Lufthansa machine "Landshut": Posse about a relic of German contemporary history

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"Landshut" wreck in Friedrichshafen: "Thematically and infrastructural a challenge"

Photo: Arnd Wiegmann / REUTERS

The former Gatow airfield in western Berlin has an eventful history.

Inaugurated by the National Socialists in 1935, the air base initially served the Reich Air Force as a training facility.

In 1945 the area was conquered by the Soviets and shortly afterwards handed over to the British.

It was used by the Royal Airforce during the Cold War.

Eventually the Bundeswehr took over the location.

Since 1995, the old hangars have housed a military history museum.

The exhibition is about the history of military aviation, according to a museum flyer.

"Have you ever seen aviator arrows from the First World War? A uniform of the National Socialist air force chief and war criminal Hermann Göring? A fighter jet with an atom bomb from the Cold War era?"

Another attraction could soon be seen in Gatow - even if it has nothing to do with the military.

The federal government is planning to present one of the most famous civil aviation passenger aircraft here: the wreck of the "Landshut", the Lufthansa aircraft that abducted Palestinian terrorists in autumn 1977 with 91 people on board and, after a five-day random flight in Mogadishu, was ordered by the then Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was stormed.

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