Malmsheim Airfield is located in the southern German state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, north-east of the city of

Renningen Renningen () is a town in the district of Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 18 km west of Stuttgart. Geography Renningen is located in the west of Stuttgart, between Leonberg and Weil der Stadt on the fringes of th ...

's borough of Malmsheim. It consists of an

air force base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

with a reserve concrete runway and a glider airfield.

History

On 13 November 1936, the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

announced its intention to build what it purported an emergency landing site. The runways were built, mostly at night, by 1937. Buildings were camouflaged as a farm, the site was connected by a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

railway to the Black Forest Railway's Renningen station.

World War II

During the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

in 1940, Malmsheim was home base to

Messerschmitt Bf 110 The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often known unofficially as the Me 110,Because it was built before ''Bayerische Flugzeugwerke'' became Messerschmitt AG in July 1938, the Bf 110 was never officially given the designation Me 110. is a twin-engined (de ...

and

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a twin-engined multirole combat aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works. It was used extensively during the Second World War by the ''Luftwaffe'' and became one o ...

aircraft. With the beginning of the

Russian campaign The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign (), the Second Polish War, and in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 (), was initiated by Napoleon with the aim of compelling the Russian Empire to comply with the continent ...

in 1941, the Luftwaffe halted operations on the airfield and the site was converted into a

Prisoner of war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, ...

with POWs working on local farms. In 1944 and 1945, the site was used for military aviation once more, being home to the second group of the 53rd

fighter squadron A squadron in an air force, or naval or army aviation service, is a unit comprising a number of military aircraft and their aircrews, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, ...

Post-war

After the war, it was used briefly by US forces, then from 31 January 1946, ethnic German refugees (

Heimatvertriebene The German Expellees or ''Heimatvertriebene'' (, "homeland expellees") are 12–16 million German citizens (regardless of ethnicity) and ethnic Germans (regardless of citizenship) who fled or were expelled after World War II from parts of Ge ...

) were accommodated. Initially, 1,500 people were brought to the site, via the railway link. The refugee camp's designed capacity was 11,000 people. Most of the refugees housed came from the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and ) is a German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the border districts of Bohe ...

. In 1949, the camp was assigned a new function as a transit station for returning German POWs. It was also used briefly to house

displaced person Forced displacement (also forced migration or forced relocation) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region. The UNHCR defines 'forced displacement' as follows: displaced "as a result of perse ...

s. US forces again used the site from 1951. The

Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...

, the post-war West German armed forces, took over the site on its foundation in 1955. A planned deployment of

German Army Aviation German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ger ...

was not realized, nor was the proposed construction of a civilian

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

. Since about the end of the 1950s, civilian gliders have been leasing a part of the site.''Bosch ist in Malmsheim gelandet''
, Sindelfinger Zeitung/Böblinger Zeitung, article of 4 September 2009 In 1994, the automotive component manufacturer Bosch unveiled the

electronic stability control Electronic stability control (ESC), also referred to as electronic stability program (ESP) or dynamic stability control (DSC), is a computerized technology that improves a car handling, vehicle's stability by detecting and reducing loss of Tract ...

(ESC) system on Malmsheim Airfield. Bosch Entwicklungszentrum Malmsheim

Bosch acquired a part of the site by 2010 in order to erect a "center for research and pre-development". An agreement containing these items had been signed on 3 September 2009. The complete area has a size of 94

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s, of which Bosch was assigned to acquire 31 hectares on the north and 9 hectares on the south. Demolition work of the airfield buildings began in February 2011. Bosch plans to invest 160 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s, the center is planned to become operative in 2013 with about 1200 employees. The state of Baden-Württemberg has acquired the central section, Bundeswehr and US forces are allowed to continue to use it until 2029. Usage by gliders for at least ten years has been agreed upon.

Equipment and use

The northern section of the site is fenced. A Bell UH-1D (SAR command 46) of the Luftwaffe's

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

service has been deployed there ready for operations since 1998. In contrast to many civilian rescue helicopters, this aircraft is fitted with

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

equipment and has a rescue

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension (physics), tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a Bobb ...

. Its service area covers Baden-Württemberg and parts of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

and

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

, which are to be reached within 45 minutes.''Bundeswehr-Hubschrauber soll bis 2012 bleiben''
Stuttgarter Nachrichten online, 20 February 2009, retrieved on 11 June 2009 Flugplatz Malmsheim Baracken

Other buildings in the northern section were used by the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

for storing equipment for the event of

mobilization Mobilization (alternatively spelled as mobilisation) is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the ...

until about 2009. The

Kommando Spezialkräfte The Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK) (, alternatively Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM)) is a unified combatant command and a large brigade-level unit of the German Army (Heer) designated to perform Covert operation, covert operations, ca ...

special forces stationed in nearby

Calw Calw (; previously pronounced and sometimes spelled Kalb accordingly; ) is a Landstadt, town in the middle of Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany, capital and largest town of the Calw (district), district Calw. It is located in the North ...

, and the US

Special Operations Command Europe The U.S. Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR, pronounced "Sock-Yer") is a subordinate unified command of United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM, pronounced So-Comm). Function Based at Patch Barracks near Stuttgart, Germany, SOCEU ...

stationed at

Patch Barracks Patch Barracks is a U.S. military installation in Stuttgart, Germany. It is named after U.S. Army General Alexander M. Patch (1889–1945). History Patch Barracks was renamed from the German ''Kurmärker Kaserne'' in 1952; it was originally ...

in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, use the area for parachute training. The runway, which is approximately long, is a concrete reserve runway the Bundeswehr leaves to car manufacturers for vehicle testing. The civilian gliding center is operated by ''Sportfliegerclub

Leonberg Leonberg (; ) is a town in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg about to the west of Stuttgart, the state capital. About 45,000 people live in Leonberg, making it the third-largest borough in the rural district () of Böblingen (afte ...

'' (”Leonberg sports flying club“). There are two roughly long grass runways lying side by side and used by different clubs. Winch-launching is the launch method in use. The runway direction is 08/26 (roughly east–west).''Anreise''
, Sportfliegerclub Leonberg, retrieved on 10 September 2012 Flugplatz Malmsheim Drachenfest

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...

festival in early October with an international competition on the gliding center's grounds has taken place annually since 2002. The rail link is inoperative and partly built over by a 1990-constructed bypass road. The connecting switch at Renningen station is dismantled.

References

External links

''Die unendliche Geschichte des Flugplatzes in Malmsheim''
''Leonberger Kreiszeitung'' of 15 November 2008,

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

version
''Das Durchgangslager Malmsheim''
''Akademie für Datenverarbeitung Böblingen'' {{Use dmy dates, date=September 2019 Böblingen (district) Gliding in Germany World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Germany Military training areas in Germany Refugee camps in Europe Luftwaffe bases Airports in Baden-Württemberg