National Socialism

The history of the Tempelhof field also provides an insight into the ideology and reality of the National Socialist regime. The premises were a stage for propagandistic mass rallies and a location for the only official Berlin concentration camp. The new airport building with its characteristic features of NS architecture was used for arms production and forced labour during the Second World War.

Architecture

The Berlin Tempelhof airport planned and almost completed in the period of National Socialism is believed to have met the then state-of-the-art airport construction as the “world airport” but at the same time also served as a propagandistic self-portrayal of the NS regime.

KZ Columbia House

In 1933, in the first year of their command, the Nazis built a Gestapo prison at the northern edge of the Tempelhof field on the ground of what would later become the airport extension and then built a concentration camp in the following year. This was the only official concentration camp of SS in Berlin - a fact that is largely unknown.

National Socialism

Architecture

KZ Columbia House

Forced labourers

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