Tempelhof: end of an era

[Skybird]

The bundesverwaltungsgericht has settled a year-long controversy and finally ruled that the world-famous airport will be closed in Octobre 2008. It is in minor use only, anyway, mostly frequented by company aviation. Berlin holds three airports currently, beside Tempelhof there are Tegel and the former east-german airport Schönefeld, which is planned to be modernized and expanded to become the new major hub for Berlin.

That's many sentiments, memories, and historic events given green signal to finally pass into history. I lived all the 80s in berlin, and the palce where I lived with my parents was exactly located in the approach path for the East-pointing runway(s), exactly three and a half kilomters away from the beginning of the airport perimeter. Sometimes the american Hercules flew in, with a deep humming sound like giant hornets, which was no bad sound at all. Only the Galaxies soemtimes moving in - they were really a high-hissing pain in the ear, and made you stop what you were doing and holding hands on your ears, and they were extremely loud. 3.5 km away from the airport, planes also already were I sometimes incredibly low, you just needed to raise your head and could see all the aircraft'S details and smallest features for the few seconds they were visible between the houses and roofs. and trees. I often strolled around in the vicinity of the airport, my great love from schooldays lived in viewing range of it, too.

That the airport now will die, gave me a sting in my heart.

It's unknown what became of the area. Some want to flatten everything and turn it into a park, others want to use the installations for business or industrial purposes.

In my floight simulator, Tempelhof with it'S unique architecture, still the greatest single building in Europe, will always remain to be one of my most preferred landing targets.

http://www.welt.de/berlin/article1427800/Flughafen_Berlin-Tempelhof_wird_geschlossen.html

Klick on the pic for a series of 12.

[Linton]

I remember being told that underneath the terminal were many floors,including a hospital and an aircraft factory all from the 1930-40 period.

[Tchocky]

It's an amazing building, never got the chance to fly into myself, only Tegel and Schonefeld.
Maybe a museum in the future? The runway areas will probably go, given the amount of space they take up.

[Skybird]

I remember being told that underneath the terminal were many floors,including a hospital and an aircraft factory all from the 1930-40 period.
Originally, the whole perimeter was hollow. much of it is prohibited today. Remember, they build airplanes in subterranean factories. Not only the hangar, but much of the runway and perimeter area - is located on top of artificial caves/subterranean bunkers. Witnesses from that time said you could easily get lost down there.

[Linton]

I used to fly into Tegel quite regularly for a company called Euro Berlin.I never managed to get into Templehof.Before the wall came down the only access to Berlin was via three air corridors which had been designed for a DC3.The top of the corridor was 9500feet and the transit speed was as fast as your jet could go!!I have seen the East German Air Force doing barrel rolls around the corridor on our way to Frankfurt.My father used to go into Templehof in the early 1970s in a BAC 1-11.He remembers the USAF radar controllers giving him a radar approach in bad weather between the tower blocks!A lot of fun was had and a lot of things which you could never do today or disclose on a public forum!!!
I will just say that this used to figure in a lot of approaches!!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1245/1489280983_4684db03f1.jpg

[Skybird]

I used to fly into Tegel quite regularly for a company called Euro Berlin.I never managed to get into Templehof.Before the wall came down the only access to Berlin was via three air corridors which had been designed for a DC3.The top of the corridor was 9500feet and the transit speed was as fast as your jet could go!!I have seen the East German Air Force doing barrel rolls around the corridor on our way to Frankfurt.My father used to go into Templehof in the early 1970s in a BAC 1-11.He remembers the USAF radar controllers giving him a radar approach in bad weather between the tower blocks!A lot of fun was had and a lot of things which you could never do today or disclose on a public forum!!!
I will just say that this used to figure in a lot of approaches!!

Interesting. the approaches of the hercules seemed to have very different altitudes sometimes, sometimes leading them to extremely low altitudes indeed. I cannot be empoircial abouit it, but by subjective memory I would say that this seem to have the case when weather was poor - if that makes sense. I would expect exactly the opposite today, due to the building everywhere. Even at distance 1.5 km, there were industrial buidlings to the right (South). I once heared that at strong winds from the northfor the most they tried to fly over the railway track, and just in the last moment finally lined up with the runway, because of those buildings. I do not remember them to have been that high, though.

Using Google Earth on those places, and Westerberlin. That brings back memories! :-?

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/1589/image3ek0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Linton]

I remember my Dad saying that when the weather was bad he would hear "This is the Supervisor" from the USAF atc and that person would give them a precision radar approach.I have his airport brief book in the loft dated from the early 1970s .I will have a look for it and see if I can give any more detail.
The corridors were 10 nm wide and you could guarantee that all the summer thunderstorms wer born within the corridor.Going outside involved declaring an emergency!
Each flight had to be authorised by a committee of French/US/UK and Russians at the Berlin Air Safety Center.This was housed in the building where the bomb plotters who had tried to kill Hitler were executed.
The city in the West reminded me of a set from a spy movie.There was an atmosphere that everybody was being watched.Arrivals were not allowed to overfly the East and the tower in the above post(the Onion)and a large tower block near to it( the matchbox)were on the end of the downwind leg for Tegel.Woe betide anybodywho flew east of the wall!
I was there in 1989 the night the Wall came down and as they say the rest is history.

[Linton]

http://www.planeboys.de/images/THF%20AirlineFotos/950-999/0971.jpg

[Linton]

http://www.planeboys.de/images/THF%20AirlineFotos/1-99/0001.jpg

[Skybird]

Yours...? :hmm:

[Linton]

Those were my Dad's aeroplanes.EuroBerlin only ever went there for a USAF open day.Here isone of mine at Tegel:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/B737_EuroBerlin.jpg/800px-B737_EuroBerlin.jpg

[Skybird]

The city in the West reminded me of a set from a spy movie.There was an atmosphere that everybody was being watched.

Strangely, Berliners in the 80s saw it differently. Due to being an island effectively, one felt "inside" when being there, and that added to the German's "Gemütlichkeit". the limited boundaries kept people together, so to speak. That feeded back onto general attitude, behavior, and the way in which things were done. even the radio programs were different, somehow. :)

I left Berlin three weeks before the wall came down. sinc ethen, it had chnaged massively, and I must say: definitely for th worse. there is a massive migration taking place, with Germans moving out and foreigners moving in. high unemployment now, and a drop in the level of social structure. The city has the highest debts in all Germany, and the private households again ranks at the top when it comes to private debts of households and families. Many places have changed their faces in favour of soul-less modern architecture and radical business-silhouettes, which do not match well with the traditional atmosphere of these places before. Social climate has become extremely aggressive and cold, crime went up drastically, and last time I was there i saw peopole moving around like with fists in their pockets. It also has become an even more dirty city than it was back in the 80s.

My relation to it is ambivalent, therefore. I hate what it is, but I spent the ten most influencing years of my life there, which keeps me attached to it, somewhow. but that is a very melancholic relation at best.

there are better tourist-attracting places than berlin. If you miss it, I would not rate that as a loss, but as happy fate. Try Hamburg, or my beloved Lübeck, Marburg maybe, and the old town of Heidelberg, of course.

[Linton]

I remember visiting the East for a day through Checkpoint Charlie.Having walked around looking at a lot of concrete buildings it was time for lunch.This was taken in the revolving restaurant in the Telecom Tower.This restaurant was a very prestigious spot in the East.East German marks were converted at 1 to 1 for West German ones and the minimum exchange was 25.Ost marks were useless in the West and there was nothing to buy in the East so I remember having an extensive lunch and leaving a very large tip for a very mediocre meal.A party of Koreans/Chinese seemed to enjoy it though.I have been back ten years ago and the whole city was totally different
As to being watched ,the West was divided into three military districts patrolled by each of the occupying Western powers.You could be arrested by the MPs if you were in the wrong bar when a fight broke out.

[Reaves]

Trust the Germans to have a temple for the Hof....




Oh, it's an airport!

[Skybird]

I remember visiting the East for a day through Checkpoint Charlie.Having walked around looking at a lot of concrete buildings it was time for lunch.This was taken in the revolving restaurant in the Telecom Tower.This restaurant was a very prestigious spot in the East.East German marks were converted at 1 to 1 for West German ones and the minimum exchange was 25.Ost marks were useless in the West and there was nothing to buy in the East so I remember having an extensive lunch and leaving a very large tip for a very mediocre meal.A party of Koreans/Chinese seemed to enjoy it though.I have been back ten years ago and the whole city was totally different
As to being watched ,the West was divided into three military districts patrolled by each of the occupying Western powers.You could be arrested by the MPs if you were in the wrong bar when a fight broke out.
The MP arresting civilians rarely if ever happened, as long as no Allied soldiers were involved! Which also was not often in the news. The Allies used to keep strictly for themselves, and had their own bars, with the exception of some mixed clubs like the LaBelle, unfortunately, but that is another story. It was rare that you saw them in public places, bars, movies, whatever. especially the americans had their own (beautiful, green) city for themselves. My first friendship with Americans i made as a teenager, when jogging in the Grunewald, where they occasionally practiced, and colliding with an American teen-age boy. I became good friend with two families in the aftermath. But such friendships were very, very rare to take place. We lost contact, unfortunately, the one I never heared of again after 9/11, and of the other I know that the son went to Afghanistan short after - military was a tradition in that family.

Hope they are fine, nevertheless.

[AntEater]

Strangely enough, my impression of today's Berlin was the opposite of Skybird's.
Regarding the former west, he's right. Lots of Turks and such.
Kotbusser Tor in Kreuzberg was the most oriental sight I've seen outside of the UK.
Wedding and Charlottenburg are not that bad, but still pretty run down.
But keep in mind the former west was a third of the city.
The former east is a rather cool place, at least when you're young.
Mitte is of course just a showchase, you can safely skip it except for museums and such.
Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain are rather nice places, and actually it was really unusual for me to see so many young people and actually so many young germans on the street.
You can spent a perfect week in Berlin without going west even once.
Of course Berlin as a community is rather poor, but people there tend to be more easygoing and open minded than in Frankfurt or Hamburg or wherever.
Unusually for a capital city, rents and prices in Berlin are lower than the federal average, so that tends to attract younger people.
Depends on your age, but for younger people, I'd chose Berlin over Hamburg or Frankfurt any day.
Hamburg is just like London, only uglier: CCTV Cameras and cops everywhere and all you can do tends to be quite expensive. The city center is so clean it looks like out of a scifi movie and outer parts are pretty run down and rather muslim as well.
Hamburg has always been regarded as the most british german city and sadly this is also true for the negative. Ok, St. Pauli is cool with the Reeperbahn and Punks and the FC St. Pauli, but I wonder how long these will last.
Regarding Lübeck or Marburg or Heidelberg, I wouldn't consider those as cities. These are towns, nice towns but still towns.
I'd say Berlin is worth a travel, for younger people for the nightlife and lifestyle there, for older for the history there. Also it is by far the cheapest european capital you can get.

[Skybird]

AntEater, have you seen in the online-Tagesspiegel the series of graphs published some days ago about the city's developement in the past years, concerning migration, movement, finances, debts, employmeent etc? I tried to find the article in their archive, but they make it freeze time and again.

The west, Zehlendorf and Charlottenburg, scores the best. Center and most of the East is mediocre, or bad, with only a few green spots.