Freiburg Airport

Freiburg Airport
Characteristics
ICAO code	EDTF
Coordinates	48 ° 1 '22 "  N , 7 ° 49' 57"  E Coordinates: 48 ° 1 '22 "  N , 7 ° 49' 57"  E
Height above MSL	243 m (797  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center	3 km northwest of Freiburg im Breisgau
Basic data
operator	Freiburg-Breisgau Airport GmbH City airfield Freiburg
Flight movements	31,000 / year (2017)
Start-and runway
16/34	1400 m × 30 m asphalt

The fair and the airport from the air

The airfield Freiburg is one of the oldest airfields in Germany. It is approved for powered aircraft , powered gliders , helicopters , gliders , free balloons , for parachuting and, with restrictions, for microlights and gyroscopes. The base of the intensive care transport helicopter Christoph 54 of the German Air Rescue is also located here .

Commercial and private purposes are handled. This also includes trade fair flights for exhibitors and visitors, those of guests in TV shows and sports as well as organ transport for the university clinic . The EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , 51 km away, is used for (international) scheduled flights .

history

Intensive care transport helicopter Christoph 54 in front of the base of the German Air Rescue Service

The airfield was built on the site of a parade ground in the northwest in the Brühl district . This was set up next to the Freiburg main cemetery during the construction of the Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Barracks from 1888 .

The first flight operation in Freiburg can be described as a balloon flight, which took place in 1907 over the later airfield. On May 21, 1911, Freiburg was the stage of the " First Reliability Flight on the Upper Rhine ". This event can be seen as the beginning of the civilian use of the airport. The later commander in chief of the German Air Force in the Third Reich, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , officially received his pilot training in Freiburg from June to September 1915. Ludwig Weber was one of his flight instructors . In the 1930s, when the airfield was again mainly used for military purposes, the airfield experienced a heyday, especially with regular scheduled flights from July 5, 1926 to Stuttgart and from June 2, 1930 to Konstanz by Lufthansa .

In 1936 there was a need for a new reception building. The Freiburg architect Rudolf Schmid created the first plans . However, his designs were never implemented. From 1937 the Freiburg Air Base was located here. From 1939 it served the Aviation Training Regiment 23, later renamed the Airplane Pilot School A / B 23 and again renamed the Airplane Pilot School A 23 until 1945 as a training place. In June / July 1940, the I./ZG 52 (I. Group of Destroyer Squadron 52) and the II./ZG 2 were also active flying units here for the first time. The basis of the construction from summer 1939 were simplified plans of the Freiburg Building Department under the direction of Joseph Schlippe due to the raw material situation . From October 1939, the simple building was to be upgraded for representative purposes by adding art to the building using sculptures by Hellmuth Hopp . The completion of the construction project was delayed until 1942 due to the Second World War , which had broken out in the meantime. The Hopp sculptures were only erected in 1946 by the French occupation army , which used the airfield for several decades after the Second World War.

In the late 1960s, the future of the airfield was uncertain. The opponents at the time wanted residential development and condemned the noise of the French army pilots. In 1974, the local council unanimously made the decision to maintain and expand the building. A lead window in the tower, completed in 1976, based on a design by Robert Sperlich with master glassmaker Emil Böcherer, shows the dates of the decisions to safeguard the building, including the names of the former mayor Eugen Keidel , the former city treasurer Engelbert Bernauer as well as the supervisory board members and the operator at the time.

After it had been discussed at length by a closure of the square, the stock is now backed up - not least because of the strong advocacy of the citizens of Freiburg in the referendum in 1995 and the importance to the economy and the Messe Freiburg . The decisive factor, however, was and is the importance of the airfield for the heart and lung center of the university clinics in Freiburg. The space is located directly at the clinics and is used for organ transplant flights within the catchment area Europe. The Freiburg airfield has an unrestricted night flight permit for transplant flights. With airplanes Freiburg can for. B. can be reached from Moscow in 2.5 hours. In the meantime, 50 to 60% of the Freiburg airfield is used commercially and, as an important transport infrastructure facility, along with rail and road, represents the fastest transport connection between Freiburg and the centers of Europe.

Due to the changed and thus more stringent EU legislation ( Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3922/91 of December 16, 1991 on the harmonization of technical regulations and administrative procedures in civil aviation ), only small or light aircraft have been able to use the existing runway since 2005 land, which also affected organ transplant flights for the Freiburg University Hospital. In 2006 the city council of Freiburg decided to extend the runway in accordance with the ordinance. In 2010, the state of Baden-Württemberg promised to support the project. The runway was finally extended to 1,400 meters in 2011, and PAPI approach aids were installed on the landing thresholds . At the same time the runway lights were renewed. An undersight cloud measuring device and a visibility measuring device significantly improve safety on the field by providing appropriate information to the pilots from the flight management. Opponents of the airport who initiated two petition procedures to prevent the expansion were ultimately unable to prevail.

As part of the Pope's visit to Germany in 2011 , Benedict XVI celebrated . on September 25, 2011, a large closing service with 100,000 people on the western area of ​​the airfield.

In 2012, the airfield was favored by some of the supporters of SC Freiburg as the location for a new football stadium. An expert opinion confirmed that the airfield had advantageous properties in terms of proximity to the city, size of area and infrastructure. However, the need to cease flight operations associated with this change in use was also mentioned. In addition, there are existing contracts with current users and the development of compensation areas. As part of this discussion, the head of the Freiburg Heart Surgery and the Bad Krozingen Heart Center as well as a representative of the “German Organ Transplantation Foundation” stated that the Freiburg Transplant Center was very important. The city's top management rejects the use of the airfield as a stadium location due to its importance for the Freiburg clinics and due to the contractual situation with the current users.

In 2013, the airfield was discussed again because of the football stadium. The location in question is, however, further west from the hard-surfaced runway and, according to preliminary expert reports, does not affect flight operations. In November 2014, the municipal council decided with a clear majority that the SC stadium should be built here, although more detailed reports on flight safety have not yet been completed. On February 1, 2015, the citizens of Freiburg voted in a referendum with 58.2 percent in favor of the new stadium in Wolfswinkel. Skydiving as well as gliding would then lose their current operating areas. According to the preliminary report, despite the stadium's location near the hard-surfaced runway, even in adverse wind conditions, there will be no significant restriction on pure powered flight operations. The current report by Prof. Hanke shows, however, that the main wind direction has considerable adverse effects on flight safety.

A citizens' initiative has been founded against the stadium construction project , which has in particular the interests of the residents living in Wolfswinkel in view, but also points out the importance of the airfield with its open spaces for the entire ecosystem. A citizens' initiative Pro Flugplatz, which was active as early as 1995, underlines the importance and maintenance of the transport facility for air sports (glider and parachute sports). But there are also citizens' initiatives that have spoken out in favor of building the stadium on the airfield. After preparatory construction work had already started at the end of 2018, six residents submitted an urgent application for a temporary construction freeze in November 2018. After a new grass runway was set up in 2019, the glider pilots withdrew their lawsuit against the stadium. The Freiburg Administrative Court rejected the urgent application on April 29, 2019, as did the Mannheim Administrative Court on July 10, 2019.

In 2017 it became known that an application had been made to the German air traffic control that the Freiburg airfield can also be approached by instrument approach, which had not yet been decided at the beginning of 2020. There are efforts to ensure that aircraft heavier than 10 tons can land, also with regard to soccer teams for the new stadium. Larger aircraft, however, belong to a higher fire protection category and accordingly a certain number of fire engines and personnel must be available. The airport company bought a used fire engine in 2019. This was approved by the supervisory board with numerous city councilors. Therefore, planes over 10 tons can land with PPR . In 2019, five aircraft over 5.7 tons and two jets over 10 tons were handled. The space is used for business, private and organ flights. Every year around 5400 aircraft take off, 96 percent are lighter than 2 tons. At the beginning of 2020 there was a move in the municipal council to close the airfield: with a narrow majority, the city administration was commissioned to determine how expensive a shutdown would be in 2031 when the lease expires.

Operator and Financing

The airfield is operated by Flugplatz Freiburg-Breisgau GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of Stadtwerke Freiburg GmbH. The airport's income comes from landing fees, among other things. Nevertheless, Flugplatz Freiburg-Breisgau GmbH makes a higher five-digit loss every year, which is offset from municipal funds. The only exception was the year 2012, when the reversal of provisions resulted in a profit of 33,000 euros. Flugplatz Freiburg-Breisgau GmbH employed 15 people in 2017, including three full-time flight controllers.

literature

• Leo Schmidt : The sculptures on the Freiburg airport building. On dealing with Nazi art immediately after the Second World War. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg . No. 1, 1995, pp. 28–33 ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Flugplatz Freiburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official site of the operator
• Luftsportgemeinschaft Breisgau
• Academic Aviation Group Freiburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Participation report of the City of Freiburg 2018
2. ↑ Ccity-flugplatz-freiburg.de: Flugplatzgeschichte: The beginnings up to World War I (July 15, 2016; marked as "Editor's note")
3. ↑ Official population register of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau including the incorporated suburbs of Betzenhausen, Günterstal, Haslach, Littenweiler and Zähringen. 1936. , Division I , p. 29.
4. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV: Luftwaffe Airfields 1935–1945 Germany (1937 Borders) , pp. 187–189 , accessed on September 15, 2014.
5. ^ Carola Schark: Glass painting in the airfield tower - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung. Badische Zeitung, January 23, 2018, accessed on January 25, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Arnd Henke: Glass painting in the airfield tower - photo. (No longer available online.) Badische Zeitung, January 23, 2018, archived from the original on January 26, 2018 ; accessed on January 25, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3922/91 in the consolidated version of January 16, 2007
8. ↑ Pilot information EDTF ( Memento from October 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Freiburg Airport is being expanded. In: airliners.de. May 31, 2010, accessed March 2, 2019 . 
10. ↑ http://www.badische-zeitung.de/freiburg/flugplatz-oder-bauplatz--56792697.html
11. ^ Result of the 2015 referendum. City of Freiburg, accessed on June 12, 2019 . 
12. ↑ Supplementary study on airfield use
13. ↑ Harald Hanke: Expert opinion on flight safety for the planned SC stadium at Freiburg airfield. In: pro-flugplatz-freiburg.de. December 12, 2014, accessed January 12, 2015 . 
14. ^ Joachim Röderer: Stadium Debate: New reports on flight safety contradict the city. In: Badische-Zeitung.de. January 13, 2015, accessed April 14, 2016 . 
15. ^ Pro-Wolfswinkel
16. ^ Pro-Flugplatz-Freiburg
17. ^ Stadium-in-Freiburg
18. ↑ Joachim Röderer: From February 2019 the shell construction of the new SC stadium at the airfield will begin. Badische Zeitung, December 30, 2018, accessed on January 21, 2019 . 
19. ^ Frank Zimmermann: Urgent decision on stadium construction will be made in April. Badische Zeitung, March 28, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2019 . 
20. ^ BZ editorial team: The grass runway on the Freiburg airfield is open. Badische Zeitung, March 29, 2019, accessed on March 29, 2019 . 
21. ↑ Joachim Röderer: Administrative Court rejects an urgent application against the construction of the SC stadium. Badische Zeitung, July 10, 2019, accessed on August 27, 2019 . 
22. ^ Joachim Röderer: Freiburg: More security for the airfield. Badische Zeitung, January 14, 2017, accessed on January 14, 2017 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b} Simone Höhl & Joachim Röderer: Heavy pilots and soccer teams should be able to land on Freiburg's airfield. Badische Zeitung, February 27, 2020, accessed on February 28, 2020 . 
24. ↑ Participation report of the City of Freiburg 2013
25. ↑ Participation report of the City of Freiburg 2018