I next visited a few buildings which offered tours or paid entry. I first went on a tour of Flughafen Tempelhof, the infamous airport built in 1934. Tempelhof was among the twenty largest buildings on Earth at the time of construction, acting as a symbol of the Nazi Party's international ambitions. However, the project’s aspirations were never fully realised: the building, shaped like an arc, was originally meant to form a full circle. This would have made it the world's largest building by floor size, but it had to be cut down due to the building’s astronomical costs.
After World War II, Tempelhof continued to serve as the largest airport in Germany, acting as the meeting point between West Berlin and the rest of the world. In 1948, Tegel Airport was constructed, as the runway at Tempelhof was too small to accommodate relief aircrafts during the Berlin Airlift. After expanding in 1974, Tegel (which has now also ceased operations) became Berlin's main airport, at which point Tempelhof was relegated to US Army operations. Since closing, parts of the building are now occasionally used as an exhibition centre and as police headquarters.
Though I was fascinated by the history of the building, Tempelhof Airport didn't quite elicit the same sense of awe due to how well it has been maintained since its closing in 2007. Though the building acts as a time capsule, its maintenance undeniably undermines that sense of sublimity the building might have otherwise had. Being taken on a tour also invariably takes away from feelings of discovery and of travelling through time. Though given the size of the airport, I can’t imagine that letting people to wander about would end well. This is not to dismiss the conservation work involved, as the building is without a doubt a fascinating historical artefact, or the work that goes in organising the tour. The building just wasn’t what I was looking for.
Whereas Tempelhof itself didn't evoke that feeling of the sublime, I found myself entranced by the airport’s runway. Round the back of the airport, Tempelhofer Feld spans into the distance, for 355 hectars. While this makes it the largest park in Berlin, it is a mostly barren field. Hay bales are evenly placed into the distance evoking a something of a rural pasture. At the height of this heatwave, however, the complete lack of foliage and long, empty runways make it feel more like a Hitchcock film than a Monet painting.
Whereas one felt watched in Tempelhof Airport, which isn’t helped by the fact that part of the building is now used as police headquarters, there is a great sense of freedom in the airfield. As you journey across these barren lands, you feel a great sense of discovery when you do stumble upon something – an old aircraft, a disused electric plant, a training base for the US Army... These are all fenced off, however, and given these are essentially the back gardens of the police headquarters, I go on my merry way.
Since Tempelhof’s closure, Tempelhofer Feld has been an area of contestation between private planners and activists. In 2014, Berliners voted in a referendum to ban construction in the field, with 68.2 per cent of voters in favour. Since then, community-led projects have adorned the edges of the field: a sports field, a circus, an artsy community garden, a minigolf course… There’s an element of DIY to most of these projects and you feel a strong sense of community as you wander through them. The rest of the field is mostly used for cycling and playing sports. Future plans for the park remain in the air. In April 2024, a committee of randomly selected Berliners was formed to discuss future plans for the park. Housing seems to be on top of the agenda, to activists’ disappointment.
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