Exhibition
After the total blockade of Berlin by the USSR, it took the British and American forces only 48 hours to organize a perfect Airlift of gigantic dimensions. Starting on June 26, 1948, in an unprecedented action Berlin was supplied mainly with food and medicine as well as coal for current generation. About 13,000 tons were transported per day. Until the end of the blockade on May 12, 1949, approx. 280,000 flights to the Berlin airports of Tempelhof, Tegel and Gatow took place. Faßberg alone recorded up to 450 take-offs and landings per day. The last plane started on August 27, 1949.
“…the memory of the personal efforts of the people during that time and the role Faßberg Airbase played in this gigantic operation must be kept alive,” wrote the former German Minister of Defense Dr. Gerhard Stoltenberg on March 2, 1990, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Airlift Memorial.
Original documents and exhibits contained in three nissen huts and two closed train cars are picturing how American and British planes transported a total of 539,112 tons of coal from Faßberg to Berlin. The efforts of the 5,000 workers housed in a camp in Trauen are likewise not forgotten.
In 1999, the exhibition was completed by one of the original planes used during the Airlift, a Douglas C 47 A Dakota, the so-called FASSBERG FLYER which can be admired at the open-air site of the Airlift Memorial.
Besides, in a fourth nissen hut the exhibition informs about the history of the German Bundeswehr from 1959 until today. Among others, the history of Faßberg Airbase can be learned from the displays “50 Jahre Technische Schule der Luftwaffe - TSLw 3“ and
“25 Jahre Heeresflieger”, respectively, which commemorate the presence of the school in Faßberg for a period of 50 years and the presence of army pilots for 25 years.
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