Böblingen

48°41'24"N 008°59'39"E

Runway: flying field - ...x...meters - grass  

Böblingen airport (German: Flughafen Böblingen, also known as Flughafen Stuttgart-Böblingen, Fliegerhorst Böblingen and Böblingen Maintenance Facility) was an airport near Stuttgart, Germany.
It opened on 16 August 1915 during World War I as a military airfield. It featured a set of wooden barracks around a central rectangular yard and three hangars north of the camp, the northernmost of which was slightly offset at an angle. On 19 May 1915 Fliegererstazabteilung 10 (FEA 10 or Pilot Replacement Unit 10) was activated at the airfield. The unit remained based at the airfield until the end of World War I.
Immediately next to the airfield Daimler built an aircraft production plant, which opened in 1917. The airfield saw considerable expansion in 1917. A maintainance hangar and a number of standard aircraft hangars were built in an arc from the Northwest to the East side of the field, in front of the original row of buildings. It appears that originally, another hangar was built behind and between hangars 2 and 3 in October 1917, but it had already disappeared by Mar 1918 - possibly disassembled and reconstructed closer to the camp. During the construction period, which lasted until March 1918, the northernmost hangar (of the original 3) was disassembled and a railway freight yard was built in its place. A railway line ran through the original camp, so parts of the building on NE corner of camp was dismantled around 16 March 1918, as were an annex on south side of southermost original hangar and several further minor buildings.

Construction of more permanent barracks on the south side of camp began around Newyears of 1918, with 5 buildings being completed by August 1918 and another one under construction.


Shot during the opening of the airfield in 1915 (Böblinger Flughafengeschichten).


Wilhelm II, King of Württemberg, visited FEA10 on 19 January 1916. Here he is seen inspecting the unit accompanied by the unit commander (buddecke.de) 

Boblingen as seen from overhead the Dagersheimer Strasse in 1916 (Böblinger Flughafengeschichten).


Böblingen/Sindelfingen aircraft plant, seen in ca. 1917 (Böblinger Flughafengeschichten).

As a result of the Versailles treaty the airfield was closed in late 1918. Most of its facilities were torn down, but the permanent barracks buildings, the maintainance hangar and the two remaining original hangars remained, as did the freight shed at the railway yard and a few other minor buildings. It has been suggested that hangar 6 of the original standard hangars also remained. The lands remained property of the German state and was used as farmland.

In 1924 it was reopened as a civilian airfield, serving a flying school. By the end of the year the Luftverkehr Württemberg AG (LUWAG) was founded to establish a regional airfield. Within months a proper airfield was set up, with a station building and a hangar. The first planned landing was made by a Dornier Merkur on 20 April 1925. The year was used to build a new administrative building and cafetaria on the NW side of the original camp. 
By the following summer the airfield had already achieved 2271 air movements and 4097 passengers. Deutsche Aero-Lloyd and Jünkers Luftverkehr, both predecessors to modern day Lufthansa, opened an office at the new airfield. In April 1926 the first scheduled services by Luft Hansa between Berlin, Böblingen and Zürich opened. That same year another aircraft factury set up at the airfield; the Klemm aircraft company.
A new station building, planned in 1925, opened in 1928 and included an airport hotel. A hangar, possibly for Klemm, was built around this time.


1928 map of Böblingen airfield and the Daimler plant to the north (Böblinger Flughafengeschichten).


Böblingen on 29 April 1930


'Graf Zeppelin' arriving over Böblingen and a Junkers G-38 'Riesenflugzeug' on 27 Jun 1931


The station building and a Junkers G-38 provide scale to the immense size of LZ127 'Graf Zeppelin' during a visit in 1931.


Böblingen served as the Stuttgart civilian airport well into the 1930s.

In 1929 100,000 spectators were drawn to the airfield to witness the landing of LZ129 "Graf Zeppelin". The German Aviation Museum was opened in the northern 1915-built hangar.
Aside from the normal air traffic, the airfield hosted the Böblinger Air Day (german: Flugtag). During the rehearsal for the day aerial acrobat Fritz Schindler was killed on 18 September 1930. His death led to the immediate immediate prohibition of such flights in Germany. 
The 1930s saw major reconstruction on behalf of the Klemm company. A large building was erected on the south side of the 1925 terminal and two parallel buildings were constructed behind a row of hangars. It is quite possible that the 1915 hangars were dismantled for this purpose.
Adolf Hitler landed at the airfield in 1932. During re-armament under Hitler, the airfield saw construction of large barracks building on the Northeast side of the field, which formed a quarter-circle, and of two buildings on the south side of the road on the airfield ground.
In 1934 Lufthansa began the first planned air mail route to South America. Starting in Berlin aircraft made the first of many intermediate landings at Böblingen. The route was cancelled two years later, on 23 April 1936.
By 1935 the airfield had reached 184,000 passengers and the limits of its growth potential. In December 1936 the decision was made to start construction of a new airfield near Echterdingen. In 1938 the airfield was converted to a Fliegerhorst (air base), but until the start of World War II in 1939 the airfield had a dual civilian-military role.

A new military barracks was built next to the airfield before I./JG 52 (1st Group of Jagdgeschwader 52, Fighter Wing 52), flying Bf-109Es moved to Böblingen in April 1939. At the time the airfield had a 400 men strong company.
Between October 1941 and August 1943 Flugzeugführerschule A/B 112 (flying school A/B112) was stationed at the airfield.
In the night between 7 and 8 October 1943 the airfield and the neighbouring Daimler-Benz plant suffered their first aerial attack by Allied bombers. It was the first of many such attacks by Allied formations.


Result of an Alllied air strike shot on 17 December 1944.


post strike reconnaissance photo for the attack on Böblingen airfield on 22 March 1945.


World War II era military vehicles seen stored on the former flying field at Böblingen in 1950

After the end of World War II the airfield was transferred to the U.S. forces. It housed a Prisoner of War camp, a Displaced Persons camp and a repair facility for tanks and trucks of the U.S. Army. Although initially staffed by the Army, the facility was run by Daimler Benz from June 1948. Until at least 1950 the airfield and its runways were used to store surplus World War II vehicles. At that time Böblingen was also home to the 175th Military Polilce Batn. Later it became a maintenance facility and heliport.
In 1956 the Bundeswehr (German Defence department) began using the barracks of the former airfield. During the 1960s and 1970s the airfield hosted several airshows. In the 1980s a part of the airfield was returned to agricultural use. The repair facility was closed in 1989.
In 1992 the last U.S. military left the former airfield, victim to post Cold War defence cuts. The last battallion of the Bundeswehr left the barracks in 1993. The airfield fell into disrepair and many of its buildings were demolished once the armory was cleaned.
In 2002 the cities of Böblingen and Sindelfingen bought the property from the federal government. While they kept the old station building and some other facilities they tore down others. The Station building has since been converted to a hotel, and some hangars are now an automotive museum, called Meilenwerk Stuttgart. Conversion to a residential area called the Flugfeld Böblingen/Sindelfingen is nearing completion.


Base entrance sign ca. 1990


The old World War II Officers mess in 2010 (Mellis Doppelleben)


Böblingen from the air in 2000 (Google Earth)


Böblingen from the air in 2007 (Google Earth).


The station building and control tower, now a hotel, were photographed in 2014 by Volker Böhme (Volker Böhme, via email). 


A car museum was established in one of the nicely restored hangars (Volker Böhme, via email) 


The original 'Rauchen Verboten' titles on the wall were left intact (Volker Böhme, via email).