The Oranienburg Airfield

For roughly 58 years, the grounds of the Oranienburg airfield were a sealed-off area - inaccessible, under military guard, and absent from official maps. From 1936 until the end of the war, the Heinkel aircraft factory produced bombers here, tested them, and delivered them to the Luftwaffe of the Third Reich. After the war, Soviet air forces took over the site - including the high-altitude flight research station - and developed it into a major military airfield in the Soviet occupation zone and later the GDR.

Dr. Norbert Rohde traces this history in a rapid overview: from the postwar years through the Cold War and the period of detente to the withdrawal of Soviet forces. Drawing on photographs and documents, he sheds light on numerous little-known or long-forgotten events from that era.