Flugplatz Gatow

RAF Gatow in the British sector was one of the Berlin Airlift’s three airfields, handling the British share of the lift while Sunderland flying boats landed on the nearby Havel. Throughout the Cold War it remained the Royal Air Force’s Berlin station, its radar watching over the air corridors. Handed to the Bundeswehr when the British left in 1994, it is now the Military History Museum Berlin-Gatow (Luftwaffenmuseum), with more than 100 aircraft, air-defence systems and Cold War exhibits in the historic hangars and on the former airfield. Entry is free.

RAF Gatow was established in 1935 as a Luftwaffe training school and taken over by the Royal Air Force in 1945 as part of the British occupation zone. When the Soviet blockade began in June 1948, Gatow became the destination for the British contribution to the airlift. A unique feature of the Gatow operation was the use of flying boats: ten Short Sunderlands and two Short Hythes flew from Finkenwerder near Hamburg to the Havel river adjacent to the airfield, carrying salt and baking powder — corrosive cargoes that damaged conventional aircraft hulls but posed no threat to the Sunderlands’ seaplane construction. The flying boats continued operating until the Havel froze in winter.

After the blockade ended, Gatow remained the RAF’s Berlin station throughout the Cold War. Its radar installations monitored the three air corridors connecting West Berlin to West Germany, and the base served as a visible reminder of the British military commitment to the city’s defence. When British forces withdrew from Berlin after reunification, the airfield was handed to the Bundeswehr in 1994.

Today the site is the Militarhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr — Flugplatz Berlin-Gatow, one of Germany’s most extensive aviation museums. The collection spans over 200,000 items, including 155 aircraft. The hangars house exhibitions on the history of German military aviation from 1884 to the present, while the control tower building documents the specific history of Gatow airfield and its Cold War role. Outside, more than 100 aircraft, helicopters, and air-defence systems are displayed directly on the original concrete runways and taxiways — fighter jets, bombers, and radar equipment from both East German (NVA) and West German (Bundeswehr) forces, arranged across the same surfaces where airlift planes once landed. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, and admission is free. It can be reached by bus 135 from Rathaus Spandau.

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