Findings

The findings section of this thesis lays out the information uncovered during the research process, piecing together the data collected during interviews and through other primary sources. 

During the data collection process and initial examination of results, I identified five major themes of:

These were further divided into more detailed sub themes and organized accordingly. This organization or “coding”, was based on the elements I found to be prominent and visible in both interviews and additional sources, such as government studies and planning documents. These findings aim to enumerate some of the many uses and values associated with the Tempelhof Field, but do not aim to cover each and every one, as that is beyond the scope of the project. 

Instead, these themes focus on public use of the field and personal meaning derived from it. 

My central research question for this thesis project was: who uses Tempelhof Field and what does the space mean to them?

These findings help to deepen existing answers to this question in their identification of these themes and through eventual analysis with existing literature and other sources. 

It was difficult to examine findings in isolation, as it is often clear from personal testimony that the meaning of this field, and the themes spoken of, were deeply interdependent with one another. It was often hard to separate, for example, ideals or activity from the comments about physical space enabling them. This interdependent nature is corroborated and well recognized in additional sources such as the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) study on the social value of the Tempelhof Field.