Rechlin testing facility

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Allied aerial reconnaissance aerial photo shows three jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262s at Lärz airfield, around October 1944

The Rechlin test center on the south-east bank of the Müritz near Rechlin was the central test center for aircraft in the German Reich from 1926 to 1945 .

history

The history of the Rechlin test center began in 1916, when the German Army began planning the establishment of an aviation research and training facility on the Müritz. But only during the period of National Socialism of was including airfield Lärz Rechlin to test point (E'Stelle) of the Air Force developed and was the largest test site of the Air Force in the Third Reich. The results of the tests and developments by the Rechlin engineers in the period from 1926 to 1945 have had a significant impact on aviation technology to this day and have driven it forward.

The beginnings

In November 1916 the Prussian War Ministry announced that the "establishment of extensive aeronautical systems on the south bank of Lake Müritz" was planned. During the expropriation negotiations, all the buildings of the church, parish and sexton were also expropriated. However, the “Flieger-Experiment- und Lehranstalt” was officially opened on August 29, 1918. In October 1918 there were still comparative flights with prototype 11 of the Fokker D.VII ; flights were carried out with and without N-struts in the wings.

After the end of the First World War , the existing systems were dismantled. The Versailles Treaty forbade the German Reich of the Weimar Republic in Articles 198 and 202 any development and construction of aircraft. In order to circumvent these provisions of the Versailles Treaty, the Treaty of Rapallo was concluded between Germany and the Soviet Union on April 16, 1922 .

This contract created the prerequisites for the training of flying personnel as well as the secret testing of aircraft and associated equipment in Lipetsk (see: Secret flying school and test site of the Reichswehr ). However , this was not enough for the Reichswehr leadership, they wanted to create a central test site in Germany itself. After the German Reich joined the League of Nations in 1925 , the provisions of the Versailles Treaty were relaxed in June; In late autumn, the construction of the test site began.

The first aircraft hangar with a work and residential building (“Swiss House”) was built in 1926, followed by the “Cafe Achteck” residential and communal building, two Junkers aircraft hangars and an engine test bench by the end of 1934 .

In the Third Reich

Building ensemble of the test site - group north (today Aviation Museum Rechlin)

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, huge funds flowed to Rechlin. Technicians and engineers from all over the Reich were ordered to Rechlin. For them in Rechlin (today Rechlin-Nord) the so-called "Masters' settlement" and between Vietzen and Rechlin, the settlement "Vietzen" (today Rechlin) with single and semi-detached houses was built in order to be able to accommodate their families.

Four large groups of buildings were built around the almost round grass square, the groups North (administration, laboratories), South (engine testing), East (ammunition, weapons) and West (technical company, barracks). Due to the construction activities (buildings with a total area of ​​190 hectares were built up to 1945) barracks were built for the Reich Labor Service at “Vietzen” and “Retzow” . Italian workers were later quartered in the camp in Retzow. At the end of the war, women from the Ravensbrück concentration camp were housed in the Retzow camp, which was partially converted into a concentration camp , in order to use them for construction work at the nearby Lärz airfield . One of them was Helga Barth .

On February 26, 1935, Reichswehr Minister Blomberg ordered the gradual unmasking of the Air Force and Rechlin finally became a branch of the Technical Office of the Reich Aviation Ministry in Berlin as the "Air Force Testing Center". The activities were part of the "official surveillance". Their aim was to determine the serviceability of aircraft and equipment. In addition, sample tests were carried out on new types of aircraft. Examples of test tasks were achieving the required speeds, range, summit height, strength, stability and controllability. The maintenance, ergonomics, ease of repair and other aspects that had an impact on the later use of the device by the troops were also examined. In 1939 tests took place with the world's first jet aircraft ( Heinkel He 178 ), from 1940 also with the Heinkel He 280 , but initially without engines (towed plows with He 111 ).

These investigations repeatedly led to developments that finally found their way into aviation technology and significantly improved the corresponding devices. These included, for example, various types of parachute (including ribbon parachute ), thumb switches, automatic course controls ( autopilot ), special instrumentation, sea rescue with fixed-wing aircraft , the Rechliner cold start procedure and procedures for briefly increasing the altitude of aircraft engines. On July 3, 1939, the first rocket-propelled aircraft was demonstrated. When testing the twin-jet Heinkel He 280 V1 (DL + AS) jet aircraft on January 13, 1943, the first ejection seat committee in aviation history came about . The tests carried out by Department F, for example, resulted in numerous radio innovations. Many specialists in this and other departments were taken over by the Allies after the end of the war.

In addition to the purely technical testing of all land aircraft and their accessories, new aircraft, especially after the start of the war, were examined for their military usefulness. For this purpose, the “Lärz test command” was set up, which was normally assigned the so-called preliminary or pilot series samples for operational testing. From mid-1944, the testing of the new jet aircraft Me 262 , Ar 234 and He 162 was given top priority.

The test center was not only responsible for German developments, but also for foreign aircraft types. After the beginning of the Second World War , captured aircraft were brought to Rechlin and thoroughly tested there.

Rechlin was spared from the bombing until 1944. The first air raid took place in May 1944, with Rechlin only serving as an alternative target. The first planned major attack took place in August 1944 by the 8th US Air Force . The tests were impaired by the damage; they came to a standstill in the last attack in April 1945. Operations against bomber formations with the Messerschmitt Me 262 of Jagdgeschwader 7 and low- flying attacks by Jagdgeschwader 4 with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 against the Red Army were flown from the Lärz airfield . At the end of April, the remaining technical systems were blown up before the test site was handed over to the Red Army on May 2, 1945.

Post war history

After the war, Rechlin became a garrison of the Red Army (from 1954: Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany ). Since the Lärz airfield had concrete runways, a fighter-bomber squadron was initially stationed there and later a helicopter squadron (see GRU ). The officers and their families were housed in the Vietzen settlement (today's Rechlin), the soldiers barracked in the former barracks of the West Group test site . In 1948 the Red Army released 75 apartments for use by the German population. For the most part, displaced persons from the former eastern regions of the German Reich came to live here .

The Rechlin shipyard was built in mid-June 1948 in the area of ​​Gruppe Nord near the Müritz . There were only a few buildings left on the site, damaged or blown up by the bombing, with no windows, doors or floors. The first products were farm implements and pleasure boats; Until 1955, the shipyard workers also repaired single-family and semi-detached houses. It emerged u. a. already lifeboats made of wood and light metal.

In 1963, the shipyard became a specialist company for the development and construction of lifeboats, which were made from glass fiber reinforced plastic from November 1966. In addition, there were still consumer goods , supplier parts for large shipbuilding and freezing equipment for reefer ships . In total, around 3,800 lifeboats and around 4,000 other boats were built between 1948 and 1980.

In 1984 the GAL boat (closed, straightening, pumping ) was presented, which was developed in accordance with international regulations and regulations of the See-Berufsgenossenschaft . By the end of the 1980s, the shipyard had developed into the largest industrial company in the Neustrelitz district with around 1,100 employees . In the years 1990 to 1992 the number of employees fell to 430 and in 1993 the company was privatized with the division into a parent company and several subsidiaries. After these individual companies gradually went bankrupt, the site was foreclosed in 1997. Harald Kuhnle from Stuttgart bought the area at auction and one year later founded the “Kuhnle Werft”. This shipyard mainly builds houseboats of the Kormoran series, which are sold to private owners or rented to the charter company "Kuhnle Tours" at several locations in Germany, Poland and France. The following innovations have been developed at the "Kuhnle Werft" since 1997: on-board heating independent of shore power, flow-optimized hull, hydraulic boat drive.

In 1956, a communications technology division of the NVA was set up on the site of the former Group North , after the FDJ's water sports school had already been located there from 1951 and the GST's sea ​​sports school from 1952 . After the fall of the Wall in 1990, part of the site was taken over by the German Armed Forces and an equipment depot was set up, which was abandoned in the course of the reorientation of the German Armed Forces .

During this time, the church in Rechlin-Nord went through adventurous types of use - from the ammunition store of the Red Army to the granaries of the LPG and light metal smoothing shop of the shipyard to the sports hall and equipment store of the NVA. The church was for renovations, initiated by the Friends Church Rechlin Nord eV, in 1996 by the federal government to the Mecklenburg State Church passed.

In March 1993, after 48 years , the 19th fighter-bomber regiment of the Russian WGT left the Lärz airfield and in autumn also the previously excluded living area and the barracks in Rechlin. In 1994 the Lärz airfield was reopened for civil use.

literature

  • Theodor Benecke (ed.) The German aviation. Volume 27: Heinrich Beauvais, Karl Kössler, Max Mayer, Christoph Regel: Flight test sites until 1945. Johannisthal, Lipezk, Rechlin, Travemünde, Tarnewitz, Peenemünde-West. Bernard & Graefe, Munich et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7637-6117-9 .
  • Hans-Werner Lerche: test pilot on captured aircraft. 2nd Edition. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-495-6 .
  • Hans-Werner Lerche: test pilot on captured aircraft. 7th revised and expanded edition. Aviatic Verlag, Oberhaching 1999, ISBN 3-925505-41-5 .
  • Förderverein Luftfahrttechnisches Museum Rechlin e. V .: History and technology in and around Rechlin. From the propeller to the jet aircraft to the lifeboat. Self-published, Rechlin 2003.
  • Norbert Lebert : Dying was their daily bread, the test pilots from Rechlin, a novel based on facts. Hestia-Verlag, Bayreuth 1958.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 20 ′ 39.7 "  N , 12 ° 43 ′ 46.3"  E