Alteno

51°52'00"N 013°48'00"E

Runway 09/27 - 2350x37.5m - asphalt (CLOSED)
Runway 09/27 - 2350x50m - grass (wartime emergency use only - CLOSED)
Runway 09/27 - 2350x11.25m - asphalt (taxiway, wartime emergency use only - CLOSED)

Notes:
in 1989 all runways were reported as 08/26.
in 1989 the grass runway was reported as 1800x50
the runways were unmarked and unnumbered, but had prisms on either sides every 200 meters
the grass emergency runway was marked by red/white rubber cones every 200 meters
Unless otherwise noted all info as per 1986 (mil-airfields.de)

Airfield Alteno (german: Flugplatz Alteno) was constructed in the 1930s as a Fliegerhorst of the Luftwaffe.
It operated Bf-109 (Me-109) and FW-190 aircraft.
When the Soviet forces approached the airfield in 1945 the Bf-109 and FW-190 were mostly used as fighter bombers, often carrying weopnry that was of more danger to the pilot than the targets.


During the Cold War the airfield was used as a wartime and exercise emergency airfield.
It was the sole emergency airfield in East-Germany where a complete hardened emergency runway was constructed.
Construction of the hardened runway occurred somewhere after 1971, because the United States Military Liaison Mission To Commander In Chief, Group of Soviet Forces described the runway surface as a 'sod field' in a report in 1971.
The airfield also served operational experiments, such as the tests of crash barriers in 1977.





Barrier test on a Soviet MiG-23 at airfield Alteno in 1977.





Satellite image of Alteno, presumably taken in the 1970s





Comparative view of World War 2 Fliegerhorst Alteno (in red, Google Earth)


After the reunification Alteno was taken out of service.
It now serves as a motorsports racetrack, but is still largely intact.





Airfield Alteno in 2000 (Google Earth)