Aviation settlement

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A flying settlement is the name given to a collection of residential buildings that were created from 1910, but mainly in the 1930s, especially for flying personnel and their families in the immediate vicinity of airfields. However, some settlements are also called this, where only the streets were named after pilots . Since this was no longer common after the Second World War , all of these settlements were built before 1945. The term was particularly widespread in East Germany .

Gatow aviation settlement

In Berlin-Gatow there is a well-known aviation settlement that was built in the 1930s for the air force personnel at the time. It was used for propaganda purposes in order to show life in the then newly established Luftwaffe in a positive light. Architects from the Bauhaus , including Walter Gropius , who worked on the optimization and better insulation of copper houses, were also brought in to build it . His copper house still exists today in the aviation settlement at the former Gatow airfield . The multi-family residential units in the aviation complex have been partially renovated.

Aviation settlement in Mülheim an der Ruhr

In 1925, a traffic airfield was built in a purely agricultural area between the cities of Mülheim an der Ruhr and Essen , which was expanded in 1935 to become the central landing area for the entire Rhenish-Westphalian industrial area. This made Essen-Mülheim Airport one of the most important German airports at that time, far ahead of Düsseldorf Airport , which was managed from here. At the end of the twenties, the Richthofensiedlung (Richthofensiedlung), an aviation settlement in the immediate vicinity of the airfield, was built for flight, administration and maintenance personnel .

Plauen aviation settlement

The first residential buildings were built by the Baugenossenschaft Plauen GmbH from 1936 . The name Fliegersiedlung came about because the street was originally named after fliers like Manfred von Richthofen , Max Immelmann, etc. A total of 45 residential buildings had been built by the 1940s.

Aviation settlement in Elbing

In Elbing there was also an aviation settlement near the airfield, the streets of which were named after well-known pilots.

Aviation settlement Lindenthal (Leipzig)

The name Fliegersiedlung Lindenthal was retained by the residents for a long time, although it was never officially used. The name of the former small settlement suggests a special history: in 1910 one of the largest central German aircraft plants, the Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke, was built here . During the war, up to 2,850 employees assembled mainly fighter pilots and reconnaissance aircraft here.

Since all German aircraft plants had to close after the First World War because of the Versailles Treaty , the facilities were dismantled as a reparation payment from mid-1919 and the airfield was destroyed. Only a handful of houses remained in the middle of the field for a long time. At the end of the 1930s, the settlement was finally removed due to the construction of the Reichsautobahn .

More aviation settlements

literature

  • Ulrike Linzer: Living in the luxury tin can , taz Berlin local No. 7150, p. 36, 129, TAZ report from September 6, 2003
  • Manfred Schulze, Thomas Nünninghoff: Flying boxes made in Lindenthal , Logistik Letter Leipzig, issue 1 page 10, 2000