Soviet military airfield Sperenberg

The Sperenberg airfield was a Soviet military airfield from 1960 to 1994. Transport and passenger planes as well as reconnaissance and liaison helicopters were stationed at the airfield, plus around 5000 members of the military and civilians.  In addition, the airfield was considered the gateway to home, and there were daily mail, courier and connecting flights to various Moscow military airfields. In recent years Tu-154s have been used regularly for this purpose, and IL-62s for larger numbers of passengers. The daily mail flight was followed by flights to the 16.  Division staffs subordinate to the Air Army, for this purpose An-2 and Mi-8 were used. In the final phase of the withdrawal of the western group of the armed forces, the Sperenberg airfield served as the main base for transport flights. In the last weeks of the withdrawal, only this airfield was available to the Russian armed forces. Transport aircraft IL-76, An-22 and An-124 were used on a large scale.

The area of the later airfield originally belonged to the Kummersdorf Army Research Institute, where as early as 1870 military means were examined and checked for their usability. Up until the Second World War there was a training center for railway pioneers.

After the end of the Second World War, the extensive use of the site was largely stopped. In the 1950s, the Soviet Army was looking for an airfield for military use only. There was an investigation of possible locations in Drewitz, Rangsdorf and Sperenberg. After an intense dispute with the GDR about the financing, an airfield was finally built on the area by the GDR from 1958 after an agreement was reached on sharing the costs. The aim was to relieve the already existing, larger Berlin-Schönefeld Airport from military air traffic and to use it exclusively for civilian purposes. The construction work lasted from 1958 and 1960 and was carried out by Spezialbau Potsdam. Prisoners from the Brandenburg penitentiary were used, in particular to clear the areas contaminated with ammunition. In the following years the airfield was continuously expanded. The work was completed in 1974 with the construction of a maintenance hangar and a reception building. Today you are amazed how small the buildings were.

The former East German State Council Chairman, Erich Honecker, who was wanted by an arrest warrant at the time, spent his last night on German soil in 1991 on the grounds of the airfield before he was flown to Russia.

You do not have to enter the premises illegally. A tour can be booked at the Kummersdorf Museum Association. I did that too. The tour was very informative and educational.