Krefeld

51°21'46"N 006°37'01"E

runway: ../.. - ...x..m - grass (?)

Air field Krefeld (german: Flughafen Krefeld) was an airfield in Krefeld, Germany.
The airfields construction began, after much debate, as a military air field in 1916
It consisted of 8 Hangars, a maintenance hangar, a fuel depot and a railway connection.
In 1917 it was completed, and leased to the German Reich at no cost.
A provision was made however that the airfield would be returned to its original owners if the airfield did not exist anymore in 30 years time.
The provision ran from 1 April 1916 until 31 March 1945.




Flughafen Krefeld in the late 1920s


After World War I ended the airfield was occupied by Belgian and French military forces.
Eight years later 1500 square meters of hangars were taken apart and transported to Belgium.
After the occupying forces had left the city of Krefeld took control over the airfield, and on 2 February 1926 the first German aircraft landed at the airfield.
By the middle of May the service Krefeld-Essen-Berlin was started, and soon the services from Krefeld were taken over by Lufthansa.
Connections to Essen and Cologne ensured connections to 93 airfields.
Traffic developed: in 1926 135 passengers and 850 kilos of freight were transported, but 4 years later this had increased to 960 passengers and 32,559kilos of freight.


During the war Krefeld was home to JG1 and JG52.
After the war the airfield was occupied by the British, who found the airfield of little use.
The rise of the jet engine meant the airfield was not large enough, and it had no room for expansion.
They only used parts of the terrain as a braacks, the rest was returned to agricultural use.
In 1947 a request was made with the Allied military to release the terrain for civilian use.
The argument for release was "the terrain is almost completely surrounded by houses, making it only fit for the construction of new homes".
In 1950 the northern part of the former airfield was released for civilian use.
As almost three quarters of all homes in Germany were war damaged and a large number of refugees from Eastern Europe needed homes, the obvious choice was to built it up.
The airfield was ultimately completely built over by Krefeld Gartenstadt.
A small memorial in Gartenstadt reminds of the former airfield.



Memorial of Flughafen Krefeld in Gartenstadt.