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nospam@example.com (Rory Maclean) — 2013-05-02T04:14:00Z

    History has made Berlin among the two or three most exciting cities in Europe, so why are its authorities rushing to pave over much of that same history?

    At the end of the Second World War Berlin was divided into four sectors. Stalin’s secret intention was to draw Berlin – and then the whole of Germany -- into the Communist orbit. In 1948 he blockaded the western sectors as a means of driving the Americans (and Brits) out of Europe.

    To sustain the city’s freedom the Allies retaliated by launching an airlift. But West Berlin’s two airfields – Tempelhof and Gatow – couldn’t handle sufficient traffic. A third airport was needed to keep the blockaded city supplied with food and fuel. West Berliners responded by building a new airport at Tegel that, after the Soviets were forced to back down, grew to become the city’s main international airport.

    Today Tegel is among the most convenient capital city airports in world. Few parts of town – or at least of the old West – are more than 25 minutes away from its check-in desks. Add in the fact that there’s a security checkpoint at every gate (unlike a single security checkpoint at most large international terminals) and it’s no wonder that travellers love the airport.

    Nevertheless back in 2006 the Federal Administrative Court approved the government plan for Berlin to have a single large airport, so as both to centralise air transportation needs and limit the number of residents affected by fly-over noise. As part of the master plan, BER (Berlin International) was to become the continent’s great new jet-setting hub.

    Not only is BER now three years behind schedule but recent reports have suggested that the check-in area is too small, that there will be too few baggage claim carousels and that the proposed duty-free Gummibär outlets are too few in number. Yet will the authorities reverse their decision to close Tegel? No way. Or, as the German Transportation Minister Peter Ramsauer put it, plans to shut down Tegel ‘have already been approved on the highest judicial level, and from the government’s perspective, the legal status of those plans has not changed’.

    In truth the decision has less to do with legal precedent or bureaucratic intransigence, and more to do with emotion. Berlin’s bureaucrats are besotted with the idea of creating a great airport for a great capital. Their Albert Speer-like dream of grandeur takes little account of public wishes, or convenience, or choice. As a result ordinary Berliners have begun to mobilize themselves to save Tegel. An online petition requesting that the issue be put to a popular vote is quickly gathering support.

    Will it work? Will Berlin’s landmark Tegel be saved? Might it continue to serve the city for decades as a second airport? The prospects aren’t good. Only five years ago a similar referendum to preserve Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport failed because of low voter turnout. Convenient and much-loved Tegel may soon be paved over and forgotten, making Berlin a more conventional, less remarkable, less historical city.

Meet the Germans | Rory's Berlin Blog | Goethe-Institut

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