‘Unique pearl in the heart of Berlin’
The use of Tempelhofer Feld (Tempelhof Field) in Berlin has long been controversial. From 3 July to 22 September 2024, a randomly selected participation process on the future of the site was held.
On 21/22 September 2024, a clear majority of the 150 participants present in the second dialogue workshop on the future of Tempelhofer Feld spoke out against building on the edge of the field. Instead, most favoured further development of the various uses, such as cultural, educational and sports facilities. Of the ten so-called development perspectives for the field that received the most support from the participants, none of them envisaged peripheral development.
‘Preserving the pearl in the heart of Berlin’
The development perspective with the title ‘Preserving the globally unique pearl in the heart of Berlin’ received the most votes from the plenum as a whole. The key points mentioned were ‘no development’, ‘promotion and expansion of the existing site’ and ‘THF for everyone’. The importance of the field for nature conservation, climate protection and climate adaptation was particularly emphasised.
"It's a place of freedom and regeneration for Berliners and visitors alike. There should be no building on the Tempelhofer Feld," said one dialogue workshop participant. Another participant stated: "After this discussion-intensive weekend, there can be no project for residential development. We have unanimously agreed on this."
Urban Development Senator Christian Gaebler (SPD) thanked all participants at the end of the event. The aim was to ‘make Tempelhofer Feld even more usable for the city’. The results will now be analysed and fed into the upcoming ideas competition. ‘Nothing will be lost in terms of opinions,’ said Gaebler. The ideas competition is due to start on 13 November and run until May 2025. At the end, the dialogue workshop will discuss the results of the ideas competition once again.
275 participants
What could happen to Tempelhof Field in the future was the focus of the dialogue process. 275 randomly selected Berliners were invited to engage in a broad and open dialogue with different perspectives. The participants for the dialogue workshops were randomly selected in advance: 20,000 people from the Berlin residents' register were contacted and asked to take part. Of the 996 people interested, 275 were lucky.
Over the course of two weekends in September 2024, the participants were intensively involved with Tempelhofer Feld, gaining specialist knowledge on topics such as urban development and housing, climate and nature conservation, public welfare and open spaces, discussing different perspectives for the future broadly and openly and developing recommendations together.
This dialogue process took into account how it has been used to date and how the anticipated demand for housing will develop. Other aspects included the participants' utilisation wishes and the significance of the historic airport building with regard to the consequences for the development and utilisation of the site. The results were incorporated into the terms of reference for the subsequent international planning ideas competition.
Children and youth participation
In addition, 200 children and young people developed their wishes and ideas for Tempelhofer Feld in eleven age-appropriate workshops. With the help of creative and participative methods such as painting, building with Lego bricks, designing a wish tree, photo excursions and discussion islands, the young Berliners involved developed a variety of ideas, wishes and suggestions to make the future of Tempelhofer Feld more child- and youth-friendly.
The results of the children and youth participation were documented and published on the project website thf-dialog.berlin.de. In addition, the results were exhibited at the dialogue workshops and presented by youth ambassadors. The input of the young participants was taken into account in the content and visual development of the dialogue process.
About Tempelhofer Feld
Tempelhofer Feld is the former airfield of the former Tempelhof Airport. The site, which is now used as a park and leisure area, has a total area of around 304 hectares. Around 90 per cent belongs to the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district and around 10 per cent to the Neukölln district.
On 25 May 2014, Berliners decided to completely ban construction on the former airfield in a referendum on the "100% Tempelhofer Feld" popular initiative. 68.2 per cent of those who voted were in favour. The proposal put forward by the Berlin House of Representatives as an alternative envisaged moderate peripheral development and the protection of the 230-hectare central green areas of the inner field. However, only 44.3 per cent of voters voted in favour of this proposal. The turnout was 46.1 per cent.
Longer history
However, the debate about the (re)utilisation of the field has a longer history. It has been going on since the political decision by the states of Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government in 1996 to close the two inner-city airports Tempelhof and Tegel in favour of Willy Brandt Airport (BER) in Schönefeld.
While the airport building, as a World Heritage-listed monument with an eventful past, offers only limited possibilities for use and change due to the existing building structure and monument protection, the situation is different for Tempelhof Field. Consequently, many of the debates on urban development policy have centred on the question of the use of the field. The ideas put forward differed widely in some cases and the public debate was repeatedly characterised by strong polarisation.
"A new debate is needed"
The governing coalition of CDU and SPD elected in the repeat election in 2023 agreed on the future of Tempelhofer Feld in its "Government Policy Guidelines 2023 - 2026":
"In view of the exacerbated housing shortage since the 2014 referendum, a new debate on the future of Tempelhofer Feld is needed. With an international urban planning competition, the Senate will explore the possibilities of careful peripheral development in limited parts of the site. The vast majority of the open space will remain protected for recreation, leisure, sport and culture with a climate-friendly overall design. The field is intended to make an important contribution to Berlin's net zero aim.
"Reassessment by Berliners in a decisive way"
The peripheral development is intended to create residential neighbourhoods with a wide range of social amenities for the new residents and the urban community. The housing construction is to be reserved for the state-owned housing association LWU as well as cooperatives oriented towards the common good and will be climate-neutral in operation. The use of decentralised and city-compatible renewable energies and greening will make an additional contribution to climate neutrality. The reassessment by Berliners is decisive for the Senate on this issue of city-wide importance."
The Berlin House of Representatives approved the government policy guidelines presented at its meeting on 25 May 2023.
Dialogue instead of confrontation
In view of the complexity of the issue, but also the potential for conflict, the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing would like to initiate public understanding with a "dialogue workshop". Instead of allowing the various interest groups to clash in a public debate about "the right solution", a group of around 250 randomly selected residents will initially express their expectations and ideas for Tempelhofer Feld. The various stakeholders involved in Tempelhofer Feld will be invited to contribute to this process by sharing their knowledge and experience.
The dialogue process is carried out with the integrated international urban and open space planning ideas competition and an accompanying public participation in the period from May 2024 to mid/end 2025, subject to political decisions. The aim is to use a city-wide dialogue process to approach a qualified reassessment of Tempelhofer Feld and a possible amendment to the law on Tempelhofer Feld.
Results of the ideas competition published
On 23 June 2025, the results of the Europe-wide, two-phase urban and open space planning ideas competition for Tempelhofer Feld were published. Planning teams from the fields of urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture from all over Europe were invited to contribute their expertise and participate in the competition with professional urban and open space planning designs.
In February, the jury had already selected 20 entries from 164 submissions for the second phase. On 21/22 June 2025, it selected six projects of equal standing for the prize group and awarded three honourable mentions.
Dialogue workshop members on the jury
According to the announcement of the two-phase open urban and open space planning competition, a wide range of different visionary and forward-looking ideas for the revaluation of Tempelhofer Feld as a basis for discussion in the third dialogue workshop were sought. In addition, the aim was to explore ‘careful peripheral development’. No specific area limits or space allocation plan were specified.
The jury consisted of six expert judges: Copenhagen city architect Camilla van Deurs, Ulm's mayor for construction Tim von Winning, Berlin Senate Building Director Petra Kahlfeldt, Zurich landscape architect Maren Brakebusch and her Rotterdam colleague Peter Veenstra, as well as Bremen Senate Building Director Iris Reuther, who chaired the jury. Representatives from the dialogue workshop made up the five expert judges.
Four entries dispense with peripheral development
Four of the six entries dispense with peripheral development for residential construction. Instead, they envisage the further development of cultural and ecological amenities on the open spaces. The Stadtlichtung project, for example, plans to reforest the peripheral areas in order to enhance the climatic significance of the open space. The entry übe-räume für stadttransformation tempelhof 2050 wants to rethink the field as a socio-ecological infrastructure and focuses on existing buildings and open spaces.
Two projects envisage new housing construction, among other things. Seilziehn proposes several apartment blocks and a high-rise building on Tempelhofer Damm. 2,400 residential units are to be built here. The southern part will be expanded in its current use as a garden complex with individual buildings of the ‘Neue Gärtnerei’ (New Market Garden). The Tempelhofer Atem project is even more ambitious, planning both the western and almost the entire southern edge: multi-storey residential buildings forming a clear edge to the street, terraced houses facing the field.
State government sticks to plans for peripheral development
Berlin's governing mayor Kai Wegner wants to stick to plans for peripheral development of the Tempelhof Field even after the ideas competition. ‘My position is well known: I am in favour of peripheral development of the Tempelhof Field to give many families, young and older people in Berlin a new home,’ he told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Even after development, Tempelhofer Feld will remain a unique area in Berlin with a large open space.
Mathias Schulz, spokesperson for urban development policy for the SPD parliamentary group, also believes that development of the Tempelhofer Feld should continue to be pursued. ‘Now (...) guiding principles must be developed that will form the basis for any kind of vote by the Berlin population,’ said Schulz. Because one thing is clear to the Social Democrat: ‘In the end, it's the people of Berlin who will decide.’
Ideas workshop results discussed in dialogue workshop
On 12 July 2025, the six winning designs from the ideas competition were presented in detail to the participants of the third dialogue workshop. The chair of the jury, Prof. Dr. Iris Reuther, and the expert judges were available to answer questions. On 13 July 2025, the members of the dialogue workshop worked in small groups to develop points for further debate on Tempelhofer Feld. On the one hand, they discussed which ideas from the designs could be incorporated. On the other hand, they focused on how future discussions about this special open space could be conducted in an open and constructive manner.
Christian Gaebler, Senator for Urban Development, Building and Housing, thanked those involved for their commitment: "Tempelhofer Feld is a historic place with which many Berliners identify. The fact that you have engaged in this dialogue with such energy and openness deserves great respect. Both the award-winning entries in the international ideas competition and the discussion in the dialogue process clearly show that Tempelhofer Feld offers a great deal of potential. The ideas range, for example, from improving access, landscape design, better connections to the surrounding neighbourhoods, creating shaded areas, increasing the quality of the space for visitors, and careful development of the perimeter."
Participants feel ‘mocked’
On the second day of the dialogue workshop, there was also an unscheduled lengthy discussion about why the dialogue workshop was still taking place at all, given that the Senate's decision had already been made. Many felt ‘mocked,’ said one participant. Of the 275 Berliners randomly selected, only about 100 attended the third dialogue workshop.
In addition to a few participants who spoke out in favour of development, a larger group wrote a protest statement: ‘We fear that our involvement in the dialogue process is being misused to feign citizen participation,’ the group said. ‘We want the rejection of the development and the preservation of the Tempelhofer Feld Act by the majority of participants in this highly controversial process, which has the potential to jeopardise social peace in the city, to be recognised.’
Criticism of the competition
Two designs with development, four without: ‘It's very clear,’ says Anita Möller from the ‘100% Tempelhofer Feld’ initiative, which initiated the referendum on Tempelhofer Feld. Möller sees the result of the competition as a success for her initiative and as a ‘vote for the preservation of Tempelhofer Feld.’ However, Möller believes that the Senate's investment of three million euros in the dialogue process was unnecessary. ‘The money could have been put into the field.’
Julian Schwarze, spokesperson for urban development policy for the Green Party, takes a similar view. ’This is a slap in the face for the Senate, which tried to legitimise development through a competition.’ The expert jury thus made the same decision as the Berliners who took part in the Senate's dialogue workshop. All development plans must now be stopped, according to Schwarze.
‘Waste of taxpayers’ money’
Michael Efler, urban development expert for the Left Party, agrees: The competition was a ‘waste of taxpayers’ money’ and all development plans should be shelved. ‘The people of Berlin do not want the field to be built on,’ said Efler.
The Berlin Nature Conservation Union expressed scepticism: some of the award-winning designs focused on nature conservation, which was to be welcomed. However, the Nabu viewed development along the edge of the site, for example along Tempelhofer Damm, as “extremely critical”.
Mayor wants referendum
At the beginning of August 2025, Berlin's mayor urged faster action on possible development of the Tempelhof Field. "My goal is that we may be able to ask Berliners how they want this site to be developed as early as 2026," the CDU politician told the newspaper "B.Z.". "Then we need to get the planning underway very quickly."
"We don't have enough housing in our city, so we have to use the space," said Wegner. Commenting on the result of the 2014 referendum, he added: "But opinions can change. We need to ask the people of Berlin again."
Senator for Urban Development Gaebler sees no need for a new referendum. ‘All changes require an amendment to the Field Act,’ Gaebler told the Berliner Morgenpost in August 2025. ‘With all due respect to the law, laws can also be changed. This does not require a new referendum; instead, Parliament can amend the law at any time in two readings,’ said the Senator for Urban Development.
Architects‘ alliance against peripheral development
The architects’ alliance ‘Architects4THF’ also takes a critical view of peripheral development. Following the announcement of the ideas competition, Berlin city planners and architects joined forces to preserve Tempelhofer Feld in its current form and protect its democratic culture.
‘The tender is misleading and is being used as a political instrument to publicly promote the intentions of the Berlin Senate,’ the initiators of the alliance said in response to the ideas competition. Building apartments here ’would drive up the land value of the surrounding properties to such an extent that the accessibility of entire neighbourhoods would be drastically restricted.’ The Senate has not taken seriously the proposals in the 2040 urban development programme for affordable housing in Berlin outside the Tempelhof field.
‘Emptiness has space, silence has a voice’
‘Not building is also an architectural statement – because emptiness has space, silence has a voice,’ explained initiators Jolene Lee and Malte Willms. ‘We recognise the relevance of building new social housing to tackle the housing crisis. However, we share the assessment of several studies that show that there are a variety of other options for housing construction beyond Tempelhofer Feld,’ said the architects.
For Christian Gräff, urban development policy spokesperson for the CDU parliamentary group, the dialogue workshops were ‘not about the question of whether to build, but about what’. The coalition agreement, which provides for peripheral development, still applies. The intention was also not to rely on the recommendations of a small group, but rather to consult all Berliners again in case of doubt.
Take the results of the dialogue workshops seriously
Oliver Wiedmann, Berlin office manager of the Mehr Demokratie association, calls on the Senate to take the results of the dialogue workshops seriously. He understands that the Senate's decision to simply continue the competition is causing irritation in civil society. Although the results of the workshops are not binding, ‘they cannot be completely ignored’.
Wiedmann considers the whole process to be wrong. The first step should have been to decide whether the field should be built on, ideally with the help of a new referendum, according to the Mehr Demokratie proposal. Then the design could have been discussed with the citizens in workshops. But as it stands, chaos reigns and the processes are simply not clear. What happens after the competition? How will politicians deal with the results that emerge? These are questions that should have been clarified beforehand.
The road to a referendum
Another decisive factor is how the current process will ultimately lead to a vote by the people of Berlin. So far, the only option is a referendum, which takes two years to reach the ballot box. ‘It borders on denial of reality to keep talking about a consultative plebiscite in Berlin before the state elections when there is no legal basis for it,’ criticises Wiedmann. A referendum is not possible without a change to the state constitution. This was already established by the Bavarian State Constitutional Court in 2016.
Instead of a plebiscite, Mehr Demokratie proposes a so-called optional referendum, which would allow Berliners to vote on the future of Tempelhofer Feld in a shortened process if the House of Representatives amends the Tempelhofer Feld Act.
According to Article 100 of the state constitution, Berliners themselves decide on the introduction of new instruments of direct democracy in a referendum. ‘The vote on the introduction of an optional referendum could take place as early as 2026 on the day of the House of Representatives election. The instrument would then be available to everyone in the coming legislative period. Berliners could then vote on the possible development of Tempelhof Field in a binding referendum,’ said Wiedmann.