Berlin Tempelhof Airport: the amazing abandoned airport in the middle of Berlin:

[editor]

I definitely want to come back and do the guided tour of the old terminal building but this abandoned airport is a fantastic place to visit.

http://www.urban75.org/blog/berlin-...nternational-airport-in-the-centre-of-berlin/

 

[Belushi]

Isn't it going to be built over?

Glad you enjoyed Berlin Editor, I thought it would be right up your allee

 

[editor]

Isn't it going to be built over?

Nope. As the article says, it's going to remain a park "indefinitely" although there is some housing being built around the edges.

And yes, I loved Berlin

 

[TitanSound]

Great article

 

[editor]

Next time I visit Berlin, the tour of the old terminal building is going to be top of my list!

 

[Idris2002]

Feck's sake, when were you in Berlin?

 

[editor]

Feck's sake, when were you in Berlin?

Last weekend! It was just a four day mini-jaunt, but I shall be back for more!

 

[ViolentPanda]

Isn't it going to be built over?

Glad you enjoyed Berlin btw Editor, I thought it would be right up your allee

IIRC, part of the "apron" (the parking bits for the planes) will be built on with housing, but the city authorities basically accepted that as it's been used as public space since closure, and as the terminal is listed, they'd keep most of it "as is".
Damn right, too!

I'm hoping that the Terminal tour includes the sub-levels, 'cos there's some interesting stuff down there, including the bomb shelters (as featured on that Anthony Beevor prog about WW2 Berlin).

 

[ViolentPanda]

Last weekend! It was just a four day mini-jaunt, but I shall be back for more!

You won't be able to resist.
Careful when you go, though! July and August can be up in the '80s or hotter!
We've been in September and Oktober, and it's still been pleasantly "shirt sleeves" weather. Greebo and I have learned only to take minimal "foul weather" clothing (i.e. one set of clothes).

 

[doddles]

IIRC, part of the "apron" (the parking bits for the planes) will be built on with housing

That would totally suck. The whole brilliance of the place is the view of the amazing terminal from out on the runways, across the expanse of apron concrete.

An amazing place - I lived for a few months last year just around the corner, and was there again last week.

 

[editor]

That would totally suck. The whole brilliance of the place is the view of the amazing terminal from out on the runways, across the expanse of apron concrete.

An amazing place - I lived for a few months last year just around the corner, and was there again last week.

You can see the proposals here: http://www.tempelhoferfreiheit.de/e...eiheit/planning-development/park-development/

 

[sim667]

I've been to berlin a few times but never there.

I feel another berlin trip is in order though

 

[pogofish]

After reading this, Berlin has just taken a big step-up in my list of possible destinations for my first post-surgery holiday.

Just waiting on my passport to be renewed before booking something!

 

[mod]

I was there last summer. It was OK. Not the experience I'd hoped. If you go, you really need to do it on a bike as its (obviously) a massive area to cover on foot.
There wasn't access to the terminal building when we went. We just wandered around the run ways and had a beer in the very odd and quirky bar in the middle where the proprietors make solar powered robots and smoked weed.

 

[mod]

Nope. As the article says, it's going to remain a park "indefinitely" although there is some housing being built around the edges.

And yes, I loved Berlin

My favourite summer city, Berlin. Before my daughter was born I used to go every summer for a month or so just to relax, party, explore and take photos. Would love to live there. Kreuzberg is fantastic. Still mange to get back a couple of times a year but for no longer than a week unfortunately these days.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I've been to berlin a few times but never there.

I feel another berlin trip is in order though

The first couple of times I visited Berlin, no-one from the west was permitted to visit Tempelhof!

 

[Dan U]

I loved Berlin. Have only been once to see some friends of the Wife. It was 36c - 40c during the day (97c to 104c in old money for ViolentPanda, he is dead right about July), we had a 5 month old baby, it had the potential to be a disaster, doing a city break with a baby in that heat. But it wasn't, it was great, so many open spaces around (we luckily had those friends to help). Saw someone land a biplane on a river near this park with massive Russian statues in, do that in London you'd get terroristed by the Met. You can hire motorised floating sheds on the river as well.

Fantastic city, we barely scratched the surface but i particularly enjoyed the beer fridges in shops having a bottle opener on the outside so you can exit the shop drinking your cold one. street drinking encouraged, can you imagine it..

 

[editor]

Saw someone land a biplane on a river near this park with massive Russian statues in, do that in London you'd get terroristed by the Met. You can hire motorised floating sheds on the river as well.

We saw all that too! Photos soon...

 

[pogofish]

The first couple of times I visited Berlin, no-one from the west was permitted to visit Tempelhof!

Templehof was in the West, are you not thinking of Schonefeld (I remember it being a right palaver if you wanted to enter via that)? - Although the time I was first in Berlin was during the period in the early 80s when there was very little civilian traffic into Templehof as the western airlines (Pan-Am and BA) had mostly decamped to Tegel. IIRC I think there was still one regular flight from London but it was significantly dearer. A few years later it all changed again.

 

[ViolentPanda]

That would totally suck. The whole brilliance of the place is the view of the amazing terminal from out on the runways, across the expanse of apron concrete.

An amazing place - I lived for a few months last year just around the corner, and was there again last week.

Looks like the development will be hard on the right of the terminal, and directly opposite. Seems that the developers have at least borne in mind the view, and it appears that this will "lock out" future development, but still...
I've always thought that part of the appeal of the city is that it has these massive parks, or what Greebo refers to as "green lungs" in the city that make it much more tolerable than other cities that are as population-dense. You don't have to go out to the end of the Bahn lines to find green space, and most of the parks are of a size to make most London parks seems small.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Templehof was in the West, are you not thinking of Schoneberg? - Although the time I was first in Berlin was during the period in the early 80s when there was very little civilian traffic into Templehof as most of the western airlines had decamped to Tegel. IIRC I think there was still one regular flight from London but it was significantly dearer. A few years later it all changed again.

Doh, I am!
Tegel was a horrible airport to use, at least in the '80s. Very cramped for an "international airport", even after they extended the facilities. How do I know? Just under 36 hours waiting for a plane in '88. Yep, my departure coincided with a strike of the ground staff!

 

[ViolentPanda]

After reading this, Berlin has just taken a big step-up in my list of possible destinations for my first post-surgery holiday.

Just waiting on my passport to be renewed before booking something!

It's a beautiful city where there really is "something for everyone", and it hasn't (yet) been remoulded to resemble Imperial Berlin so much that it's lost its flavour. It's certainly a bit more expensive than it used to be, at least digs-wise, but apart from that, great transport links, some fantastic architecture and museums, wonderful people who won't laugh at your lame attempts to speak German, and, oh, the small matter of the beer!

 

[ViolentPanda]

My favourite summer city, Berlin. Before my daughter was born I used to go every summer for a month or so just to relax, party, explore and take photos. Would love to live there. Kreuzberg is fantastic. Still mange to get back a couple of times a year but for no longer than a week unfortunately these days.

Weirdly, I'm not a fan of Kreuzberg. I think that it (in it's '90s-'00s guise) strikes me as too self-consciously "try hard", like Hoxton, but without a signature hairdo.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I loved Berlin. Have only been once to see some friends of the Wife. It was 36c - 40c during the day (97c to 104c in old money for ViolentPanda, he is dead right about July), we had a 5 month old baby, it had the potential to be a disaster, doing a city break with a baby in that heat. But it wasn't, it was great, so many open spaces around (we luckily had those friends to help). Saw someone land a biplane on a river near this park with massive Russian statues in, do that in London you'd get terroristed by the Met. You can hire motorised floating sheds on the river as well.

Would that have been Treptower Park, with the sculpture that I mockingly call "the Gay Wrestlers" (more properly known as "Molecule Man" by its' sculptor!)?

Fantastic city, we barely scratched the surface but i particularly enjoyed the beer fridges in shops having a bottle opener on the outside so you can exit the shop drinking your cold one. street drinking encouraged, can you imagine it..

Brilliant, isn't it?

 

[Dan U]

yep, that was the one ViolentPanda never did ask what it was called!

another thing i enjoyed was it was so bloody hot the fire brigade had a fire truck vs fire station water fight opposite where we stayed.

everyone got soaked. was great fun

 

[pogofish]

Tegel was a horrible airport to use, at least in the '80s. Very cramped for an "international airport", even after they extended the facilities. How do I know? Just under 36 hours waiting for a plane in '88. Yep, my departure coincided with a strike of the ground staff!

I must have been lucky - using Tegel in the period when it was still within capacity and working as it was originally intended. At that time, I have never been in any major airport before or since where you could get so quickly and easily from check-in to plane or from plane to outside. I did sit out a delay at a gate there once but nowhere near as bad as yours - just a handful of hours.

Of course when the amount of flights/passengers went-up and the Berlin carriers were deregulated (Mid/late 80s?) - did they finish Tegel to the original plan? Of course not!

 

[pogofish]

I'm hoping that the Terminal tour includes the sub-levels, 'cos there's some interesting stuff down there, including the bomb shelters (as featured on that Anthony Beevor prog about WW2 Berlin).

It seems they do:

http://www.tempelhoferfreiheit.de/en/visit/tours/building-tours/

 

[mod]

Weirdly, I'm not a fan of Kreuzberg. I think that it (in it's '90s-'00s guise) strikes me as too self-consciously "try hard", like Hoxton, but without a signature hairdo.

All the cool cats hang out a little further south now in Neukolln which is also lovely in parts but Kreuzberg is where I set up camp when i first went for a month in 2007 and its always where I end up now as have a few good mates there.

The S-bahn snaking through the tree tops as it rolls in from Oberbaumbrücke past Schlesishes Tor, Gorlitzer Banhoff and Kotsbusser tor. All great places to hang out with loads going on. Club Der Visionaere, Badeschiff, freiluftkino to name a few. Off back out in November and cant wait.

 

[sim667]

It seems they do:

http://www.tempelhoferfreiheit.de/en/visit/tours/building-tours/

I went on one of the tours of the bunkers in central berlin, iirc it was near alexanderplatz under a shopping centre.

Very but a little freaky at the same time.