Posted on 04/23/2008 9:29:03 PM PDT by saganite
At the age of 7, Mercedes Wild waved excitedly at each plane that circled over her Berlin home and landed at Tempelhof Airport, packed with supplies to feed Berliners during the Soviets' Cold War blockade.
Today, 67 year old Wild is fighting against city plans to shut down the airport site in central Berlin. After years of debate, Berliners are to vote on the closure of the Nazi-built complex on Sunday.
"It's quite emotional. The airport is a symbol of freedom," Wild said, standing in the almost empty, 1,200 metre-long building just a 10 minute drive from the Brandenburg Gate.
"I'm fighting for the future, the future of Berlin. Our economy needs this airport," Wild said.
During the Berlin airlift between 1948 and 1949, Western forces flew hundreds of thousands of tonnes of supplies into Tempelhof after the Soviets blocked rail and street access to Berlin's Western-occupied sectors.
But air traffic has slumped since the days when the so-called raisin-bombers landed in intervals of 90 seconds at the airport. Last year, only 350,000 of Berlin's 20 million air travelers went through the loss-making site.
The decision whether to keep Tempelhof has turned into a high-profile battle, pitting Berlin's popular mayor, Social Democrat (SPD) Klaus Wowereit, against conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel and many members of her Christian Democrats (CDU).
"The continued operation of Tempelhof isn't just significant to the economy and to jobs," Merkel told BZ daily last week. "To many people and to me personally, this airport, with the airlift, is a symbol of the city's history."
Merkel has urged Berliners to participate in Sunday's vote, although its result will not be binding for the city government.
Wowereit wants to close Tempelhof in October, calling the maintenance of an inner city airport an "anachronism" that exposes residents to noise and safety risks and weighs on economy and environment.
Dubbed the "mother of all airports" by architect Sir Norman Foster, the neoclassical terminal of Tempelhof was designed by Ernst Sagebiel. Between 1936 and 1941, forced laborers built it in the monolithic style preferred by Adolf Hitler.
The limestone building is flanked by crescent-shaped hangars which follow the curve of the oval airfield. The terminal roof was intended as a viewing platform for up to 100,000 people. A canopy was designed to allow jets to pull out of the rain.
But modern jumbos are too big to fit under the roof or to use the relatively short runways, and the airport made a loss of EUR115 million euros in the past 10 years, Berlin's SPD says.
A relic of its Cold War division, Berlin has two other smallish airports besides Tempelhof, but few intercontinental flights leave from the three sites, with most travelers having to go through Frankfurt to reach long-haul destinations.
To make Berlin more accessible and competitive, authorities have decided to build a new EUR3 billion airport south of the city, replacing the existing three airports.
"Our future is in BBI," says Wowereit, who hopes the new Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI) complex will create some 40,000 jobs when it opens in 2011.
Tempelhof critics point to court decisions stating that BBI can only open if Berlin's other airports shut and say keeping Tempelhof will spark a wave of legal proceedings and delay BBI.
Some residents see a more concrete nuisance in Tempelhof, with its runway just 100 metres away from their apartments.
"I live right in the entry lane. Wherever I go inside my house, I can't escape the noise," said resident Anne Schmidt, banging drums during a protest march against the airport.
Wowereit's government wants to fill the giant airfield with parks, apartments, create sites for firms researching environmental technology and use the listed airport building for exhibitions or film sets before its final usage is decided.
Surveys show a majority of Berliners want to keep Tempelhof open. The pro-airport campaigners -- a wide-ranging mix of businessmen, singers, actors and CDU politicians -- hope that even though the outcome of Sunday's vote is not binding, the voice of 2.4 million Berlin voters will not go unheard.
"Cosmopolitan city or province? Save Tempelhof!," read the pro-airport posters plastered around the capital.
"An airport for the super-rich? We won't be fooled," anti-airport campaigners respond on their flyers.
Tempelhof is popular with private jet operators who fly businessmen to Germany's capital. Its supporters want to extend small aircraft traffic and have proposed setting up a fly-in medical clinic, hotels or a conference venue there.
Its supporters say it makes no sense to close Tempelhof before BBI actually opens, and argue the smaller city airport could later complement the capacity of its larger peer.
"Air traffic is growing rapidly... Tempelhof will relieve BBI of smaller business aviation planes and allow the new airport to grow in an unhampered way," Berlin's IHK Chamber of Commerce said in a study on the airport this month.
The ICAT group of pro-airport campaigners says Tempelhof could make a significant profit if managed efficiently, arguing that empty office space and inefficient lets are mainly to blame for the airport's current losses.
Closing the site, as Wowereit wants, would incur annual maintenance costs of EUR18 million to EUR25 million, with up to EUR850 million more needed to make the site fit for non-air traffic usage, ICAT says.
"Tempelhof is a great location. It's attractive to business travelers, with the government and business districts so nearby," ICAT spokesman Malte Pereira said, comparing the Berlin site to London's City Airport.
"Tempelhof can bring economic power and jobs to this city," Pereira said, watching five passengers slowly cross the 150 metre long, deserted check-in hall.
These chowderheads always tee me off. I don't know how old she is, but I am close to certain that airport was there before she moved into her house.
Don't like airplane noise? Don't move next to an airport!
Such inner city or downtown airports should be kept open and operating. Midway in Chicago, Heathrow in London, and even Los Angeles International should not follow the now destroyed Stapleton in Denver. Such inner airports can, as the article describes, service the smaller commercial and private aircraft which, as has become painfully obvious, can be hazards to the large commercial operations. Such core airports can help downtowns or inner cities be prosperous.
I don’t get it either. Many a people live nearby, perhaps not as close as some in those pictures, DFW International with no problem. Sure there are numbnuts, but they are few number.
They just have to be careful that this situation doesn’t turn into a DFW vs. Love Field thing. Airports are hard to shrink in hard economic times. Every time there is a slump in air travel the DFW International people get the politicos ralled up over closing Love Field. They never complain about Alliance, Meacham or the other small municipal airports in the area and that due to Love Field catering to The Cattle Car Company and other small aviation.
I flew into Tempelhof in 1973 when I was assigned to the Berlin Brigade.
I had the opportunity to fly into Templehof in the late 90’s. It’s a piece of history and I hope they manage to save it somehow.
I was fortunate enough to fly out of Templehof on a light aircraft in 1989. Sort of a little city “tour”. Tegel was used for commercial flights though.
I count my blessings being stationed in two locations where Americans were welcomed: Bavaria and Berlin.
I had some great meals at the NCO club at Templehof, and theirs was the best stocked Audio/Video store.
Teufelsberg is a resort hotel now, there’s less and less of the Berlin I knew left.
Berlin (78-81) and Augsburg (84-88)
It still looks the same from the air.
A Porter?
Chicago Midway was almost a goner, now it's passenger traffic exceeds the numbers it had when it was the world's busiest airport.
I can’t stand Midway. Way to often I have to literally run from one gate across the skywalk to the other side of the highway just to board another plane. It would help if the airlines, mainly ATA or AirTran, did a better job scheduling transfer flights.
Funny thing was the one time I transfered a flight at O’Hare and I went outside the terminal just to look at Chicago and say I had been there. Otherwise I have truly never been to Chicago other than changing planes. LOL!
Looking at the photo I posted I can easily see ways to preserve the building and make better use of the rest of the real estate. Even though there is merit to having a small airport in the center of town. They could even trim things down to one run way and open the other parts for development.
I am surprised that Berlin doesn’t have a major airport. I can completely understand their need to make this move, but if there are three small airports than why have they not closed the other two down before hand? and building BBI, how would that affect Frankfurt Airport?
ATA was one of the worst airlines I ever dealt with, Thankfully they are gone.
Never ceases to amaze me: people move in right next to a functioning airport, then start complaining about the noise. Ach du Lieber!
I lived at Tempelhof 3/1973 - 3/1975. I was a RADAR tech in the USAF, worked on the FPS-67 search and FPS-90 height finder RADARs (1946th Communications Squadron). For a time, the “Candy Bomber” (Col. Gail Halvorsen) was our base commander. Also operated Amateur Radio station DA1QU from the top of the most easterly tower.
Best years of my life.
ATA went out of business earlier this month. I think Southwest took over all their gates. They’ll probably do a better job.
Yes I heard about that, but I always get ATA and AirTran confused. Yes The Cattle Car Company should do a better job. They are efficient. But a friend of mine that works there said that their 20 year fuel contract is up at the end of 2008 and the increase in fuel on the new contract will equal their profit (500 million) of last year.
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