BERLIN TEMPELHOF AIRPORT: A NEW JOURNEY

A bold transformation of Berlin Tempelhof airport is now taking shape, allowing visitors to take historic tours and play on its redundant runways

Words Nigel Tisdall

How many keys does it take to run an airport? In the case of Berlin Tempelhof, 44,000. at’s how many keys were handed to city o cials when this gargantuan complex closed in 2008. Constructed by the Nazis in 1936-41 (and never nished) it remains one of the largest buildings in the world, stretching for 1.2km with 7,266 rooms, 300 air raid shelters and 70,000 power sockets.

ese are the thought-provoking stats that await on a guided tour of this richly historic airport, which pre-pandemic attracted 70,000 visitors a year. A 20-minute U-Bahn ride from the city centre, Tempelhof has a revered place in the birth of ying – US aviator Orville Wright made experimental ights here and in 1909 300,000 Berliners turned out to watch a pioneering Zeppelin cruise overhead. Deutsche Lu Hansa, the precursor of Lu hansa, started scheduled services from the air eld in 1926 and within six years was operating a global network with a eet of 155 aircra .

Dominating Tempelhof’s north-west corner is a colossal curved terminal that was the epitome of Nazi pomp with austere façades that are still decorated with haughty eagles. e dark side to this story can’t be ignored – in the 1930s this was the site of a military prison and concentration camp, and during the war ghter planes were built here using forced labour.

7,266 rooms

At the same time, Berlin Tempelhof is celebrated as a landmark in airport design with its dedicated areas for arrivals, departures and cargo plus attendant hotels, restaurants and congress centre. Sir Norman Foster, the proli c British architect who designed London Stansted and Hong Kong airports, has described Tempelhof as “one of the really great buildings of the modern age”, praising its cantilevered structure as “engineering that really li s the spirit”.

A Field Of Experimentation

But now what? is is the challenge facing Tempelhof Projekt, the organisation charged with repurposing a massive, ageing building in which everything from a basketball court installed by the US Air Force to the parking lots are listed. “Our goal is to give something back to the city,” explains Aljoscha Hofmann, a member of its development team. “A third of the buildings are now in use,” he reports, and some 80 businesses and institutions have taken space including musicians, digital agencies and the Berlin Police. e terminal has also been used as a lm location, appearing in hits such as Indiana Jones and e Hunger Games. Avgeeks touring the departures hall can have fun deciding if the airline names hanging over check-in desks are real or ctional. Anyone own Cirrus Airlines, SkyFly or Air Bourbon?

By next spring visitors will be able to ascend the air tra c control tower and there are plans to turn some of its mammoth hangars into cultural attractions. ese include the relocation of Berlin’s Allied Museum in Dahlem which documents the history of the Western powers in the city, including the vital role Tempelhof played in the Berlin Airli of 1948-49 when up to 1,000 military planes were landing daily.

Now known as Tempelhofer Feld, the air eld has become a vast, level recreational area where bees and butter ies thrive and there is a meadow with endangered Skudde sheep. Slightly larger than New York’s Central Park, it is best explored by bike although it feels strangely naughty to go pedalling along the broad runways. Passing the merry cavalcade of dog walkers, joggers, rollerbladers and mad adventurers windsur ng on skateboards, it is undoubtedly a blessing that Berliners rejected plans to develop the site and instead created “a eld of experimentation for renewed harmony”. It is a bold transformation that heeds the Biblical call to turn swords into ploughshares; and that’s a message that’s as important as ever. thf-berlin.de BTI