Munich-Riem Airport

Munich-Riem Airport Flughafen München-Riem
Terminal and main entrance hall in 1992
IATA: MUC* – ICAO: EDDM*
Summary
Airport type		public, defunct
Owner/Operator		Flughafen München GmbH
Serves		Munich
Location		Munich-Trudering-Riem, Germany
Coordinates		48°8′16″N 11°41′25″E / 48.13778°N 11.69028°E / 48.13778; 11.69028
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
07R/25L	2,804	9,199	concrete
07L/25R	814	2,671	concrete
* has been transferred to new Munich Airport

Main entrance hall

Road leading to the airport and control tower in 1992

Control tower

Munich-Riem Airport (German: Flughafen München Riem) was the main, international airport of Munich until it was closed down on 16 May 1992, the day before the new airport near Freising commenced operation. It was located near the old village of Riem in the Munich borough of Trudering-Riem.

History

Construction on the airport started in 1936. The first plane landed on 25 October 1939, signalling the beginning of air traffic. At this time, it was one of the most modern airports in the world. It replaced the airfield located at Oberwiesenfeld (now the site of the Olympic Village).

In World War II, it was home to Adolf Galland's legendary Jagdverband 44: Squadron of Experten^{[citation needed]}. It was almost completely destroyed by bombings on 9 April 1945. Up until that day, civilian air traffic had also been handled in Riem during wartime. George Raffeld of the United States Rainbow Division was the first of the allied forces to arrive at the airport. He reported to his superior officers that the airport had been abandoned by the Germans.

After the end of the war, Munich-Riem was the first airport in Germany to be used for civil aviation. Post-war operations started on 6 April 1948 with the landing of a DC-3 operated by Pan American World Airways.

On 12 October 1949, the Flughafen München-Riem GmbH (Munich-Riem Airport Ltd.) was founded. Wulf-Dieter Graf zu Castell became one of its managing directors.

The airport's runway was lengthened to 1,900 metres (6,234 ft) in November 1949.

On 6 February 1958, an Airspeed AS 57 Ambassador charter plane crashed soon after take-off. The accident (known as the Munich air disaster) cost the lives of 23 people including eight football players from Manchester United. There were 21 survivors. The British pilot, James Thain, was initially blamed for the disaster after investigators claimed that ice on the wings had caused the take-off attempt to end in tragic failure. However, Thain was finally cleared of any responsibility for the crash in 1969, by which time he and his family had suffered numerous incidents of verbal abuse, hate mail and even death threats from people accusing him of causing the crash. The cause of the crash was ultimately established as slush on the runway; there had been no ice on the wings.^[1]

Two years later, on 17 December 1960, a Convair C-131D Samaritan operated by the United States Air Force crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground.^[2][3]

On 29 October 1958, the first jet aircraft, a Sud Aviation Caravelle operated by Air France, landed on the runway that had been lengthened by further 700 metres (2,297 ft).

In 1962, more than one million passengers had passed through the airport.

As early as in 1963, the Öchsle Commission initiated a search for a new airport location as it was obvious that further extension would not be legally or politically possible. Constructing additional runways parallel or perpendicular to the existing one would require relocating a number of nearby communities. A number of accidents further encouraged the decision to build a new airport further away from the city and to close down Riem.

In October 1965, a new maintenance hangar for jets, that had been built at a cost of DM 10 million, was put into operation and transferred to Lufthansa.

In 1969, the Flughafen München-Riem GmbH was renamed Flughafen München GmbH. The main runway (07R/25L) was upgraded to its final length of 2,804 metres (9,199 ft).

In 1971, a new arrivals hall was put into operation, the total passenger throughput having attained 4 million.

On 31 December 1972, the long-time managing director Wulf-Dieter Graf zu Castell retired.

31 July 1982 saw a bomb attack on the departure area for passengers to Israel. Seven people were severely wounded.

By 1991, the airport had served twelve million passengers. At that time, it operated beyond its intended capacity, and an efficient taxiing system was no longer possible. In order to continue the operations, preliminary annexes to the terminal were built, including a special hall for charter flights.

During the night from 16 to 17 May 1992, operations moved to the new location near Freising. The IATA airport code MUC and the ICAO airport code EDDM were transferred to the new Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport.

Reuse

During an interim time after the move, the remaining facilities were used as a venue for large events such as concerts and raves. Riem was well known internationally in the techno, alternative, and rock scenes. For example, the last concert of the rock band Nirvana was given there on 1 March 1994. On 17 June 1994, the Ultraschall techno club opened in the former kitchen of the cafeteria.

The transformation of the former airport to the Messestadt Riem (Convention City Riem) with a name-giving convention centre, apartment houses and parks was one of the largest projects in urban planning of the City of Munich in the late 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century. The only structures that remain of the airport today are the tower and the original terminal building, the Wappenhalle (hall of the coats of arms). Both structures are protected monuments. Moreover, a small stretch of the former runway still exists at the eastern end. In 2005, the former airport was the site of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show).

References

World War II portal

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
3. ^ Accident description at PlaneCrashInfo.com

External links

• History of Messestadt Riem including history of the airport (German)
• What became of München-Riem (German)
• "Little Town History of Old Riem". http://www.messestadt-riem.com/msr/d_newsdesk/id_history.htm. Retrieved 2010-05-20.  (German)
• "Austrian Aviation Net: Rückblick: München Riem". http://www.austrianaviation.net/news-regional/news-detail/datum/2010/05/09/rueckblick-muenchen-riem.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20. ^{[dead link]} (German)