Bremen Airport - History

History

The beginnings of the airport date back to the early 20th century. The Bremer Verein für Luftschiffahrt, a local aerospace club, conducted the first experimental flights at the present site in the summer of 1910, on what was then the parade ground of the local garrison. The Senate of Bremen supported the establishment of an airfield in order to connect Bremen to the growing airship route network. Official permission for the opening of an airport was granted on May 16, 1913. The initial infrastructure was geared towards aircraft operations instead of the initially envisaged airships. Several wooden hangars were erected.

During World War I, the airport was taken into military administration, and civilian operations ceased. The military erected a wooden hangar, but conducted only a small number of operations from the airfield. After the war, the airport only reopened on July 18, 1920, with Dutch airline KLM beginning scheduled flights to Amsterdam soon thereafter. In the same year, the Weimar National Assembly authorized investment into upgraded facilities at the airport. Administration of the airport was transferred to the newly founded Bremer Flughafengesellschaft. In 1923, the airplane manufacturer Focke-Wulf was founded on a site adjacent to the airfield.

In the 1930s, several new terminal buildings and hangars were constructed, with the largest to date being completed in 1937. In the same year, four new runways were built. These were arranged in a star-like pattern. The increasing military buildup under the rule of the Nazis also began to show itself at the airport, with the Luftwaffe establishing a flight training base there. Civilian operations again came to a standstill with the beginning of World War II. For a short period between November 1939 and June 1940, the airport served as the base for a squadron of Focke-Wulf Fw200 bombers. In the later stages of the war, the airport came under repeated bombardment due to co-location with the Focke-Wulf plant. This left most of the infrastructure destroyed or severely damaged by the end of the war.

The United States Army took over the airport and the adjacent aircraft plant in 1945 for use as an airbase. After conducting the necessary repairs, it operated mostly transport aircraft into and out of the American enclave within otherwise British-occupied northern Germany. Control was handed back to the Bremen authorities in 1949. Civilian operations resumed in April with Scandinavian Airlines connecting Bremen to Copenhagen, with onward flights within Germany and from 1951 onwards to New York. Runway 09-27 was extended to 2.000 m.

In the mid-1950s, the terminal buildings were reconstructed and Lufthansa began scheduled flights to the airport. The German airline also established its pilot training operations (Lufthansa Flight Training) at the airport. During the 1960s, scheduled jet flights began to be operated at Bremen. In 1971, a large radar system was installed on the southern perimeter of the airport.

1989 - was the first year that the airport had more than one million passengers.

The Bremenhalle inside the airport hosts a little aviation and space exploration museum, displaying the Junkers W33 Bremen air plane and the first Spacelab module.