Title:WELT IM FILM (SPECIAL REPORT) : die blockade ist gefallen [Main Title]
Film Number:WIF 422
Other titles:
Summary: The resumption of traffic from the West Zones into Berlin after the lifting of the Soviet blockade at Midnight of May 11/12 1949.
Description: Press coverage and celebrations as barriers are lifted (on autobahn across border of British and Soviet Zones, and on the border of the Soviet Zone and US sector of the city) and the first vehicles pass through to resume ground traffic to and from Berlin at midnight of May 11-12. The arrival, next morning, of first vehicles in Berlin is also feted. Police remove barricades in streets crossing sector borders. Special meeting of City Assembly attended by Western Military Governors: Ernst Reuter speaks, General Clay says "not goodbye but auf wiedersehen". Resumption of railway traffic with West Zones (first Cologne passenger train seen off by band; freight train carries coal); vehicles passing border controls; preparations for activity on canals. Mass meeting following the City Assembly session is addressed by Konrad Adenauer (then President of the Parliamentary Council) and Louise Schroeder.