Lessons from
Tempelhof Airport
Ringvorlesung
Public Participation and Cooperative Development:
Lessons from Tempelhof Airport
With Dr. Francesca Weber-Newth von paper planes e.V. ehemals Tempelhof Projekt GmbH
This lecture explores the potentials and challenges of public participation and cooperative approaches to urban development. Tempelhof Airport — one of Europe's largest inner-city development sites — serves as a case study. Built between 1936 and 1941 Tempelhof Airport demonstrates the monumental self-staging of the National-Socialists. Closed as an airport in 2008, it is now home to Berlin’s traffic management, over 3,000 police officers, a university and nightclub — as well as various temporary events including art-fairs and music festivals. In the coming years and decades, the aim is to refurbish and transform the building into a site for arts, culture and office space for Berlin’s administration.
The lecture focused on the learnings that can be drawn from this case study: What are the necessary (political) conditions needed to carry out public participation? How might a successful collaboration between the administration and civil society look? Particular focus will be on the politics of urban regeneration.
Die Veranstaltung ist Teil der Ringvorlesung Stadt. Kulturgetriebene Regeneration. Raum – Wissen – Partizipation, die im Sommersemester 2024 stattfand.