Tempelhof Airport — Attraction in Berlin

Me and my wife are traveling around the world in last 2 years and have been in multiple museums and tours. We both are architects by occupation and very much interested in any architectural examples a specially ones we have learned about in school.

I was very much excited about this tour. I knew that this will be a 2 hour tour and was ready for it.

The tour started with us standing in a sun for 20 min while listening to our tour guide whispering, yes he was literally whispering some facts about this place and making some strange jokes. Next came a lot of useless information and a lot of standing around in a small rooms . A lot of pointless walking, taking elevators, to just listening to the guide in landings of the floor.

Most of that information was somewhat bit irrelevant, such as info about restaurants that opened in the building or every statistics per year how many passengers were flying in and out. This all can be shortened and not take 2 hours, in my opinion this tour is a bit too long.

This next issue that I had was with this specific guide and not with the tour. Before we started our tour I have noticed that other tour guide from other group was stressing the fact that most of the tour is inside of the building, therefore the masks must be worn at all the times while inside. Our guide did not say anything about masks (he had one on his elbow) while having some cough once in a while. 3/4 of our group were not wearing any masks and that made me feel very uneasy around this tour. Unacceptable, please see my photos to get an idea of the spaces that you will be visiting. I am a very healthy individual and not concerned with COVID ( usually) but this was a bit too much.

I usually do review places very positively and have tried to do the same with this place. This place is cool, and history is great, BUT, maybe it was just our tour guide ( hopefully) but my experience with this tour was unfortunately negative. Two hours, in my opinion is too long for this tour, can be done within one hour, just cut out all the walking around small rooms and staircases.

Overall a cool place to visit, but think twice if you want to spent two hours standing around in small rooms. There were couple cool spots towards the end of the tour, I with they would just do...

Works on future Tempelhof airport were started in 1923 by the German ministry of transport. At the time air travel was still a novelty, and prevalent idea was that it will be something akin to a railway travel. As railway terminals were most often placed in the centers of cities, location for new Berlin’s airport was chosen at the edge of city’s wider center, at the extensions of its main north-south axis, Frederickstrasse.

The original terminal building, built in 1924, was replaced in the Nazi era by the current building designed by Prof. Ernst Sagebiel and the floor plan was designed to resemble an eagle’s spread wings in theme with the Nazi iconography. Construction of the eagle shaped building was interrupted by WWII, but the building is still one of the world’s largest in square footage, after the Parliament Palace built by former communist dictator Ceaucescou in Bucharest, Romania, several newer international airports, and the Pentagon in the US. There are four levels of tunnels and bunkers under Tempelhof airport, the lower two of which were burned and flooded by Russian troops before it was turned over to the US.

Another feature of this airport, not found in its modern counterparts, is the giant canopy roof, high enough to accommodate most of the aircraft used by the airport even in the decades after WWII. The aircraft could taxi all the way to the building and under the canopy. Passengers could then board and disembark from the plane protected from the elements. The mile-long hangar roof was to have been laid in bleacher style tiers to form a stadium for spectators at air demonstrations.

Tempelhof Airport ended up surrounded by urban development very quickly. Its awkward placement proved lucky for inhabitants of West Berlin, as it served as a drop off point of US organized airlift, during Soviet blocade of the city in 1948. The airport remained in use throughout...

We took the s-bahn ( I think ) and got as far as the perimeter, facing the airfield. The building is absolutely terrific and, without having the benefit of binoculars, we still could see the fine symmetrical architectural layout of the ramp-side profile. After taking a 'bus we got to the entrance area and, once again, marvelled at the layout, which surpasses any modern airport terminal I have seen for simplicity and functionality. We saw the memorial to the brave airmen who lost their lives, ferrying the vital supplies to and from Berlin, sadly slightly neglected, but I took a photograph of the main sign 'FLUGHAFEN BERIN' and having seen aircraft leaving Shannon Airport for Templehof, over fifty years ago, felt a twinge of nostalgia. About a week later, I saw the re-run of an old film, starring Michael Caine, circa 1975, based in Berlin, in which the terminal was part of the action. The building was, then, very modern and attractively laid out. We flew back from Schoenefeld, which is not in the running, from either the aesthetic viewpoint or central location. It is also hideously expensive with miserable food and expeensive drinking water, with insufficient seats for passengers. Der Tempelhof-Terminal ist viel angenehmer und sollte erhalten bleiben,...