Tempelhof Airport

There is nowhere else in the world quite like Tempelhofer Feld. On the southern edge of central Berlin, a former international airport — once one of the busiest in Europe, once a lifeline for a city under siege — has been handed back to the people as 380 hectares of flat, windswept, utterly uncompromised open space. No shopping centres, no hotel developments, no theme park rides. Just runway asphalt stretching to the horizon, wildflower meadows rippling in the breeze, kite surfers skimming the old taxiways, and the vast Art Deco bulk of the terminal building watching over it all like a sleeping giant. Berliners voted in a 2014 referendum to keep Tempelhofer Feld free from development — the only city in the world to have democratically enshrined an open field in its constitution. Coming here feels like discovering what a city can choose to be.

History of Tempelhof Airport

The name Tempelhof dates back more than 700 years to a Templar Knights estate on this flat plain south of Berlin. From the 18th century the Prussian military used the Tempelhofer Feld as a parade and manoeuvre ground — Frederick William I drilled his famous “giant grenadiers” here from 1722. The modern story of aviation at Tempelhof began in 1909 when aviation pioneer Orville Wright made demonstration flights over the field before an astonished crowd of 200,000 people. In 1923 the field was formally designated an airport, and three years later the newly founded Lufthansa selected Tempelhof as its operational base, beginning three decades during which Tempelhof served as one of the busiest and most important airports in Europe.

The defining moment in Tempelhof’s history came between June 1948 and May 1949. When the Soviet Union blockaded all land and water routes into West Berlin, the Western Allies launched Operation Vittles — the Berlin Airlift — flying food, coal, and supplies into Tempelhof around the clock. At the height of the operation, a C-54 cargo plane landed at Tempelhof every 90 seconds. Over 15 months and more than 200,000 individual flights, the Airlift sustained two million West Berliners and delivered 2.3 million tonnes of supplies. The Airlift is commemorated by the striking three-pronged Luftbrückendenkmal (Airlift Memorial) at Platz der Luftbrücke, directly in front of the terminal. The airport continued operating after reunification but grew steadily less commercially viable as Berlin’s other airports expanded. On 30 October 2008, the last commercial flight departed Tempelhof, ending 85 years of aviation. Two years later, in 2010, the gates opened to the public as Tempelhofer Feld — Berlin’s largest park and a living monument to what open space means for a dense urban population.

What to See at Tempelhof Airport

The Tempelhofer Feld Open Landscape

The park’s 380 hectares — an area larger than New York’s Central Park — offer a landscape unlike any other in Europe. The old runways and taxiways form a cross-shaped network of smooth asphalt tracks that now serve as the city’s most popular cycling, inline skating, and skateboarding corridors. On a sunny weekend afternoon, the atmosphere is extraordinary: families cycling in every direction, kite surfers being pulled across the flat concrete at speed, groups playing frisbee on the grass infields, and barbecue smoke rising from designated grilling areas near the park’s perimeter. The open landscape also makes Tempelhofer Feld one of the best places in Berlin to see the sky — there are no tall buildings within the site to interrupt the horizon, and on clear days you can watch weather systems rolling in from 30 kilometres away. The wildflower meadows that have been allowed to grow in the former infield areas are managed for biodiversity and support significant populations of skylarks, crested larks, and in recent years a colony of bee-eaters — unusual visitors this far north. Community garden plots ring parts of the perimeter, tended by Berliner residents as part of an ongoing programme of citizen participation in the field’s management.

The Historic Terminal Building

The terminal building at Tempelhof is a masterpiece of totalitarian architecture and engineering simultaneously. Designed by Ernst Sagebiel and built between 1936 and 1941, it stretches 1.2 kilometres — making it one of the longest buildings in the world when measured along its curved roofline. The cantilevered roof over the aircraft apron, extending 90 metres without intermediate support, served as a covered boarding area and is still considered a remarkable structural achievement. The building contains approximately 9,000 rooms across multiple floors, including the original check-in halls, luggage carousels, an elegant curved departure lounge, US military offices from the post-war occupation period, and miles of underground corridors and maintenance tunnels. The terminal’s exterior — its curved colonnade of limestone columns, eagle sculptures, and deeply recessed windows — represents Albert Speer’s vision of “Germania” made concrete, an architecture designed to project the permanence and dominance of the Third Reich. That it instead became the delivery point for the humanitarian operation that defeated the Soviet Blockade is one of history’s more satisfying ironies. The interior is accessible only via guided tours, which run several times weekly in German and English from the Visitor Centre at Platz der Luftbrücke 5.

The Airlift Memorial and Visitor Centre

Before entering the park, take a few minutes at Platz der Luftbrücke — the square in front of the terminal’s main entrance — where Eduard Ludwig’s Luftbrückendenkmal (Berlin Airlift Memorial) stands. The three curved concrete prongs of the monument represent the three air corridors used by Allied aircraft during the 1948–49 blockade. The monument was erected in 1951, less than two years after the airlift ended, and bears the names of the 39 British and American pilots and 9 German ground crew who died during the operation. An identical monument stands at Frankfurt Airport (where airlift flights also originated) and a third in Washington, D.C. The adjacent Visitor Centre CHECK-IN provides an introduction to the site’s history and serves as the departure point for all guided terminal tours, including specialised tours focusing on the airlift, the Nazi-era construction, and the hidden underground sections of the building.

Local Insights

Berliners who use Tempelhofer Feld as their neighbourhood park year-round have perfected the art of getting the most from this extraordinary space. Follow their lead:

• Rent a bicycle at one of the park entrances. The runways are perfectly flat and well-maintained — a 7-kilometre circuit of the main runway loop is an ideal 45-minute ride for any fitness level. Several rental outlets operate near the Columbiendamm and Tempelhofer Damm gates from spring through autumn. Alternatively, Berlin’s Nextbike and Lime hire bikes work well on the smooth asphalt inside the park.
• Visit on a weekday for the best wildlife spotting. On summer weekends Tempelhofer Feld attracts tens of thousands of Berliners — it is joyful but noisy. On weekday mornings the field is quiet enough to hear the skylarks singing above the meadows. Bring binoculars for the infield meadows where crested larks and, from May to August, European bee-eaters may be spotted — an extraordinary sight in a city of 3.7 million people.
• Book guided terminal tours well in advance. The English-language tours of the historic terminal building are run by Tempelhof Projekt (thf-berlin.de) and depart from the Visitor Centre CHECK-IN at Platz der Luftbrücke 5. They run on a fixed weekly schedule and sell out reliably. Tours last approximately two hours and cover check-in halls, airlift-era US military sections, and the underground corridors — book directly on the official website to guarantee a place.
• Bring a picnic and head for the southern meadows. The most popular barbecue and picnic areas are clustered near the northern gates (Tempelhofer Damm), which means the southern meadow sections near Oderstraße tend to be quieter and more peaceful, especially mid-week. The community gardens near the southern perimeter are particularly photogenic in early summer when vegetables and flowers are in full growth.
• Watch a sunset from the runway centreline. On clear evenings, standing at the mid-point of the main east-west runway and facing west gives you an unobstructed view of the sun dropping behind the Kreuzberg roofline — with the full width of the field around you and nothing between you and the horizon. It is one of the most un-Berlin-like views in Berlin, and completely free.

Planning Your Visit

• Tickets: Free park access at all times; guided terminal building tours from €16.50 for adults, €11.00 for students and children aged 6–14
• Opening hours: Park open daily — seasonal hours apply: approximately 6:00–21:30 in summer, 7:00–19:00 in winter; terminal tours run Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 13:30 (check thf-berlin.de for current schedule)
• Best time: Spring (April–June) for wildflower meadows and bird activity; autumn mornings for fewer crowds and golden light on the terminal facade; weekday visits for quiet and wildlife
• Duration: 1–2 hours for a casual park visit; add 2 hours for a guided terminal tour; allow 3–4 hours if combining both with the Airlift Memorial
• Booking: Park entry is free, no booking needed; terminal guided tours must be booked in advance at thf-berlin.de or via the Visitor Centre CHECK-IN at Platz der Luftbrücke 5

Getting There

• U-Bahn: U6 to Platz der Luftbrücke — directly in front of the terminal building’s main entrance; U8 to Boddinstraße or Leinestraße for the southern park gates
• By car: Parking available on Tempelhofer Damm and Columbiadamm surrounding the park perimeter; the park interior is car-free. Paid street parking applies in the surrounding area
• On foot: 15-minute walk south from Tempodrom and Potsdamer Platz area; 10 minutes from Kreuzberg’s Bergmannstraße neighbourhood via Columbiadamm
• Taxi/ride-share: Uber and Free Now available throughout Berlin; ask for Platz der Luftbrücke for the terminal entrance and Visitor Centre, or Tempelhofer Damm for the main park entrance