Opening of Oberwiesenfeld Airport

Munich's Oberwiesenfeld has provided a landing area for balloons and airships since the end of the 19th century. With the increased number of aircraft, the Oberwiesenfeld airfield was used as a military airfield from 1909, and from 1920 it also functioned for civil air traffic. The Oberwiesenfeld airfield, however, was unable to meet the steadily growing demands of air traffic: For example, the airfield was not fenced in, which resulted in disruptions for onlookers and also made customs clearance for international air traffic simply impossible.

In 1927, the Munich city council therefore issued a planning order for the expansion of the Oberwiesenfeld airfield into a “first-order airport”. The area north of the Nymphenburg-Biederstein Canal was declared an airfield.

Four years later, on May 3rd, 1931, the first fully functional Munich Airport in Oberwiesenfeld was celebrated with a major flight day and almost 100,000 visitors.

In the past 4 years, a large aircraft hangar, as well as handling and administration buildings, were built partly in wood.

But shortly after the opening ceremony, it turns out that Oberwiesenfeld Airport will reach its capacity limits in the medium term due to significant advances in aviation. While around 16,000 passengers were handled in Oberwiesenfeld in 1932, the number of annual passengers tripled in the next 5 years to around 40,000 passengers per year. Since it was not possible to expand Oberwiesenfeld Airport because of its location, an area south of the localities of Riem and Feldkirchen and north of Kirchtrudering and Haar was designated as the new airport location in 1936.

After Munich Airport was relocated to Munich Riem, Oberwiesenfeld Airport continued to operate and was used by the US Army from 1945 to 1957. Private flight operations on the Oberwiesenfeld were finally discontinued in 1968 because the area was needed for the Olympic Park for the 1972 Summer Olympics.