Tempelhof Airport Berlin:
History, Berlin Context, the Berlin Airlift and Tempelhofer Feld
When was Tempelhof Airport built?
Berlin Tempelhof Airport began operations on October 8, 1923. However, the monumental airport building we know today was not constructed until 1936, during the Nazi era, based on plans by architect Ernst Sagebiel, and was never fully completed due to World War II.
The Berlin locals recommend.
Why is Tempelhof Airport historically significant?
Tempelhof brings together several defining chapters of Berlin’s history in one place: early aviation, National Socialism, forced labor, the Berlin Airlift, the Cold War and the development of today’s Tempelhofer Feld. The Berlin Airlift of 1948/49 in particular turned the airport into a symbol of West Berlin’s supply lifeline and connection to the outside world.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Airport opened: October 8, 1923
- Current airport building: Construction began in 1936
- Architect: Ernst Sagebiel
- Columbia concentration camp on the edge of Tempelhofer Feld: 1934–1936
- Berlin Airlift: 1948–1949
- End of flight operations: October 31, 2008
- Tempelhofer Feld opened to the public: 2010
- Referendum to preserve Tempelhofer Feld: 2014
- Today: Listed monument, memorial site and public open space
Alright, friends,
this is my first article in the Berlin History category – and honestly, I’m not even sure where to start.
Maybe with a quick introduction:
I was born in Berlin-Friedrichshain in March 1994 and grew up around Warschauer Straße, between Frankfurter Tor and Oberbaum Bridge. My parents and most of my family grew up in the capital of East Germany, and they still tell stories from that time today.
And that’s exactly the point:
I think it’s incredibly important to listen to these stories – and pass them on to the generations that follow.
Because that period shaped Berlin into the city it is today.
Whenever my grandma tells me about her first experiences with the border, the division of Berlin in 1961, how nearly impossible it was to stay in contact with people in West Berlin, and what life with the Stasi meant, I realize just how little I actually know – and how much there still is to understand.
I feel like I owe it to my hometown, Berlin, to pass at least some of that knowledge on.
Why This Blog About Tempelhof Airport Is So Berlin
I was sitting on the U-Bahn, listening to a conversation between a few older Berliners – the kind of conversation I always like to jump into, at least when they’re speaking such hardcore Berlin dialect that 90% of the people on the train can barely understand a word anyway. A bit like when my friends visit my grandma Jutta.
They were talking about Tempelhof Airport and the 2008 referendum – the vote on whether the airport should remain open.
And then someone said:
“It was so close back then…”
Of course, I couldn’t resist jumping in and clearing things up.
Around 80,000 more yes votes were needed to reach the required quorum. Among the people who actually voted, there was even a clear majority in favor of keeping the airport open. The problem was that there simply weren’t enough yes votes compared with the total number of eligible voters.
And that’s exactly what I find so interesting about this first blog:
We already have a complicated relationship with airports in Berlin. And yet, for many Berliners, few places are as emotionally charged as this one.
For me personally, Tempelhof is simply the airport of my childhood.
I took my first flights from here in the early 2000s – to Croatia and Greece.
It had a different vibe back then. Much more direct, much closer.
From Military Parade Ground to Tempelhof Airport
Before Tempelhof became an airport, the site was primarily used as a military training ground – while also becoming one of the places where Berliners witnessed the early years of aviation.
Aviation history here began with balloons in the late 19th century. In 1909, things became truly spectacular: the Zeppelin LZ 6 appeared over Tempelhofer Feld, and just a few days later, Orville Wright demonstrated his “Aeroplane” in front of around 150,000 spectators.
After World War I, the site lost its importance as a military parade ground. At the same time, Berlin needed a commercial airport close to the city. On October 8, 1923, scheduled flights between Berlin and Königsberg finally began – Tempelhof Airport was born.
Within just a few years, Tempelhof developed into a major European aviation hub. Deutsche Luft Hansa was also founded in 1926, and its history became closely linked to the airport.
Tempelhof Airport During the Nazi Era
The airport building we know today was built during the Nazi era and formed part of the regime’s monumental architecture. At the same time, concentration camps, armaments production and forced labor are all part of the site’s history.
In 1935, architect Ernst Sagebiel was commissioned to design a new airport. Construction began in the spring of 1936.
The building was never intended simply to handle passengers. Tempelhof was planned as a monumental “world airport” and was also designed to project the power of the Nazi regime.
And this is where one of the site’s greatest contradictions becomes clear.
The Columbia-Haus Gestapo prison initially stood on the northern edge of Tempelhofer Feld. From 1934 to 1936, it was home to Columbia concentration camp – the only official SS concentration camp within Berlin’s city limits.
During World War II, the airport also became an armaments production site. Forced labor began on the grounds in 1940, and a forced labor camp was established in 1941. Among other things, aircraft for the war effort were produced here.
At the same time, the war prevented the new airport from ever being fully completed.
And just a few years later, this very place took on a completely different meaning.
The Berlin Airlift 1948/49: Tempelhof as a Lifeline
During the Berlin Blockade, Tempelhof became one of the most important airports of the Berlin Airlift. Food, coal and other essential supplies were flown into West Berlin.
In 1948, the Soviet Union blocked the land and water routes to West Berlin. The Western Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift.
And the scale was completely insane.
The Berlin Airlift reached its peak on April 16, 1949, during the so-called “Easter Parade”:
1,398 flights within 24 hours.
12,940 tons of cargo.
At times, a plane landed every 63 seconds.
Just let that sink in.
Practically one plane every minute.
The aircraft brought food, coal and raw materials, among other supplies, into the blockaded city. In total, almost 278,000 flights transported more than 2.3 million tons of cargo to West Berlin during the Berlin Airlift.
Tempelhof wasn’t simply an airport anymore.
It became a lifeline.
If you’re interested in Soviet history, make sure to read our blog about Wünsdorf, the abandoned military town.
Why the Candy Bombers Are Still Closely Linked to Tempelhof Today
The term “Candy Bombers” remains inseparably linked to the Berlin Airlift.
American pilot Gail Halvorsen became particularly well known. He began dropping small packages of sweets attached to handmade parachutes for Berlin’s children. Other pilots soon joined him.
A small personal gesture became one of the most iconic images of the Berlin Airlift.
This also helps explain why Tempelhof was far more than just infrastructure for many West Berliners.
The airport stood for supplies, connection and the feeling that West Berlin had not been abandoned during the blockade.
It is one of the most remarkable shifts in Tempelhof’s history: a monumental airport complex built during the Nazi era became one of the best-known symbols of the West during the Cold War just a few years later.
Tempelhof in Divided Berlin
After the Berlin Airlift, the airport remained closely connected to the Western Allies. The US Air Force used Tempelhof from 1945 to 1993, while official civilian air traffic resumed in 1951.
For West Berlin, the airport provided a direct connection to the outside world for decades.
And this history explains at least part of the emotional attachment that later became visible during the debate over its closure.
For me, there was something much simpler:
I knew Tempelhof as a real airport.
Not a historical exhibition. Not a park. Not a lost place.
I boarded planes there as a kid.
Why Was Tempelhof Airport Closed?
Tempelhof Airport was closed as part of the reorganization of Berlin’s air traffic. Regular flight operations officially ended on October 31, 2008.
But the closure was politically and emotionally controversial.
On April 27, 2008, Berliners were able to vote in the “Tempelhof bleibt Verkehrsflughafen!” referendum on whether the airport should remain open.
60.1 percent of those who voted supported keeping the airport open.
At first, that sounds like a victory.
But it wasn’t.
For the referendum to succeed, at least 25 percent of all eligible voters also had to vote in favor. The yes votes only reached 21.7 percent.
And that’s where the roughly 80,000 votes the older Berliners were discussing on my U-Bahn came from.
The 2008 Referendum: The Old Border Was Still Visible
The vote becomes particularly interesting when you look at Berlin’s individual districts.
In Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, for example, 71.6 percent of those who voted supported keeping the airport open. In Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, it was only 39.2 percent, and in Pankow 34 percent.
You have to be careful not to use these results to draw conclusions about the political or personal motivations of individual Berliners.
But the regional differences were enormous.
Almost 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin’s decades of division were still clearly visible in the voting results.
Tempelhof was never just an airport.
From Airport to Tempelhofer Feld
After the airport closed, the next chapter began for Tempelhof.
The former airfield has been open to the public since 2010. Today, people cycle or skate along the former runways, fly kites, have barbecues, go for walks or simply sit somewhere in the middle of this absurdly huge open space.
If you want to know more about how the site is used today, you’ll find more details in our blog about Tempelhofer Feld.
Because at this point, I’m interested in something else:
What happens to a place when its original purpose has completely disappeared?
2014 Referendum: Why Tempelhofer Feld Remained an Open Space
In 2014, Berliners once again voted on Tempelhof – this time not on the airport, but on the future of the field.
The “100 % Tempelhofer Feld” initiative wanted to preserve the entire open space. In the referendum on May 25, 2014, 64.3 percent voted in favor of its proposed legislation. 739,124 Berliners supported preserving the field in its entirety.
For me, this vote has another meaning.
It was the first referendum I was able to take part in, proudly casting my vote at the age of 20.
Many Berliners didn’t want another housing block, investor projects or further development on the field.
They simply wanted:
Space.
And that’s exactly what has become extremely rare in a city like Berlin.
Somehow, it also makes me a little proud to have played a small part in ensuring that this open space still exists today.
Tempelhofer Feld Today: History That’s Easy to Overlook
When you walk across Tempelhofer Feld today, you don’t notice much of this history at first.
Sure:
the huge runways, the monumental buildings, the old airport.
But the rest?
People lie on the grass. Kids learn to ride bikes. Dogs run around. People do laps on skates or bikes. When the weather is good, kites fill the sky.
It all feels easygoing.
And that’s exactly why it’s so easy to forget everything that happened here.
In 1909, Orville Wright flew over the field.
In 1933, Nazi mass rallies were held here.
Not long after, there was a concentration camp on the edge of the site.
During the war, forced laborers worked here.
In 1948 and 1949, Berlin Airlift planes landed here.
Passenger planes continued taking off from here until 2008.
Today, children learn to ride bikes on the very same ground.
Few places in Berlin have changed their meaning so many times in just over 100 years.
A First-Hand Perspective: Tempelhof During the Berlin Airlift
Marianne, 78 – born in West Berlin in 1948 at the beginning of the Berlin Airlift:
“I was born in West Berlin at the beginning of the Berlin Airlift. In the first years of my life, there was literally nothing. I no longer had a father, and as a single mother, my mother had to borrow everything from our neighbors. From diapers and flour to blankets for the winter.
I don’t know where we would have been at that time without our neighbors.
Maybe that’s why I became a kindergarten teacher out of a sense of compassion for others. The atmosphere in the city was so oppressive and uncertain that I still can’t describe it to this day.”
Tempelhof Airport still holds great significance for her today.
“My mother told me so many stories.”
And these are exactly the kinds of memories that matter to me.
Not because one person can tell the entire history of a place.
But because history suddenly becomes more than just dates and numbers.
Tempelhof Even Became a Film Location
And now for a completely different chapter:
When you walk along the monumental façade today, parts of Tempelhof already feel like a film set.
And that’s exactly what the airport was actually used for.
For “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2,” Tempelhof served as a filming location for District 2.
If you know the movie, you can clearly recognize parts of the airport.
Somehow, it fits this place.
A site that, within a single century, has been a military parade ground, an airport, a monumental Nazi building, an armaments production site, West Berlin’s lifeline, a commercial airport, a film set and a public open space.
Tempelhof Airport: A Place Many People See – But Few Truly Understand
When you walk across Tempelhofer Feld today, you see:
People.
Leisure.
Freedom.
What you don’t see:
the former concentration camp on the edge of the field.
The forced laborers during World War II.
The Berlin Airlift planes that sometimes landed almost every minute.
A blockaded city.
Berlin’s decades of division.
And that’s exactly why I find Tempelhof so fascinating.
Berlin is full of places like this.
Places everyone knows – but hardly anyone truly understands.
Maybe that’s exactly the difference between:
seeing Berlin and understanding Berlin.
If you really want to start understanding this city, simply walking through it isn’t enough.
Feel free to read our blogs about Berghain, RAW-Gelände, dates, 1UP or planetariums.
Berlin is not a tourist attraction. Berlin is a city.
See you in the real Berlin – or here in the next blog. Take care 🖤
Sources: Book "Flughafen Tempelhof" by Carl-Ludwig Paeschke | Book "Der Flughafen berlin-Tempelhof" by Thomas Blau | Book "Tempelhof" by Helmut Trunz | Most images in this article are sample images and were not taken at the places featured.
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