On the five-square-kilometer site of Berlin TXL, the following are being developed:

Urban Tech Republic

The Urban Tech Republic, a research and industrial park where technologies for the city of tomorrow are researched, developed, produced, tested and exported, is being created from the airport buildings and on the adjacent areas. This is where science and research meet industry and commerce and start-ups meet investors. And everyone is working together on solutions for the cities of tomorrow.

Six core themes of urban technologies were defined for the curated location:

• the efficient use of energy,
• eco-friendly mobility
• clean water
• recycling
• sustainable construction and application of new materials
• networked control of systems

The existing buildings have a gross floor area of around 200,000 m². The campus will cover 39 ha, the commercial strip 70 ha and the industrial park 82 ha. The total area of the Urban Tech Republic covers 202 ha.

Users of the Urban Tech Republic will be start-ups, students, scientists and established companies. Two key anchor tenants have already been identified: Berliner Hochschule für Technik University of Applied Sciences and Berlin Fire and Rescue Service Academy

Up to 1,000 companies can locate here; up to 20,000 jobs are to be created.

Schumacher Quartier

To the east of the airport grounds and extending slightly beyond them, the 46-hectare Schumacher Quartier is taking shape. This new residential district will offer over 5,000 apartments for more than 10,000 people—along with the necessary amenities such as schools, daycare centers, sports facilities, shopping options, and plenty of green space.

As a sustainable and socially mixed area, Schumacher Quartier will make an important contribution to the German capital’s housing and urban development strategy. In a charter, all partners involved have agreed on seven guidelines for the development of Schumacher Quartier:

• Urban living spaces
• Housing for everyone
• Urban green space and public areas
• Urban green space and public areas
• Climate-friendly and water-sensitive urban development
• District with environmentally-friendly mobility guaranteed
• Communication, participation, and transparency

Urban Heathland

Where airplanes used to take off, Grün Berlin will develop and operate a unique green leisure and recreation area for Berlin in the coming years. The Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection has entrusted Grün Berlin with the task of taking over the necessary development and safeguarding measures for the Tegeler Stadtheide landscape area. The 190-hectare area encloses the protected transition zone between the new urban quarters to the south and east of the former airport site and the existing protected landscape areas of Flughafensee and Jungfernheide to the north and west. The aim is to create an open space that brings together nature, life and work in a qualitative and sustainable way.

Following the acquisition of the site in August 2021, preparatory construction work began, particularly the clearance of unexploded ordnance. Following the remediation of existing contaminated sites, the first civil engineering work for technical infrastructure began in 2022/2023. Renovation and refurbishment work on the existing buildings in the Urban Tech Republic also commenced. Starting in 2026, construction of the first residential buildings in the Schumacher Quartier will follow.

We are expecting an implementation period of around 20 to 30 years.

Die ersten Wohngebäude im Schumacher Quartier werden voraussichtlich ab 2028 fertig sein; die letzten in den 2030er Jahren. Das Baugeschehen in der Urban Tech Republic wird vermutlich weitere zehn Jahre andauern, kann aber – je nach konjunktureller Lage – auch weniger oder mehr Zeit in Anspruch nehmen. Wirklich „fertig“ wird der Forschungs- und Industriestandort nie sein – er wird sich agil entwickeln und verändern.

No, that won’t happen. Large parts of the existing buildings are listed buildings and will form the nucleus of the future Urban Tech Republic. The iconic ensemble of buildings will be preserved for Berlin. Only lower grade parts without protected status will be removed, for example containers, tanks above ground and such like, or buildings that do not form part of the historic architectural ensemble.

The Berlin University of Applied Sciences will move into the central Terminal A – probably in 2028. Terminal B is intended as a start-up and event center. Terminal D will house a technology center with laboratories, offices and workshops. There are numerous ideas for the tower – but its subsequent use has not yet been decided.

Terminal C is expected to be demolished. This temporary extension from 2007 is not part of the historical ensemble and is not a listed building.

All future plots in Berlin TXL are available to investors within the framework of leasehold contracts. This means that ownership of the land remains with the State of Berlin.

Companies and institutions from the field of urban technologies that conform to the profile can acquire the leasehold for land in the Urban Tech Republic. The ground rent is based on the type and extent of future use and the corresponding requirements of the state of Berlin – as is the term of the leasehold contracts. All information regarding current property competition processes can be found on the Urban Tech Republic website.

Half of the space in the Schumacher Quartier will go to state-owned housing associations. The other half will be offered to housing cooperatives, building groups and providers of special forms of housing (e.g. student apartments), also as part of the allocation of heritable building rights. Further information on the Schumacher Quartier can be found here: https://www.schumacher-quartier.de

The landscape area, the landscape park and the neighborhood park in the Schumacher Quartier are available to the general public. No heritable building rights can be acquired here.

Urban Tech Republic: The first spaces in the existing buildings of the former airport can already be rented in parallel with the construction work. Some buildings are still being refurbished before their long-term continued use. Rents for commercial leases are based on the respective market situation. In the start-up and technology centers that are being created, space will be made available to eligible start-up companies at reduced rates.

Schumacher Quartier:

The first apartments are expected to be ready for occupancy starting in 2028 and will be leased by the state-owned housing authorities degewo and GESOBAU. Subsidized rentals account for approximately 35–40 percent of the neighborhood’s housing stock.

Rent levels are set by the state-owned housing authorities. These authorities are bound by the guidelines established by the State of Berlin, which are designed to ensure affordable housing. At a later date, housing cooperatives in the Schumacher Quartier will also begin renting out apartments. All the latest information will be available on the Schumacher Quartier website in due course.

• Bus 109 runs to the Urban Tech Republic terminus, which is also the meeting point for the site tours. Before that, it also stops at the General-Ganeval-Brücke for the exit to the Infocenter Berlin TXL. You can find the route to the Urban Tech Republic stop here.
• With the further development of the Urban Tech Republic and the Schumacher Quartier, new public transport connections are to be expected. In future, there will also be a streetcar connection.
• You can find out about the current timetables at: bvg.de

The former Tegel Airport is a major construction site, which inevitably has an impact on the surrounding area and neighborhood. We aim to keep this impact to a minimum and ask for your understanding regarding the necessary measures.

As part of the Integrated Urban Development Concept (ISEK), various measures are being implemented to develop the area around Tegel Airport. Further information on this can be found on the website of the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing.

Teile der Entwicklungsfläche „TXL Nord“ nordwestlich des Schumacher Quartiers werden aktuell weiter von der Bundeswehr genutzt. Die Planungen für dieses Quartier stehen noch ganz am Anfang. Aktuell beschäftigen wir uns mit ersten Untersuchungen, wie das Gelände von „TXL Nord“ zukünftig weiterentwickelt werden kann.

Berlin TXL will be financed from various public and private sources: Berlin budget funds, EU and federal subsidies and the marketing and leasing of space. Overall, we expect total investment of around eight billion euros, the majority of which will be private investment.

Berlin TXL Management GmbH is a public corporation and awards the contracts as part of public tender procedures that, depending on their size, are published on the stipulated platforms, for example on the State of Berlin’s tendering platform. Join in our public tenders – we look forward to working with you!

On the contrary: traffic will tend to decrease and the surrounding area will be relieved. For comparison: before the collapse in air traffic as a result of the coronavirus crisis, more than 70,000 people traveled to the airport every day – via the bottleneck of the airport feeder road. In the future, up to 20,000 people will work in the area and around 10,000 people will live there. An innovative mobility concept has also been developed for Berlin TXL.

Following the closure of Tegel Airport, almost 30,000 apartments can be built on the site itself and in the surrounding area, which will significantly ease the situation on the Berlin housing market. In Spandau and Reinickendorf, there are also plans for neighborhood conservation areas in order to minimize the pressure to upgrade housing after the closure of the airport. The instruments of the federal government (rent control) are also taking effect here. The so-called ISEK (Integrated Urban Development Concept) “Surroundings Berlin TXL” has also been drawn up for the area surrounding the airport site. The objective is to network the Urban Tech Republic and Schumacher Quartier as closely as possible with the existing city districts all around.

Not in the short term. With the suspension of flight operations, the site has been closed off. However, our Berlin TXL Infocenter in Building V is available for you to get information, visit exhibitions, or attend events, and you also have the option to book the space for your own event.

To ensure that many people can enjoy this special place, guided tours of the grounds take place regularly. The two-hour outdoor walks can be booked at https://museumsdienst.berlin. Individual existing areas are also used for events.

Outside of these offers, the area is inaccessible and secured against unauthorized access. As soon as the respective construction phases are completed, the site will gradually become accessible to the public.

Grün Berlin GmbH is responsible for the expansive landscape area north and west of the Urban Tech Republic. Following the removal of unexploded ordnance and the remediation of contaminated sites, the company will gradually open the area to the public over the next few years. Several new access points will also be created for this purpose. Currently, the Stadt Natur campus already offers a number of guided tours and events on-site at the Tegeler Stadtheide.

Quite a lot. Apart from the huge landscaped area, which will be freely accessible, there will be a variety of attractive sports and exercise facilities: Playgrounds, multi-sports facilities and fitness and health points along running routes. A roller derby track, a street skate facility, a streetball facility, a bicycle course, a parcours and calisthenics facility and much more will be offered on the surface of the runway and taxiway. A bouldering facility, a grass ball sports area, an area for frisbee golf and an outdoor fitness area are planned for the park’s green spaces.

All sports and play areas in the neighborhood and landscape park will be designed with gender requirements in mind and as barrier-free as possible to support joint play. Shade roofs and seating, picnic tables and informal stands will be arranged in the sports and play areas to create a variety of meeting points.