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.
Speaking before United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) in its first meeting in June 1946, Bernard Baruch proposes international control of all atomic energy -- the so-called Baruch Plan. Low level aerial view of ruined post World War 2 European city. Goods including heavy equipment, locomotives, being loaded aboard ships to aid in the postwar recovery of Europe (The Marshall Plan). Workers in Western Europe making use of Marshall Plan materials to rebuild their national infrastructures. West European farmers restoring agriculture. View from overflying light airplane of parts of postwar Berlin in 1948. Blocked roads and empty railroad tracks leading from East Germany to West Germany, blocked by the Soviet Union. Barge traffic at standstill due to Soviet actions. U.S. C-54 transport aircraft flying supplies into West Berlin (The Berlin Airlift) during the Soviet blockade of that city. West Berlin citizens watching U.S. transport aircraft bringing fuel, food and other essentials into the isolated city. A C-54 flying low over empty railroad lines, as it prepares to land in West Berlin. Supplies offloaded from a DC-3 ( AKA C-47 or British Dakota) equipped with unusual set of rear cargo doors. Supplies being moved on Tegel Airport with many C-54 aircraft in the background. Numerous C-47 aircraft operating at Tempelhof airport. An East German official opening a barricade as Soviet blockade of West Berlin ends on May 12, 1949, and supply trucks begin to move over roads again. Flags of Western nations flying on high flagpoles. Glimpse of Allied warships underway during the Cold War. Formation of P-38 Lightning aircraft in flight overhead. NATO troops marching and NATO armor on parade. Flashes of heavy artillery firing at night. Korean refugees moving South in 1950 with the outbreak of the Korean War. View of UN Security Council meeting in the absence of Soviet representative. U.S. tanks firing guns and American infantrymen in conflict with North Korea in Korean War. American wounded on stretchers.Delegates of both North and South Korea signing the Korean Armistice Agreement in P'anmunjŏm, on July 27, 1953. A rocket is launched. Images of earth from inside a space craft in orbit. Narrator mentions the first satellite to circle the earth, the soviet Sputnik 1 in 1957. View of Soviet pilots in low pressure altitude chamber. A test subject in an aircraft making a maneuver that allows him to experience "weightlessness." Objects in his cockpit float about. A military rocket launch monitored by arrays of radar. An object being retrieved from space by means of a parachute. A nuclear powered submarine. Rockets on display during a military parade in Red Square, Moscow, the Soviet Union. A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber taxiing. More views of rockets seen during a Soviet military parade in Red Square, Moscow.
Berlin blockade to be lifted. Public and press gathered outside United States Mission building to the United Nations in Lake Success New York, USA. Inside the building, Russian and American dignitaries and UN representatives negotiate an end to the blockade. Closeups of the negotiators, including American diplomat Philip Jessup, Soviet diplomat Yakov Malik, and Sir Alexander Cadogan and Jean Chauvel, the United Nations permanent representatives from England and France, respectively. During the talks, Russia agrees to lift blockade from Berlin, Germany, via the Jessup-Malik Agreement. Dignitaries leave after the conference concludes. A railroad yard in Germany with rail cars filled with coal and other supplies, but idle due to the blockade. View of a busy city street in Berlin and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the distance. German pedestrian and vehicular traffic in Berlin.
A woman dubbed "Mrs. Dynamite" supervises demolition of war-scarred buildings in Berlin following World War 2. She sits with another woman and a man as they make dynamite sticks. A man arranges dynamite sticks on a table. He sprays the sticks in a casket. Mrs. Dynamite and her team walks into a destroyed building. She places the sticks into a wall. She emerges from the building and pushes the detonation plunger. The building collapses due to the explosion. Smoke and rubble due to the explosion.
Berlin during Berlin Airlift operations. Streetcars in Berlin enter tunnel. Pedestrians walk on streets. Roads of Berlin darkened during night hours due to power cuts. A Berlin Airlift "Raisin Bomber" airplane flying low over the city at dusk. Headlamps of vehicles on streets during night. People going to work walk up the stairs of a subway in morning hours. Counter girl sells bread and other bakery goods to customers in a bakery shop. Canned goods emptied from a can and weighed in a shop. Citizens gathered around a news stand. A busy market of Berlin. The partially bomb damaged Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, with a plan flying in the background.
Berlin during Berlin airlift operations. A boy runs towards his father and gives him a teddy bear for one of the pilots. The father, an airfield worker gives the teddy to one of the pilots. Pilots approach snack bar on airfield. German labor presents teddy to a pilot who gifts him a pipe. Pilot reaches his home and meets his family. He gifts teddy to his children. A plane in its flight. Pilot walks to a porthole and drops candy by parachute. Children run to get the candies. The plane makes its landing. The airfield worker walk to the pilots and shows them newspaper headlines. Protest meets in Potsdammer Platz. A huge crowd of people assembled. An airplane ready for flight, Pilot observes the radarscope and talks on mike. The plane takes off.