West Berlin’s lifeline during the Soviet Blockade, Tempelhof Airport has since become the city’s biggest park. Berliners will fight to keep it that way.
Tempelhof
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Flugplatz Schönwalde
Germany’s Luftwaffe used Flugplatz Schönwalde for the war. The Soviets took over afterward and left their traces after abandoning the airfield in 1992.
Flugplatz Brand
Flugplatz Brand was strategically important for the Soviet Air Force. Thankfully its battalions of flying fighters remained on ice for the duration of the Cold War.
Jüterbog
Jüterbog and its military camps played host to soldiers’ charades, men playing with guns, for around 130 years before the last ones left in 1994.
Siemensbahn
No trains have trundled the Siemensbahn railway line since 1980, not since it was abandoned due to a strike, dwindling passengers and an upstart U-Bahn.
Flugplatz Oranienburg
Flugplatz Oranienburg served in the summer of 1944 as a test center for the legendary Horten Ho IX, the world’s first “stealth” bomber.
Liesenbrücken
The Liesenbrücken, fine industrial iron bridges built by the Prussian state railway operator, have been abandoned for almost 70 years.
Tegel Airport
Tegel Airport (TXL), was formerly Germany’s fourth busiest airport with more than 24 million passengers in 2019. Abandoned Nov. 8, 2020.
Flugplatz Johannisthal
One of the world’s first motor airfields when it opened in 1909. People used to flock to Flugplatz Johannisthal to see marvelous metal machines with wings actually fly.
Güterbahnhof Pankow
Former railroad yard in Pankow with two train turntables that used to handle up to 1,800 freight cars a day. Now it handles none. But that’s progress.
Submarine bunker Lager Koralle
Lager Koralle was the forest bunker that controlled Germany’s feared U-boat fleet during World War II, central command for its marauding submarines.
Antique filling station
Berlin is forever itching to be scratched. Scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find hidden gems, like this antique gas station from a bygone era.
Flugzeughallen
Brash airplanes used to roar in and out of Fliegerstation Berlin-Friedrichsfelde’s Flugzeughallen in days after the land had been used for testing airships.
Funkhaus Grünau
Look for the ghosts of Soviet DJs and find raccoons. Expect the unexpected and you’ll find it, just not the unexpected you expected at Funkhaus Grünau.
Trabiwerkstatt
An old garage from DDR times, maybe even before, was home to several old cars in varying states of decay, including a Trabi prototype from before 1959.