The quoted article[1] mentions Berlin's Tegel airport being built in just 3 or 4 months. This is an amazing feat! Contrast that with Berlin Brandenburg Airport that started being built in 2006 to replace Tegel and is still under construction and massively behind schedule.
To be fair it should be mentioned that only a first runway and a few improvised buildings were created in this time frame. The Tegel Airport of 1948 ist in no way comparable to a modern airport.
The runway at Tegel was built on military orders in 90 days in order to serve the Berlin Airlift - more of a life and death situation for the city than opening Brandenburg!
[1] https://patrickcollison.com/fast
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport