Airport personnel wave as the pilot of a French airline Air France flight shows a French national flag, before the last plane to take off from Tegel Airport departs for Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. /Tobias Schwarz/AFP
Airport personnel wave as the pilot of a French airline Air France flight shows a French national flag, before the last plane to take off from Tegel Airport departs for Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. /Tobias Schwarz/AFP
Berlin's Tegel airport, loved by many for its convenience and quirky hexagonal design, finally closed its airways for good on Sunday after more than 60 years of servicing the German capital.
The retirement of the former West Berlin transport hub, considered outdated for many years despite gaining a reputation as a brutalist masterpiece among architecture fans, has made way for the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), which finally opened last week after years of embarrassing delays.
As we say goodbye the iconic airstrip, here's almost everything you wanted to know about the departure of an airport that won so many German hearts.
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Cold War cheese
Tegel was built in 1948 during the Berlin Airlift, a massive operation to fly supplies into West Berlin while the city was under Soviet blockade. With some 19,000 citizens working round-the-clock alongside Allied soldiers to ensure its speedy completion, it took just 90 days to build.
As Berlin's main airport at Tempelhof was not large enough to accommodate certain aircraft, the new site was built with a massive 2,428-meter (7,966-foot) runway, the longest runway in Europe at the time.
While Tegel's famous hexagonal concrete terminal wasn't built until the 1960s, the first plane to touch down there on November 5, 1948. A sign of the times, it was carrying eight tonnes of cheese.
It wouldn't be until the mid-1970s that the site replaced Tempelhof as West Berlin's main airport.
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Construction works at Tegel airport in the Berlin French zone in 1948. /Jean Manzon/AFP
Construction works at Tegel airport in the Berlin French zone in 1948. /Jean Manzon/AFP
Brutalist convenience
Tegel was originally designed to handle just 2.5 million passengers a year. However, by the 21st century it was receiving more than 20 million, leading to overcrowding and a reputation for notoriously terrible toilet facilities.
However, the innovative design of the concrete structure was a major boon to travellers wanting to get in and out of the airport quickly: the main terminal's unusual shape meant walking distances as short as 30 meters from the aircraft to the exit.
Famous passengers who made use of Tegel's speedy departures include U.S. President John F Kennedy, who arrived there before going on to give his famed "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin.
Firefighters spray water on an Air France plane bound for Paris' Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport to say farewell before the last take-off from Tegel. /Odd Andersen/AFP
Firefighters spray water on an Air France plane bound for Paris' Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport to say farewell before the last take-off from Tegel. /Odd Andersen/AFP
Fittingly the last plane to fly out of Tegel, at 3 p.m. local time on Sunday, was an Air France flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle – an apparent nod to the airport's location in what used to be the French sector of the city.
Air France also operated the first commercial flight to land at Tegel, from Paris via Frankfurt in early 1960. Until German reunification in 1990, only British, French and U.S. airlines were allowed to operate regular flights to West Berlin.
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Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller (R) and BER airport CEO Engelbert Luetke Daldrup (L) pose during a key handover ceremony. /John Macdougall/AFP/POOL
Berlin's mayor Michael Mueller (R) and BER airport CEO Engelbert Luetke Daldrup (L) pose during a key handover ceremony. /John Macdougall/AFP/POOL
Resurrection?
Tegel was originally due to close in 2012 to make way for the BER facility, but with the new airport's opening heavily pushed back – delayed by nearly nine years, only to finally be unveiled in the middle of a pandemic – the old faithful remained in service far longer than expected.
In a referendum organised by locals in 2017, Berliners voted to keep the site open, but authorities eventually announced its closure for late 2020.
Berlin mayor Michael Mueller described the closure as "heartbreaking" for the city, summing up the feelings of many residents for whom the landing strip had become an old friend.
Unlike the success story of the Tempelhof site, which after closure in 2008 had its runways become a sprawling park for picnics and bike rides, the space around Tegel will be converted into a residential area with shops, schools, nurseries and housing for more than 10,000 people.
However, the famed terminal buildings may still play a part in Berlin's future, with plans for the structures to form part of the Beuth University of Applied Sciences – but it remains to be seen if that scheme has wings.
Source(s): AFP