A film titled "Berlin calls on the world" about protests against the Soviet blockade in Berlin, Germany. German civilians on the base of the Victory Column or the Siegessäule (Großer Stern 1 10557 Berlin). People gathered in front of the bomb-damaged Reichstag. Many people gather for a freedom rally in Platz der Republik. German political activist Franz Leopold Neumann addressees the crowd. People applaud. Acting Mayor Friedenberg speaks into a microphone during the rally. Chairman of the City Assembly Dr. Seward speaks that people in East Berlin do not enjoy any freedom. Gustaf Hinch of the Independent Trade Movement speaks. Carl Konnitzer representing street car workers, city assemblyman Rudolph Markovit and Joachim Lipschutz present. Discharged official of the Eastern Sector Ernest Reuter speaks.
Film begins showing ruins of the Bundestag in Berlin, in June, 1948. A tram rides along a street headed toward a tunnel through a destroyed building. Berliners walk about and eat at outdoor tables, enjoying the pleasant weather. On June 26, 1948, the Soviets established a blockade of West Berlin. View of Soviet soldiers in a line at a square in the city. A manufacturing business is seen being adversely affected by the blockade through denial of coal to generate electricity for it. The employees cover the company's equipment and close the business. People jam a corner store fearing a food shortage. Crowds mingle outside the main buildings of the Templehof airdrome. Some men hold a German newspaper announcing Allied intent to supply West Berlin by air. View of an American Army Air Forces C-47 transport plane landing at Templehof. A number of C-47s lined in a circle at the airport field as large trucks offload their cargoes. C-47 taxiing into position. German men climb aboard an open bus to start work at jobs unloading supplies from the aircraft. Views of the men busy with their labors. Glimpse of a "follow me" jeep leading a just landed aircraft to its parking place at night. Images of the workers dimly seen in the semi dark. View of the circular Templehof buildings. A truckload of German workers being carried to their work places. American pilots entering Base operations at Temlehof. Pilots inside Base operations, taking a break while their C-47 is being unloaded. They head out to their airplane to fly back to Frankfurt, Germany for another load of cargo. The climb aboard through the plane's side door. View of C-47 flying with clouds in the background along the Berlin Corridor. Ambulance seen responding to an Airlift aircraft crash. View of aircraft wreckage in a city. It is up side down with landing gear pointing skyward. The wreckage being carted away on a flat bed truck. German citizens gathered in front of a memorial plaque they had put in place. An Army Air Forces Lieutenant and another C-47 pilot look up as the board their plane to watch a four engine C54 transport plane coming in to land. Several views of C-54 transport aircraft in flight overhead. Airlift pilots are seen in a briefing room. Animated map shows Berlin as an "island" in the Soviet zone of occupation, accessible only by three 20mile wide air corridors. Several air bases in the Western zones are shown. Map shows Berlin's three airfields, Templehof, Tegel, and Gatow in the Western sectors, surrounded by a ring of Soviet fields. A line of American C-47s is shown on the map, flying from Wiesbaden airdrome, along a corridor to Berlin, from 9:30 AM until 11:30 AM. At 12:00 Noon the C-54s began flying from Rhein Main air base. At 3:00 PM the C-54s stopped and the C-47s began again. Illustration shows how the aircraft were separated by three minute intervals and a thousand feet in altitude. Closeup of a C-54 pilot in his cockpit as he starts his engines. The plane has "The Air Transport Command" written on its side. Inside the C-54 the flight engineer is seen at his panel performing engine start at the direction of the Aircraft Commander Pilot. View of the pilot in the cockpit and his instrument panel. The aircraft taking off. Views of cargo handling on the ground. Trucks carrying the cargoes to places they are needed in the city. Bread being baked for Berliners. Coal being unloaded from rail cars after being flown into the city, A crane operates in a Western sector coal yard. Smoke rising from some of the restarted factories. German employees punch a time clock. Doctors examine school age children. View of street cars operating on power generated by burning coal. Commercial vehicles operating on airlifted gasoline. Darkness due to power saving at night. But people arriving in the city by subway in the morning. Glimpse of C-54 overhead. Food being prepared and sold in shops. People patronizing a news stand. The damaged Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, with C-54 in flight in far distant background. German workers sweeping the airfield ramp. An officer from Base operations arrives in a jeep to debrief a C-54 crew as a truckload of German workers pulls up to begin unloading their cargo. Crew members get food from a mobile snack bar the meets their airplane. A German worker who knew a pilot gives him a gift of a wind up musical Steiff bear for his child. The two pilots begin dancing to the toy bear's tune. The pilot places the toy bear next to the window in his cockpit. Back home, near Frankfurt, the pilot greets his wife, baby and school age daughter, whom he gives the toy bear. The next day, the pilot walks to the rear of his aircraft while en route to Berlin. He throws little parachutes of candy out a window for the children of Berlin below. Views of the parachutes descending and children rushing to retrieve and unwrap them.
A board of 'Royal Air Force Station Gatow' at the entrance door of a building in Berlin, Germany. Workers stand in front of milk bottle cans. United States Army truck loaded with sacks of flour drives on road.
Joint Allied Control Commission Conference in Berlin,Germany. Joint Allied Control Commission Conference in session to resolve the conflicting economic and political policy. Members of board and representatives of four nations General of the United States Air Force Joseph T. McNarney,Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov and Marshal of France Alphonse Pierre Juin attend conference. United States Secretary of State James Francis Byrnes addresses German civilians on Vital policy at Stuttgart in 1946. U.S. Ambassador Robert P. Murphy,Senators Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg,Matthew Connelly and General Joseph T. McNarney seated at speaker's stand.
Scenes from the Berlin Airlift. Views of transportation facilities shut down by the Soviets in June 1948. Glimpse of the city of Berlin, followed by views of empty railroad lines; barges idled in a canal; parked and silent trolley cars. Next, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft (military version of DC-4) is seen landing in Templehof aerodrome in Berlin. German children stand on a hill watching and waving at another C-54 on final approach to Templehof. A C-54 flying close to buildings on its final approach to the airport, followed by another landing near a line of trucks filled with goods brought in by the airlift. A military truck unloading supplies from C-54, tail number 42-72548, as another C-54 taxis up close behind it. Several C-54 airlift planes taxiing in a line on the Templehof ramp.
Teacher and school children playing amid rubble in Berlin, in the aftermath of World War II. Children receiving food outdoors. Children in a school classroom being given cups of soup by their teacher. In March, 1948, a Soviet soldier is seen lowering their flag from one of four flag poles displaying it, along with flags of the British, American, and French flags. (They no longer wished to share occupation of Berlin with the other Allied powers.) View of Western representatives preparing to issue a new stable currency. Next, the Soviets block all access to West Berlin (the "Berlin Blockade.") Open rail cars filled with coal are brought to a halt in their tracks. Trucks servicing West Berlin are stopped from moving over a highway. West Berlin citizens stand at a fence watching a U.S. Army Air Forces C-47 transport plane flying supplies to them. View from below of a C-54 transport plane descending to land, with supplies, at Templehof airfield in West Berlin. A C-54 taking off to make another supply run. A pallet of coal being offloaded from a C-54. A tram running on restricted schedule. A Berliner planting food in a deserted lot near a demolished building. People assembled in front of the severely damaged Bundestag and in other places surrounded by war torn buildings. Berlin Mayor Ernst Reuter, speaks of seeking assistance from America, England, France, and Italy, to help his city. Closeups of some of the Berliners applauding him. An airlift airplane labeled "Operation Santa Claus" with a soldier dressed like Santa, dispensing wrapped gifts or candy to German children near the plane's doorway. German children can be seen and heard singing "deck the Halls" in English. A soldier dressed as St. Nicholas stands next to one dressed as a Native American Indian. Children sing Martin Luther's hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"). A British Sunderland flying boat, takes off on the Havel River, in Berlin, after delivering supplies to the city. Grateful Berliners surrounding American pilots. Children run in a street carrying a large model of an airplane to simulate the Berlin airlift. Children playing "airlift" on a sidewalk. An airlift plane crashed and burning in a residential section of Berlin. German fire fighters battle the flames with hoses. A C-54 airlift plane descending to land with its gear extended. Scene at midnight, May 2, 1949, as the barriers isolating Berlin are raised, as the Soviets promised free and improved access to Berlin. People waving flowers as trucks once again move into the city. But Communists are seen violently storming the Greater Berlin City Hall in the Eastern Sector of the city. Non-Communist deputies in the Eastern Sector are forced to meet in West Berlin, where they meet without being molested. View of the Berlin Logo (Bear). Free election vote being deposited in a ballot box. Animated map shows how Berlin was cut in two, separating East Berlin from West Berlin.