(Above) West Berlin children perch on a fence outside Tempelhof airport in 1948 to watch fleets of U.S. airplanes bringing in supplies during the Soviet blockade. (Below) German military cadets in 1998 hold a torchlight ceremony at Tempelhof to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

The historic Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949 was not a formal part of the Marshall Plan, but the two were related. In the summer of 1948, as Marshall Plan aid began to arrive in Europe, U.S. authorities in Germany took steps to link the West German economy to that of other European countries. The Soviets, who controlled East Germany, responded by blockading Allied access to Berlin via roads and rivers. U.S. and Allied forces then supplied Berlin by air for 11 months until the Soviets relented. Berlin Airlift pilots delivered more than 2 million tons of food and coal to Berlin and, in the process, assured Germans that their nation would play an integral part in the future of Western Europe. European cooperation political cooperation with the Marshall Fund also led directly to NATO, created in 1949. (© AP Images)