Berlin Tempelhof, 2012

One thought on “Berlin Tempelhof, 2012”

Ilanit Konopny says:

May 14, 2018 at 12:11 pm

During sunset, in the vast open space of the aircraft trajectory which stretches towards the horizon without revealing its tip, my nine year old son learned the experience of freedom. I watch him experiencing the power of his body galloping for the first time on skateboard, experiencing a sense of pride in his absolute control over his soaring kite, experiencing a new friendship in town, whose charm will be engraved deep in his heart.

I stare at him and wonder at what point in his life he will learn of the Templars, who gave the airport its name. When will he read about how they left this place to go to Palestine, and built houses in Jerusalem, outside the city walls. Will my son, while wandering about his city, suddenly walk into the graveyard they have built in Emek Refaim and find out how they were expelled from the city.

I wonder when will be the moment, when he will look at photographs of the airship David Schwarz had built where Berlin’s airport stood. When will he learn that he too took to the skies over that same field, experiencing one of man’s greatest victories over nature, a moment before his death, a moment before his invention was named Zeppelin, after his German competitor.

And who will be the one to tell him about refugees from the Middle East who today, against their will, occupy the deserted terminal halls, dreaming of a peaceful life.

I look at my son in a moment of happiness, in an airport that became a park in a European city. Trying to picture how old will he be when an innocent gaze on a spectacular sunset will identify Nazi architecture on the horizon, and every experience of freedom will be damaged by the painful knowledge of history.

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