Berlin: about to touch down at Tempelhof Airport

The airport site is in a fairly central city location, and not very far from what was then the border with East Berlin. On the horizon, just to the right of centre, is the East Berlin television tower; it was under construction at the time and had reached about half of its final height.

There was a flock of sheep tending the grass as we landed on the runway

History

The first commercial airport at Tempelhof was built in 1927. Between 1936-1941 it was substantially remodeled, with a 1.2 kms long curved facade in imitation of eagles' wings.

In June 1948 the Soviet authorities imposed a blockade of rail and vehicular traffic to West Berlin, and Tempelhof became an important element of the "Air Bridge" transporting food and other essentials for the city's two and a half million inhabitants. The blockade was lifted in May 1949.

In 2008 the airport's commercial activity ceased.

The air corridors

Berlin, the occupation of which was divided into separate zones (Russian, British, American and French) lay in the centre of Russian-occupied East Germany. Each of the three western powers had been granted a separate air corridor from their territories to Berlin. The air corridors were 20 miles wide and had a ceiling of 10,000 feet.

This system was in operation when I flew from Munich to Berlin. No German airlines - for instance, Lufthansa - were permitted to use the corridor. Because I travelled on the southernmost corridor, the aircraft was an American one and landed at Tempelhof. (The French used Tegel airport, and the British used Gatow.)

The aircraft had flown from the USA to Munich, with West Berlin as its final destination. It was a large jet plane, but had barely a dozen passengers on board. Consequently I had plenty of space and opportunity to take aerial photos during the flight, with the low flight ceiling helping to create some interesting photos.

This scheduled flight was only manageable through heavy subsidies to American airlines provided by the West German government.


PHOTOGRAPHIC INFO:
Camera: Minolta M1 (35mm film)
Kodachrome slide: 1/500th sec, f/4
The film speed would have been either 25 or 64 ASA/ISO.

[this blip created in April 2014]