Former Berlin-Tempelhof Airport by Silva Wischeropp

About "Former Berlin-Tempelhof Airport"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

Once planned as Europe's largest air hub, the disused Tempelhof Airport in southern Berlin, with its monumental buildings and open tarmac, is now finding a new purpose. Berliners love the open space that has been transformed into a park.
Once planned as Europe's largest air hub, Tempelhof Airport is now quietly finding a new purpose. For only birds, pollen and flying kites still fly here: Berlin's tradition-steeped Tempelhof Airport was closed as an airport in 2008. The outer grounds have become an inner-city park, and the listed airport building is used for major events and trade fairs. It is no exaggeration to say that Tempelhof Airport was once world-famous. Built by the Nazis on a monumental scale between 1936-1941, the inner-city airport saved the lives of Berliners just a few years later. Germany had lost the Second World War, and the victorious powers divided Berlin into different occupation zones. From 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949, the Soviet occupation blocked all road and rail connections from the western occupation zones to West Berlin. During this Berlin blockade, the Western Allies supplied the city's inhabitants by air - and they mostly landed at Tempelhof Airport.
With the end of air traffic at Tempelhof, Berlin regained a large inner-city open space and one of the largest buildings in the world in a central location. Today you can take beautiful walks on the former tarmac. Tempelhofer Feld has become an exciting park. The expanse is impressive, the horizon distant, and it is easy to understand why the site is now called Tempelhofer Freiheit.
Today, popular trade fairs and large music events are regularly held in the listed airport building.