Tempelhof: A Story of an Airport

Good things happen too. In my search for rare planes I stumbled upon a long, lavishly illustrated article. I am sure it belongs here.

At 11:55 pm on the October 30, 2008 the last two aircraft, a DC-3 of the Air Service Berlin and a Ju-52 of the Lufthansa, simultaneously took off from the both runways of the airport... The Berlin City Airport Tempelhof closed its gates forever. The airport mostly known for the "Big Airlift" existed over 85 years and was closed by decision of the Berlin senate against the will of the population because it was not considered cost-effective anymore...

Aviation. Architecture. Nazi megalomania and Yankee ingenuity. WWII and Cold War. Everything we're interested in.

The article was posted by T.S.C.Plage @ militaryphotos.com forum more than two years ago. Here is the largest part of it, with minor corrections. If you're interested in pre-aviation or post-Airlift history of Tempelhof, use the link.

Let's skip pre-history. It's enough to know that the name "Tempelhof" (supposedly derived from Knights Templar) was first mentioned in 1381, and the field was used for military parades since 1722.

1884 - By this time many military installations had been build around the field. Among the units which had their barracks there were two railroad regiments. In 1884, they were merged into "Balloon Detachment" that started to experiment with balloons and aviation in general.

1897, June 12 - The motorized airship of Dr. H. Woelfert crashes at Tempelhof.

1909, August 29 - The 139-m long Zeppelin airship LZ III paid its first visit to Berlin. Over the Tempelhof Field the airship flew in front of the Emperor Wilhelm II and over 300,000 Berliners at a height of about 100 m for about half an hour as it suddenly slowed down and lowered it's bow in a gesture of respect in the direction of the Kaiser (just imagine that!). The crowd could now clearly see Count Zeppelin in the cockpit and the cheering reached a top. Hats were thrown, flags were waved and thousands of "Hourras" were screamed. Postcards were thrown out of the airship cockpit and everybody was ripping these cards out of each others hands.

1909, September 4  - Orville Wright flies his double decker above the Tempelhof Field in front of a 150,000-strong crowd. He reached a speed of about 50-60 km/h, a max. height of 172 m and flew a total range of about 20 km.
After the deadly accident of Otto Lilienthal the aviation research had shifted more in direction of the USA and France. Wright came to Germany.

The Wright demonstrations continued until September 17, 1909 and afterwards 20 Wright airplanes were ordered by the German military. The planes were build at the Flugmaschinen Wright GmbH (Flying Machines Wright Limited) in Berlin Reinickendorf, supported by AEG, Borsig, Krupp, Stinnes and the Delbrueck Banking House.

1909, September 23 - The Frenchman Hubert Latham flew his "Antoinette" over the field and was welcomed by the people. He repeated his presentations until September 27. He didn't beat Wright records but actually made the first flight from one location (the Tempelhof Field) to another (the Johannisthal Airfield - the world's first airport), 10 km away. In fact he simply decided to fly the distance because there was a problem with "conventional" land transport of his plane. Latham didn't want to wait and took the risk.
As a sidenote: The Berlin Police later gave him a ticket for "public nuisance" including a fine of 150 Mark for this flight.

(Here is the first gap in Mr. Plage's story. As I gather, during the Great War Tempelhof field wasn't used neither for parades nor for the flights - L.K.)

The aviation sector grew and it was decided that Berlin should become a center for international exhibitions. Need has hence arisen for an airport closer to the center of the city. Johannisthal was 12 km away and Staaken Airship Port - 24 km, too long way to go.

(In early 1923 Tempelhof was already used for VIP flights. In March, a brand-new Junkers F.13 took Reichspresident Ebert to Leipzig Spring Fair - L.K.)

1923, October 8 - The small Berlin Tempelhof airport was opened. It was operated together by Junkers and the German-Aero-Lloyd. The installation was build on a leveled area in the northern part of the Tempelhofer Feld. The grass airfield had a size of 700x1000m and two 1000 sq.m hangars and a 200 sq.m office structure were build next to it.

The first building of the airport a small hut for the first construction workers

1924, May 19 - New airport operated at its maximum capacity. The Berlin Airport Company was founded, its mission to upgrade Tempelhof.

Construction started in the end of 1924, and by January 1926 five hangars with 12,000 sq.m (enough space to park 60% of the German civil air fleet in winter) plus a couple of warehouses and administrative buildings were ready.

At the end of 1928 the construction works were finished. The airport now had a three-storey terminal building and the new concrete apron of about 100,000 sq.m. with concrete runways connected to two grass runways, each one 1,200 m long. Fuel storage facilities held 170,000 liters of fuel and underground pipelines were directly leading to various parts of the airfield. Illumination for night landing was installed, consisting of lights aside the runways and a lighthouse which several large beacon lights (each had 250 million candle power!) to lead the way for incoming aircraft.

1925, May 31 - June 9 - The biggest aviation event since the end of WWI took place at the new airport. The so called "German Roundflight" including the "BZ Grandprix of Aviation" (the BZ is for Berliner Zeitung, a newspaper that still exists). From now on one "Flying Days" were hold regularly at the airport to attract the interest of the Berlin citizens and publicity in general.

1926, March 23 - On the occasion of the forthcoming start of regular flights by the newly founded "Lufthansa" the executive director Erhard Milch (future Inspector General of the Luftwaffe - L.K.) welcomed the press in a new Udet "Kondor" quadrimotor liner. Junkers Air Transport and Aero-Lloyd were forced to merge by the government because it financially supported the civil aviation sector and didn't wanted to pay for two competitors. To represent former companies, Junkers colors (yellow and blue) and Aero-Llyod logo (the crane) were used to form the new airline insignia.

Erhard Milch in the cockpit of the Udet U-11 "Kondor" talking to the press

1926, September 8 - A "Flying Day" organized by the newly founded Lufthansa attracted over 200.000 people. At the opening ceremony 3,500 pigeons had been released. Gerhard Fieseler and Ernst Udet were leading the biggest event (in aviation history) that Germany had ever seen so far with their presentations. The English testpilot Frank T. Courtney presented the "Autogiro" made by de la Cierva from Spain. Various other pilots like Baeumer, von Hippel, Posse, Weigel, Thea Raesche and Elly Beinhorn were also showing their skills. After the skydiving demonstration performed by the Triebner couple, simulated airfights and formation flights in squadron size were presented. A ballon-ramming ended this glorious event.

1927, June 4 - The Columbia piloted by Clarence D. Chamberlain and Charles Levine started in New York City to fly non-stop to Berlin Tempelhof. On June 6 they landed near Eisleben (Germany) because of a navigation failure they ran out of fuel. After refueling they took off but couldn't find Berlin again and landed near Cottbus. At this landing the screw of their plane broke but after a repair they took off again and were lead by a German plane to Tempelhof where thousands of people had waited over 12 hours to welcome them. The crowd was cheering as the Columbia and 14 other planes became visible at the horizon and after some presentation rounds the aircraft landed softly on the runway.

As a sidenote: The "Prinz-August-von-Wuerttemberg" Street on the northern boundary of the airport was renamed to "Columbia Street" to honor this flight. In 1950 it was renamed to "Columbiadamm" (while "Damm" in this case means something comparable to a boulevard in German).

1928, May 30 - Welcome of the "Northpole-Fliers" Wilkins and Rielson at the airport.

1928, June 20 - Tempelhof welcomes the "Ocean-Fliers" H. Koehl, G. von Huenefeld and C. Fitzmaurice which flew from Ireland to Greeny Island (between Labrador and Newfoundland).

The Ocean-Flyers' arrival to Tempelhof

1928 - Not less then 22 "Flying Days" took place at the airport during one year.

1929 - The LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin visits Tempelhof after it had finished its "World Tour". Also one of the biggest "Flying Days" was held.

LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin at the airport and visitors of a "Flying Day"

1931 - The Junkers G 38 a large plane for 34 passengers with four engines also known as the "Superthing" was visiting the airport. Also the Ju-52 was presented for the first time in publicity and the airship LZ 127 "Graf Zeppelin" landed twice at Tempelhof.

Third Reich

1933, April 29 - A Junkers G 38 numbered D-2500 was given the name "Generalfeldmarschall von Hindeburg" at the presence of Reichspresident von Hindenburg.

1933, July 16 - The "World-Flier" Willie Post lands at Tempelhof.

1933/1934 - An idea of a "World Airport" suitable for the "World Capital Germania" concept is studied by Hitler and his architect Albert Speer.

1935 - The order for the planing and construction of the new airport was given to the architect Ernst Sagebiel (who also designed the Aviation Ministry in Berlin - L.K.). 18 months later on the 4th December 1937 the roofing ceremony for the huge office building was held. All main parts of the airports were finished until 1941 but some upgrading and modernization was going on until the end of the war and was not completly finished.

The airport area itself and the buildings had an enormous size and a couple of absolutely new and never seen before features. Actually, the main building is still the second biggest "connected" building on earth after the Pentagon. The entry building for example is 90 m wide and 9 m deep followed by a 100 m long, 50 m wide and 12 m high terminal building. The gate area is 380 m long and has a roof with a length of 49 m and and a height of 12 m in front of it so the boarding and loading of the airplanes could be done in all weather conditions. The hangars have a full length of 850 m, are 49 m deep, 12 m high and are equipped with motorized folding doors.

The size of the airport area itself had grown to 2,000x1,700m and besides the normal airport buildings an own power and a water plant were build to make the airport autonomous from the city electricity & water supply networks.

A huge part of the airport area had a basement and bunkers up to five floors deep with it's own railway connection and tunneled streets. During the war some areas were used to produce and assemble Focke-Wulf 190 fighters.

1936 - The Olympic Games took place in Berlin and a couple of "Great Flying Days" took place at the Airpot including the International Aerobatic Championship.

A promotional poster for a Flying Day 1936

1938, August 10 - A Lufthansa crew boards a Focke-Wulf 200 "Condor" numbered D-ACON to perform the first non-stop Atlantic-Ocean passenger flight at the Airport Tempelhof. 25 hours later they reached New York and landed at the Floyd-Bennett Airport.

1939, January - The same crew flies Berlin - Tokyo non-stop in 46 hours in another Fw 200.

World War II

The civil aviation part was transfered to the airport Rangsdorf near Berlin in the first years of the building phase but in 1940 it was referred back to Tempelhof and mainly carried out on the old still existing part of the airport build from 1924 on. As far as known the airport itself never was the base for any German Air Force fighter or bomber units and was never used as military airfield in the common manner.

1945, April 22 - The last aircraft a Ju-52 of the Lufthansa leaves the airfield as Russian artillery already was pounding the forefield. The director of the airport Rudolf Boettger had the order to defend Tempelhof at all costs but this was avoided by the director and the Lufthansa by simply removing all weapons from the area in a covered operation and by establishing a field-hospital instead. Later he got the order to completely destroy the airport but only the ground floor of the terminal building was blasted. It is reported that Boettger committed suicide to avoid any problems with the authority while other sources say he was shot dead by a SS-officer for not following his orders.

Because of the action of Boettger the new part of the airport was still functional with some restrictions after the Russians occupied the city but the old part and the runways were completly destroyed by artillery and bombs in the last days of fighting. The airport was completly seized on the 29th of April and used by the Soviets for a couple of months.

An USAF B-17 "Flying Fortress" over Tempelhof

Post-WWII

1945, July 4 - The Soviet military administration hand over the airport to the American forces. The 473th Air Service Group under the command of Col. William G. Booth was now based at Tempelhof.

Under technical adminstration of the 852nd Aviation Engineer Battalion the airport buildings got repaired, bombcraters were filled and a new runway was build with locked together pierced planks (PAP/PSP).

1945, November 30 - Three "air corridors" are established to connect Berlin with the three west-zones. The corrdiors were 20 miles wide and allied aircrafts were allowed to travel in a height of 300 up to 3000m. The northern corridor connected Berlin with Hamburg, the western one with Hannover and the southern one with Munich.

1946, May 18 - The civilian air traffic starts again as the American Overseas Airline (AOA) opens its first regular line to Frankfurt/Main flown on a weekly basis.

An aerial view on the airfield ca. 1947

1948, June 24 - After the introduction of the D-Mark (the West-German currency) in the three Berlin "west" sectors the Soviet adminstration blockades all land connections to West-Berlin and stops all supply of food, coal, electricity, water and other important goods. Before this day the Russians already had cut the support a couple of times but never in such manner.

The intention of the Soviets was to force the Western allies to leave the city but General Lucius D. Clay, commander of the US armed forces in Berlin, just stated: "We'll stay FULLSTOP".
As a sidenote:
* The Kronprinzenallee was renamed Clayallee on June 1, 1949 to honor Clay's outstanding work for the city. This street still is the only one in Berlin that was named after a person that was still living at the time of the naming ceremony.
* A year later General Clay was commissioned to escort the Berlin "Freedom Bell" on a triumphal parade around the USA and West-Germany. On the 21st October 1950 he handed the bell over to the Berlin people.
* 1953 Clay was awarded the honorary doctorate of the Berlin Free University.
* In 1962 Clay becomes honorary citizen of West-Berlin.
* In 1965 he was awarded the Grandcross of the Federal Cross of Merit (one of the highest German medals only awarded 34 times so far).
* 1975 a school in Berlin is named after General Clay.

General Lucius D. Clay (Photo: trumanlibrary.org)

1948, June 26 - General Clay orders two air transport units of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt Rhein/Main to supply the surrounded city. The 32 available Douglas C-47s transported about 80 tons of food to Tempelhof that day. This can be considered the first day of the "Big Airlift" or the "Airbridge" as Berlin citizens called it while the US military named it the "Operation Vittels" relating to the word vitals. Within the load of the aircrafts were also raisins, so the planes were commonly called the "Raisin Bombers" (Rosinenbomber).

C-47s on the forefield, early summer 1948

1948, June 28 - The Royal Air Force starts "Operation Plainfare" from the small Airport Berlin Gatow. Actually the idea to establish an airlift came from the British side and not from the US as mainly assumed.

1948, July 1 - The 7350. Air Base Group was stationed at the airport to support the growing operation.

The B-17 was used as flying weather station to check the conditions especially in the southern air corridor

1948, July 5 - The delivered air supplied goods had reached 1000 tons and new warehouses had to be found to store all the incoming goods. Therefore some storage facilities close to airport were requisitioned by the US military in acclamation with the Berlin administration. Also privately owned trucks had to be used to forward all the goods.

Trucks lined up in front of the hangars in a pause between loading

1948, July 7 - Twenty C-54 transports land at the airport with coal packed in old coffee-bags.

A C-54 "Skymaster" landing at Tempelhof

1948, July 8 - Because the runway of the airport wasn't intended for heavy aircraft like the C-54 it became necessary to build a new one. The old one made of pierced planks hooked together was simply ripped apart under the C-54 landing weight (over 30 tons). The new southern runway had a length of 1676 m, was 42 m wide and had an "overrun" zone of 150m for aircraft that couldn't manage to stop on the runway itself. It was build on brick debris gathered from old ruined buildings around the city. Unfortunately the needed 180 tons of bitumen and 1000 tons of pierced planks weren't available and had to be flown in together with 280 tons of Diesel fuel for the trucks and bulldozers.

1948, July 25 - Lt. Charles L. King and 1st Lt. Robert W. Stuber died as their plane crashed into the front of a house. Seven days later thousands of citizens met at the town-hall of Berlin Schoeneberg in remembrance of the two pilots. Written consolations and flowers were placed at a tree near the crash-side.

As a sidenote: You have to remember that this happened only three years after the massive bombardment od Berlin by the USAF and RAF; the sound of incoming aircraft still gave goosebumps to some people.

As a sidenote: During the first weeks of the Airlift US pilots reported that Russian fighters had repeatedly crossed their flight paths in close formations and even went on collision curses, but no accidents were reported.

The crash-side in Berlin-Friedenau

1948, July 28 - Major-General William H. Tunner takes over the command of the airlift. General Tunner had the best references for this mission because under his command the air supply from US bases in Burma and India to Southern China was raised from 23,000 tons up to 71,000 tons a month.

July 1948 - For July the airports Tempelhof and Gatow counted 62,587 tons of delivered goods. That is about half of the estimated 135,000 tons of supplies that were needed to keep the city alive for a month.

The driving PX at Tempelhof

1948, August 13 - Three C-54 made a crash-landing at the airport due to bad weather conditions. Gen. Tunner himself was on board of an aircraft that had to circle above the city because of the delay caused by the crashes and immediately issued a new order. From this day each incoming aircraft had to land at the first attempt; if that was impossible it had to fly back directly to the base it came from (an unheard-of practice for that period).

1948, August 17 - Urgently needed bulldozers and other equipment delivered by a single C-74.

1948, August 29 - Construction works for a third runway begun.

1948, September 12 - Right on the "Air Force Day" the second runway was opened. 7,000 tons of goods were supplied on this day via the both airports, Tempelhof and Gatow.

1948, September 13 - Five C-82 "Flying Boxcars" delivered bulldozers and other machinery.

One of the C-82 at the airport

1948, September - 126,660 tons of goods were supplied in this month.

AOA presents its achievements

1948, October 14 - The separated US and British airlifts were brought together under the "Combined Airlift Task Force" (CALTF) commanded by Gen. Tunner for a easier and more effective organization. France also took part in the Airlift with a handful of Ju-52s which caused a little trouble as they appeared over the city for the first time to land in Tegel.

Starting up lawnmower style

1948, October 17 - The USAF conducted "Action Schmoo". 100 balloons with printed on "Schmoo" comic-figures and an attached coupon for a free cup of lard and 500 chocolate balloons were dropped from five incoming planes. 20,000 Berliners "besieged" the airport after the USAF announced this operation that only took place one time.

Waiting for "Schmoos"

1948, October - 133,879 tons of goods were supplied this month. The USAF C-47 was gradually replaced by more efficient C-54 towards the year's end. 5,000 former USAF servicemen were reactivated and trained in the USA for  special conditions and procedures of the airlift.

Bad weather over Berlin - the forefield 1948

1948, early November - The last 900m of the landing approach got illumination lights for improved landing conditions at night and bad weather.

Start preparations at night

1948, November 12 - The first US Navy C-54 (R5D) lands at Tempelhof. Two Navy transport squadrons were assigned to support the Airlift.

Aircraft ahoy! The first Navy C-54 at the airport

1948, November 17 - Technicians arriving to Tempelhof, their mission is to construct a long-range radar.With this installation the incoming planes could be identified at a range of about 100km and were sorted for the landing approach. A shor-range landing radar was already installed before the Airlift started. This made the landing procedure a lot easier, especially in bad weather: the planes could now be "spoken down" by the radar operators who only had to compare the standard landing path with the actual position of the incoming plane and give corrections via radio if needed.

As a sidenote: You have to imagine that the incoming planes had a glide-path of just about 366m and just one and half minute to touch down. During the landing approach they flew just about 30 m above the rooftops of the buildings that surrounded the airport. To complicate this, a 62 m-high chimney was standing at the Eastern side of airport. The aircrafts were sometimes coming in with less than three minutes' interval.

The short range landing radar, 1948

1948, November 21 - The northern runway was finished. It was 1600 m long and 42 m wide. American sources say that the building of the southern runway cost $667,670 while the northern one - $722,260.

1948, November 25 - More then 6000 tons were delivered on the Thanksgiving Day.

Unloading of a C-54

1949, April 16 - General Tunner holds the Eastern Parade to demonstrate the Airlift efficiency. 12,000 tons were delivered in one day! 91 planes landed just between 11:00 am and 01.45 pm on Tempelhof runways while up to 18 aircraft were simultaneously waiting for their "clear for takeoff".

1949, April - 213,512 tons of goods were supplied this month.

1949, May - A single Boeing C-97 "Stratofreighter" with the capacity of eight C-47s performed a couple of flights to Tempelhof.

The C-97 landed at Tempelhof

1949, May 12 - The Russians open the land connections to Berlin after nearly one year of the blockade. The Airlift efficiency was the main reason for this decision. Some supply flights continued, especially with coal, but the city was no longer addicted to supply by air.

In general the operation was a complete success and can still be considered as one or even the most impressive countinously ongoing military aviation mission ever conducted in peacetime. Over 2,3 million tons of goods were supplied by air during the Airlift.

It is reported that 78 people died in direct relation to the operation. May they all rest in peace and may their ultimate sacrifice to save West-Berlin will never be forgotten.

The whole operation showed the strong resolution of the Western Allies and was a major step in building good relations between them and the West-German population and of course especially the Berlin citizens. But it also shouldn't be forgotten that without the support and the willing of the Berlin people to stay strong and take the related limitations instead of beeing assimilated into the zone of Russian influence the whole mission would have failed and been senseless.

In 1951 the Airlift Memorial was build at a place in front of the airport to remember the operation. It represents the three aircorridors and it was planed that it should have a hull of aircraft aluminum but that was dropped because there simply wasn't enough available at that time. Because of its shape and memories about that time the Berlin people ironically call it the "Hunger Fork".

Two similar-looking memorials were build in Frankfurt/Main and Celle in 1985 as counterparts at the "other ends".

The Airlift Memorial

I also want to mention an interesting privately organized effort called "Operation Little Vittles", conducted by a USAF Lieutenant named Gail Halvorsen. Lt. Halvorsen took part at the airlift as a C-54 pilot from about mid 1948 and came up with the idea to drop little parachutes (initially made of tissues) with attached candy, chocolate and chewing gum from his plane to show the kids that were watching the incoming aircrafts his friendly feelings and attention.

This of course was really a great action and more and more kids showed up to wait for the "Candy Bomber" or "Uncle Wiggly Wing" as they called him because he announced his arrival with shaking wings. A couple of pilots of his squadron also took part in the operation and soon radio-shows in the USA were promoting his effort which made even little kids donate their pocket money to help out their German contemporaries. It also became necessary that collected parachutes had to be returned to the airport guards for further use.

In January 1949 Lt. Halvorsen had to transfer back to the USA and Capt. Eugene C. Williams took over the lead of the operation. At all 25 aircrafts dropped over 22 tons of sweets during the time of the airlift.

As a sidenote:
* In 1970 Halvorsen now USAF Colonel returned to Berlin to take over the command of the Airport Tempelhof for four years.
* In 1971 Halvorsen personally transfered a C-54 that took part at the airlift and placed it on the aiport as a memorial.
* In 1974 Halvorsen was awarded with the Grand Federal Cross of Merit.
* In April 1998 Halvorsen was part of a crew of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation that flew the C-54 "Spirit of Freedom" from New York to Berlin.
* In 2002 Halvorsen carried the "Germany" sign at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in his hometown Salt Lake City on a request of the German team.
* In October 2008 it was requested to award the honorary citizenship of Berlin to Hailvorsen...decision is still open.

Halvorsen delivers a speech at the Airlift 60th Anniversary, 2008