction. And thanks to your team to host us here in this magnificent building, i have to say, being charged reinventing a museum i really understood what you have achieved here. Congratulations. It is a honor that you have up aa slaver on our advisory board. She will be with us once we create our new museum. I am grateful that ralph is with us. He is a real air lift veteran. It is amazing to have you here tonight. Thanks for coming. Its cordial welcome from us all. I will introduce you shortly. Our event today is part of the campaign of the Foreign Office of germany under the title wonderful together. The allied museum in berlin has also designed a traveling exhibition on the berlin air lift which travelled through parts of the United States. Thanks to the Foreign Ministry for its support for the event today and the traveling exhibition and the reception afterwards. Also thanks to the institute which was our closest partner in making this happen. To put it briefly the berlin air lift is a central part of our permanent exhibition in berlin. We have a huge airplane in front. Which shows british shows the originality of that event. The museum has an expertise on it about 25 years i would say. What is the allied museum. Some people say what is the allied museum. This is a name which has to be explained 25 years after the withdrawal of the troops, of the allied forces from berlin. Our museum was founded sort of two years after the withdrawal as a gesture of gratitude of the german people towards the allied troops, to Great Britain, france, and the u. S. These three countries are members of our museum, so we are a Real International museum. And they sort of steer our fate, lets say n a way. So despite whatever happens in International Relations in our Museum People come together. So we still live as today the transatlantic relations, friendship lieu the years. Hess tree has this potential to tell a positive story and say thats what we have, you never can steal it from us. Our museum is charged to show the merits western allies for berlin and jearlny as a whole. The first exhibition was in 1994. Today our permanent exhibition focuses on the process of how enemies became friends. And you would think what about the russians . They also were allies. There is another museum well in east berlin, right in the beginning and the museum in berlin became a sort of museum in charge well, First Showing the german war in the soviet union. But thats the place where the soviets have their spot, lets say. Our memorial culture is sort of really a process of or a result cold war. We will see how it comes together one day. Our museum is facing several challenges chris costa was saying to face these challenges and become relevant we have to change places because we really want to show our big objects in that huge airport, well, one of the hangers. Still it is a big project. And you really have to see, it is this kind of story that we are telling tonight, really central to the german memorial culture. It is part of the mergial culture in berlin. As you know in germany we focus on the nazi past of the ggr, the sdgd membership. So thats what i want to say. Let me introduce you to the guests tonight. Officers, professor hope harrison, shes an associate professor of history and International Affairs at the George Washington university here in washington, d. C. She is the author of her new book, after the berlin wall, memory and the making of the new germany 1989 to the present which has just been published this week. Congratulations. Her previous work includes the book driving soviets to the wall which was also published to wide acclaim in german translation. Doctor is a member of our board at the museum. We owe her already a lot. She will be with us reinventing the museum. Show has appeared on cnn, the history channel, the bbc and other channels. Ep how, it is nice to have you with us tonight. Ben costa, a curator at the allied museum and our expert on the berlin air lift. He has published several articles on this topic and participated in countless discussions. He gave several lectures on the air lift in italy. Hes one of the founding curators of our museum and created several exhibitions. Ben was in charge of creating the traveling exhibition i just mentioned. And managed also its journey. I can tell you thats a really hard job. You never though something gets broken, so you have to manage it from germany. Through his long lasting experience he knows several veterans. He got in contact with ralph and he just said yes, i am coming. We were really happy. Ralph, it is a special honor to have you here. You are already in your 90s, in i might say that. Some hints on ralph. Ralph joined the u. S. Army air force soon after he graduated from high school in New Hampshire in june 1946. He became a c54 mechanic and was transferred to the 520th air transport group at west dover f dfb to work as a transport aircraft. On the 26th of july 1948 he was selected for 90 days tdy in frankfurter north the support the german aleft effort. He performed 20hour shifts. Near the end of october 1948 he was assigned to flying status at a c54 Flight Engineer sitting in the actual plane and caring for its functionality in between the pile and the copilot. If you have ever been in such an historic airplane, it is not like an airplane to the. It is a challenge. He was at age 21 during these days. Today he is active in the berlin airmens Veterans Association and he is going to meet his friends soon, tomorrow. Thats the information. Ralph. The floor is now yours, hope. Thanks a lot. [ applause ] thank you. Its wonderful to be here. I am honored to be here, particularly with mr. Ralph dion, and very happy always to be with my colleague from the allied museum in berlin. Majoringen and berndt and anna as well. Before we have a high point of the evening with mr. Dion. Why was berlin the center of the world, the center of the cold war. At the end of world war ii, the four allies, u. S. , soviet union, Great Britain and france, decided their treatment of germany hadnt worked so well. Germany rose up again and started world war ii. So this time, they decided they needed boots on the ground in germany, which they arent done after world war i. So they established four occupation zones in germany. These were not meant to be permanent. Germany was not meant to be divided. This was just to keep germany defeated and sort of figure out what would come next. Not only was the country as a whole divided into four occupation zones, but the capital, berlin, was also divided into four sectors. The country was run by the allied control council with four military governors from each of the four powers. But there was a deep contradiction embedded in the original plans which said that germany must be treated as a whole. Everybody hs h to treat their zone of germany the same. But on the other hand, each zonal commander could make his own decisions. So you know what happened there. The cold war began. They had different views. They often could not agree. So berlin was also run by these four military commanders. Now, the key thing to understand all of this is the geography of berlin. Berlin the city was 110 miles deep inside of the soviet occupation zone. Hence, for the u. S. , britain and france to get from their zones of germany to their sectors of berlin, they had to get across 110 miles of the soviet occupation zone. And thats where our dramatic story really begins. Germany, after world war ii and the capital city was in ruins, particularly the cities which had been bombed by the allies. Of course, germany had invaded and occupied many countries. No country suffered more than the soviet union under josef stalin which lost 27 Million People in world war ii fighting the brunt of the war for the first three years on their own. So you can imagine how stalin felt about germany. His policy was one of revenge and to definitely keep germany weak. He also sought to take as much as he could in terms of reparations out of his zones of germany and berlin. President harry truman increasingly was worried about soviet communist power in germany and in eastern europe, worried about the Economic Situation in germany and europe and increasingly feeling that we needed to be concerned with the soviets more than the germans. Winston churchill felt the same way, coming to the u. S. In 1946, giving his famous speech in missouri where he coined the term, iron curtain, saying theres an iron curtain descending in europe with communism and lack of freedom on one side and democracy and freedom on the other side. Britain play aid very important role. The british zone of germany was primarily industrial. And britain was suffering after world war ii. So in addition to trying to pick themselves up again and get their own economy going, they also had to be feeding the germans in their zone of germany, because there wasnt much agricultural land. Pretty quickly, the Prime Minister and foreign minister felt that they needed to let the germans in their zones start creating their industries again so that they could produce goods for export and make money to get the food to feed themselves instead of british taxpayers doing that. As the cold war developed, the secretary of state visited Joseph Stalin in the spring of 1947, in moscow, in the kremlin to talk about germany and the state of europe. He left the meetings very worried that stalin said he wasnt worried about the dire situation in europe. They should be patient. Marshall thought he was waiting for things to get so bad in europe that they would all vote for communists. Marshall didnt want that to happen. So he came back to the u. S. And talked to president truman about helping germany and europe recover from world war ii with massive marshall aid. Ultimately, 12 billion given to 16 countries to help them recover. Now we come to what would begin the crisis in berlin. In order for the german zones to be able to recover and profit from marshall aid, they needed to get rid of the old currency and institute the new Deutsche Mark so the currency would actually be worth something and the economy could be stabilized. The soviets said, this is not allowed. You cant introduce your own currency. Were supposed to be all be treating our germany the same. We said, well, you havent been treating your zone the same. You are spon sosoring the commut party. You are taking things out of the zone. You are not following the rules either. Stalin was cognizant that the west had become so suspicious of what he was up to that the west was beginning to plan for the creation of a separate west german state. To stop that, stalin decided to blockade the land and water routes to berlin. It was the brits with bevin and general clay in the United States who decided to respond to stalins blockade of berlin with an airlift. No one thought this was going to work to be able to supply the 2. 5 million west berliners who were surrounded by the soviet communist zone to supply 2. 5 million berliners from the air with food, with coal in the winter, with books for schools, with clothes, with furniture, everything you can imagine. No one thought this would work. But increasingly, it showed that it was going to work. The berliners under the mayor came together in a mass demonstration on september 9, 1948. 300,000 people came. The mayor announced, we cannot be bartt bartered, we cannot be negotiated, we cannot be sold out to the soviets. Whoever would surrender the city, whoever would surrender the people of berlin would surrender himself. That showed how the morale of the west berliners was to fight this blockade. The u. S. Called the airlift operation vittles. The brits called it operation plainfare. The germans called it the air bridge. Again, to remind you, deep inside the soviet zone these planes were flying in three air corridors from west germany from the western zones of germany to the western sectors of berlin. Here are some amazing numbers to tell you what went on. At the beginning of the airlift, they were delivering 5,000 tons a day. By the end of the airlift, a year later, it was 8,000 tons a day. On Easter Sunday in 1949, there were 13,000 tons of supplies brought to berlin. A total of over 278,000 airdrops. U. S. Crews with people like ralph flew over 189,000 flights to help the west berliners. At the height of the airlift, one plane landed every 45 seconds at temple hawk airport. Here you see the three airports in the western sectors. Tempelhof was in the main airport where our allied museum is hoping to move. You see gatow to the left in the british sector. During the airlift, a third airport was built. The airport that is now still used as the main airport in the western part of berlin, Tegel Airport was built during this airlift. One of the most beloved parts of the airlift for children is that some people, in particular the pilot gail halvorsen, became known as the candy bomber. He dropped parachuted es of ca who would write to him and give him their address, next time, come over my street. I didnt get any candy last time. Angela merkel honored halvorsen on the 60th anniversary of the airlift. I know ralph will see him tomorrow in kansas at the reunion for the airlift. Here outside of the airport is the monument to the airlift showing the three air corridos. S stalin finally realized he had failed in what he wanted. And on may 12, after almost a year, he stopped the blockade. The allies continued the airlift actually up until september 30th. So the anniversary will be next week, because they wanted to really have stockpiles of goods in west berlin in case the soviets did it again. But it was a massive failure. It was, in fact, one of the biggest Foreign Policy failures stalin ever made, because he got the exact opposite of what he set out to do. While the airlift was still going on, nato was founded. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization founded right here in washington, d. C. A separate state of west germany, a democratic capitalist state, was founded in may of 1949. Two of the things stalin most wanted to forestall, a separate west german state and some western military alliance, instead he provoked by this blockade which so brilliantly was countered by the american and british airlift. I will close with this final slide that the berliners ever since then have felt a very strong solidarity to the United States. And after september 11, 2001, when we suffered the terrorist attacks, tens of thousands of berliners went out on the streets in solidarity with the u. S. Mourning for our loss and saying that they would stand with us the way we stood with them during the berlin blockade and airlift. Thank you very much. [ applause ] so good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Im glad we can be guests of the new International Spy museum, this new, fascinating location here in washington today. Some of you might ask themselves, why is the topic of the berlin airlift presented in a spy museum . Well, first of all, this was the beginning of the cold war and second, i would like to emphasize that there is a connection between the history of the berlin airlift and the espionage and reconnaissance. I will explain this connection now for a minute before i start my lecture. During the year 1945, the four powers produced a huge amount of agreements. One of them was the result of soviet wish for an agreement because they want to prevent uncontrolled air traffic over the soviet zone. So in november, they were talking about a treaty concerning the creation of a system of air corridors to be used for flights. There are zones in germany. In 1946, this 14page agreement was signed. It established the installation of three air corridors from the western zones to and from berlin. All three were limited in length, width and height. So they were physical corridors. Here is the flight line. See the corridors. One is from the north, from the big air fields in the american zone. The other two corridors lead into the british zone. This is the way of the american and british were entering the city by air. The americans started to operate planes with good long range cameras on those corridor flights. This reconnaissance operation continued during the berlin airlift and didit did not only continue but was getting bigger. The threat of a war in 1948 was bigger than in 1946. They wanted to know what is going on in the soviet zone. Second, it was much easier to fill in those reconnaissance planes in the flight routine of the airlift. In a daily bunch of approximately 500 planes inside the corridor to berlin, you would not notice there is one single plane just taking photos and not even landing in berlin. Also, those reconnaissance flights in those three corridors to berlin over the gdr territory continued weekly for more than 40 years until germanys unification in 1990. As you can see, theres a connection