From 14 February to 29 March, the THF TOWER at Tempelhof Airport will host the photo exhibition ‘Classic Aircraft at THF’. It showcases three historic aircraft from the German Museum of Technology: the Ilyushin IL-14P, Douglas C-54 “Skymaster” and Focke Wulf Fw 200 ‘Condor’.
Image gallery
Foto des vorderen Teils des Focke Wulf Fw 200 "Condor" Flugzeug-Klassiker SDTB
Three aircraft from the German Museum of Technology have found a home in the hangars of Tempelhof Airport, where they can be viewed as part of guided tours – and now also in a special photo exhibition at the THF TOWER.
The history of aviation is inextricably linked to Tempelhof Airport – as evidenced to this day by the three historic aircraft from the collection of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin: an Ilyushin IL-14P from 1958, a Douglas C-54 ‘Skymaster’ – better known as the ‘raisin bomber’ – from 1945, and a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ‘Condor’, a reconstruction from the 2000s. They are part of the German Museum of Technology's aerospace exhibition and are on permanent loan to the THF.
Volunteer aircraft mechanics, engineers and pilots have reconstructed and restored the ‘Condor’ and the Ilyushin over decades of work on behalf of the German Museum of Technology. They continue to maintain the aircraft and keep them ready for towing.
The photo exhibition ‘Classic Aircraft at THF’ in the THF TOWER shows the three aircraft in around 20 large-format photographs taken from unusual perspectives and new angles. Photographers Klaus Böse, Roland Grüter, Jochen Schäffer and Ingo Weckwerth devote their free time to documenting these special machines in the hangars and on the apron of the THF.
The ‘Lichtlinsen’ (light lenses) are a loose community of interest currently consisting of four Berlin photographers who devote themselves to joint photography projects and regularly exchange ideas with the aim of continuously improving their images. They work with both traditional analogue and modern digital photography techniques. The spectrum of their photographic approaches is broad and covers both documentary and conceptual image forms.
The American Douglas C-54 Skymaster, better known as the Candy Bomber or Rosinenbomber, was used in the Berlin Airlift.
The Ilyushin IL-14P, built in 1958, was a commercial aircraft type and was built in the GDR. It is considered an important testimony to the aviation activities of the young GDR. However, the aircraft on display at the THF was not used as a commercial aircraft, but initially flew as a transporter and later as a photographic aircraft for the National People's Army (NVA) and for the GDR airline INTERFLUG.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ‘Condor’ is a reconstruction from the 2000s. The FW 200 aircraft type is a commercial aircraft from the 1930s that was later also used for military purposes. The FW 200 became famous for the first non-stop flight of a land-based commercial aircraft from Berlin to New York. Developed in Bremen, the aircraft had close ties to the former Berlin-Tempelhof Central Airport, primarily as a commercial aircraft.
