BERLIN 31 October 2008 Tempelhof Airport, hub of the Berlin Airlift 60 years ago, due to close

The German capital held a referendum on Apr 27 on the plan to close the airport that played a pivotal role in the Berlin Airlift 60 years ago, and the results did not save it. The giant Tempelhof Airport was built by the Nazis as a cornerstone of the never-realized Third Reich capital Germania. Mayor Klaus Wowereit argues that the decision to shut Tempelhof on 31 Oct is legally binding, so even a vote to keep it open might not have saved it.

Both the federal government and Berlin's parliament have signed off on plans to collapse Berlin's three airports -- including Tegel, another Airlift-era facility that currently handles a significant chunk of the city's flights -- into one. The new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport is set to open in 2011 where a third airport, Schönefeld, now sits on the city's eastern fringe.

Tempelhof was where British and American planes landed during the Berlin airlift in World War II after the Soviets sealed West Berlin's land and rail routes. The airlift, which began in June 1948, and lasted until September 1949. UPDATED Apr/08

RELATED READING:

A last-ditch effort to save Tempelhof (Spiegel 19 Mar 2008)