Names such as Wien-Aspern and Wiener Neustadt are inextricably linked with the history of early Austrian (military) aviation. But hardly anyone knows that another cradle of domestic aviation was located just a few kilometers from today’s Vienna Airport. Militär Aktuell sheds light on the history of the Fischamend Military Aeronautical Institute, which has largely been forgotten today.
The water tower is one of the landmarks of the small town of Fischamend, which lies just east of Schwechat International Airport. If you drive past it, you can see some historic-looking buildings nearby, such as the Volksheim. And if you follow Flugfeldstraße, which runs parallel to the tower, to its end, you suddenly find yourself in front of a half-ruined old factory building – without any indication of what it is all about. But all the objects just listed have a common history, as Rudolf Ster explains in conversation with the author. The local historian is chairman of the Fischamend Aviation Interest Group (ILF for short), which he founded in 2016 with his friend, Captain (ret.) Reinhard Ringl, who sadly passed away far too early in 2022. “Both the water tower and the hall you mentioned, which incidentally is a listed building, and our current Volksheim once belonged to the Fischamend Military Aeronautical Institute. The Volksheim was the officers’ mess,” says Ster, who points out that the former officers’ dormitory next to it is now used as a normal residential building.
“The k.u.k. Militäraeronautische Anstalt Fischamend was the largest aviation research facility in the entire Danube Monarchy,” Ster continues, as he spreads out historical maps, documents and photographs during my visit to the small but fine museum of the ILF in Fischamend.
The early years
Originally, the balloonists and balloon observers of the k.u.k. Army were originally trained at the Arsenal in what was then Vienna’s 10th district (part of this facility has housed the Museum of Military History since the 19th century). When the space there was no longer sufficient, the search began for a new location outside the capital of the empire.
The military found what they were looking for in Fischamend, which at the time still consisted of the two municipalities of Fischamend-Dorf and Fischamend-Markt. Ster: “Under Mayor August Schütz, the eastern part of today’s municipality applied to be chosen as the location.”
The aviation officers Franz Hinterstoisser (the air base in Zeltweg, Styria, has been named after him since 1967) and Hans Hauswirth conducted the negotiations with the municipality regarding the necessary land purchases.
115 years ago, in 1909, the k.u.k. Military Aeronautical Institute Fischamend was officially launched. The trained balloonist and vice president of the Austrian Aero Club, Franz Hinterstoisser, became the first commander of this facility. His comrade Hans Hauswirth, also a military airship pilot, took over the management of the airship station in Fischamend. “Two years later, Hauswirth became interim commander of the balloon squadron, and in 1913 he finally took over its leadership,” explains Rudolf Ster.
Once the contracts with the municipality were in the bag, the construction of the infrastructure began immediately – and the media of the time reported on it extensively – after all, it wasn’t something that happened every day.
First of all, the airfield itself, an airship hangar, a gas depot and a guardroom were built. As soon as the airship hangar was ready for operation, the M.I Parseval motorized balloon ordered for type testing was equipped and test flights began. In addition, the Parseval and another model, the M.II Lebaudy, were soon built under license in Fischamend.
In the years between its foundation in 1909 and the outbreak of the First World War 1914, research and aviation flourished in Fischamend. Experiments were carried out with radio communications and land survey flights. Ster: “The photogrammetry method developed by Theodor Scheimpflug was used for this purpose.”
Numerous types of aircraft – including the legendary Taube by the Sudeten German Austrian Igo Etrich – and engines were built, tested and flown here. Alongside Aspern and Wiener Neustadt, Fischamend was THE center of aviation in the Austrian part of the monarchy in those days. The facility even had a railroad siding that led to Pressburg (better known today as Bratislava in Slovakian), around 40 kilometers away. The present-day capital of Slovakia was then located in the part of the monarchy that belonged to Hungary.
The Körting catastrophe
On June 20, 1914, one of the greatest aviation tragedies of the time occurred near Fischamend. On the morning of that Saturday, the airship Körting took to the skies from the Military Aeronautical Institute. There were seven people on board, the commander of the mission was 35-year-old First Lieutenant Hans Hauswirth, who would have celebrated his 36th birthday just three days later. The airship climbed to an altitude of around 300 meters and set course for nearby Königsberg. “The journey took place in a spiral, as the purpose of the flight was to carry out surveys using Theodor Scheimpflug’s method,” Ster recalls the details.
Meanwhile, a Farman HF-20 biplane piloted by field pilot Ernst Flatz approached the airship at breakneck speed. Flatz was known as Haserdeur and circled the Körting several times at close range. Tragedy struck: the aircraft collided with the airship and crashed. Flatz and his observer were killed. At first it seemed as if the Körting had survived the collision relatively unscathed, but after hovering calmly for a few seconds, there was a sudden explosion and a huge jet of flame shot up into the sky. Witnesses on the ground watched as the crew climbed out of the basket by the ropes, desperately calling for help as the Körting, engulfed in flames and black smoke, plummeted to the ground. All seven men on board died flying. The victims were buried with the highest military honors in a grave of honor (Group 0, Row F, Number 1) at the Vienna Central Cemetery, which has been preserved to this day. An honor formation of the Austrian Air Force flew over the cemetery during the memorial service and dropped flowers.
The First World War
The outbreak of the First World War around a month later, on July 28, 1914, pushed the disaster into the background in public perception and at the same time brought a further boost to research and development in Fischamend, expert Ster reports: “There was a massive expansion in many respects, both in terms of personnel and material.”
Production of various types was ramped up, and the Fischamend Military Aeronautical Institute also served as a shipyard where damaged aircraft were repaired.
The wind tunnel and test rig for propellers were also of great importance. The best scientists, designers and technicians of their time, such as Richard Knoller, Theodore von Kármán, Stephan Petróczy von Petrócz or the legendary Ferdinand Porsche from Maffersdorf near Reichenberg in Bohemia worked and worked here. Around 300 officers and 5,000 men and civilians worked at this site.
Rudolf Ster: “The last really big research project at this facility was the development of helicopters. So-called observation tethered helicopters were to replace the gas-filled observation balloons that had previously been used.”
The end
With the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War in November 1918, the accompanying collapse of the Danube monarchy and the subsequent economic crisis, the heyday of aviation in Fischamend, which had only lasted nine short – but intense – years, came to an end. In the 1920s, a few police planes still took off and landed at Fischamend airfield and various companies settled there, but it was no longer possible to build on the glorious days of the monarchy.
With the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, the Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF) used the facility as an outpost – which, however, resulted in Fischamend being bombed by the Allies as a legitimate war target. Unfortunately, these attacks also claimed many victims among the civilian population, who have since been commemorated with a memorial near the church.
When Austria was liberated in 1945, Fischamend was in the Soviet occupation zone and the Russians dismantled the factory buildings and production facilities of the former Imperial and Royal Military Aeronautical Station to take them to the Soviet Union. Military Aeronautical Station to take them to the Soviet Union. In other words, they plundered everything that wasn’t nailed down. During this time, people were busy surviving and rebuilding after six years of war, while aviation was largely prohibited in occupied Austria anyway.
When Austria finally regained its sovereignty in 1955 after ten years of occupation – the agreement to so-called “perpetual neutrality” was a demand by the Soviets, without which the Red Army would not have left Austria, a form of blackmail – the former military aeronautical institute in Fischamend lay in ruins, plundered. The former pride of the k.u.k. military aviation industry had finally ceased to exist.
In the following decades, most of the facility’s buildings were demolished. New residential buildings, supermarkets and schools were built on the site. Only a few architectural remnants of what was once the largest aviation research institute in the monarchy have survived. These include the water tower mentioned at the beginning, an old factory hall (the listed building is also referred to in the literature as the “design office”), a few residential buildings for officers and crews and the former officers’ mess. In addition, Flugfeldstraße and Parsevalstraße are reminders of the glorious days of aviation in Fischamende.
Temporary “rebirth” 2009
For the very last time, 15 years ago now, this lost era flared up once again for a short period of time. On the initiative of the then director of the Fischamend local history museum, Franz Lorenz, who, with the support of many helping hands, including of course the local Fischamend aviation historians Rudolf Ster and Reinhard Ringl, organized the anniversary flight day “100 years of aviation in Fischamend”, planes took off and landed again for two days on the site of the former Fischamend Military Aviation Institute. The Austrian Armed Forces was represented with a Pilatus PC-6 Porter.
One of the highlights of this unique event was certainly the replica of an Öeffag Albatros D.III by Koloman Mayrhofer. Although the aircraft did not yet fly at the time, the sound of its original Austro Daimler engine, number 23605, amazed visitors. This 6-cylinder, four-valve engine with a displacement of 16 liters and 225 hp was once designed by Ferdinand Porsche and built by Austro Daimler in Wiener Neustadt in 1918.
Thanks to the support of Gerhard Gruber from Fischamend, at the time an airfield operations manager at Vienna Airport in his main job and an airline pilot on the side, the Fischamend airfield even received the international ICAO designation LOWF for two days!
A memorial stone was erected at this location in the same year. According to the wishes of the 2009 organizers, the next anniversary flight day will take place in 2109 – on the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Military Aeronautical Association Fischamend.
Unfortunately, we won’t live to see it, but until then you can read all about the 100th anniversary event in the illustrated book “Der historische Jubiläumsflugtag von Fischamend im Juni 2009”. The book is available via the publisher’s online store and in any bookshop, quoting ISBN 978-3-758486-90-6.
