Last May, after months of bitter debate and despite a campaign backed by much of the media, 64.3% of voters chose to keep Tempelhof as it is. Politicians were left red-faced and investors empty-handed. “It’s a defeat and it’s a clear one,” said Wowereit. Some media outlets were less gracious. “The wonder is that Berlin still carries on,” wrote Ulf Poschardt, deputy editor of conservative newspaper Die Welt. “In the Prussian capital, hippie culture is state policy.”

The rhetoric may be overblown, but the remarkable fact is that Berlin will ultimately not further develop a hugely valuable piece of real estate, all because the people decided they didn’t trust big business not to mess up the park they loved. It’s a state of affairs that would be almost unimaginable in Frankfurt or Munich, let alone London or New York.

But the capital has always been special in this respect.[...] “Now that the field’s future is safe we can continue to have more events like that,” said Steindorf, still excited by memories of Die Toten Hosen (The Dead Trousers) playing to 50,000 in 2013.