-In Tegel's defense, it was built when area was definitely at a premium, seeing as it was in former West Berlin which simply didn't have the luxury of expanding into the surrounding farmland.

The other West Berlin Airport - Tempelhof - was marvellous, though. Built during Weimar Republic years when air travel was for the wealthy few, the terminal was (and is!) as monumental as a palace.

I also have a soft spot for Tempelhof. The shape of the structure and the interior are magnificent.

https://www.fotocommunity.de/photo/im-flughafen-tempelhof-ho...

I know that it probably wouldn't work as a modern airport but I wish that there had been a way. It's so weird and... Berlin. Love it.

Tempelhof was started during Weimar, but it was rebuilt by the Nazi government, which is why it looks how it looks (and why nobody wants to reuse it, given a chance).

It blows my mind how far behind schedule BER is. According to Wikipedia, construction started in 2006 and was scheduled to complete in October 2011 (aka about 5 years was allocated for construction). It's now almost October 2018. We're now 7 YEARS past the originally scheduled completion date. It's claimed that the airport won't open until Fall 2020. That means the airport won't open until at least 9 years past the original opening date. If that happens, construction will have taken 14 years when it was originally scheduled to take 5 years.

Based on its history I'm skeptical about the airport opening in 2020.

It probably would have been cheaper to flatten that damn thing in 2011 and start from scratch.

It's a fascinating story, though, of hubris, corruption and about what happens when you try to change an existing massive structure in the middle of construction.

One of the funnier stories was the first attempt to open it. Fire management systems were non-existant (actually they were there. The components were piled high on pallets, alas with no working plan to implement them).

So airport management suggested to hire 800 minimum wage folks. Supply them with cell phones (a total no!no! For emergency response), folding chairs and hi-viz vests to then distribute them strategically throughout the airport.

If they noticed something suspicious, like smoke or fire, they would call it in.

I leave it up to your imagination what the higher ups of the fire brigade thought of this brilliant plan. Especially with the memory of a catastrophic fire at Dusseldorf airport not too long ago.[1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire

> but even Tegel is a bit of a disgrace for the main airport of the German capital

Yes. A total disappointment. And the "main" terminals are the worse, the low cost ones are less crappy.