Schönwalde airfield
| Schönwalde airfield | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Characteristics | |||
| Coordinates | |||
| Height above MSL | 30 m (98 ft ) | ||
| Transport links | |||
| Distance from the city center | 1.6 km east of Schönwalde-Glien | ||
| Basic data | |||
| opening | September 29, 1935 | ||
| surface | 170 ha | ||
| Start-and runway | |||
| 04/22 (1953) | 1100 m × 80 m concrete | ||
The airfield Schönwalde is a former military airfield in the district Havelland . It is located east of the community of Schönwalde-Glien and southwest of Hennigsdorf near Berlin.
history
Until April 1945
The secret plans for rearmament in Germany already provided for the construction of an airfield in the area mentioned in 1934.
In 1935, the Reich Aviation Ministry bought larger pieces of land in the area of what would later become the airfield and began building wooden barracks in the northern part of the site to accommodate the workers. Extensive renovation work enabled the later airfield to be drained in the area of the Teufelsbruch. In several construction phases, a complete air base with a concrete and illuminated runway as well as radio beacons and several aircraft hangars was built by 1939. The airfield also had a siding to the Bötzowbahn and barracks. A kitchen, a casino and an outdoor swimming pool were also built for the supply.
In 1935 the Aviation, Exercise and Training Center (FÜS) moved Hennigsdorf from the nearby AEG - Nieder Neuendorf factory airfield to the Schönwalde airfield, which was then still known as the "Hennigsdorf sports airfield". At the end of 1936, the FÜS was transformed into the pilot school (FFS) A / B 11, in which pilots were trained for the German air force until 1943 . In 1943 Schönwalde became the location of the supplementary and transport group of the XIV Air Corps.
The Schönwalde airfield, which had already been cleared, was captured on April 24, 1945 by Soviet troops of the 1st Belarusian Front without any significant resistance.
After April 1945
The location of the airfield in the Allied control zone and in the middle of the air corridor to Berlin, which would have required notification of any flight movement to the Allied air traffic control center, forbade the intensive continued use of the Schönwalde location as an airfield, as did the fact that the location of the airfield meant an extension of the start -A runway, as it would have been necessary for the use by the now increasingly occurring jet-powered aircraft, did not allow. The airfield was still used as such until the mid-1950s. The first Soviet jet aircraft were stationed here and explored by the Gehlen Organization . A helicopter squadron was stationed here until 1965. After 1965 the area was used as barracks by the 843rd Guards Artillery Regiment of the 25th Guards Panzer Division of the Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany . The units of the CIS armed forces stationed in Schönwalde returned the site to German administration in 1992.
literature
- Helmut Bukowski, Christel Trilus: Schönwalde Air Base / Berlin . Training and testing facility for the Air Force 1935–1945. Podzun-Pallas, Wölfersheim-Berstadt 1999, ISBN 3-7909-0675-1 .
- Stefan Büttner: Red places . Russian military airfields in Germany 1945–1994. Aerolit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 .
- Jürgen Zapf: Airfields of the Air Force 1934–1945 - and what was left of them. Volume 1: Berlin & Brandenburg . VDM Heinz Nickel , Zweibrücken 2001, ISBN 3-925480-52-8 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Pullach Intern: General Gehlen and the history of the Federal Intelligence Service. P. 143 f.