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reThirty years after German reunification, 28 years after the first planning began, 14 years after the first opening and more than eight years after the planned opening, the first plane will land at the new airport in the capital this Saturday. The BER is ready. Doubt and shame, which are inextricably linked to the project, quickly mix with satisfaction, or Berlin-style: okay. The largest infrastructure project on land in (East) Germany, if all goes well, will soon no longer be the subject of malice in all directions, but will be the basis for the mobility of millions, employers for thousands and push for settlements. commercial throughout the region.
The party atmosphere has yet to emerge, and this is not only due to the strict restrictions of the crown. Because in the present of BER, the past still dominates the future. The employees and CEOs of the airport company, who changed frequently, had to endure enough teasing and ridicule about mishaps and bad luck. Planning, organizing, and supervising mistakes have been discussed in detail for years. The “Made in Germany” seal of quality was devalued to a seal of defects in Germany and abroad using the example of BER, exemplified by the faulty fire protection system, which caused the opening in June 2012 to fail spectacularly.
About eight years later, the authorities have issued all the permits. Only the airport’s fourth chief, city planner and former Secretary of State Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, can now remove the fences from the site. After all, despite all the doom prophecies, the terminal didn’t have to be shot down.
If you build cheap, build twice
The list of lessons learned from the disaster is long. No planner, no builder, no politician should overlook a major project to make it look tax-friendly. No one should be surprised when a project nearly three decades after the first idea, after countless planning changes, extensions, and tightening of standards, costs multiple times the original estimate. No one should dream of building quickly while planning and approval procedures are as overloaded as in Germany. Local residents and environmentalists must get involved at an early stage without being able to blow up the proceedings with vested interests. No one should save in the wrong place and do without the general planner for large projects, especially if the state is the customer. Because if you build cheap, you build twice. That is exactly what happened here.
Despite its deplorable history, the airport has become beautiful. The impressive roof of the terminal is seen in the driveway above the Brandenburg arena. The architects say that the side columns are reminiscent of Prussia. In the main terminal, the visitor encounters the family fashion from around 2010 with lots of glass, walnut veneer and silico-lime brick. Although the distances in BER are no longer as short as in the beloved West Berlin Tegel Airport, they are adapted to modern security requirements and can still be managed.
The opening of BER is a small miracle, but a miracle that, sadly, does not fit in time. Corona represses the desire to travel. As risk rises again everywhere, airlines are reducing their offers. The hope that tourists, who are more important to the Berlin airport than to Frankfurt or Munich, will return faster than business travelers has been dashed by the number of infections and travel advisories. Even with Berlin’s role as the “gateway to Asia” through new direct connections, nothing will happen anytime soon.
Economically failed start
The plan that the airport will be self-financing in four years is now completely illusory. In addition to the seven billion euros in construction costs, BER will need subsidies from shareholders in Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government in the coming years, this year almost 300 million euros, next year probably 550 million euros. The only consolation in an economically sloppy start: other airports in the country are not doing better. But that’s a snapshot. Management and employees gain self-confidence by thinking about “post-Corona” time, long-haul flights, and catching up with market leaders in Frankfurt and Munich.
BER will be the last new airport in Germany for a long time. However, if politics and business draw the right conclusions from experience, it should be possible to get other infrastructure projects off the ground, by rail, by land and by sea, to maintain prosperity without dividing society in protecting the environment. environment. The bitter fight for a part of the highway in the Dannenröder forest shows how difficult it is.
