Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I have actually flown from the new Berlin airport a few times. It is an impressive structure. It is said that nowadays architecture should not only be functional, but should also touch emotionally.
I think that works immediately with this building. No matter when you enter it, you immediately feel gripped by emotions. First there is the feeling of disorientation, which is immediately followed by a feeling of panic. For example, because you were so stupid not to show up at least three hours before departure.
I myself was once mistakenly assuming that for a cheap flight without checked baggage to Italy at 6.30 a.m. during the week I would not have to be at the airport until 4.30 a.m. I went through a whole bath of emotion.
First the repression: When I saw the pushing, pressing, scolding crowd in the departure lounge, I initially thought that they were all people with a different problem. I would have nothing to do with them, they would all be guests of an airline that went bankrupt tonight, and that is why all of the airline’s passengers had to stay overnight at the airport. Or so.
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Then I entered the stage of magical thinking: I stood in line and trusted that it would go a lot faster than it looked. When time was actually running out, the final stage came: survival of the fittest.
I pushed my way ruthlessly past the helpless pensioner to the security check and then ran to the gate. So that day I had more adrenaline in my blood than usual in a whole week – and I hadn’t even had my first coffee.
Stages of development of civilization
I had also learned which stages of development civilization would go through during the climate catastrophe – and how I would behave myself. What more can a building teach? The fact that when you run to the gate you cannot rely on the treadmills that are otherwise common at airports is an additional aspect of fitness.
Now one can wonder why this airport is so challenging. Is it because of the passengers who don’t know how to use it properly? Or is the building just taking revenge on the Berliners, who always talked so badly about the airport? In the end, is the airport more Berlin-like than all the other buildings in Berlin?
In any case, the Berliners now miss Tegel, the old airport that was dilapidated but still worked. Incidentally, there were supposed to have been real residents there. Wonderful people who roamed the airport with wheeled suitcases all day without ever leaving. I don’t know whether these will also be available at the new location. So far you are indistinguishable from normal passengers.
More: Relationship with the delivery service.