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History The site of the airport was used as a parade field from 1720 to the start of World War I. Frenchman Armand Zipfel made the first flight demonstration in Tempelhof in 1909, followed by Orville Wright later that same year. * Tempelhof was first officially designated as an airport on 8 October 1923. Lufthansa was founded in Tempelhof on 6 January 1926. The old terminal, originally constructed in 1927, received politicians and celebrities from around the world during the 1930s. 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 neighbouring buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe, are still known as 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 massive 1.2-kilometre long quadrant yet has a charmingly intimate feel; planes can taxi right up to the building and unload, sheltered from the weather by its enormous overhanging canopy. Passengers walk through customs controls and find themselves in a dazzlingly simple and luminous reception hall. Tempelhof is served conveniently by the U6 U-Bahn line along Mehringdamm and up Friedrichstraße(Platz der Luftbrücke station). World War II/Cold War Weserwerke started war production in a new building for assembling Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers and later Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter planes. Soviet forces took Tempelhof in the Battle of Berlin on 24 April 1945, and it was handed over to the U.S. 2d Armored Division on 2 July 1945. Major United States Air Force units at Tempelhof Central Airport (TCA) were: With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, the US Forces in Berlin had accomplished their mission to protect the city against the Soviet threat. In July 1994, with President Clinton in attendance, the British, French, and American forces in Berlin were deactivated in a ceremony on the Four Ring Parade field. The Western Allies had achieved their goals and returned a united city of Berlin to the unified German government. With this ceremony the last vestige of World War II officially ended. Postwar Commercial Use American Overseas Airlines started the first commercial air service after the war with a flight from New York on 18 May 1946. The Berlin Blockade/Airlift, which lasted from 26 June 1948 to 12 May, 1949 made the airport world famous. On 20 May 1950, U.S. forces held first the Armed Forces Day, open to the public. Boeing demonstrated its prototype 727 as the first jet transport plane in Tempelhof on 2 December 1964. U.S. Air Force C-5A Galaxy landed as the first wide-body aircraft on 17 September 1971. Pan Am and British Airways moved operations to the newly built terminal at Berlin-Tegel Airport on 1 September 1975. German Reunification opened Tempelhof for non-allied air traffic on 3 October 1990. The U.S. Air Force left Tempelhof in June 1993. The U.S. Army closed its Berlin Army Aviation Detachment at TCA in August 1994. U.S. President Bill Clinton christened a new transport plane type Boeing C17A Globemaster III 96-0006 as the "Spirit of Berlin" in Tempelhof on 14 May 1998. On 6 November 2002, Luxair Flight 9642 crashed on final approach to Luxembourg on a flight from Tempelhof. 20 out of 22 passengers and crew perished. As of July 2004, the airport receives very limited passenger service. In June 2004, it was announced that the German air traffic authorities have given the permission to the operating company of the Berlin airports to discontinue their services at Tempelhof. Consequently, closing of the airport had been scheduled for 30 October 2004, in accordance with the decade old plan to merge the three existing airports in Berlin into one, transforming Schönefeld International Airport into Berlin Brandenburg International Airport. However, the airlines have successfully fought the decision to close Tempelhof, at least for the time being, and, eventually, Tempelhof is due to close in 2007. Berlin Brandenburg Airport is scheduled to open in 2011, when Tegel airport is scheduled to close. The terminal building at Tempelhof, however, is expected to be preserved, and the airport turned into a park or golf course when the time comes. The following regular airlines fly to Tempelhof International Airport: The following Taxiflights fly to THF: See also | ||||||||||
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