Karlsruhe

49°01'30"N 008°022'42"E

runway: 18/36 - 1200x46meters/3937x150feet - grass
runway: 03/21 - 900x51meters/...x..feet - grass (closed ca. 1980)

Air field Karlsruhe (german: Fliegerhorst Karlsruhe, also known as Karlsruhe Army Air Field, ICAO: EDIL)was an airfield in Karlsruhe, Germany
The earliest references to the airfield come from World War I, but after Germany lost that war the airfield had to close.
The airfield was rebuilt around 1925 by the city of Karlsruhe as a civilian airport north of the city.
The Baden-Palatinate Lufthansa had a large hangar at the airfield, and services went to Kopenhagen, Vienna, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Breslau and Lausanne.
The airfield was used as a pilot school for the Luftwaffe in the 1930s.
The war years seem to have been kind to the airfield, because it is very hard to find any information about the airfield during that time.
The airfield was captured by American troops in 1945.





Map of the Karlsruhe AAF in the late 1970s (USArEUR)


Immediately after the war the Luftwaffe barracks were used to house displaced persons (mostly Germans that fled german speaking areas that were now under Soviet control).
It was not until the late 1940s that the military took control of the airfield again.
American troops were housed in the barracks, east of the Erzbergerstraße.
The old Luftwaffe barracks were renamed 'Smiley Barracks'.
South of the barracks a new US Army village was added later: Paul Revere Village.
The airfield had two runways (at least until 1980) and a connection to the German railway grid.
The airfield was used less and less, and by 1993 the west side of the Army base (the airfield) was returned to civilian control.
In 1996 the barracks were also returned to German authorities.
Today the former airfield is still a field.
A large part has been declared a protected nature area, even though the airfield is now almost completely surrounded by the city of Karlsruhe.
The former Army barracks still stand, although the American streetnames have been translated into German.
Even though the airfield has not been used in almost two decades it is still possible to locate the former grass runway.
On both ends the numbers of the runway (18/36) were still visible in the grass in 2006/2007.
The hangars and control tower were torn down in the 2000-2005 timeframe however.





Karlsruhe AAF 8 years after flying operations stopped at the airfield (Google Earth)





Karlsruhe AAF 6 years later (2006) when the hangars and control tower had been torn down (Google Earth)





The former Karlsruhe airfield in March 2008 (Google Earth)




Runway 36 in 2007 (Google Earth)





Runway 18 in 2006 (Google Earth)