Köln-Ostheim Airfield

The Reich Air Ministry ordered the facility in 1934 and kept the plans strictly secret. At the time, the right bank of the Rhine was still demilitarized to a depth of 50 km, and the future Luftwaffe had not yet been publicly revealed. The Düsseldorf–Frankfurt motorway, today's Autobahn A3, was built alongside the base. In 1936/37 it split Ostheim in two, with the air base to the east and the village to the west. The road to Merheim was named after aviation pioneer Bruno Werntgen, while on the other side of the motorway it remained Ostmerheimer Straße.

Even while the base was still under construction, Walter Horten began building his flying-wing gliders in Ostheim. In 1937 the Horten brothers made the first flight of their Horten H V here.

The first unit stationed here was I Group of Fighter Wing 234, equipped with Bf 109s and He 51s. In May 1939 it was redesignated Jagdgeschwader 26 "Schlageter". In January 1940, gliders were stationed here for the paratrooper assault on the Belgian fort of Eben-Emael. During the war, the Erprobungsgruppe 210 and III Group of Night Fighter Wing 1 also used the field, and from May 1944 around 80 Ju 87 dive bombers of Nachtschlachtgruppe 2 were based here. For "Operation Bodenplatte", about 60 Fw 190 F-8s were assembled at Ostheim. The operation began on New Year's Day 1945 under Colonel Alfred Druschel, who was killed. The base was abandoned on 8 March 1945 and then taken over by American and later British troops.

Because Wahn Airport was only about ten kilometres away, the Allies saw no reason to preserve the airfield facilities and had them demolished. The site passed to the City of Cologne in 1946. Most of the surviving barracks buildings are now used as housing and commercial space, and by Merheim Hospital. The former flight control building housed the Federal Centre for Health Education from 1967 until April 2015. In the 1960s the "Konrad-Adenauer-Siedlung" was built on the former airfield, today's district of Neubrück.