On June 25, 1948, the day after the blockade of Berlin began, the American military governor Lucius D. Clay ordered the commander of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), General Curtis E. LeMay in Wiesbaden to start an airlift to supply Berlin. On June 26, 1948, the first 32 flights with a load of 80 tons took off from the Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airbase to Berlin-Tempelhof. From June 1948 to July 1949, a total of 193,234.5 tons were transported from Wiesbaden-Erbenheim to Berlin in 27,236 flights. This corresponded to approx. 11% of the total American tonnage and approx. 8% of the goods brought to Berlin via the airlift.

The organization of the airlift in the early phase was controlled from Camp Lindsey in Wiesbaden, where an airlift task force was set up. Nevertheless, it was not possible to achieve the required daily tonnage of 4,500 short tons (unit used in the USA and England, one st equals 0.907 t). To remedy this situation, Major General William H. Tunner took over command of the task force on July 28, 1948, which was now set up at Taunusstrasse 11. Thus began the success story of the airlift. From October 16, 1948, the task force coordinated the American and British contribution to the airlift as the Combined Airlift Task Force (CALTF).

The central organizational and coordination unit of the Airlift was stationed in Wiesbaden from 30.07.1948-30.09.1949, the official end of the Airlift. Up to 400 employees worked on three floors and in the adjoining buildings and were responsible for supplying Berlin from the air.