Clinton Celebrates 50th Year Since Berlin Airlift

President Clinton on Thursday honored the extraordinary relationship America had with the free half of the old divided Germany and then drew attention to the new U.S. role in helping to reunify one of Western Europe’s largest nations.

Starting his day at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, Clinton celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift and the nearly 280,000 flights made by Allied planes--mostly American--to provide food and fuel in defiance of a Soviet blockade.

“The most precious cargo did not come in the well-named care packages; it was the hope created by the constant roar of the planes overhead,” Clinton said to the crowd, which included U.S. veterans of the airlift. “Berliners called this noise a symphony of freedom, reminding you that Berlin was not alone and that freedom was no flight of imagination.”

The assistance the United States gave Germany five decades ago has paid huge dividends in a long, stable relationship with a powerful partner, Clinton said.

“That was the best investment we could have made in Germany’s future,” Clinton added. “It would be difficult to imagine a better friend or ally than modern Germany.”

Leaving the victories of the Cold War behind him, the president and his host, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, traveled to the former East German town of Eisenach, where General Motors built the Opel Eisenach plant in the early days of German reunification. The factory, which opened in 1992, employs 2,000 people and has been hailed as Europe’s most efficient auto plant.

There, Clinton was pressed about modern troubles, including the relative shortage of American financial investments to help eastern Germany emerge from its economic depression.

“I hope that our coming here will help more of your fellow citizens to get good jobs” by sparking more American investments, Clinton told a few hundred workers at the plant.

The only way that employment and living standards in eastern Germany and the rest of the former Soviet bloc will rise to Western levels, Clinton said, is through people “who believe in you and your potential investing their money and putting people to work.”

Their plant’s success, Clinton said, shows the world that people “who have lived under a system of control and direction can live better as free people if given the opportunity.”

Clinton’s dual focus--on America’s Cold War victories with West Germany and the challenges facing the reunited Germany--highlighted the differences that exist between western and eastern Germans and their attitudes toward the U.S.

Free tickets for the event at Tempelhof airfield were available in all 23 boroughs of Berlin: They were snapped up in the Western sector, but in the East there were few takers.

“The [Berlin] Wall is still there in our heads,” said Angelika McLarren, 41, a West Berliner married to an American.

McLarren attended the event with a class of unemployed secretaries from eastern Germany who are taking English lessons from her to boost their job skills in a country where unemployment rates remain at an aching 20% in some areas.

While McLarren said she grew up with stories of the airlift and deep feelings of gratitude to the Americans who kept her city alive with a constant supply of food, coal and other necessities, her students said the airlift means very little to them.

“We lived in the Russian zone, and we did not even know about it,” said Marion Schwalbach, one of the unemployed secretaries.

“It didn’t concern us 50 years ago, so we don’t care much about it now,” added Conni Ettenne Gen. Steffen, 30, another English student.

She said Clinton’s visit to the Opel plant in Eisenach is more meaningful to her because it shows the president’s commitment to Germany’s future.

Later in an outdoor speech at an Eisenach market square, Clinton encouraged residents of the former East Germany not to lose hope: “I know that throughout the eastern lands, the efforts to unify and rebuild have not been easy. I know that sacrifices have been made. I know that still more work must be done, but do not forget the great progress you have made in such a short time, and do not underestimate what you can do with your dreams as free people.”

Despite the warmth with which the people of Eisenach met the president--at the factory and the rally--there were indications throughout Clinton’s two-day visit that many citizens of the former East Germany still view America with some ambivalence.

Few prominent Easterners could be seen among the VIP guests invited to Clinton’s speech at Berlin’s ornate Schauspielhaus on Wednesday evening. And the handful who did come stood out because they pointedly refused to clap when Kohl, in his welcoming remarks, told Clinton that, without American support, the reconstruction of a united Germany would never have been possible.

Times staff writer Mary Williams Walsh contributed to this report.

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Berlin Airlift

* Duration: 462 days

* Flights: 278,228 total--189,963 by U.S., 87,841 by British, 424 by French.

* Miles flown: 134 million (nearly 1.5 times distance to the sun).

* Deaths from crashes: 31 Americans, 39 British, at least 9 Germans.

* Busiest 24 hours: April 15-16, 1949; 1,398 flights (one landing almost every minute), 12,940 tons of cargo (equal to 22 trains with 50 railcars each).

* Cargo delivered: 2.3 million tons, two-thirds of which was coal.

* Candy parachuted: 23 tons

Source: U.S. air forces in Europe