A stubborn ghost: Munich-Sulzemoos airport

Created: 05/27/2022, 17:05

By: Thomas Leichsenring

Munich Airport, code MUC: In the 1960s, it looked as if the gigantic project in the Dachau district would be realized for a long time.

© dpa

30 years ago, Munich Airport started operations in the Erdinger Moos.

A location that had previously hardly been considered in discussions.

In contrast to: Sulzemoos.

Sulzemoos/Dachau – No, Sulzemoos doesn't want an airport.

The head teacher Henke and Pastor Strobl explain why in December 1964. The school children, the teacher argues, would then only look at the passing planes, which would inevitably detract from the necessary attention.

And the clergyman Strobl points out that the imposing, yet almost 42 meter high tower of the parish church of St. John the Baptist poses a danger to flight operations.

It has not been handed down.

However, one can assume that the objections of the two Sulzemoos dignitaries played no role in the final assessment of the competent authorities to delete Sulzemoos as a potential location.

There were other reasons for that.

Sulzemoos: Longstanding discussion about the location for Munich Airport

Munich-Riem Airport was already too small at the end of the 1950s.

A new and much larger one was needed, further away from the city center – for safety reasons.

On February 6, 1958, an airplane went off the runway on the third takeoff attempt and exploded.

23 people died, including eight Manchester United footballers.

Two years later, a machine crashed into the Paulskirche in Ludwigsvorstadt - 52 dead.

In 1963, a commission met for the first time to determine the new location.

Three locations are shortlisted: the Hofoldinger Forst south of Munich, Hörlkofen south-east of Erding and Sulzemoos in the Dachau district.

The Erdinger Moos is no longer included, but was excluded by the commission primarily because it is so often too foggy there for flight operations.

For many years, the Dachauer Nachrichten accompanied the discussion about the airport location and the associated protests in the district.

© Thomas Leichsenring

In the course of 1964, reports increased that the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs and Transport was considering Sulzemoos as a location, ahead of Hofolding and Hörlkofen.

Protests formed immediately.

Baroness von Schaezler, on whose land a large part of the planning area would lie, made it unmistakably clear: "I'm not even thinking of giving anything away about my property."

Fear of property loss, possible expropriation and resettlement is spreading.

Farmers fear for their existence.

The Dachau BBV district chairman Eduard Bachinger is combative: “We want to remain farmers!” No farmer wants to accept the two 50 marks that the Free State would offer per square meter of agricultural land as compensation.

Support will soon come from local politicians.

The district council unanimously passes a resolution in which a commercial airport in the district is categorically rejected.

Later, the Dachau city council does the same.

Because the reports these days are no longer just talking about Sulzemoos - but sometimes from Sulzemoos-Odelzhausen Airport, sometimes from Sulzemoos-Dachau.

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In and around Sulzemoos one only speaks of the "airfield ghost".

Heinrich Junker wants to do everything to chase this ghost away.

Junker was a district administrator in Dachau until 1957, and since 1962 he has been a member of the Bavarian cabinet as Minister of the Interior.

Junker says he has "heaviest objections" to the Sulzemoos location and formulates the main reasons for this - which will be heard again and again in the years that follow: Valuable farmland is being lost, because of the hilly terrain leveling work is necessary for hundreds of millions of marks, thousands upon thousands People in the region would have to suffer from aircraft noise.

Another argument against a major airport near Sulzemoos is becoming increasingly important: the nearby Fürstenfeldbruck air base – Fursty for short – with the fighter jets stationed there.

The Federal Institute for Air Traffic Control reports that the simultaneous operation of a commercial airport and a NATO airfield is far too dangerous and can therefore be ruled out.

Protest against Munich airport in Sulzemoos with scythe and flail

June 6, 1966: The Dachauer Nachrichten announce an ominous decision: "Now the cat is out of the bag, the planned major airport in Munich is coming to the Sulzemoos area!" sent content to the county mayors, citing an alleged top source.

The next day the phone rang in the editorial office of the Dachauer Nachrichten.

On the other end of the line was none other than Dr.

Richard Jaeger, Federal Minister of Justice in the Erhard Cabinet.

Jaeger wants to know where this information came from.

Then he assures that the BBV was taken in by “incorrect information”.

There is still no decision on where the airport should go.

The major airport in Sulzemoos would be really big if it were to be built.

The gigantic infrastructure project would eat up more than 2000 hectares of land, four kilometers of runways would run through the district.

Depending on the arrangement, the concrete runways would reach just before Odelzhausen, Oberbachern and Großberghofen.

And Machtenstein would disappear from the map along with a few hamlets - a fate that actually befell Franzheim in the Erding district during the construction of the airport.

The reaction of those potentially affected is clear.

At an information evening in Sulzemoos, a farmer from Machtenstein shouted at Minister of State Junker: "The airfield will be destroyed without bloodshed!" Other farmers threatened to march to Munich - armed with scythes and flails.

Major airport Munich-Sulzemoos: Fursty as a neighbor?

That will not do!

Only a few weeks later, the "airport ghost" suddenly disappeared: Sulzemoos is out of the location discussion.

The reason for this is a statement by Federal Defense Minister Kai Uwe von Hassel: NATO will never give up the Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, so Sulzemoos is no longer an option.

But the matter is by no means over.

Irrespective of the manslaughter argument "Fliegerhorst Bruck", the Mayor of Munich, Dr.

Hans-Jochen Vogel no doubt where the city council sees the new airport: at Sulzemoos.

Military flight operations in Fürstenfeldbruck could be restricted, say the people in Munich.

So it's back, the "airport ghost".

The mayor of Dachau, Dr.

At the end of September 1967, Lorenz Reitmeier wrote a letter to Prime Minister Dr.

Alfons Goppel: "The recent efforts to move Munich Airport to Sulzemoos were received with great dismay."

Three weeks later, a message was published that suddenly turned the process of finding a location upside down: According to experts, the Erdinger Moos is suitable after all, after all, the large-scale project would dry out hectares of moorland, which would mean that the fog problem would be over.

The location is soon preferred, outperforming Sulzemoos and the Hofoldinger forest, which has meanwhile also been favored.

The "airport ghost" returns to the district of Dachau

Erding goes on the barricades while peace returns to the Dachau district.

The "airport ghost" no longer roams the country.

Not correct.

Much later, in the summer of 1978, it suddenly reappears.

Sent by Otto Wiesheu, CSU member of parliament from Freising.

Wiesheu absolutely wants to prevent the airport in the Erdinger Moos and points again to Sulzemoos.

Recently, four parallel runways are being planned, no longer with so-called cross-wind runways, argues the CSU man.

If the four runways near Sulzemoos were laid in an east-west direction, there would be no more disruptions due to the nearby Fürstenfeldbruck military airfield.

However, concern in Sulzemoos is limited, especially since the state government committed itself to the Erdinger Moos at the beginning of August 1969 and the Free State has already invested hundreds of millions of marks in property purchases.

Johann Strobl, the mayor of Sulzemoos, is relaxed: "I don't give a damn about Wiesheu's statements, it's an election campaign hit."

Strobl was right.

However, it was still a long time before the first plane could take off from “Franz Josef Strauss” airport.

Because of countless lawsuits, courts had to pave the way for construction, and in the meantime there was even a four-year freeze on construction.

By the way: everything from the region is also available in our regular Dachau newsletter.

You can find more current news from the district of Dachau at Merkur.de/Dachau.