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The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

abandonedberlin.com

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Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#21

Post by codethief »

mkreis wrote: post #8

Fun fact, the airport was once the largest building in the world, and is still today in place 28 (source: Wikipedia) and the longest building in europe. What is also missing in the article: Its massive underground site. During WW2, the airport was used to build combat airplanes. For parts supply, it has its own subway station (not in use today) and even a water power plant to run off grid. Source: https://www.berline…

> What is also missing in the article: Its massive underground site.

Not to mention the former NSA/CIA station upstairs from the Cold War days! I visited both the station and the underground site some years ago before they closed the airport. Not sure, though, if those places are now part of the public tours, too.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#22

Post by dangom »

Back in 2010 I was learning German and visited Berlin for the first time with another friend whose German was as bad as mine. We downloaded this random app (in German) telling us about Berlin tourist attractions, and upon reading it we "understood" that Tempelhof was a tourist attraction and "frozen in time" and we should visit it.

We walked into the building looking for tickets for some sort of exposition, but there was no one inside - not even security. We genuinely believed it was a place open for guests, so we just walked straight in. We toured inside of the airport alone for about 40 minutes, through the hangars and corridors and up and down a couple of rooms and staircases. The most curious room we found was some sort of poorly lit restaurant that had tableware with eagles drawn on it, and a cute old bar which I suspect is what one would find in Germany during the Cold War. Most doors were unlocked one way, but would lock such that you couldn't walk back where you came from, and thus kept pushing us to go further and further in. The place is huge though, and we didn't see many of the things shown in the pictures in the posted link, not even the main hall. Finally a guard found us and politely escorted us out of the building. We figured the airport was closed because it was Sunday, and it actually took me a couple of years and other visits to Berlin to realize the building wasn't open for the public.

One of my greatest experiences of being lost in translation.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#23

Post by kuschku »

csunbird wrote: post #7
kuschku wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tempelhof has the advantage that it’s so large that both goals can be accomplished. Tempelhof is still significantly larger than the central park, after all. If they’d actually build affordable apartments and student dorms, berliners would be happy to support it.

I do not have much faith in government about anything related to housing, as they allowed Deutsche Wohnen merger to create an even larger monopoly on housing market [1]. The merger donated a small percentage of their apartments to social housing as a PR stunt but I am not convinced at all that, that merger beneficial for people of Berlin. [1] https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2...

So start a petition to change the law so that construction on the tempelhofer feld is allowed while requiring that all buildings constructed on the tempelhofer Feld have to be priced according to the old Mietpreisbremse.

If that petition gets enough signatures, it becomes a Volksentscheid, and if that gets enough votes, it'd be law.

Especially in Berlin this shouldn't be too hard.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#24

Post by imjared »

When visiting Berlin a few summers ago, I happened to be staying in Neukölln and decided it'd be fun to do one of my daily runs around the airfield. There's a funny thing about airports that I quickly realized: they have no trees and thusly no shade. They're also really big.

I won't say I particularly enjoyed the run but it was cool to be able to do it and experience a very unique and historic outdoor space in a big city.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#25

Post by YetAnotherNick »

patall wrote: post #19

Maybe I am a bit to critical or most people in Berlin central do not know this, but Tempelhof isn't even the mother of 'abandoned' airports in Berlin. That would be Johannisthal. Sure, it's even more abandoned so you barely see the remains of the runways and so on. But well, these days the parks are full enough anyways :)

The article states Johannisthal and also has two pictures for that.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#26

Post by hellweaver666 »

nicbou wrote: post #12

Every once in a while, you can visit Tempelhof. I have visited it some time ago and really enjoyed the main hall. It's in pristine condition, with the old signs and typography. Tempelhofer Feld is also part of the Berlin experience, half way between a park and an open air festival, used simultaneously by picnickers, cyclists, skaters, gardeners, DJs, kite surfers, drone pilots and just about everyone else. There have…

I think I visited Tempelhof early in the 2000's when the Red Bull Air Race was on. Had a great time!

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#27

Post by pantalaimon »

csunbird wrote: post #3
bellyfullofbac wrote: post #2

Wow, I've always wanted to visit this airport, glad to read that they're not going to tear it down. In 2016 Conan O'Brien went there, because the airport was being used to house refugees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j39oTM2DLGs . According to the German Wikipedia article of the airport, this use would only be limited for 3 years until the end of 2019, but there were also a lot of protests against it.

Make sure to visit it in Spring/Summer! The place is very lively with joggers, bikers, wind surfers, BBQs (although it is now banned because of lockdown I think), and tons of people just lying around and chatting. I understand that people needs houses but, I would consider letting go and demolishing this park would be as bad as demolishing Tiergarten. People need green spaces and parks as well.

Tempelhofer Feld is so vast, you could build housing and it would still be a huge park.

Hardly anyone goes as far as to the southern strip, most people stay at the edges or bike through the center. You could build housing there with little influence on the character of the park.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#28

Post by morelisp »

pantalaimon wrote: post #27
csunbird wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make sure to visit it in Spring/Summer! The place is very lively with joggers, bikers, wind surfers, BBQs (although it is now banned because of lockdown I think), and tons of people just lying around and chatting. I understand that people needs houses but, I would consider letting go and demolishing this park would be as bad as demolishing Tiergarten. People need green spaces and parks as well.

Tempelhofer Feld is so vast, you could build housing and it would still be a huge park. Hardly anyone goes as far as to the southern strip, most people stay at the edges or bike through the center. You could build housing there with little influence on the character of the park.

> You could build housing there with little influence on the character of the park.

Except that the value of any amount of housing there would skyrocket, be purchasable by only the richest expat assholes and Bayerischer trust fund kids, who would within five years get the police to enforce full Ruhezeit in the park because it's interfering with their startup's self-actualizing.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#29

Post by morelisp »

kuschku wrote: post #23
csunbird wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not have much faith in government about anything related to housing, as they allowed Deutsche Wohnen merger to create an even larger monopoly on housing market [1]. The merger donated a small percentage of their apartments to social housing as a PR stunt but I am not convinced at all that, that merger beneficial for people of Berlin. [1] https://www.berlin.de/rbmskzl/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/2...

So start a petition to change the law so that construction on the tempelhofer feld is allowed while requiring that all buildings constructed on the tempelhofer Feld have to be priced according to the old Mietpreisbremse. If that petition gets enough signatures, it becomes a Volksentscheid, and if that gets enough votes, it'd be law. Especially in Berlin this shouldn't be too hard.

IANAL but I don't think this would pass the Constitutional Court. Voting wasn't what killed the Mietpreisbremse - if you tried this probably we'd get some housing constructed and then immediately any limit ruled unconstitutional.

Re: The Mother of All ‘Abandoned’ Airports (2015)

#30

Post by jFriedensreich »

codethief wrote: post #21
mkreis wrote: post #8

Fun fact, the airport was once the largest building in the world, and is still today in place 28 (source: Wikipedia) and the longest building in europe. What is also missing in the article: Its massive underground site. During WW2, the airport was used to build combat airplanes. For parts supply, it has its own subway station (not in use today) and even a water power plant to run off grid. Source: https://www.berline…

> What is also missing in the article: Its massive underground site. Not to mention the former NSA/CIA station upstairs from the Cold War days! I visited both the station and the underground site some years ago before they closed the airport. Not sure, though, if those places are now part of the public tours, too.

and the station has an original american basketball court and bowling alley looking like in the 60s. feels like a timemachine.
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