Ameri­cans in Schleiss­heim

Günter Braun’s lecture on the end of World War II 80 years ago

The article “Die Ameri­kaner in Schleiß­heim” appears here at the sugges­tion of Günter Braun addi­tio­nally in English for all Ameri­cans who also have memo­ries of Ober­schleiss­heim.

At the end of April 1945, the U.S. Army marched into Ober­schleiss­heim and took over the town and the airfield without a fight. World War II was over.

Without a fight – that was by no means a given in our area. Hitler Youths set up an ambush in Lohhof, a road­block was set up in Hoch­brück, and SS men were entren­ched in Neuher­berg. The SS barracks at “Panzer­wiese” on the outskirts of Munich had to be taken in a “room fight.”

Had there been further resis­tance in Ober­schleiss­heim, there might have been another low-level attack on the town, which, as a mili­tary base, had already expe­ri­enced eight air raids with severe destruc­tion during the war.

This was prevented by the coura­geous commander of I./Nachtjagdgeschwader 6 and commander of the soldiers assi­gned to defense the airfield, Peter Spoden, who surren­dered with his troops. Coura­geous, because by doing so, he exposed himself to the lynchings of Nazi fana­tics, to which many more fell victims at the end of the war in Germany.

The Ameri­cans quickly repaired and reopened the airfield, not least because at that time they didn’t yet know exactly how much resis­tance there would be from the “Alpine Fort­ress” and the “Were­wolf.”

The runway was extended from 800 to 1600 meters. The heavily damaged Junkers hangars were restored. They still look much the same today.

For this work, the U.S. Army became the largest employer in the greater Munich area at the time. As early as June 9, the first train of workers arrived from Munich. Food stamps were available, and all Germans were trave­ling with back­packs to “hoard” supplies, as the shortage was severe.

An “Indus­trial Police” was supposed to main­tain order, and “Civi­lian Guards” guarded the mili­tary instal­la­tions. But theft still occurred, espe­ci­ally ciga­rettes, the most important “currency” at the time.

The hangars were taken over by the American Joint Distri­bu­tion Committee, the aid orga­niza­tion for DPs, “displaced persons”, and Jewish survi­vors of the Holo­caust.

The barracks of the former avia­tion tech­nical school south of the airfield were converted into a camp for former forced labo­rers, prisoners of war and concen­tra­tion camp inmates. This camp was in opera­tion until 1954. In the nort­hern area of the airfield war scrap was coll­ected, recy­cled, and sold.

Buil­dings in nort­hern area of the airfield were also used for various youth acti­vi­ties initiated by the U.S. Army to re-socia­lize children in a new demo­cratic way who had been influenced by National Socia­lism.

After the Hunga­rian Upri­sing in 1956, the airfield was fully opera­tional again. Trans­port heli­c­op­ters were stationed and heli­c­opter pilots were trained for Vietnam. There were up to 64,000 flight move­ments per month.

For a time, Schleiss­heim was the American Army’s busiest airfield in Europe. This caused tremen­dous noise and sparked protests among the popu­la­tion. As a result, at least the flight routes were changed.

The fact that no satel­lite town with 30,000 resi­dents was built on the site between Schleiss­heim and Munich also had some­thing to do with the Ameri­cans in Schleiss­heim. This plan origi­nated in Munich in the late 1950s and was intended to alle­viate the acute housing shortage.

But the Ameri­cans didn’t want to abandon the airfield. The satel­lite town was then built in Neuper­lach in the south of Munich.

There was also a housing shortage in Ober­schleiss­heim after the war. Many fami­lies lived in tempo­rary accom­mo­da­tions. In addi­tion, the Ameri­cans had taken up resi­dence with many locals.

After all, contrary to what is some­times rumored, they paid decent rent rela­tive to the average income. Günter Braun was able to demons­trate this with an impres­sive list of accounts.

In 1973, the U.S. Army handed over the airfield in Ober­schleiss­heim to the Bundes­wehr. The almost 30 years since the end of the war have certainly left their mark on the town. Not only because the “Amis” regu­larly caused traffic acci­dents and liked to get into fights when they got drunk – and because they appar­ently ran a brothel called “Club Deborah” here until 1965. But also because of the parties, the ice cream soda, and the hill­billy music in the NCO-Club, the former offi­cers mess of the Luft­waffe.

And because of the child­hood memo­ries. The children of Schleiss­heim also saw people who didn’t have white skin for the first time in life. The children of Schleiss­heim also enjoyed the sweets the friendly GIs handed out.

Not to mention the chance to see a Mickey Mouse movie for the first time as part of the re-educa­tion program (e.g. the former mayor Elisa­beth Ziegler). Or even to use the swim­ming pool at a time when having your own pool was unthinkable. Or for other adven­tures. The many listeners to Günter Braun’s lecture were certainly thrilled.

Andrea Wörle