President Clinton lent a certain glitz to the Berlin Airlift commemoration last month. But that was only the beginning of a grand look back at history. The German capital begins a series of remembrances on Friday, June 26, the 50th anniversary of the first airlift flight into Berlin.

Germany is honoring the pluck of Allied pilots who ran Stalin's Berlin Blockade in 1948-49 to bring fuel and food to a city of more than 2 million during what proved to be the first phase of the Cold War.

A centerpiece of events will be the opening of a new and larger Allied Museum that weekend. ''The airlift was a masterpiece of engineering, cooperation and logistics,'' museum director Helmut Trotnow says. "It is only now that people begin to realize what a terrific achievement it was.''

Museum exhibits, documents and images will tell the story of Allied forces in Germany from 1945, through the Berlin Airlift and up to the end of the Cold War. Displays range from black market artifacts to a CIA-built tunnel to re-creation of the famous Checkpoint Charlie.

Elsewhere, the city comes alive with observances, military exercises, speeches and award ceremonies. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl will be on hand, along with 250 veterans of the airlift from the USA, England, France, Canada and elsewhere. As with the wreath-laying that Clinton attended May 12, the Germans intend to make a fuss over airlift veterans like Lester Stilwell, a former U.S. Air Force pilot who ran the Russian blockade 135 times in his C-54 Skymaster.

Now a retired airline grounds school instructor living in Carmichael, Calif., Stilwell remembers when a Russian fighter plane, in a harassing maneuver, dove across the nose of his C-54. The fighter was so close that he could see the tire treads on its retracted landing gear and oil streaking down its fuselage.

''I always felt that the German people deserved to be listed as the heroes,'' says Stilwell, 76, who plans to attend the June 25 ceremonies in Berlin. ''They stood up against the U.S.S.R. at a time when they were threatened with starvation.''

Berlin Airlift Weekend, June 26-28. The first airlift flight is marked by the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the former Gatow airbase and an open-air concert by the Federal Youth Orchestra on the Gendarmenmarkt, a square in the former East Berlin. Other events include the reopening of the Allied Museum.

Seaplanes display, Aug. 21-23. On the Wannsee lake, this display includes vintage aircraft used in the airlift. Fireworks are planned for the final night.

For information about airlift activities, 011-49-30-2401-2236