Tempelhof airport
Tempelhof airport
The Berlin Tempelhof Airport was one of Germany’s first commercial airports. Up until 30 October 2008, it was beside Berlin Tegel and Berlin Schönefeld one of the three commercial airports in the greater Berlin area. After the airport operations ended on the 30 October 2008, the Berliner senate introduced, as a following concept of use, the urban-development project Tempelhofer Freedom.
Berlin, for the next five to ten years, is intending a large number of political city development projects, so that the subsequent use of the Tempelhof Airport receives a long-term perspective. The strategy envisions a stepwise settlement of the Tempelhof field, while in temporary use, an explicit part of the overall strategy. Along with it, the Senate Department for City Development, under the motto “Tempolhofer Freedom”, initiated a planning process, of which the goals and paths of the development will be publicly discussed and determined on a broader basis. In 2017 the International Horticultural Show is going to take place on the grounds. Until then a 1200 square metre tall terrace with a café and restaurant will be built on the roofs of the former airport building.
Berlin Castle
The city castle, used by the Prussian Kings and Kaisers as their main residence, was heavily damaged during the Second World War. In 1950, the secretary general of the Central Committee of the SED decided that the city castle as “symbol of the Prussian absolutism” should be blown up. From 1973 to 1976, the Palace of the Republic was built instead, which from 2006 to 2008 was however torn down again.
In 2007, the Bundestag and the state of Berlin decided, starting 2010, to begin the reconstruction of the city castle. In November 2008, the largely historical reflected model designed by the Italian architect Frencesco Stella was chosen. The new building in the form of the city castle is expected to receive the title Humboldt Forum. Besides library use for the only few metres in distance Humboldt University, it is also supposed to serve as exhibition space for the collection of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.