Every day is a special day in Berlin but today it is even more so: on this day in 1923 world’s first inner city airport, “the Mother” of “the Mother of all Airports” (or so Sir Norman Foster), Flughafen Tempelhof, opened for service: at 10.30 AM the first machine, a Junkers, with two guests on board and with Cpt. Aland steering the machine, took off and headed for Munich.
Minutes later a dark-green Dorner-Komet took off - also with two passengers - and flew in the direction of Danzig-Königsberg.
One of Berlin’s and Germany’s leading newspapers, the “Vossische Zeitung” described the airport passenger building as not unlike that of a railway station. That was well-remarked: initially, the airport was referred to as a “Luftbahnhof” (an air station).
Today, it is difficult to place the original airport within the vast expanse of the Tempelhofer Feld so here is an image that will help:
If you want to learn more about the fascinating history of the airport’s genesis, listen to the Berlin Companion Podcast’s 2nd Season episode “CRUSADERS, BLIMPS AND WHOLE LOTTA RUBBISH: HOW BERLIN’S LEGENDARY AIRPORT, FLUGHAFEN TEMPELHOF, WAS BUILT” here. You can also find it through your podcast-streaming service of choice.
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