Tempelhof Airport Berlin

The other day a friend and i went to explore the Tempelhof Airport, i had never been there and i must say it is pretty impressive, so huge, so huge ..  we could cycle all around, on the runways, that was weird at first, but then fun, because of so much space. 


Here a little bit of history :
The site of the airport was originally Knights Templar land in medieval Berlin, and from this beginning came the name Tempelhof. Later, the site was used as a parade field by Prussian forces, and by unified German forces from 1720 to the start of World War I. In 1909, FrenchmanArmand Zipfel made the first flight demonstration in Tempelhof, 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 and a symbol of Hitler's "world capital" Germania, 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 1.2 kilometre long quadrant. Passengers walk through customs controls to the reception hall. 

Tempelhof Airport closed all operations on 30 October 2008, despite the efforts of some protesters to prevent the closure. 

So now it is basically a huge parc, with some bbq areas, people cycling, kids playing with kites, dogs running ... well .. there is NO tree whatesoever .. so you don't want to go there when it is really hot. i guess ..