ABSTRACT
On 30 October 2008, Berlin Tempelhof Airport was closed and ceased to be an operational airport; it became – at least temporarily – a park. The closure was preceded by a long and heated argument culminating in a referendum in April 2008, which managed to mobilize considerable support, but not enough for a valid referendum. Since then, debates about the use and accessibility of the space have not abated. The new park has seen an ‘occupy’-like movement that opposed a fence around it; it has seen successful guerrilla gardening, debates about future construction on the area and has become a well-used place of leisure, even a destination for tourism. In this chapter, I shall investigate the politics and discourses around the closure of the airport, in the media and in the neighbourhood. This debate is of interest not only for an analysis of local politics in Berlin. It is relevant also because it addresses a current theme in urban and cultural geography: a turn towards memory and aect. Berlin has taken a central role in this theme, and the debate about Tempelhof Airport presents an opportunity to link these ideas more closely to the social and political geography of the city. In order to do so, this chapter will bring some concepts of Henri Lefebvre into conversation with these more recent contributions in urban studies.
