Berlin Airlift anniversary prompts reflection on German past, future

BERLIN (AP) — Germans who care about their relations with the United States are in an upbeat mood this week, looking both to the past and the future.

Thursday is the 60th anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift — the daring American-led operation to feed some 2 million West Berliners under Soviet blockade.

As they celebrate the event with fond reminiscences of American courage and generosity, many Germans are filled with excitement at the possibility of Barack Obama capturing the White House. German media have anointed the Democratic candidate the new John F. Kennedy, and see him as being more in sync with their views on the Iraq war and global warming.

Karsten Voigt, the conservative government’s point man on U.S. relations, said this month that many Germans see in Obama a “mixture of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy.”

What most Germans want is “an American president again whom it does not just respect because he represents a world power, but with whom it can identify, whom it can love,” he told ZDF television.

However, he cautioned that both Obama and Republican John McCain have pluses and minuses for Germany, and Germans shouldn’t expect an entirely smooth ride with either.

Still, most Germans expect a new start after a mostly sour eight years, during which the Iraq war triggered huge protests in Germany and sharp exchanges between the two governments.

Gerhard Schroeder’s opposition to the Iraq invasion helped him win re-election as chancellor in 2003 after a campaign in which, among other barbs, his justice minister appeared to obliquely compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, 200,000 Germans streamed to Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate, many wearing shirts proclaiming: “We are all New Yorkers.”

But the warm feelings quickly wore off, and apparently have yet to be rekindled.

This month’s Pew Global Attitudes survey showed only 31 percent of Germans have a favorable view of the United States — down from 78 percent in 2000. However, 55 percent like Americans as a people, the survey by the Washington-based organization showed.