The Last Few Days in Berlin

As we wind down our month in Berlin, many students feel like they've seen it all. However, CIEE, as always, is ready to challenge this group of students! So, on Wednesday this week, we went to Berlin Tempelhof Airport, an airport turned park that is so vast our 2-hour tour didn't even come close to covering all of it. Berlin Tempelhof is the largest building in Europe by square feet, and at different times in history has served as the largest building by square feet in the world. We climbed staircase after staircase, we visited bunkers, and we walked the old halls. The vast corridors held so much history, and the students had the opportunity to ask any question they could think of to the expert who was giving us a tour. We learned that the bunkers held arial photos during WW2 and that they were completely blown up to hide the evidence thereafter. We saw the actual bag-check counters and also the remnants of the US Military airbase that was housed there complete with a bowling alley and gym. We saw the neo-classic fascist architecture and stood like ants under the 25-meter vaulted ceilings. We learned about the motivations for the architectural styles and we learned about the costs for upkeep on such a building. While it may have felt before Wednesday morning that we had seen it all, Tempelhof definitely proved us wrong. It served as a mighty end to a month of exploring the rich culture, architecture, and history of the city of Berlin. Tempelhof stands as a bold monument to the past and future of this fine city and reminded our students of the many reasons that they are here.