Talk:Berlin Tempelhof Airport

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POV

There is generally a US-Centric feel in the article, esp. the part about the cold war looks like directly out of cold war propaganda, i.e. the Sentence "The Western Allies had achieved their goals and returned a united city of Berlin to the unified German government." is just as much nonsense as the sentence "The USSR did achieve their goals and returned a united city of Berlin to the unified German government.".

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Denying the history of Berlin and the events of the Cold War which transpired there between 1945 and 1994 disserves everyone. With the events of the Cold War, the erection of the Berlin Wall, and the several confrontations between the United States and Soviet Union over the status of Berlin, the role of Tempelhof in keeping a western presence in Berlin is indisputable.

The fact is that the United States provided the military force to keep the Soviets out of West Berlin and Tempelhof was a major facility in that effort for almost 50 years. One of the major goals of the West after World War II was to get rid that horrid Berlin Wall torn down and achieve a final political settlement with regards to division of Germany and Berlin.

The events of 1989/1990 and the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union caused that to happen. Today all the people of Berlin and Germany live in freedom partly because of the United States presence at Tempelhof. When the goals of the United States were achieved, they left and returned Tempelhof to the German people.

The information I provided to this article is simply a statement of the historical record of the events between 1945 and 1994. The statement in question "The Western Allies had achieved their goals and returned a united city of Berlin to the unified German government" simply provides the rationale for that presence. It is a significat part of the article.

- bwmoll3. 12/14/06.

The fact is, in the original post-WWII environment it was agreed The Four Allies have equal responsibilities over Berlin, and Berlin is to be jointly administered/occupied until the final peace treaty is signed. Berlin Blockade in 1948 was to aim to cause the USA, Britain and France to withdraw from the western sectors of Berlin. In other words, the Soviets were attempting to renege on the Four Power Agreement. And in the process of unilaterally transferring the sovereignty of the Soviet sector of Berlin to the GDR agreement, it had indeed breached the agreement with the three Western Allies over the status of Berlin. The Western Allies were obliged to keep in Berlin until its status were resolved, which eventually came through the form of the Two plus four treaty in 1990. Thus the argument of the Western Allies actions being POV, IMHO, is invalid. --JNZ 11:39, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Restating slanted viewpoints rather than historically balanced or neutral ones does not make them less slanted or more solid. An article about an airporit, including Tempelhof, or especially Tempelhof, would be better served by attending to a balanced presentation. I feel also that the Nazi history of Tempelhof is neglected, as is that of its chief architect, Ernst Sagebiel, who worked on other Luftwaffe buildings of note. Also, the caption on the Luftbrücke denkmal is not quite accurate but I cannot figure out how to edit it, Actio 03:42, 23 April 2007 (UTC)actio

Post-War Commercial Use

This section omits the important fact that commercial air transport services from THF resumed when Tempelhof Airways, a US-owned "third level" regional scheduled airline operating commuter aircraft with fewer than 20 seats resumed year-round scheduled services to a number of regional destinations in West Germany in 1987.

Also, instead of having such elaborate details about the USAF's presence there during the Cold War, it would be far more useful to elaborate on the commercial airline operations at the airport during that period, especially prior to the BA/Pan Am move to Tegel on Sep. 1, 1975. Pimpom123 18:07, 11 January 2008 (GMT)

Have now updated and referenced relevant details. Pimpom123 15:19, 27 February 2008 (GMT)

False Sentence

"Boeing demonstrated its prototype 727 as the first jet transport plane in Tempelhof on 2 December 1964." doesn't make any sense. The 727 was (by far) not the "first jet transport plane" - the 707 and 720 that preceded it were also jets (and were also not the first). There was also the DeHavilland Comet, Douglas DC-8, SUD Caravelle, and others.

So I am now deleting this sentence.

Cold War

Have changed the sentence claiming that Tempelhof was the main West Berlin terminal for ALL Western Allies military aircraft movements. This is only tru as far as the US armed forces are concerned. The British and French were had their own military air bases in West Berlin at RAF Gatow and the French military section on the northern side of Tegel, respectively. Pimpom123 15:24, 27 February 2008 (GMT)