Carved out of the forest on the southwestern edge of Berlin lies an outpost of the Cold War that’s becoming more relevant by the day.
Officially, the Military History Museum located at the former British airfield of Berlin-Gatow documents the role of air warfare, from the first days of flying through to Germany’s reunification.
The real highlight is its collection of Cold War artifacts: fighter jets, Western and Soviet; East German helicopters, West German radar installations, NATO air-defense systems and transport aircraft; even early nuclear missiles.
It’s a sobering, at times unnerving, glimpse of a period that until recently was considered over and done with. But with the West again aligned against Moscow as President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine grinds toward the 21/2-year mark, it now seems strangely current.
More advanced versions of the same weaponry on show at Gatow, from Patriots to MiGs, are being deployed on the battlefields of Ukraine. And as the largest European supplier of military aid to Kyiv, Berlin is again playing a central role — a reality sparking domestic opposition and spilling into the political arena, just as it did in the West Germany of the 1970s and 1980s.
Cold War-style espionage is back. Just last week it emerged that U.S. and German secret services had thwarted a plot to assassinate the chief executive officer of Rheinmetall AG. His company helps produce Leopard 2 battle tanks and…
