Urban Tech Republic – Berlin TXL

In future, ideas and innovations will take off at the former Berlin West Airport Tegel TXL instead of aeroplanes. As the "Urban Tech Republic - Berlin TXL", the 500-hectare site will become a model project and centre of attraction for smart city concepts and a Berlin of the future.

Info centre and site tours

Visitors can gain an insight into the planning in the former canteen of the administration building, which now houses a digital and interactive exhibition. Under the motto "The future of Berlin TXL", the individual projects of the "Urban Tech Republic" and the "Schumacher Quartier" are presented here. 
On guided tours of the site, you can learn all about the architecture and the planned subsequent use of the area and at the same time see where developments are already progressing. 

Living, teaching, researching

In addition to 5,000 flats, the plans envisage the establishment of educational research institutes. Commercial space for up to 1000 companies is also to be created as part of a curated innovation park. The listed airport terminals from the 1970s will become a university campus with an adjoining research and industrial park.

Beuth University is moving to Tegel

The first concrete tenants have already been found. The Beuth University of Applied Sciences is expected to move into the old terminal building in 2028. Two schools, sports and youth centres are expected to attract young families in particular to Tegel. Construction is also underway in the surrounding area for the growing Berlin, with a further 4,000 flats planned in the Cité Pasteuer and in the TXL Nord area.

Model project for cities of the future

A particularly exciting aspect of the project is that attention is already being paid to sustainable and future-oriented implementation during construction and redesign. The 5,000 flats that will be built in the eastern part of the former airport from 2021 will be the largest timber construction district in the world. The so-called Schuhmacher Quartier is set to become a model project for climate-neutral and affordable construction methods and harmonise social and ecological aspects. The first tenants are expected to be able to move into the new flats in 2027. 

The history of Tegel Airport 

On 8 November 2020, the last plane took off from the former Berlin West Airport bound for Paris. It was an Air France aircraft, just like the first flight from Tegel in January 1960. After all, it was the French occupying forces who had Tegel Airport built during the Berlin Blockade in 1948.

In the meantime, up to 24.2 million passengers per year were handled at Tegel, a lot for this rather small airport in the centre of the city. And yet many West Berliners in particular found it difficult to say goodbye to Tegel, partly because of the many memories, but also because Tegel was so easy to reach. For others, especially local residents, the aircraft noise was a major problem.

In a referendum held in 2017 alongside the federal elections, the majority of Berliners voted in favour of keeping Tegel Airport as such. Nevertheless, the Senate prevailed. Since 31 October 2020, the new Airport Berlin Brandenburg BER has replaced both Tegel Airport TXL and Schönefeld Airport SXF.