Urban Serengetti In Darmstadt

     Talk about open skies, summer Saturday in Darmstadt, Germany last week offered a pleasant and all too brief encounter from an otherwise challenging year.
     Cargo priorities were reordered for a couple of hours to simple pleasures such as good food and music friends and small children under foot, the things that summer memories are all about.
     An afternoon in the open air extraordinaire as Christian Fink, (left) Managing Director and Heide Enfield, (right, pictured with Niklas, one of the energetic fresh faces working at the event) Head of Global Market Development and the rest of the team at Lufthansa Cargo Charter Agency hosted an elaborate and totally personal experience.
     The Lufthansa Charter party, this year themed “Afrika,” has become for several years now an annual rite of the season at The Vivarium Tiergarten, a small park and zoo in Darmstadt, Germany.
     Under the watchful eye of Thomas Becker who is director of Vivarium, a remarkable collection of animals numbering in the hundreds, watched the people watching them, including exotic birds and other wild life (many have been born and raised at this facility) housed in a cool shady glen with old trees and natural landscaping that bring wildlife close enough to touch.
     Vivarium in the 21st century is like entering another time and discovering a place from another era, somehow preserved and much beloved by generations of locals and people everywhere after 40 plus years for its sensual quietude.
     Usually there is a sense of center about these type of affairs, but Lufthansa Cargo Charter delivered the unexpected by deconstructing the expected and creating an African setting complete with costumed hosts serving exotic foods and drinks while the music played.
     Any feeling of the every day business expectation or tension just melted away in a fantasy world.
     People moved easily through small tents as African dancers and entertainers ran routines to native rhythm, and jugglers and face painters delighted the children.
     Lufthansa Cargo Charter captured a moment in the lives of all who attended. Kids and adults alike joined in the party.
     Sometimes the best thank you comes from the heart.
     “Did you like it?” Heide Enfield asks as we are balancing a glass of wine with an over served platter of culinary specialties including samosas, and tomato and chicken curries that wafted up from the plate and into the senses, Delicately spiced with African spices the food was superb excellently presented and immaculately served.
     As nightfall approached, the party moved into high gear with infectious drumbeats that segued into an excellent local fusion music band.
     A day of days in a park unfolded at a place where even the hardest heart could feel it was good to be alive.
     Just at the entranceway on the party registration table a small picture remembered Heiko Schindler, a member of the Lufthansa Charter team who at 39 died tragically of cancer July 2.
     “He was a good guy who we all hoped against hope would pull through,” said Christian.
     “We all keenly feel his loss and today celebrate his all too brief life with affection,” Arno Krapohl, senior manager of market development added.
     “He will be dearly missed.”
     But in keeping with the otherwise upbeat feelings all around, Mr. Fink said:
     “Summertime is the perfect match for bringing families together.
     “We celebrate our friends and business colleagues, our employees and their families,” Mr. Fink, added greeting the packed Vivarium.
     “Here is the opportunity in an informal and highly personal way for our staff from around the world to show our genuine appreciation to our friends, colleagues and customers.”
     Rates five stars, we say.
Geoffrey

Frankfurt Recalls Berlin Airlift

     Although to some it may seem like only yesterday and even more alarming to others the mention of it evokes little to no emotion at all, the air cargo flights that saved Berlin, Germany during the long summer of 1948 and winter of 1949 are keenly remembered by the people who lived it, and now in 2008, 60 years later by a group that gathered to commemorate the anniversary at Frankfurt International Airport.
     Events recalling the Berlin Airlift took place on all political levels in Germany last month.
     Six decades ago the free world stood cheek to jowl with the forces of a closed Eastern Europe.
     When the Russians closed Berlin to Autobahn traffic, the power of air cargo literally thrilled the world as the Berlin Airlift moved coal and milk and eggs and all manner of supplies arrived non-stop in an endless aerial stream that both saved a city and kept hope alive for millions of freedom loving people around the world.
     Last month the main celebration was conducted in Frankfurt, the former principal marshalling base for the airlift effort.
     At Frankfurt, the Prime Minister of Hesse, where Frankfurt and Wiesbaden are located, Roland Herse invited scores of honoraries, veterans and the press to recall and honor another time.

     A DC-3, originally having been part of the giant fleet in the supply chain of 1948-1949 was scheduled to carry a group of invitees from the still active Wiesbaden Erbenheim Airbase first to Frankfurt Rhein Main Airport and then to Berlin after a high level festivity at FRA.
     The aircraft unfortunately had a maintenance problem–an indication of age that many in the throng that turned out could sympathize with.
     But Lufthansa stepped in and the guests flew on a 1934-built Junkers JU 52 “D.AQUI”.
     The replacement aircraft was organized in about one hour documenting that such situations can be handled now as then in 1948.
     The JU52 was an interesting happenstance as that aircraft was to Germany during the 1940’s and beyond what the DC-3 was to America as both aircraft were/are much honored and beloved in their home countries and around the world, and both were produced in the thousands.
     Interesting that today, one lends another a lift every once in a while.
     Folks at the Airlift Party recalled that after WWII the U.S. Air Force installed its biggest base, Rhein Main Airbase here south of the parallel runways.
     The FRA civilian airport developed on the northern side.
     Rhein Main was utilized as a military base until its return to the airport company.
     But during its time in service, Rhein Main supported U.S. Military activities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East as well as South East Asia as a logistics hub for troops, dependents and all kinds of airfreight.
     Veterans and others of that era recall that the present day hotel in Cargo City Süd, now called “InterCity Airport Hotel” served the families travelling back and forth across the pond as a stopover spot in the late 1940’s.

Mr. Wüstefeld (right in picture left) is pictured with ACNFT publisher Geoffrey Arend inside the hotel's neat little memorabilia-packed vest pocket saloon called JU52. Harri (in picture left) is pictured welcoming customers to JU52.

     Still today the small hotel carries photos of another era as its badge of onetime service.
     A short walk up and down the halls of the first floor is a true step back in time with fabulous pictures of the historic early post-war era in Frankfurt.
     The airport operations portrayed here are simply great but the topper is the original theme of Frankfurt Main in the form of a globe of the world sitting atop an obelisk with a bird of peace with a palm branch in its beak.
     In summer and autumn, tables are arranged in the outside quadrangle courtyard of the hotel where you can have a drink or a meal while dining as people once did at the airport during the 1930’s.
     Credit InterCity general manager Anton Wüstefeld for a fine and deft touch at creating and maintaining this hostelry as a unique experience at the airport.
     InterCity FRA is a wonderful place to stay, get a great meal or just talk over old times in the JU52 saloon with bartender Harri surrounded by the memorabilia.
     Later you can enjoy a walk over to the Zeppelin museum or the Berlin Airlift memorial nearby.
     But while many of the military pilots who visited here last month are in the twilight years, the celebration here recalled the start of the biggest ever-humanitarian logistics job and airlift operation to benefit civilians—the 2.1 million inhabitants of West Berlin in 1948.
     In total, 278 228 flights were operated between June 26, 1948 and August 27, 1949.
     A mixed fleet of more than 300, mostly American military aircraft, but also British and French were in the air 24-7 on the 3 corridors across the German Democratic Republic in this unique mission.
     Close to 100 people, Americans, British and Germans lost their lives flying supplies during the blockade.
     The loads, as mentioned of coal, food, gas and any other products needed in an absolutely locked-in city amounted to 2.3 million metric tons – more than the throughput of Frankfurt in a year today in 2008.
     Considering that FRA is the number one air cargo gateway in Europe, to see numbers from 60 years ago seems even more impressive.
     During the ceremony in Frankfurt on a bright early summer morning as people gathered around the redone airlift monument at Frankfurt Airport that includes both a DC-3 & 6 parked in a special area near Cargo City Süd, several speakers addressed the immense importance of the Berlin Airlift for the development of German, European but also global politics.
     What would have happened if the Western Allies gave in to Stalin and let Berlin become the capital of a communist all Germany, more than one speaker wondered?
     This was a place for some brief wonder and not an event to rehash political background, so the talk was at a minimum.
Safe to say, that The Berlin Airlift that took off as an emergency measure on June 26, 1948 with a first, very risky flight across the Communist part of Germany through the Iron Curtain changed everything.
     For the record, an American Overseas Airways Corporation (AOA) DC-6 from Frankfurt where the first request arrived from U.S. European Headquarters conducted that first flight:
     “To get ready to fly bags of potatoes and other foodstuff from Frankfurt to Berlin in a couple of hours – please.”
     Then the U.S. Air Force took over right away.

     U.S. veterans who flew the supplies were here some sixty years later—like Gail Halvorsen and Johnny Macia (picture right))–just to mention two of the “chocolate uncles” as the children of Berlin referred to them.
     Dr. Wilhelm Bender, chairman of the board of Fraport AG and General Roger A. Brady toured the site of the festivities (picture left)) and shook hands with many who had contributed their part to The Berlin Airlift that made life-long friends amongst people with whom they had previously been enemies.
     Authentic uniforms were to be seen around the freighters near the monument and of course there is this official picture with the “Rosinen Bomber” showing the VIP hosts and guests of the event.
     The veterans performed the wreath laying to commemorate those who lost their life on duty in the Berlin Airlift operation and others in a solemn moment accompanied with respectful music from the U.S. and German military bands.
     It was good to remember, but even better to take a moment to honor some brave people who stood up and did the right thing a long time ago.
Guenter Mosler