Europe, 1969 |
 Day 27 (11 October 1969) – WEST BERLIN: Brutalist architecture at its best / worst [PICK ONE]: the Berlin Airlift Memorial. In an attempt to isolate West Berlin (which was in the middle of East Germany), the Russians blockaded the city in 1948, cutting off all road and rail access. Britain and the United States “responded by airlifting food and fuel to Berlin from Allied airbases in western Germany.” After the allies had successfully delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food and fuel to West Berlin in 15 months, the Soviet Union relented and lifted the blockade. The airlift and the hundred or so people who died as a result of accidents associated with the airlift are commemorated by this memorial. |