LOOK UPON THIS CITY

Berlin Blockade and Airlift

Author:

Juergen Ast | Karlheinz Eyermann

Director:

Juergen Ast

Commissioning Editors:

Juergen Tomm | Johannes Unger

Duration:

45'

Coproduction:

astfilm productions | SFB | ORB // ARD

The first Berlin crisis, it finally broke apart the Anti-Hitler coalition and was responsible for a permanent conflict between the Western powers and the USSR, that was to last for more than four decades. The quarrel between the allied powers and their political power game, during Stalin's Berlin blockade and the airlift they became most perceptible where the allied powers clashed day after day, in Berlin. And so the former German capitol became the "hot spot" in the Cold War.

When on the 12th of May 1949, the Berlin blockade by the Soviets was declared ended, it seemed to be obvious who was the "loser" and who emerged "victorious". On the one side the Moscow as the "beaten occupier", on the other side the Western powers with their airlift as the "glorious winners". The events that took place at that time, during the years of the Cold War they turned into a legend. But legends carry the inherent danger that the real events and backgrounds are improper simplified and so conserved. For decades the Soviets regard Stalin's blockade of Berlin as a reaction to the "destructive actions" made by the Western powers. But documents from Moscow's secret archives, that not until now became open to the public, reveal the true story of events that led to the first battle on the frontline in the Cold War.