Bye-Bye Tempelhof
Tempelhof Airport
After months of heated debate, the closure of the oldest airport in Europe has a final date: the 31st of October. The symbolic building, testimony of the Berlin blockade during the Cold War, could end up a congress centre, a luxury hotel, an office building, or a private clinic. Bye-bye Tempelhof.
Built during the Second World War by Albert Speer, Hitler's architect, it was destined to be the central airport of the new German capital to-be after the victory; Germania. However, after the contrary development in history, the building moved on into the hands of the soviets for a short period of time until 1945 when it became the American's strategic airport in West Berlin.
It had an excellent infrastructure: independent water and electricity supply, bunkers nearly the size of the entire area in case the workers had to be protected. It was like this that the then largest building in the world (only comparable today with the Pentagon in the USA), carried on working for nearly five decades on American territory after the war. It was a bridge airport, the only way which West Berliners could remain in communication with the outside world.
But, after it was given back to the German government in the 1990s, Tempelhof has developed in giant steps. With less and less flights, more and more complaints from the neighbours, all in all less profitable, proposals to close the building or at least reform it were eventually put forward. It didn't take long before those who did not want the building to be destroyed made themselves heard, claiming its sense of "living history".
According to Ralf Kunkel, director of the Berlin airports, Tempelhof loses 10 million euros every 10 months. And so, the Berlin government took the decision to close the airport once and for all, despite having the central government against it as well as the Berlin public opinion. Once again history gives way to what is profitable, from the symbolic past to the future business. Perhaps it is true that the businessman Fred Langhammer, who right now holds the strongest proposal for a possible reconstruction, sees Tempelhof as a "symbol of liberty", which is why he will replace it with a private clinic and a hotel...
Anyway. Until the 31st of October we can still enjoy our liberty and go for long walks on the deserted spaces of Tempelhof, the closest thing in our reach to travelling in time.
