May/Jun 2008 - German World Magazine

VON
BY
MIKE REMMERT
for supplies to be flown to West Berlin, “no
matter the costs”.
For nearly one year 2.2 million people in
West Berlin were dependent on supplies
delivered by air. When the Soviets realized
that their plan would not work, they abandoned
the blockade.
The record-breaking day was April 15,
1949: within 24 hours 1,398 planes flew
12,840 tons of cargo to West Berlin.
Today a monument at Platz der Luftbrücke
(Airlift Square) located in front of
the airport commemorates the event.
According to a Senate resolution, Tempelhof
Airport will be closed to air traffic for
good on October 31, 2008. A referendum
called to prevent the closing of Tempelhof
Airport was rejected on April 27, 2008, by a
majority of Berlin voters. Twenty-five percent
of the vote was required to keep the
airport open, but only 21.7 percent voted in
In 1848, a group of Schleswig-Holstein
freedom fighters began fighting for liberty,
democracy, and national unity in a war
with Denmark. Unsuccessful in their struggle,
many of these "Forty-Eighters" emigrated
to the United States, hoping to find the
freedom they had fought for in vain in their
homeland. A great many settled in Davenport,
Iowa, a town emerging on the banks of
the Mississippi River. On the 160th anniversary
of the beginning of the Forty-Eighters'
fight for freedom, a large stone monument
honoring this remarkable group of immigrants
was dedicated.
On March 24, 1898, a large parade and
celebration honoring this group culminated
in the dedication of a huge red granite boulder
at Washington Square Park. Inscribed
on the stone amidst two crossed oak
branches symbolizing the eternal linkage
between Schleswig and Holstein are the
words "SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN KAMPFGE-
NOSSEN 1848-49-50 / THIS STONE WAS
ERECTED MARCH 24, 1898."
Over the next two decades, however,
world events conspired to change America
and Davenport's view toward all things
German. In the wake of rampant anti-
favor.
Plans are underway to turn the airport
building into a creative forum for culture
and media production. The Allied Museum,
presently located on Clayallee in Zehlendorf,
has also expressed interest in moving
to Tempelhof. The entire complex is protected
as a historical monument and thus
cannot be torn down, as planned in an earlier
Senate resolution. Even here in the USA
a strong lobby was formed to save Tempelhof.
Of course, these circles believed that
all of Tempelhof, and thus one of the most
important witnesses of German-American
history, was going to be demolished. But
this will never happen, reassured Berlin
Mayor Klaus Wowereit after the referendum.
Instead he wants to make sure that a
worthy memorial is erected to the Berlin
Airlift.
Schleswig-Holstein Freedom Fighters of
1848-1850 Honored in Iowa
German hysteria during World War I, the
stone monument honoring the Forty-
Eighters was painted yellow, tipped over,
and eventually vanished, never to be seen
again.
But the memory of this remarkable group
of immigrants was not so easily discarded.
Thanks to the efforts of the American/
Schleswig-Holstein Heritage Society and
the Schützenpark Gilde, a replica of the
original monument was re-dedicated on
March 30, 2008, on virtually the same spot
where the original stone sat 110 years ago.
More than 200 people attended the re-dedication
on a beautiful sunny day in
Davenport, less than one block from the
Mississippi River. Dr. Joachim Reppmann
delivered the keynote speech: "A dream
comes true with this re-dedication," commented
the part-time resident of both
Flensburg in the German state of
Schleswig-Holstein, and Northfield, Minnesota.
"I only hope that this will be the first of
many such events that focus the spotlight
on a group that many historians consider
America's most remarkable and unique
group of immigrants."
May/June 2008 www.german-world.com
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