Magdeburg-Ost

52°07'46"N 011°42'49"E

Flying field: 900x1578meter - grass

Air field Magdeburg-Ost (german: Flugplatz Magdeburg-Ost) was an airfield immediately east of Magdeburg, 123 kilometers west-soutwest of Berlin, Germany
The airfield was opened on 25 May 1929.
In the middle of the landing field a clearly visible landing mark was laid out.
Magdeburg immediately became an intermediate field for the air routes from Berlin to Cologne, Bremen and Hamburg.
All services were available: flight management, passenger handling, weather service, etc.
A special occasion was the landing of the airship 'Graf Zeppelin' on 7 Jun 1931.






LZ127 'Graf Zeppelin' and the crowd it attracted during its visit to the airfield in 1931 (source).


From 1934 the happy days were over though.
With the increased range of aircraft the airlines began flying by instead of landing, leaving only occasional air traffic to use the air field.
Soon after the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (State Aviation Ministry) cancelled the airfields permission to operate.


Shortly after the airfield was turned over to the Luftwaffe.
From 3 January 1940 II./JG27 was stationed at the airfield.
They were joined by III./JG2 'Richthofen' from the third week of March until early April.
For two and a half months in 1940 (1 April 1940 until 13 June 1940) Ergänzungs-Zerstörergruppe Magdeburg-Ost (Staff and two Staffeln) used the airfield, flying Messerschmidt Bf109s and Bf110s.
The third staffel used the airfield from 14 June until the end of the year.
Towards the end of the war Magdeburg became a base for Defense of the Reich missions, in an attempt to defend Berlin from Allied heavy bombers.
The city and the airfield were conquered by US forces in April 1945.
They handed over control of the city on 1 June 1945 to the British, who handed it over a month later to the Soviet Red Army.





The central marker and a platform are clearly visible in this aerial overview of Magdeburg in 1943 (Google Earth).


The Soviets did not use the airfield, but instead converted it back to agricultural use.
The airfields railway line remained present until the 1990s however.
The barracks to the north of the former airfield are now a residential area.
Some hangarlike buildigs around the airfield may be from the former airfield.






The location of the airfield in 2006 (Google Earth).