From CNN Interactive writer Bruce Kennedy

BERLIN (CNN) -- It was a night of contrasting images and conflicting emotions, as Berlin capped off celebrations Saturday marking the 50th anniversary of the start of the airlift that helped keep the western sector alive.

For much of the week, the city has been honoring the men and women who came to the aid of then West Berlin, after the Soviets set up a blockade and unsuccessfully attempted to starve the residents into submission.

The airlift veterans have been featured in local newspaper articles and applauded at concerts and other events commemorating their 15 months of aviation achievements.

But the ceremony at Templehof Airport appeared not only to recall Germany's past, but to look, with hope, to the future.

Dignitaries watched as two refurbished cargo planes from the airlift era landed in darkness at the far end of the runways. They applauded as floodlights revealed the aircraft sitting practically nose-to-nose close to the grandstand.

After a brief welcoming ceremony for some airlift pilots who emerged from the planes, the "Grosse Zapfenstreich" or grand military tattoo, began.

German sailors and soldiers marched smartly onto the tarmac, carrying torches and accompanied by a large military band.

The band played martial music from songbooks of the French, British and U.S. armed forces, including the U.S. standard "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The visual effect was startling.

A U.S. veteran of the airlift later said he felt embarrassed, because, for him, the event harkened back to similar torchlit ceremonies during Germany's Nazi era. But an older German man stressed that the Zapfenstreich was simply a part of German military tradition.

The ambivalence felt by those watching the ceremonies at Templehof seems to illustrate the confusion many Germans feel about their nation's self-image.

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Since the Berlin Wall dividing the city was torn down in late 1989 and the city was unified, Germany has generally shunned nationalism, preferring to identify with Europe instead.

Germany has been the driving force in Europe's economic integration, including the push for the single European currency, the euro, that debuts in January. The nation also has been a vocal supporter of NATO's eastward expansion into former Soviet bloc countries.

And Berlin, soon to once again take its place as Germany's capital, is a thriving example of the nation's international outlook.

A beach volleyball tournament, complete with trucked-in sand and piped-in tropical music, is taking place this weekend in eastern Berlin, just outside the former offices of East Germany's Communist leaders.

But just two blocks away from this joyously incongruous event, tourists crowd around a plaque in a university plaza, marking the spot where, 65 years ago, a Nazi book-burning rally took place.