A brief history
The former site of Airport Tempelhof in Berlin in the district of Neukölln south of Berlin’s city center also called the Tempelhof Field (in German “Tempelhofer Feld”) offers an area of 350 ha of public space for recreation and different community activities.
The site has a long history linked to aviation and military uses. The first generation of the airport building was contructed and opened at the southwest side of the field in 1923. In 1929, the main building of the airport was completed. Under the Naziregime, the area was used for large political demonstrations but also as concentration camp. Architect Ernst Sagebiel was contracted in 1935 to develop a new airport complex that was envisioned to showcase Hitler’s power replacing the original airport building. Constructions of the new airport began in 1936 and the first buildings were being put in operation in 1937.
After WWII, the airport was the main connection between West Berlin (the district of Neukölln was located in the former western part of Berlin) and Western Germany, and is probably best known outside Germany for the air lift (‘Luftbrücke’) of food and fuel that enabled West Berlin to survive during the Soviet ground blockade of 1948 until 1949. Following reunification, Tempelhof remained an important airport for Berlin. Tempelhof Airport was closed in 2008. With the closure of the airport, new uses for both the field and the airport building were needed. The airport field was opened in May 2010 for public use. But the regeneration and use of the area hasn’t been uncontested and the virtual fieldtrip will explore some of these aspects.
