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Herzo Base

Military use - Air base during Nazi era

In the course of war preparation in Nazi Germany, the military strategists started focusing on the Town of Herzogenaurach. In 1934, Herzogenaurach became the location of a pilot school as basis of a German air force. In the beginning, the construction was officially disguised as an emergency landing field of the German sport aviation association to be built on the so far agricultural area at the "Zweimarterlinde". First, the "Luftfahrt AG Berlin" was formally in charge of the construction of the airport.

In 1935, the disguise was uncovered and the air base commandant's office in Fürth became responsible for the project. The airfield was paved with bricks and overgrown with grass. In the north of the airfield, barracks and hangars as well as the aircraft works with a training workshop were built. In the "Klosterwald" woods adjacent in the east as well as in the small municipal wood in the west of the air base, camouflaged car-parking spaces for military vehicles were prepared. On 1 October 1935, Herzogenaurach officially became the location of an air base garrison headquarter with the first garrison arriving at the Herzogenaurach train station in November.

In the first place, the military air base was used for the training and retraining of fighter pilots. From 1939 until 1945, fighter wings were stationed in Herzogenaurach, and during the last years of war, also close air reconnaissance groups.
The allied troops refrained from a tactical bombing of the area since the US air force intended to use it as an operational air base. When the American troops took over the air base on 16 April 1945, it was hardly damaged at all.

Herzo Base US garrison