FAQs

We answered the most frequently asked questions for you.

Various districts are being built on the five square kilometer Berlin TXL site:

Schumacher Quartier

To the east of the former airport site and extending a little beyond it, the 46-hectare Schumacher Quartier is being developed. This new residential district will provide over 5,000 flats for more than 10,000 people – complete with associated facilities such as schools, nurseries, sports facilities, shopping facilities and green spaces.

As a smart, socially diverse neighbourhood, the Schumacher Quartier is set to make a significant contribution to the German capital’s housing and urban development strategy. In a charter, all the partners involved have agreed on seven guiding principles for the development of the Schumacher Quartier:

  • Urban living spaces
  • Housing for all
  • Urban greenery and public space
  • Open educational landscape
  • Climate-resilient and water-sensitive urban development based on the ‘sponge city’ principle
  • A neighbourhood with a low-car mobility concept featuring mobility hubs, car-sharing and bike-sharing schemes
  • Communication, participation and transparency

Urban Tech Republic

The former airport buildings and the surrounding areas are being transformed into the Urban Tech Republic, a research and industrial park where urban technologies are researched, developed, manufactured, tested and exported. Here, science and research meet industry and commerce, and start-ups meet investors. And everyone works together to find solutions for the cities of tomorrow.

The curated site is intended to attract companies specialising in these six core areas of urban technology:

  • efficient and innovative energy systems
  • low-emission and connected mobility solutions
  • sustainable water and rainwater management
  • Recycling and the circular economy
  • use of new materials for resource-efficient and energy-efficient construction methods
  • networked control of systems

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

Users of the Urban Tech Republic will include start-ups, students, academics and established companies. Two important anchor users have already been confirmed: the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and the Berlin Fire and Rescue Academy (BFRA).

Several dozen companies are already on site and are using rental space in the former airport buildings and experimental areas on the former airfield. Up to 1,000 companies can settle here in the future; up to 20,000 jobs are expected to be created.

Tegeler Stadtheide

On the site where airplanes once took off, Grün Berlin will develop and operate a unique leisure and recreation area for Berlin in the coming years. The Senate Department for the Environment, Transportation, and Climate Protection has entrusted Grün Berlin with the task of implementing the necessary development and conservation measures for the Tegeler Stadtheide landscape.
The 190-hectare site encompasses the protected transitional zone between the new urban districts to the south and east of the former airport grounds and the existing landscape conservation areas of Flughafensee and Jungfernheide to the north and west. The goal is to create an open space that brings together nature, life, and work in a high-quality and sustainable way.

Following the handover of the site in August 2021, preparatory work began, in particular the clearance of unexploded ordnance. Once the existing contaminated sites had been remediated, the first groundworks for the technical infrastructure began in 2022/2023. The same applies to the conversion and refurbishment work on the existing buildings in the Urban Tech Republic. In 2026, construction began on the first residential buildings in the Schumacher Quartier.

We anticipate a realization period for the entire Berlin TXL project of around 20 to 30 years.

The first residential buildings in the Schumacher Quartier are expected to be completed from 2028; the last ones in the 2030s. Construction work in the Urban Tech Republic will probably continue for another ten years, but may take less or more time depending on the economic situation.

Half of the space in the Schumacher Quartier will go to state-owned housing companies. 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.

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.

The first flats are expected to be ready for occupation from 2029 and will be let by the state-owned housing companies degewo and GESOBAU. The proportion of subsidised rents in the quarter will be approximately 35–40 per cent.

The rents are set by the state-owned housing companies. These are bound by the requirements of the state of Berlin, which are intended to ensure affordable housing. At a later date, housing cooperatives will also rent apartments in the Schumacher Quartier. All the latest information will be available here in due course.

  • The Schumacher Quartier is well connected to Berlin city center via the two subway stations “Scharnweberstraße” and “Kurt-Schumacher-Platz” on the U6 line. The district can also be reached via several bus stops on lines X21, M21, 125, 128, 221 and N6.
  • Bus line 109 runs to the Urban Tech Republic terminus, which is also the meeting point for the site tours for the entire Berlin TXL project. 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 also has an impact on the surrounding area and neighborhood. We would like to keep these as small as possible and at the same time ask for your understanding for the necessary measures.

The construction site access road is located at the former airport access road on Saatwinkler Damm (southern access road). A second access road has been in place on Kurt-Schumacher-Damm since mid-2026.

We will search the area for explosive ordnance. If an unexploded item is discovered, there may be temporary road closures and, if necessary, evacuation measures in the surrounding area.

Meteorstraße will be converted into a city street with new footpaths and cycle paths, tree-planted green strips and two lanes in both directions. Restrictions are also to be expected here during the construction work.

Of course, we will inform you in time about upcoming measures.

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

Parts of the “TXL Nord” development area to the northwest of the Schumacher Quartier are currently still being used by the German Armed Forces. Planning for this quarter is still in its infancy. We are currently conducting initial investigations into how the “TXL Nord” site can be developed in the future.

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-sector company and awards contracts through public procurement procedures, which – depending on the scope of the project—are published on the required platforms, such as the State of Berlin’s procurement platform. Take part in our tenders—we look forward to working with you!

Compared with the airport’s previous operations, the use of the site will change fundamentally. Before the airport closed, more than 70,000 people passed through the airport grounds every day. A mobility concept has been developed for Berlin TXL which focuses, amongst other things, on public transport, cycling, sharing schemes and a low-car neighbourhood.

Following the closure of Tegel Airport, almost 30,000 flats can be built on the site itself and in the wider surrounding area. In Spandau and Reinickendorf, there are also plans to designate neighbourhood protection zones in order to minimise the pressure for gentrification following the airport’s closure. Federal measures (such as the rent cap) also apply here. Furthermore, the so-called ISEK (Integrated Urban Development Concept) ‘Umfeld Berlin TXL’ has been drawn up for the area surrounding the airport site. The aim is to integrate the Urban Tech Republic and the Schumacher Quartier as effectively as possible with the existing neighbourhoods around them.

Not in the short term. The site was closed when air traffic ceased. However, our Infocenter Berlin TXL in Building V is available for you to obtain information, visit exhibitions or take part in events, and you can also book the premises for your event.

To enable as many people as possible to discover this special place, guided tours of the site are available to book. The two-hour outdoor tours can be booked at https://museumsdienst.berlin. In addition, events are held in specific areas of the site.

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. Several new access points will also be created there in the future. 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 runway and taxiway surface. 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.

The first apartments in the Schumacher Quartier are expected to be completed in 2028. The approximately 2,500 residential units, which are being built by state-owned housing companies, will be allocated by those. Berlin TXL Management GmbH itself will neither build nor rent out apartments.

No privately owned apartments are available in the Schumacher Quartier. As part of a concept procedure, land will be granted to building groups and cooperatives under a leasehold arrangement. The concept procedure will begin as soon as the relevant zoning plans are available. We will publish updates on our website.