Airlift Memorial

Luftbrückendenkmal – © visitBerlin.de / Koch

The Tempelhof Airport is a piece of Berliner history: already, the stiff, monumental architecture reveals the mark of the Third Reich, whose largest completed building project was the airport. The huge building qualifies as the fifth largest in the world. In 1948/49, when the Soviet Union blocked all roads to the West sectors, in order to starve the city, Tempelhof became the lifeline of West Berlin. The neighbouring Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückendenkmal) that the folk named “hunger rake” is a commemoration for the “Rosinenbomber” named airplanes and their pilots. The Americans and British supplied the city for a period of 13 months on the airway, with food, fuel, and everything else that was necessary for daily life. In the end of October 2008, the airport closed its flight operations.