Frankfurt Airlift Memorial – kit from LEGO® bricks

The Berlin Airlift 1948/49

The Berlin Airlift was set up by the Western Allies after the Soviet occupying forces blocked all transport routes by land and water between West Berlin and West Germany on June 24, 1948. The trigger was the currency reform carried out in the three western zones on June 20. The Western Allies then set up the largest operation of its kind to date under the leadership of the military governor of the US zone, Lucius D. Clay, to keep West Berlin, which at the time had around 2.2 million inhabitants, alive.

Until the end of the blockade on May 12, 1949, flights were made every minute from several airfields in West Germany to the West Berlin airfields Tempelhof and Gatow, the provisional Tegel airfield built for the occasion, and to the Havel with British seaplanes. They transported everything that was needed in West Berlin and everything that was produced in Berlin for export back and forth by air. The planes were still in use until the end of September 1949, and were gradually withdrawn until the usual transport routes were re-established.

In this context, the term "raisin bomber" also came into use after the young American pilot Gail S. Halvorsen began dropping small parachutes filled with sweets for the children gathered under the incoming planes. This gave rise to an entire operation called "Little Vittles," and Gail S. Halvorsen later became commander of Tempelhof Airport from 1970 to 1974. He remained closely connected to Berlin and the Frankfurt-Berlin Air Bridge Association until his death in February 2022.

The Airlift Memorial in Frankfurt am Main

The memorial on the eastern edge of Frankfurt Airport was erected in 1985 and is a copy of the original erected in Berlin in 1951. The predecessor of today's association, the "Airlift" section of the Airlift Tanker Association e. V., was responsible for raising the required approximately 1 million German marks (today around 500,000 euros), mainly through donations. The memorial, which was erected in record time, was made of concrete, unlike its Berlin counterpart.

The C-47 (called DC 3 in civilian form) to the right of the memorial was built for the British RAF in 1945 and was flown by Commonwealth crews from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa during the airlift. It then flew for East African Airways and others from 1950 to 1987, before joining Air Kenya. The US Air Force Museum eventually acquired the aircraft for the memorial.

The C-54 (a civilian DC 4) standing to the left of the memorial also dates from 1945 and was initially delivered to the US Army Air Force. It later served as a passenger plane for American Airlines until 1952, after which it changed owners several times. In 1990 it also became part of the memorial after it was restored.

The model by Ralf J. Klumb

This kit was created in close cooperation with the Frankfurt-Berlin Airlift Association, after I first developed the models of the DC 3 / C-47 and DC 4 / C-54 and then presented them to various organizations that keep the memory of the Berlin Airlift alive. A friendly contact with Frankfurt was established, and in October 2023 I was invited to a celebration in Königstein, where he met members and guests who had traveled especially from the USA, Norway and Bavaria. In 2024 I took part in the Open Day at the US Air Base in Wiesbaden, and for 2025 I am invited to the Hessentag in Bad Vilbel.

The models are approximately 1:160 scale and feature replica prints of the two Frankfurt models.

The nine printed bricks included in this kit were supplied by my partner, IN creare from Braunschweig. The brick with the inscription "Berlin Airlift 1948/49" has the English inscription "Berlin Airlift 1948/49" on the back.

• Number of original LEGO® bricks: 524
• Dimensions of the model: 32.0 x 16.0 x 14.2 cm