New Berlin airport to be named “Willy Brandt” after former chancellor

New Berlin airport to be named “Willy Brandt”

BERLIN — Officials say Berlin’s new airport will be named after Willy Brandt, the former West German leader who championed East-West relations and won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The new airport — an expansion of the former East Berlin’s Schoenefeld airport — is due for completion by 2011.

Authorities hope it will become a new air traffic hub. They plan to close Tegel airport in former West Berlin and already have shuttered the smaller Tempelhof, the hub of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift.

The city airport authority said Friday that the new airport will be named after Brandt, who died in 1992.

The former West Berlin mayor was chancellor from 1969 to 1974 and originated the detente policy known as Ostpolitik. Brandt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.