Airport Tempelhof

Berlin, Germany

The airport halls and the neighboring buildings, intended to become the gateway to Europe and a symbol of Hitler's 'world capital' Germania, are still known as the largest built entities worldwide, and have been described by British architect Sir Norman Foster as 'the mother of all airports'. With its facades of shell limestone, the terminal building, built between 1936 and 1941, forms a massive 1.2‐kilometre long quadrant yet has a charmingly intimate feel; planes can taxi right up to the building and unload, sheltered from the weather by its enormous overhanging canopy. Passengers walk through customs controls and find themselves in a dazzlingly simple and luminous reception hall. Tempelhof is served conveniently by the U6 U‐Bahn line along Mehringdamm and up Friedrichstraße (Platz der Luftbrücke station).