Erding: Many animals settle on the air base – Erding

When barracks sergeant Rainer Lohmeier enters the Erding air base in the morning, he only feels like a guest. The picture is no longer determined by the soldiers, but by deer. You dare to go up to the Lt. Williams-Platz behind the barrier and only walk slowly to the side when a soldier comes along, says Lohmeier. “The gentlemen are the deer, we are only the ones who use the area.” The mood at the air base has changed drastically since more and more military units have left the site.

The day when military flight operations ceased marked a deep turning point. Since then it has become even quieter. Deer, buzzards and hares benefit from it, they feel comfortable in the spacious meadows and find retreats in the woods. The next cut will soon follow: the military will leave the air base for good at the end of 2024, and a new quarter will then be created here.

There are now more than a hundred deer on the site, twice as many deer as soldiers. “There was hardly any hunted in the past, which is why a proud roe deer population has developed,” says Martin Dawid. He is a forester at the federal forest and responsible for the forest areas on the air base. About three times a year Dawid visits the area with a handful of other hunters. The rest of the year the animals could do what they want. Dawid explains that they have lost their fear of people because they have realized that they are not in danger. And you notice that too.

At the air base, a road runs parallel to the old Roman road past the tarmac. It will be part of the planned northern connection, but today the area still belongs to the animals. On the left a young roebuck ten meters from the road. He looks up, lingers – and continues to eat. On the right is a fence that separates the road from the runway. Behind it more deer. A small buck enjoys the sun, other animals run across the open area.

Over the decades, a special flora and fauna has emerged on the entire site. Barracks sergeant Lohmeier knows about a badger, lots of foxes, hares, rabbits and martens. Birds and bats frolic in the old trees, green and great spotted woodpeckers, two barn owls and a long-eared owl have been seen. A swift colony has taken root under the tin roof of a warehouse. Endangered species have withdrawn to the extensively managed meadows to the right and left of the runway.

“Warning, danger of collapse” is what you often read on the airport grounds

Deer also feel at home in the tall grass on the property.

(Photo: Stephan Görlich)

Rainer Lohmeier has known the air base for decades. He has been working here since 1990 with one interruption. After the decision to close the site in 2011, “the move is progressing step by step,” as he says. One department after the other will be closed. Until four years ago, traffic lights directed traffic on the site. They are no longer needed because so little is going on. Services are held four times a year in the church at the air base.

A few aircraft parts are still lying around on the concrete surfaces in front of the warehouses. Old wings and tail fins can be seen. Except for one hall, all of them have already been cleared, says the press spokesman for the Bundeswehr in Bavaria, Carsten Spiering. Some things were scrapped, a lot moved to the new location in Manching. Two fuel tanks sunk into the ground have been pumped out and cleaned. The troop kitchen closes at the end of the month, the officers’ mess next June. Some of the footpaths on the site are already covered with moss. The weeds push their way up between concrete slabs.

The air base covers an area of ​​435 hectares. This makes it Bavaria’s largest contiguous conversion area. The city of Erding wants to acquire the 350 hectares that are located in the city area. The Tübingen architects Mathias Hähnig and Martin Gemmeke won the planning competition with their design and show how living, business, leisure and nature are distributed over the huge area.

Most of the huge and valuable trees are to remain standing. Biotopes should be connected, meadows, hedges and woody structures alternate. Where there are already warehouses and the engine manufacturer MTU has its workshops, more business is to be added. In the south, living space for up to 3500 people is to be created. In the entrance area, the new Erding station is being built, which is part of the Erdingen S-Bahn ring closure. The staff building, church and officers’ quarters remain as witnesses to the air base.

Erding Air Base before conversion

The overgrown hallway at the back of the casino.

(Photo: Stephan Goerlich)

Some of the four hundred or so buildings on the site are still in good shape. Others have fallen into disrepair and have been empty for a long time. None of them are listed. At the end of 2024, the buildings will be handed over to the Bima (Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks), cold, dark, dry and locked. But not all, some will also be torn down, for example building 401. The NCO’s home was a meeting place, also for Lohmeier. Today it is surrounded by a construction fence. The roof is covered in moss, weeds are sprouting from the gutter, and a birch tree is growing through a hole in the roof. The doors are blocked by red bars: Attention, danger of collapse.

Not all buildings at risk of collapse are razed to the ground. In the past, tornadoes were repaired in Hall 8, but now bats are billeted there. Because bats are a protected species, the hall must not be demolished. Bats have been detected in three buildings and suspected in two others. Including piped bats, great noctule bat, but possibly also rarer species such as the white-edged or rough-skin bat.

Even small forest areas are left to their own devices, a special biotope has emerged in the northwest. “It’s like a jungle,” says Lohmeier. There is almost no getting through, bushes and trees block the way. Behind them is a seven-meter-deep depression. There is water there, fallen trees lie on top of each other. The forest strip, which is around 300 meters long and 80 meters wide, has not been cultivated for decades. Especially for dead wood species such as woodpeckers, insects and bats, this has created an important habitat, says forester Dawid.

The air base has become a “very valuable living space”, says Alexander

A mapping counted 4,328 trees on the entire air base, including 97 particularly protected habitat trees that are inhabited by birds or other animals. Otherwise, medium-aged hardwood dominates the stock. Occasionally there are old oaks, beeches, maples or black poplars.

In 1935 the military airport was built by the Wehrmacht and inaugurated in 1936. After the war, the Americans took over the site and started among other things from Erding with cherry bombers for the airlift to Berlin. The Bundeswehr has been on the site since 1956. Among other things, she used it as a logistics center and for the maintenance of aircraft, and there is also a rail network that is now overgrown with grass.

The last tornado took off from Erding on September 16, 2014. Today buzzards, hawks and herons mainly hunt on the runway. They spread after active air traffic ceased, says Sascha Alexander from the Bund Naturschutz. He sees a special ecological value in the rough meadows around the runway. During mapping he discovered endangered meadow breeders there, including a breeding pair of the curlew. The species is threatened with extinction in Bavaria.

The bird only lets itself be disturbed a few times, “then it’s gone,” says Alexander. He lists which birds he has still seen: skylarks, meadow wilts, quails, gray woodpeckers, orioles or partridges. The latter are also threatened. Due to the extensive management, the air base has become a “very valuable living space”. The area is neither mulched nor fertilized and only mowed once or twice a year.

The Lower Nature Conservation Authority at the District Office has also mapped the railing and registered a large variety of insects on the meadows. There are many species of butterflies, including bluebirds, painted ladies, dwarf bluebells, sky blue bluebells and small meadow birds. Rare grasshoppers, ground beetles and ants have also been identified in individual cases.

This type of meadow landscape is unique in terms of size and quality in the Erding district, explains Alexander. Rough meadows are declining across Germany. It is important to him, he says, to maintain the space or even to develop it further. The city also wants to preserve the area around the runway as a landscape protection area. The great value lies in the biodiversity, emphasizes Alexander.

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