RSS

By the time the airlift had achieved its aims and the Russians lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949, some 2.3 million tonnes had been airlifted in the space of one year, including 1.44 million tonnes of coal, 490,000 tonnes of food and 160,000 tonnes of building material.

But what the people of Berlin still remember and appreciate, even more than the superb logistics of the effort, are the gestures of humanity by American pilots.

During this period of grand gestures and intense feelings, the mayor, a social democrat, became a symbol of the people of Berlin's determination to resist communism: Ernst Reuter's words, "Peoples of the world! Look upon this city! ..." were an appeal to the world not to abandon West Berlin to its fate. Only one other sentence about Berlin is even more famous: "Ich bin ein Berliner." (I'm a Berliner). Words spoken (in German) by Kennedy on 26 June 1963 on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Airlift.

The mind-set in Berlin makes it the most American city in Germany. A place where everyone can succeed - and if you can make it here, you can make it everywhere.

Why then, despite this closeness, are Berlin and all of Germany now more anti-American than ever before? Is it really only anti-Bush sentiment, which will disappear when the next president is elected?

I fear that matters go deeper than that. For decades the German right wing has hated America on cultural, nationalistic grounds, while the left wing despises its capitalism. And in both cases the feeling has a lot to do with an inferiority complex and envy. People don't like the big boys when they are doing well and are really happy to see them fall flat on their faces - in the Middle East or elsewhere.

Wolf Biermann offers the best, most insightful explanation for Germany's anti-American attitudes: "Germans will never forgive the Americans for having to be grateful to them."

And we do have cause to be grateful: for liberation from Adolf Hitler, for aid in rebuilding a sovereign democracy, for the Airlift and solidarity with Berlin, for trust in a peaceful, reunited Germany and for the enormous volume of investment that has flowed into Germany from the USA since 1945. At present American investments here total some 220 billion dollars.

Yes, it is in Germany's interest to maintain good relations with America. Therefore my hope for the year 2008 is that we will succeed in repairing this relationship, with Berlin taking the lead. And I would hope that we go about it in pragmatic, American fashion.

Henry Kissinger, the father of the policy of national interest, recently described the crisis in American-German relations like this: "America had its flirtation with hegemony and Europe flirted with moral self-righteousness."

Kissinger spoke, with reason I hope, in the past tense. Let's take a look at the future: the only way forward is to act together. America will not solve the world's problems by being a hegemonial power. But moral self-righteousness leaves us open to ridicule and we are being overrun in the asymmetric battle between the free West and fundamentalist Islamist terror. We need America, in economic, foreign policy and security terms - but above all as an ally in a tolerant, open, libertarian value system.

Whatever the issue - security, foreign policy or economic affairs - the message of the Airlift is that it can be worth fighting for half a city, even one that already seems lost. The reward may be an entire country, and the concept of liberty.

This is a shortened version of Dr. Mathias Döpfner's speech at the Axel Springer AG's New Year's Reception in Berlin, January 14, 2008. Dr. Döpfner is the Chairman of the Board of Axel Springer AG.