March 2007 - Nr. 3
Tempelhof to be Closed
Home of the Historic Berlin Airlift Set to Close in 2008
Berlin’s historic Tempelhof airport - the main landing site of the 1948/49 Berlin Airlift - will be shut down next year. As recently reported by Deutsche Welle, a Berlin court has thrown out objections from 13 companies and airlines that use Tempelhof. The court ruled that the airport will close in October 2008.
The decision finally draws a line under a long debate on Tempelhof’s future use. The airlines and companies that use the historic airstrip wanted city authorities to keep the airport open until work is completed on a new international airport, the Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in the city’s eastern Schönefeld district. BBI is scheduled to be finished by 2011.
Meanwhile, according to a report on Friday in the Berliner Morgenpost, Deutsche Bahn chief Hartmut Mehdorn has cited the benefits of having an airport in the heart of the city and suggested that DB, the German National Railways, could take over Tempelhof in a special arrangement that would not conflict with the new BBI Airport. DB wants to cooperate with Estée Lauder Chairman Fred Langhammer, a German-American, and the US cosmetics’ company’s heir Ronald S. Lauder in operating a niche business flight market at Tempelhof. Using only one runway for takeoffs and one for landings, the two investors want to turn the site into a health and conference center with a hotel.
Tempelhof was first officially designated as an airport in 1923, and Lufthansa was founded at Tempelhof in 1926. An old terminal constructed in 1927 was replaced by a new terminal building in 1934. In 1975 Tempelhof was largely replaced by Tegel Airport, which lies further outside of the city. As described by online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Tempelhof’s halls and the neighbouring buildings, intended to become "the gateway to Europe", are still known as the largest built entities worldwide, and have been described by British architect Sir Norman Foster as "the mother of all airports". (TWIG/DW-WORLD)
Links:
Berlin Airports More about Tempelhof
