Langerfeld airfield
The Langerfeld airfield is a former airfield of the then independent city of Barmen in the area of what is now the Wuppertal Langerfeld-Beyenburg district on the border with Schwelm . It was operated from 1926 until shortly after the Second World War and is associated with the aviation pioneer Gottlob Espenlaub .
topography
The site bordered in the north on the Elberfeld – Dortmund railway of the Bergisch-Märkische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , in the east on Schwelm, and east of today's Dieselstrasse . In the south it was bordered by Schwelmer Strasse , at that time across from Gut Röttgen . The Karl-Bamler Street was the border in the west. Karl Bamler was a teacher at the Barmer grammar school and founded the Niederrheinischer Verein für Luftschifffahrt (NVfL) in Barmen in 1902 . The Karl-Bamler Street provided the access road to the airport is and there was a small balloon shed with a gas filling plant for balloons and a small 20 x 15 meter hangar. The field itself consisted of a straightened meadow with a slight slope.
history
In the 1920s, the Niederrheinische Verein für Luftschifffahrt was looking for a suitable site and found it in Langerfeld, which had belonged to Barmen since 1922. In 1926, the Langerfeld airfield was created, which was a take-off and landing area for gliders , motorized planes and open-air balloons . The city took over the development. A gas pipeline was also laid so that a gas filling plant could be operated. This enabled two dozen balloons to rise at the same time. On May 12, 1927, Karl-Bamler-Strasse was named .
From 1927 the "Langerfelder Flugtage" were held, where thousands of spectators were present on Sunday sightseeing flights . Well-known balloonists such as Hugo Kaulen or Alexander Dahl rose here with their balloons. But powered aircraft, mostly double-deckers , were also shown here. Stunt pilots like Ernst Udet , Gerhard Fieseler , Elly Beinhorn or Thea Rasche showed their tricks. Sometimes parachute jumps were also demonstrated.
In 1938 a certain Johann Albert K. made the news; he spied on the airfield for France, among other things, and was betrayed to the German Gestapo by his own wife for reasons that are not known to us . For his espionage activities between 1937 and 1939 he was sentenced to death by the People's Court in Berlin and executed in 1940.
In 1939, when the Second World War broke out, Gottlob Espenlaub set up one of his Espenlaub aircraft factories on the western and northern edges of the airfield , in which around 3,000 employees manufactured aircraft parts and carried out repairs to Air Force aircraft . Various aspen-leaf automobiles were also produced here as individual pieces. This larger building still exists today. During the war, military aircraft were repaired here , but most of them came to Langerfeld by land. Another aircraft workshop was opened on the southern edge of the airfield on Schwelmer Strasse . In 1944 Espenlaub relocated his works in Düsseldorf and Kassel here as well. Espenlaub had previously received approval to set up so-called relocation operations in four nearby railway tunnels . There in the Linderhauser tunnel , in the Schwelm urban area, with the cover name " Meise 1 ", Plant 4 was built in the summer of 1944. On October 23, work started there with around 1000 employees. After the war, the Espenlaub company came to a standstill in 1945 and was initially closed in 1946.
After the war, the land was leased to farmers who used it as meadow and arable land . In the 1950s, the site was parceled out and converted into an industrial and commercial area. The Federal Motorway 1 now also spans the area with the Langerfeld Viaduct . At the northwest corner, balloons would occasionally take off. In 1959, the street In der Fleute was extended to the east (i.e. through the former airfield site).
The Espenlaub aircraft factory went out on February 8, 1972, ten years after Espenlaub's death.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolfgang Stock: Wuppertal street names. Their origin and meaning. Thales Verlag, Essen-Werden 2002, ISBN 3-88908-481-8 .
- ^ History informations - Langerfeld flight days by Werner Steinbach; Retrieved February 14, 2010
- ↑ Gottlob Espenlaub ( memento of August 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) by Werner Steinbach; Retrieved February 14, 2010
- ^ U-relocation “Meise I”, accessed on February 14, 2010
Coordinates: 51 ° 16 ′ 55 ″ N , 7 ° 16 ′ 0 ″ E