Former Nazi airport is Berlin's latest shelter for refugees

The former Berlin airport Tempelhof, once a monument of Nazi Germany's ambitions before later becoming a symbol of the Cold War, has now been turned into a temporary shelter for hundreds of refugees.

Soldiers, firefighters and volunteers have set up 72 tents in a hangar, with each tent to house 10 refugees.

The asylum seekers will sleep in bunk-beds but have to be transported to a public swimming pool for baths as the hangar is not fitted with showers.

In all, two hangars have been requisitioned to house 1,200 of asylum seekers as Berlin, like other German cities, is fast running out of options to house a record number of migrants.

Germany is expecting to record up to a million new arrivals this year alone, many fleeing from war-torn Syria.

Tempelhof echoes Berlin's turbulent and troubled history.

On its northwestern edge looms the huge semi-circular former airport terminal, typical of the Nazis' architectural gigantism, built between 1936 and 1941.

Early in the Cold War, it became the hub for the Berlin Airlift, when Allied planes made some 277,000 landings to supply the western part of the war-ravaged city with food and fuel during the 1948-49 Soviet blockade.

Opened as a park in 2010, Tempelhof has since become a temple of outdoor recreation, with skaters and joggers on the old runways and others picnicking on the field.

Source: AFP