Miryam Harrat explores the cultural and architectural legacy of the French sector in former West Berlin…
After the Second World War, Berlin was separated into four sectors: American, British, Soviet and French. More than 70 years later—and almost 32 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall—the French presence can still be felt throughout the city, especially in Wedding and Reinickendorf, the two main districts that made up the postwar French sector of the city.
One of the major French infrastructural contributions to these districts is Tegel airport, which was built in less than three months by the French forces to the south of the Tegeler See in Reinickendorf, and opened in 1948 to support the Berlin Blockade. It became a civilian airport in 1974—its first commercial flight was operated by Air France from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Berlin-Tegel. Over subsequent decades it became something of a popular icon for many people, but was forced to finally close in 2020: the last flight to leave was also an Air France flight from Berlin-Tegel to Paris Charles de Gaulle, six decades after the debut.
Not far from Tegel is the so-called “Quartier Napoléon“, also in Reinickendorf. Located along the bustling Kurt-Schumacher-Damm, it was the headquarters of the largest garrison of French Forces in Germany stationed in Berlin during the Cold War, between 1947 and 1990.
The history of the barracks begins in April 1945 when it was taken by the Red Army during the liberation of Berlin. Heavily damaged, it was later taken over by the French occupation forces who rebuilt it between 1945 and 1952, gave it its Francophone nickname (it’s officially called the Julius Leber Barracks) and made the headquarters of the French command in Berlin.
As the barracks were located in the French sector, a Catholic church for the soldiers and their families was built between 1952 and 1953. Between 1955 and 1956, the French military government decided to build a cultural centre with a cinema called “L’Aiglon” and a four-star hotel with a restaurant; these have been closed since 1994. Many people would like to see the cinema open, but at the time of writing there is nothing planned.
These cites, built from the 1950s onwards at the request of the French military government, were used to house air force personnel, notably in the cités Pasteur, Guynemer and Joffre near the Tegel airport. Another French housing est…