Berliners

This bit is my personal view, feel free to  disagree*

What did the Airlift mean to the average German?

For those 'down the zone' in what was to become West Germany probably not very much. Life was very hard in the aftermath of the war and people had little time for much else than their own existence. The occupation was to be endured. what happen elsewhere didn't matter.

But for Berlin? A city recently seen as the Dark heart of the enemy by many of the air and ground crews that were fighting to supply its inhabitants with food, fuel and hope. The same people were responsible for  Belsen, Auschwitz and all the other horrors, why care?

 It would have been wrong to write off the Germans as savages however. Traditionally Germany was a cultured land of thinkers and scholars. But with the destruction of the ordered world of the 'Kaiser Zeit' at the end of World War One, the humiliation of the Versailles treaty and  the chaos and hyper-inflation of the 1920s the way was open for the political extremists of both left and right to make their bid for power.   The eventual winners were the far right National Socialist Party, whose  perverted ideology of Racial superiority led to the worst acts of genocide ever committed.

Although many saw the arrival of Russian troops as liberation from the Wagnerian nightmare Hitler's plans had created the wave of terror unleashed upon Germany  quickly destroyed any hope for a better life under the Soviets. Prisoners of War were rounded up and shipped off to Russia, many never to be seen again, the last ones weren't released until 1955. Many women were raped, some repeatedly.  There was wide scale looting and murder - all sanctioned by High Command as a 'reward' to the 'Glorious Red Army' and to pay the Germans back for atrocities on the Eastern  front.  

Having defeated the great tyranny It was up to the Allies to rebuild the shattered Germany, if she was worth saving at all. Britain was an exhausted Colonial power, barely in a fit state to look after herself. France was France, weary and broke with little sympathy for the Germans.  Germany in general had to decide - did the future mean reliance on the Russians or the Americans? Would the Americans even stay in Europe after the war?

When the Western Allies finally entered Berlin several months after the end of the War in Europe to take up occupation duties they were treated as a liberation force in their sectors. This must have been very confusing for the veterans of the British Army, some having fought from Dunkirk via the western desert and Italy into Germany. Shortly after the Western Allies took up residence in their sectors the Russians  threw up sudden and unexpected difficulties  cutting power, heating and water at random in an attempt to intimidate the Allies.

Even in the early days relations between the Allies were fragile. The Soviet sector was a place where 'inconvenient politicals' vanished. While all the Allies espoused democratic ideals the Soviets were determined that it wasn't going to be practiced in their sector. Even before the end of the war plans were in place to put 'their' people into positions of authority.  

 President Truman was reluctant at first to see the growing Soviet menace, despite Churchill's constant warnings. However by 1947 the evidence was all around, the Russians were attempting to take over in Eastern Europe  and Berlin was no longer going to be shared with the Allies. The Four Powers agreement fell apart  and the Russians sealed the land and water routes into and out of Berlin to force the Allies out. 

Berliners were and are different,  Cynical as many city dwellers are, hard and and independent of mind. Historically Berlin had never been a Nazi city. having got rid of Hitler they were unwilling to replace him with Stalin,  a 'Brown menace' for a 'Red one'. They were not easy to intimidate, if the Allies held on so would the Berliners.

And the Allies did hold on, sometimes by the skin of their teeth.  The imposable was done, a city was supplied by air. Not comfortably, food was always scarce and power for heating and cooking was in short supply. The people suffered but didn't give in. The planes became a symbol of better future. The deprivations became part of the City's black humor and united people. The Berliners and the French, Americans and British in Berlin went from being the occupied and occupiers to being Allies against tyranny. 

'Better POM than Frau Komm'

*I didn't mean this to become a political diatribe, sorry.