Platz der Luftbrücke

Platz der Luftbruecke, the square in front of the former Tempelhof airport, is a Berlin road junction with a heavy political charge. At its centre stands Eduard Ludwig's 1951 Berlin Airlift Memorial, known locally as the Hunger Claw, commemorating the roughly 278,000 supply flights with which the Western Allies kept West Berlin alive during the Soviet blockade of 1948 and 1949. The three prongs represent the air corridors from Hamburg, Hanover and Frankfurt; the names of the seventy-eight pilots who died are inscribed at the base. Today U-Bahn trains, buses and police headquarters staff swirl around the island while walkers heading on to Tempelhof Field pause for a moment.