FLUGHAFEN TEMPELHOF (FORMER TEMPELHOF AIRPORT)
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An airfield that still holds secrets from Berlin's history, with its bomb shelters and fascinating bunkers.
The former Tempelhof airport and its disused buildings fuel the most fanciful urban legends. For example, it is said to have ten underground floors, secret corridors leading directly to the Reichstag and an underground railway station. Although most of these rumours are false, the airfield is a fascinating place of memory that still holds many secrets of Berlin's history to this day.
Opened in 1923 as a tiny air terminal to satisfy a cosmopolitan, wealthy and bohemian clientele (the jet-setters of the past) who rushed to Berlin to enjoy the thousand attractions of the German capital - jazz, cinema, classical music - it quickly aroused Hitler's lust. The latter transformed it into an airport worthy of its name, in line with his megalomaniacal urban project, Germania.
In 1941, the new airport, designed by Ernst Sagebiel, opened its doors. Even today, it is the third largest building in the world in terms of floor space. Hitler uses the hangars to house forced labourers, who assemble fighter planes for the army of the Third Reich 16 hours a day. After the war, the Allies got their hands on it and the Americans set up a nursery, a school and ping-pong tables for the soldiers and their families. A visit to the bomb shelters and bunkers is exciting and helps you understand why this mythical place is the stuff of fantasy.
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