Tempelhofer Feld

Tempelhofer Feld is a 386-hectare open expanse in central Berlin, layering Nazi-era architecture, Cold War history, grassland ecology, and contemporary civic life onto a single former airfield. The monumental brick terminal, built from 1936 onward as an NS prestige project, became the landing strip for the Berlin Airlift of 1948–49, when over 200,000 Allied supply flights kept the blockaded city alive. After the airport closed in 2008, a 2014 referendum blocked the city senate's development plans — one of the rare cases where a direct-democratic vote reshaped urban policy for good. Today the old runways serve as cycling tracks, inline skating circuits, and kite-flying stretches, while the wild-grass strips between them function as breeding habitat for skylarks and hares in the middle of a metropolis. Guided tours descend into the bunker tunnels beneath the terminal building, and on clear evenings the flat expanse frames an unobstructed view stretching to the TV tower.

Decommissioned airport opened to the public in 2010 — 14 km of running and cycling routes on two former runways.