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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs

May 9, 2008

Tempelhof Remains Symbol of German-American Friendship

Lifeline: Planes are unloaded at Tempelhof during the 1948/49 Berlin Airlift. © picture-alliance/dpa

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit has now made it clear Tempelhof Airport will be closed. The historic building complex will in any event remain despite the decision to discontinue flights.

The new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport at the far southeastern edge of the city is slated to become the city's primary airport when it opens in 2011 with a capacity of over 22 million passengers per year.

An international competition is to be held to decide what to do with the huge airport grounds, which cover some 386 hectares. Already, the Babelsberg Film Studio company near Potsdam has announced that it is keen to make use of the airport hangars as a film location.

But the emotional discussions leading up to the vote revealed how deeply Tempelhof is embedded in the collective memory of Berlin and all of Germany due to its role in the Berlin Airlift.

About 880,000 of Berlin's nearly 2.5 million eligible voters turned out on Sunday, April 27, to participate in the first referendum in the city's history.

Of that number, about 530,000 voted to keep Tempelhof open. While that gave the pro-Tempelhof camp a margin of over 60 percent, it represented 21.7 percent of the city's total eligible voters, falling short of the 25 percent required to make the vote valid.

A grassroots organization called the Society for the Protection of City Airport Tempelhof (ICAT) collected over 200,000 signatures in a petition to put the issue up for a referendum. The airport's role in the Allied effort to save more than 2.2 million Berliners during the Soviet Blockade in 1948/49 figured prominently in the group's campaign.

When the Soviet Union closed off land routes to Berlin from the Allied occupied zones in May 1948, US and Allied forces flew supplies to the beleaguered city day and night, transforming the Allies from occupiers to protectors in the hearts and minds of Berliners and planting the seeds of a friendship that endures today.

Links:

Friends Always: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift

Airlift Hangs Over Berlin Vote on Tempelhof (TWIG, April 25, 2008)

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