60 Years after the first scheduled flight, Berlin Tegel Airport is history. Hundreds of employees and Berliners said goodbye to the last scheduled flight on Sunday. A special aircraft from Air France took off for Paris. In the evening she should return – to the new capital airport BER on the outskirts in Schönefeld in Brandenburg. It opened a week ago. The smell of kerosene has vanished in Tegel.

One chapter ended ” This closes a chapter of Berlin history, “said Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD). He advertised the research and industrial park as well as thousands of apartments that are planned on the site near the city center, but confessed: “It is a day when there is nothing to talk about, and many people’s hearts are bleeding.”

On the Air France plane, the mood was correspondingly emotional. When the machine did one more lap of honor around the airport before take-off, hundreds of people waved at the fences in front of the airport grounds. The plane waved back. “Ladies and gentlemen, with this last start we are ending a chapter 53 years of European airport history,” said Captain Christophe Ruch the runway. “Enjoy it.” The machine accelerated to cheers and applause. Even after landing in Paris in the late afternoon, there was a lot of applause.

Freedom during the times of the Wall In Berlin-Weißensee were Fireworks set off from several properties as Air France overflowed the district. Thousands of people came to Tegel at the weekend to say goodbye. The visitor terrace was already fully booked on Saturday, from there people watched the last regular passenger flights take off and land. Necmi Ak-Schulz was also there, who 1960 started at the check-in and almost 40 years stayed. The pensioner saw many millions of tourists, business people and Berliners walking through the “gateway to the world”. Because that was the airport, especially for the West Berliners at the time of the Wall.

In the end, the airport worked hard to the limit, the hexagonal terminal with its often vaunted short distances is a listed building. Ak-Schulz took his old uniform out of the closet and packed two handkerchiefs – for the tears, as he frankly says. “It’s sad, but I’m grateful and proud.” On board the Air France special plane, the captain announced: “Tegel will stay in the heart of Berliners forever.”

Nostalgia vs. Climate protection Horst Zeising from Spandau has also secured a place in the last machine. “With the airport a piece of home is lost,” said the 53 – year-old. “In terms of traffic, it is a disaster that a capital city has only one airport,” he says. It is also a shame that the Senate 2017 disregarded the referendum for the preservation of the airport.

On At the weekend, dozens of cyclists drove up the driveway to the terminal – for years this was out of the question because of the many cars at the airport without a train connection. “Up for climate protection, down with air traffic”, with this chant the bicycle demonstrators cheered the end of air traffic in Tegel.

The faltering successor Already during the Berlin blockade 300 the French occupation troops were in Tegel in their sector of West Berlin have an airfield built. In January 1960 Air France started scheduled flights. 60 Years later, the company ended the move to the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt, BER for short.

In the past few years, the abbreviation BER stood for planning errors, construction defects, canceled opening dates and tripled costs – it was opened nine years late. Hundreds of thousands of Berliners in the Tegel approach lane had to endure the aircraft noise for longer. To be on the safe side, the airport will remain operational for six months, but operations at BER have been running smoothly so far. Above all, many Brandenburgers in the densely populated BER area are now affected by aircraft noise. Because of the Corona crisis, there is relatively little flown. In October there were a total of around 9000 flights in Tegel and Schönefeld. In the same month last year it was only in Schönefeld 8300, in Tegel 17. 300.

“Tegel held out for a long time and worked at the limit for a long time,” said airport boss Engelbert Lütke Daldrup. He thanked the staff. “The airport has done Berlin and the whole region a great service, thank you very much.”

(kbe)