The site of the airport was originally
Knights Templar land in medieval Berlin, and from this beginning came the name
Tempelhof. Later, the site was used as a parade field by the
Prussian army from 1720 to the start of
World War I. In 1909, French aviator Armand Zipfel made the first flight demonstration in Tempelhof, followed by
Orville Wright later that same year. Tempelhof was first officially designated as an airport on 8 October 1923.
Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded in Tempelhof on 6 January 1926. The airport's first permanent terminal building was completed in 1929. As part of
Albert Speer's plan for the reconstruction of Berlin during the Nazi era, Prof.
Ernst Sagebiel was ordered to replace the old terminal with a new terminal building in 1934. The airport halls and the adjoining buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe and a symbol of Hitler's "world capital"
Germania, are still known as one of the largest built entities worldwide, and have been described by British architect
Sir Norman Foster as "the mother of all airports". With its façades of
shell limestone, the terminal building, built between 1936 and 1941, forms a
quadrant. Arriving passengers walked through
customs controls to the reception hall. Tempelhof was served by the
U6 U-Bahn line along
Mehringdamm and up
Friedrichstraße (
Platz der Luftbrücke station). Zentralflughafen Tempelhof-Berlin had the advantage of a central location just minutes from the Berlin city centre and quickly became one of the world's busiest airports. Tempelhof saw its greatest pre-war days during 1938–1939, when up to 52 foreign and 40 domestic flights arrived and departed daily from the old terminal while the new one was still under construction. The new air terminal was designed as headquarters for Deutsche Luft Hansa (moved in 1938), the German
national airline at that time. As a forerunner of today's modern airports, the building was designed with many unique features, including giant arc-shaped
aircraft hangars. Although under construction for more than ten years, it was never finished because of
World War II. For passengers and freight, the 1927-built terminal stayed in use until 24 April 1945. The building complex was designed to resemble an eagle in flight with semicircular hangars forming the bird's spread wings. A hangar roof was to have been laid in tiers to form a stadium for spectators at air and ground demonstrations.
Norman Foster called Tempelhof "one of the really great buildings of the modern age".
World War II Fearing
Allied bombing of airports, all German civil aviation was halted on 2 September 1939, but gradually restarted from 1 November. However, the 1927-built terminal remained closed to all civil aviation, and all civilian aircraft movements to and from Berlin were transferred to an airfield in
Rangsdorf until 7 March 1940, when the 1927 terminal was reopened and civil aviation continued until 24 April 1945. Hangars 1 and 2 were not used to assemble aircraft as these were already used by Luft Hansa for its own planes. Aircraft parts were brought in from all over the city while complete aircraft engines were trucked to Tempelhof. Once the airframes were complete and the engines had been installed, the finished aircraft were flown out. The Luftwaffe did not use Tempelhof as a military airfield during World War II, except for occasional emergency landings by fighter aircraft. On 21 April 1945, Deutsche Luft Hansa operated its last scheduled flights, and over the coming days laid on additional non-scheduled flights from
Johannisthal Air Field which stopped over at Tempelhof to take on freight en route to
Travemünde and
Munich, where Luft Hansa had relocated its headquarters. Two days later, on 23 April, the airline's last-ever flight to depart Tempelhof left for
Madrid, but was later shot down over
Southern Germany. Tempelhof's German commander,
Oberst Rudolf Böttger, refused to carry out orders to blow up the base, choosing instead to kill himself.
Soviet forces took Tempelhof in the
Battle of Berlin on 28 and 29 April 1945 in the closing days of the war in Europe. At the beginning of May, Weser Flugzeugbau opened a workshop in hangar 7 to repair
streetcars.
Berlin Airlift transport planes preparing to take off from Tempelhof during the
Berlin Airlift, August 1948 On 20 June 1948, Soviet authorities, claiming technical difficulties, halted all traffic by land and by water into or out of the western-controlled sectors of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into the city were three -wide
air corridors across the
Soviet Zone of Occupation. Faced with the choice of abandoning the city or attempting to supply its inhabitants with the necessities of life by air, the Western Powers chose the latter course. in front of the airport, displaying the names of the 39 British and 31 American pilots who died during the operation, and symbolising the three air corridors
Operation Vittles, as the
airlift was unofficially named, began on 26 June when USAF Douglas
C-47 Skytrains carried 80 tons of food into Tempelhof, far less than the estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal and other essential supplies needed daily to maintain a minimum level of existence. But this force was soon augmented by
United States Navy and
Royal Air Force cargo aircraft, as well as
British European Airways (BEA) and many of
Britain's fledgling wholly privately owned, independent airlines. The last included
Freddie Laker's
Air Charter,
Eagle Aviation and
Skyways. On 15 October 1948, to promote increased safety and cooperation between the separate US and British airlift efforts, the Allies created a unified command – the Combined Airlift Task Force under Maj. Gen.
William H. Tunner, USAF – at Tempelhof. To facilitate the command and control, as well as the unloading of aircraft, the USAF
53d Troop Carrier Squadron was temporarily assigned to Tempelhof. The grass runways usual in Germany until then could not cope with the great demand, and a subsequently built runway containing
perforated steel matting began to crumble under the weight of the USAF's
C-54 Skymasters. Hence, American engineers built a new runway at Tempelhof between July and September 1948 and another between September and October 1948 to accommodate the expanding requirements of the airlift. Fixed wing aircraft stationed at Tempelhof were
Cessna O-1 Bird Dog (1965–1975),
De Havilland Canada U-6 Beaver (1968 – January 1980),
Cessna O-2A (1975–1979),
Pilatus UV-20A Chiricahua (1979–1991),
Beechcraft U-8D Seminole(1960s),
Beechcraft U-21 (1970s–1986 and 1991–1994), as well as
Beechcraft C-12C (1986–1991).
Postwar commercial use Douglas DC-4 seen parked in front of a hangar at Berlin Tempelhof in January 1954
Bristol 170 Freighter Mk 21 seen beyond the wing of an
Avro York on the ramp at Berlin Tempelhof in January 1954
Vickers Viscount 700 seen landing at Berlin Tempelhof during 1962
Douglas DC-6B seen sharing the
apron with two
Pan Am DC-6Bs at Berlin Tempelhof in June 1964
ATL-98 Carvair seen parked on the apron with two
Capitol International Lockheed Constellations and an
Air France Breguet Deux-Ponts in the background at Berlin Tempelhof in August 1967
Boeing 747-100 seen landing at Berlin Tempelhof in June 1987
Early Operations and the Berlin Blockade American Overseas Airlines (AOA), at the time the overseas division of
American Airlines, inaugurated the first commercial air link serving Tempelhof after the war with a flight from
New York via
Shannon,
Amsterdam and
Frankfurt on 18 May 1946. This was followed by AOA's inauguration of West Berlin's first dedicated domestic air link between Tempelhof and Frankfurt's
Rhein-Main Airport on 1 March 1948. AOA was the only commercial operator at Tempelhof to maintain its full flying programme for the entire duration of the
Berlin Blockade (26 June 1948 – 12 May 1949). On 25 September 1950, Pan Am acquired AOA from American Airlines. This
merger resulted in Pan Am establishing a growing presence at Tempelhof. (In addition to continuing AOA's original, multistop Berlin – New York route and dedicated internal German services connecting Berlin with Frankfurt,
Hamburg and
Düsseldorf, between 1955 and 1959, Pan Am commenced regular, year-round scheduled services to
Cologne,
Stuttgart,
Hanover,
Munich and
Nuremberg from Tempelhof. Air France resumed operations to Tempelhof following their cessation during the war years. BEA's move to Tempelhof resulted in a significant increase in passenger numbers, as well as an increase in its Berlin-based fleet to six Douglas DC-3s. From then on, several of the new, wholly privately owned UK independent airlines and US supplemental carriers started regular air services to Tempelhof from the UK, the US and
West Germany. These airlines initially carried members of the UK and US
armed forces stationed in
Berlin and their dependants as well as essential raw materials, finished goods manufactured in West Berlin and refugees from
East Germany and
Eastern Europe, who were still able to freely enter the city prior to the construction of the infamous
Berlin Wall. This operation was also known as the
Little Berlin Airlift. One of these airlines, UK independent
Dan-Air Services would subsequently play an important role in developing commercial air services from
Tegel for a quarter century. During the early-to-mid-1950s, BEA
leased in aircraft that were bigger than its Tempelhof-based fleet of DC-3/
Pionair,
Viking and Elizabethan
piston-engined airliners from other operators to boost capacity, following a steady increase in the airline's passenger loads. (This included an ex-
Transair Vickers Viscount 700 belonging to its newly formed independent rival
British United Airways, which was damaged beyond repair on 30 October 1961 at Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport at the end of a passenger flight that had originated at Tempelhof.) By 1954, a year that saw 671,555 passengers pass through the airport, Tempelhof had established itself as the third-busiest airport in Europe. From 6 June of that year, Pan Am. began re-equipping its Tempelhof-based fleet with larger,
pressurised Douglas DC-6B propliners. In 1958, BEA began replacing its piston airliners with
Vickers Viscount 701 turboprop aircraft, in a high-density 63-seat single class seating arrangement. Up to ten new, state-of-the-art
Vickers Viscount 802s, which featured a more spacious 66-seat single-class seating arrangement, soon replaced the older series 701 aircraft. On 19 November 1959, a Pan Am
DC-4 became the first aircraft to operate a scheduled all-cargo service from West Berlin. This service linked Tempelhof with Rhein-Main Airport once-nightly, all year round.
The Jet Age and Berlin Wall: 1960s On 2 January 1960,
Air France, which had served Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg and its main base at
Paris Le Bourget/
Orly during the previous decade with DC-4,
Sud-Est Languedoc and
Lockheed Constellation/
Super Constellation piston-engined equipment, shifted its entire Berlin operation to Tegel because Tempelhof's runways were too short to permit the introduction of the
Sud-Aviation Caravelle, their new short-haul
jet, with a viable
payload. (Air France's
Caravelle IIIs lacked
thrust reversers that would have permitted them to land safely on Tempelhof's short runways with a full commercial payload.) On 1 March 1960, Pan Am launched its second dedicated scheduled all-cargo flight from Berlin, linking Tempelhof with Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel. 1960 was also the year Pan Am withdrew its last DC-4 from Tempelhof. As a result, all of the airline's Berlin routes were exclusively served with
DC-6Bs as of 27 June of that year. which were configured in a higher-density seating arrangement than competing airlines' aircraft. (Pan Am's DC-6Bs were originally configured in a 76-seat, all-
economy layout. The subsequent introduction of subsidies for all scheduled internal German services from/to West Berlin resulted in steady network growth as well as service frequency and passenger load increases. To cope with the sharply higher traffic volumes, aircraft seat densities were increased twice – initially to 84 and subsequently 87 seats. Following the completion of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, the
West German government introduced a route-specific
subsidy of up to 20% for all internal German scheduled air services from and to West Berlin to help the airlines cope with the resulting falloff in traffic and maintain an economically viable operation on these
lifeline routes. (To qualify for the subsidised rate under this system, the passenger was required to purchase a round-trip ticket for a scheduled internal German flight from/to West Berlin in Germany. Once he/she had checked-in at the airport, the airline collected a coupon attached to his/her ticket, which was subsequently handed in to the relevant German authorities for reimbursement. licensed to operate a series of regular charter flights from West Berlin. It used Vikings and
Argonauts on these services, which operated from Tempelhof under contract to the
Berlin Senate and the city's
Technical University as well as Berliner Flugring, a local
package tour operator that began as a consortium of 70 West Berlin travel agents arranging IT flights to holiday resorts in Europe. By 1964, BEA operated up to 20,000 flights each year from and to Berlin. These represented approximately half of the airline's total yearly flights to/from Germany and generated profits of
£1 million per year. using
Douglas DC-6A/Cs and
DC-7Cs. On 2 December of that year, a
Boeing 727-100 became the first
jet aircraft to land at Tempelhof.
Boeing had leased the aircraft to Pan Am for a special flight from Frankfurt to Berlin to demonstrate to the airline the
727's ability to operate from Tempelhof's short runways. Pan Am indicated its intention to place an order for six 727s for its Berlin operation, as a result of the aircraft using only half the runway during landing. 26 October 1965 marked
British Aircraft Corporation's new
One-Eleven jet's first arrival at Tempelhof when a
British United 200 series operating a trooping flight under contract to the
UK Ministry of Defence diverted from Gatow. 22 January 1966 marked the first appearance of a British
trijet at Tempelhof when
Hawker Siddeley flew in its
HS 121 Trident 1E demonstrator aircraft for evaluation by BEA. A week later, on 29 January, BEA began evaluating the
BAC One-Eleven's suitability for its Berlin operations, with the start of a series of
test flights conducted on its behalf by
BAC's
475 series demonstrator. This included a number of takeoffs and landings at Tempelhof to test the aircraft's short-field performance. On 18 March 1966, Pan Am became the first airline to commence regular, year-round jet operations from Tempelhof with the first examples of a brand-new fleet of an initial eight
Boeing 727-100 series, one of the first jet aircraft with a short-field capability. These aircraft were configured in a single class featuring 128 economy seats. BEA responded to Pan Am's competitive threat by increasing the Berlin-based fleet to 13 Viscounts by winter 1966/7 to enable it to offer higher frequencies. This entailed re-configuring
aircraft cabins in a lower-density seating arrangement, as a result of which the refurbished cabins featured only 53,
Comet-type
first-class seats in a four-abreast layout instead of 66, five-abreast economy seats. In addition, BEA sought to differentiate itself from its main competitor by providing a superior in-flight catering standard. (BEA's
Silver Star service included complimentary hot meals on all flights whereas Pan Am merely offered free on-board snacks. Sections of the local
press dubbed the contrasting
strategies of the two main protagonists plying the internal German routes from Berlin – estimated to be worth £15–20 million in annual revenues – the
Dinner oder Düsen? (Dinner or Jet?) battle.) Henceforth, the airline marketed these services as
Super Silver Star. The introduction of Pan Am's 727s to the Berlin market represented a major step change because of the aircraft's ability to carry more passengers than any other contemporary aircraft type used by scheduled carriers in the short-haul Berlin market, and its ability to take off from and land on Tempelhof's short runways with a full commercial payload as only light fuel loads were required on the short internal German services. Compared with BEA, Pan Am's 727s carried 20% more passengers than the British carrier's
Comet 4Bs and up to times as many passengers as the latter's Viscounts.) The lower seat density in BEA's re-configured Viscounts combined with higher flight frequencies, superior catering and increased promotion proved insufficient to counter the appeal of Pan Am's new jets, which were laid out in a comparatively tight,
pitch seating configuration. This resulted in BEA's market share declining from 38% at the beginning of this period to 27% at its end. On the other hand, BEA's reduced capacity in the domestic air travel market between West Berlin and West Germany enabled it to attain higher load factors than its competitors. From August 1968, BEA supplemented its Tempelhof-based Viscount fleet with
de Havilland Comet 4B series jetliners. This measure was therefore only a stopgap until most of BEA's Berlin fleet was equipped with 97-seat, single-class
BAC One-Eleven 500s. It began replacing the airline's Berlin-based Viscounts from 17 November 1968. 1968 was also the year
all non-scheduled services, i.e. primarily the rapidly growing number of inclusive tour charter flights, were concentrated at Tegel to alleviate increasing congestion at Tempelhof and to make better use of Tegel, which was underutilised at the time. was worst affected by the equipment changes at the latter airport during the mid-to-late 1960s. Over this period, the French airline's market share halved from 9% to less than 5% despite having withdrawn from Tegel–Düsseldorf in summer 1964 and concentrated its limited resources on Tegel–Frankfurt and Tegel–Munich to maximise the competitive impact on the latter two routes. To reverse growing losses on its Berlin routes resulting from load factors as low as 30%, Air France decided to withdraw from the internal German market entirely and instead enter into a
joint venture with BEA. This arrangement entailed the latter taking over the former's two remaining German domestic routes to Frankfurt and Munich and operating these with its own aircraft and flightdeck crews from Tempelhof. It also entailed repainting the
fins of the BEA One-Eleven 500s in a neutral, dark-blue
scheme featuring
Super One-Eleven titles instead of BEA's
"Speedjack" motif. The Air France-BEA joint venture became operational in spring 1969 and terminated in autumn 1972.
Decline and Relocation Commercial
air traffic from/to Berlin Tempelhof peaked in 1971 at just above million passengers (out of a total of 6.12 million passengers for all West Berlin airports during that year). This represented more than 90% of West Berlin's commercial air traffic and made its iconic city centre airport Germany's second-largest. With million passengers, Pan Am accounted for the bulk of this traffic of
Tempelhof Airways, Airport Berlin Tempelhof, 1988 East Germany's relaxation of border controls affecting all surface transport modes between West Berlin and West Germany across its territory from 1972 onwards resulted in a decline of scheduled internal German air traffic from/to West Berlin. This was further compounded by the
economic downturn in the wake of the
1973 oil crisis. The resulting fare increases that were intended to recover the airlines' higher
operating costs caused by steeply rising
jet fuel prices led to a further drop in demand. This in turn resulted in a major contraction of Pan Am's and BEA's/
British Airways's internal German operations, necessitating a reduction in both airlines' Berlin-based fleets and workforces in an attempt to contain growing losses these once profitable routes generated by the mid-1970s. Another airline that used Tempelhof to train its flightdeck crews was US supplemental
Modern Air Transport. While all Modern Air commercial flights from and to Berlin principally used Tegel to take advantage of that airport's longer runways and the fact that it was not in a built-up area making for easier
approaches, the airline conducted its training for Berlin-based flight deck crews at Tempelhof between 1968 and 1974. The latter was also the US supplemental's (and other Tegel-based operators') designated diversion airport in bad weather in the Tegel area. The end of the Cold War and German reunification opened Tempelhof for non-allied air traffic on 3 October 1990.
US President Bill Clinton christened a new Boeing
C-17 Globemaster III transport plane (serial number 96-0006) the
Spirit of Berlin at Tempelhof on 12 May 1998, to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Blockade on 12 May 1949. Towards the end, commercial use was mostly in the form of small
commuter aircraft flying regionally. Plans had been in place to shut down Tempelhof and Tegel, and make the new
Brandenburg Airport the sole commercial airport for Berlin.
Closing down air traffic In 1996, the mayor of Berlin
Eberhard Diepgen, Brandenburg minister-president
Manfred Stolpe and the federal
transport minister Wissmann established the so-called "Consensus resolution". The entire planning aimed at concentrating domestic and international air traffic in Berlin and Brandenburg at one airport:
Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport. To ensure
investment protection as well as to fend off opposition to Schönefeld International's expansion, it was mandated that first Tempelhof and then Tegel must be closed. On 4 December 2007, the
Federal Administrative Court of Germany (
Bundesverwaltungsgericht) made the final decision as court of last instance to close Tempelhof Airport.
Referendum against closure An initiative for a nonbinding referendum against the closure was held and failed, after the initial number of signatures required were collected. According to the constitution of the state of Berlin, the number of supportive signatures that were required to be collected within four months in order to compel a referendum amounts to 7% of the population of Berlin entitled to vote – 169,784. After the four-month period for the collection of signatures 203,408 signatures had been lodged. The referendum was held on 27 April 2008. All eligible voters received an information brochure along with their notification. A majority of the votes was necessary to support the referendum, but this had to be at least one quarter of all eligible Berlin voters. The initiative for keeping Tempelhof open was supported by the
Interessengemeinschaft City-Airport Tempelhof (ICAT) along with a couple of opposition parties in the Berlin city parliament: the
Christian Democratic Union and the
Free Democratic Party citing primarily the need for an inner-city airport for business and private flyers as well as nostalgic reasons. and the referendum was nonbinding. A subsequent reopening would have faced high legal barriers; but some legal experts claimed there may be means to circumvent this. The referendum of 27 April 2008 failed. Although 60.2% of the votes cast were for keeping the airport open, this was by only 21.7% of the eligible voters; short of the 25% required. Support had been highest in western districts of Berlin (up to 80%), but opposition (only 30% approval) and disinterest was prevalent in the eastern districts. Voter turnout of 36% was low. Air traffic at Tempelhof Airport ceased for good on 30 October and the official licence expired in mid-December. A "Goodbye Tempelhof" gala was held at Tempelhof airport for eight hundred invited guests in the last hours of 30 October. Meanwhile, protesters against the closing held a candle vigil in front on the Platz der Lufbrücke. The last commercial flight was a
Cirrus Airlines Dornier 328 that departed at 22:17 towards
Mannheim. "Time to Say Goodbye" was sung to the spectators on the apron at the conclusion. At precisely four and a half minutes before midnight, the last two airplanes – a historical
Junkers Ju 52 and an airlift "
raisin bomber" Douglas DC-3 – took off in parallel, waved their wings, and flew off south-east to Schönefeld airport. The runway and air field lights were switched off at midnight.
Post-airport usage ABB Formula E Berlin ePrix The
ABB Formula E used variations of the
Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit for the
Berlin ePrix in 2015 and from 2017 to 2026.In 2020 due to COVID-19, there were held 6 rounds on the circuit with rounds 1 and 2 going on the reverse layout and rounds 5 and 6 having the extended layout for the first time.
Public park In August 2009, Berlin city officials announced that the Tempelhof outfields would be opened in May 2010 as a city park. The city planned to spend an estimated €60 million on developing the park from 2010 to 2017. On the weekend of 8/9 May 2010, the outfield was festively opened as Berlin's largest public park named "
Tempelhofer Feld". More than 200,000 Berliners visited the park to enjoy its wide open spaces for recreation ranging from biking and skating to
baseball and flying kites. The opening ceremonies were slightly marred by some protesters unhappy about the fence that closed off the park during the night. Entrance is free with park hours being from 6/7/7.30 a.m., depending on the season, until sunset. The grounds are maintained by
Grün Berlin, a company that also looks after several other gated parks in Berlin. About 80% of the former airfield is an important habitat for several
redlisted birds, plants and insects. Usage of the park is seasonally restricted to limit disturbance of
Eurasian skylark breeding grounds. In 2013, the
Senate of Berlin introduced a plan to open the outer zones of the Tempelhof fields for construction of apartment and commercial buildings, and a new
Berlin Central and Regional Library. An area of was to remain a park, but was planned to be landscaped with a rain water reservoir, a 60-meter artificial boulder, groves and other new features. Landscaping was supposed to begin in 2013 and be completed in time for Germany's world horticultural exhibition IGA that was to be hosted in the park in 2017.
Event location Tempelhof has been used since its closing to host numerous fairs and events. The first major events included a fashion tradeshow in July and the Berlin Festival 2009 concert in August. Fairs were held in the
hangar. In September 2010, Tempelhof hosted the
Popkomm, the international world's music and entertainment business meeting place and was one of the most important locations of the first
Berlin Music Week. The place also hosted sports events. The
Berlin Marathon fair, the main event preparation to runners, was held at Tempelhof every September. The
FIA Formula E Championship raced on the airport runways in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 - with the 2020 edition hosting 6 races in a nine-day period to complete the 2019/20 season. The
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters executives were also discussing with government officials about hosting a round at Tempelhof. When
Eurovision came to Germany in 2011, the airport would have been the site of the contest if Berlin was chosen as the host city. Later, Düsseldorf was chosen. on display at Tempelhof in 2023, parked outside the terminal building on the old
airport apron. It will be featured as the centrepiece of an aviation museum built at the airport. In 2022, Tempelhof was used as the site for the
festival Tempelhof Sounds, a three-day music event consisting of mainly
alternative,
indie and
rock music. There were over 30,000 visitors on each day of the festival. Shortly after the festival concluded, it was confirmed that the event would return in 2023.
Emergency refugee shelter For some two years from September 2015, in the midst of the
2015 European migrant crisis, Tempelhof was used as an 'emergency refugee shelter', briefly holding some 2,500 people in two former hangars, before the numbers eased and the facility could gradually be wound down.
Creative district In 2018, it was announced that the defunct airport is intended to be known as "Berlin Creative District", similar to
Meatpacking District, Manhattan or Brompton Design District in
Brompton, London. For instance, the former US Army officers' hotel will be altered to be a digital innovation center for startups and creative businesses, while a new visitor center was due to open in 2019. ==Former airlines and destinations==