- BERLIN -- It was used by
Adolf Hitler as the springboard to barnstorm around the country in the
days before he seized power. At the height of the Cold War it fed the city
when it was encircled by the Soviet Union during the Berlin Airlift.
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- Now Tempelhof Airport in the centre of the city, the
last vestige of the Nazi regime's grand civil engineering projects, will
close in October.
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- When it was built between 1937 and 1941 it was hailed
as one of the wonders of the modern world, second only in size as an office
complex to the Pentagon. The airport was part of Hitler's architect Albert
Speer's grand plans for the German capital.
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- According to Hitler, Berlin was to become the capital
of Europe and be renamed "Germania" by 1950, with Tempelhof being
the continent's main airport.
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- But its departure halls were only completed after the
Second World War. During the war, when the building was used for arms production,
air traffic ran via the old Tempelhof airport, located at the site of the
current runway.
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- The airport is beloved of business travellers - it is
just four miles from the city centre and has such little commercial traffic
that there are rarely delays. But it is currently losing £10m a year
and has been for decades.
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- With the city in debt to the tune of billions, mayor
Klaus Wowereit said it is a luxury that can no longer be tolerated. He
said closure is also necessary so as not to endanger attempts to build
a new international airport on the outskirts of the new capital, a city
that still has poor international connections, particularly with the United
States.
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- Tempelhof, which has a modest capacity of 1.5 million
passengers annually, is used mainly by business passengers and served by
small turbo-prop and jet planes for flights to other European cities.
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- The airport is protected under planning law and cannot
be demolished.
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- There are several plans on the drawing board, including
one to turn it into a shopping mall and office complex and another to make
it a gigantic park with the terminal building serving as the centre.
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- There are six miles of tunnels and bunkers beneath the
airport, plus its own water purification plant. Underground Berlin, an
organisation that devotes itself to discovering and renovating subterranean
structures for walking tours, is interested in developing this as an attraction.
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- It was during the Berlin Airlift from June 1948 to September
1949 that Tempelhof came into its own, saving a besieged people from either
starving or freezing to death and serving notice to the Soviet Union that
Stalin's ambitions ended at the city's borders.
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- It is for the airlift alone that most Berliners remember
the airport with nostalgia, but it served the city well long after the
food and fuel drops stopped. Air France was the first foreign carrier to
introduce Berlin flights in 1950 and the following year the airport returned
to civil administration.
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- The same year came the inauguration of the Airlift Memorial,
erected in honour of the 31 Americans, 40 Britons and five German pilots
who lost their lives during the Soviet blockade of the city.
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- ©2004 Scotsman.com http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=614972004
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