Preserved in time

Gazing at Butzweilerhof Airport through the viewfinder, Philipp Robien says he “felt chills running up and down his spine.” Not because of the cold that March evening in Cologne but “because every window was lit up, every building illuminated – just for that one moment.” Robien, 30, photographed Cologne’s first airport for a student project in 2015/2016. Now, his images have been published in a book. They tell the story of what was once Germany’s biggest airport (after Tempelhof in Berlin), its architecture reflecting the pathos of the 1930s but clearly also influenced by Modernist aesthetic of the previous decade. The “aviation hub of the West” was also an important center for Lufthansa operations, and the crane emblem still adorns the doors of the reception hall. But in 1939, civil aviation ceased here and the airlines never returned. International operations resumed instead at Cologne-Wahn Airport in 1950, and from 1955, they also included Lufthansa flights. So the “Butz” (Butzweilerhof Airport) stayed as it has been left, as if locked in a time capsule. But Robien’s images already document history. Just recently, the complex was given a new lease on life as a vintage car center, complete with restaurants and a hotel.