Cologne Butzweilerhof Airport

The airport takes its name from the "Butzweiler Hof" farm, whose origins date back to around 1230. On its field, Cologne flight pioneer Jean Hugot lifted his self-built machine into the air for a few seconds in the summer of 1910, later managing flights of up to 60 metres. In 1912 the "Imperial Aviator Station and Flying School" was established here: the city leased the site to the military administration, which built a first apron with a 256-metre runway. The first "Flying Day at Cologne" on 29 June 1912 drew 100,000 visitors. On 1 April 1913 the facility was inaugurated as a flying station — complete with a workshop, a motor-vehicle hall and four cantilevered aircraft hangars. Manfred von Richthofen also trained here as a flight observer in 1915.

On 25 July 1936 the new, 250-metre-long reception building, designed by architect Hans Mehrtens, was ceremonially opened. It combined a plain, essentially modern design in the spirit of the New Building movement with monumental elements of National Socialist architecture. This made Butzweilerhof, after Berlin-Tempelhof, the second-largest German airport complex of the 1930s. The building was faithfully restored between 1995 and 2007 and today is a listed monument along with other parts of the site.

Substantial parts of the 1930s airport complex survive and are partly restored: the main building with its reception hall, the service yard, aircraft hangar 1 with its four-storey control tower, aircraft hangar 2, and four former staff houses on Delfossestraße along with sections of the concrete apron. Since June 2018 the site has hosted the automotive service centre MOTORWORLD Köln – Rheinland. The former hangars now house, among other things, three restaurants, a hotel, conference and meeting rooms, and an exhibition on seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher.