For school classes from 1st to 4th grade
“It was the end of August 1948. Mercedes slipped her hand under the white hens she kept in a small backyard garden of her apartment block. “Dear God, please let them lay eggs,” she whispered as one after another, silver-winged planes thundered overhead.”
This is how the story begins of seven-year-old Mercedes, who lived in West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift in 1948/49, and the American pilot Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen, who came up with something very special for the children in the blockaded city. Margot Theis Raven tells her story in the richly illustrated children's book “Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot”.
The nationwide reading day 2022 has the motto “Unique together”. The story of Mercedes and Gail S. Halvorsen tells of the special relationships between Germany and the USA.
The Allied Museum invites interested primary school classes to this extraordinary reading lesson with 7th grade students from the Gail Halvorsen School at the Allied Museum. Afterwards, the children make their own chocolate parachutes and let them fly from the airlift plane on the museum's outdoor area.
(Program in German)