Ulm-Dornstadt

49°22'00"N 009°26'12"E

Runway: not documented (CLOSED)

Airfield Ulm-Dornstadt (german: Flugplatz Ulm-Dornstadt) was a Luftwaffe airfield northwest of Ulm, Germany
During World War I the Royal Württemberg War Ministry decided to build an air station southeast of Dornstadt. Construction began in 1917, but the airfield existed only briefly, because it was closed in 1919. 

The Wehrmacht began preparing the 7 hectares of land as an emergency landingfield in 1934. Not without reason, because only two years later the military begun setting up a regular air base (Fliegerhorst) to the north of the field. To camouflage the whole complex they also planted severeal hundred trees. 
Like most Fliegerhorste of the time it had a railway connection to the national railway grid, located on the southwest of the airfield (just north of the autobahn). Shortly after the first 80 pilots and mechanics arrived. 
In great secrecy the Intistute for High Frequency Research (german: Institut für Hochfrequenzforschung) was set up at the air base. As a result, regular aircraft visits became fewer and fewer.


In the early 1940s Dornstadt was the site where loading trials of the heavy transport Me-321 glider and Me-323 cargo aircraft took place.


Ulm-Dornstadt ca. 1940 (source)

After World War II the terrain was briefly used by the US Army as a barracks. 
From 1946 onwards 503 mainly jewish orphaned children were housed here by order of the US Military envoy. They remained here only one year, then the complex was empty again
In 1950 the former air base was sold off to become a home for elderly immigrants from Eastern Europe. It is now home to 250 elderly and handicapped people. Only 4 renovated buildings remain, the tower like structure at house #6 is the former air traffic control. Over the past 10 years the airfield itself was turned into a commercial and container transfer area.


Dornstadt in 2001, before it was converted into a commercial area. Upper right, the barracks area (now a home of elderly immigrants).
In the lower right corner one can still recognise the arched connection to the national railway grid (Google Earth).