TXL. Berlin Tegel Airport
Berlin Tegel TXL is the airport of short distances and an icon of Modern architecture. With its striking hexagonal shape and concept of check-in counters right at each gate, Tegel has made air travel history. Indeed, Berliners are passionately nostalgic about Tegel, since it served as the window to the wider world for the once-isolated island of West Berlin. At the same time, this airport represents the launch of architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners’ success story. Together with Klaus Nickels, the then recently graduated Hamburg architects won the 1965 competition for building the new airport, which opened in 1974. Numerous historical and contemporary photos, together with drawings, have been taken from gmp’s archive to illustrate the Tegel Gesamtkunstwerk, its vibrant colour scheme and overall design, from the structure as a whole right down to the check-in counters with their rounded edges. Meinhard von Gerkan and Volkwin Marg provide a detailed account of this early commission, and the book includes an essay by Jürgen Tietz on the specific qualities of this unique air terminal – now a listed building – and its historical significance.
2020
Park Books, Zurich
248 pages, 23.5 x 31.7 cm, hardcover
German/English
ISBN 978-3-03686-0202-6
Edited by Jürgen Tietz in collaboration with Detlef Jessen-Klingenberg
Project management: Heidi Knaut, Berit Liedtke
Concept and editing: Detlef Jessen-Klingenberg, Heidi Knaut
Picture editing: Heidi Knaut, Sezen Dursun, Trixi Hansen
Translations: Architrans, David Koralek
Conception and graphic design: Büro Otto Sauhaus
Printing and binding: DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg
