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Bremgarten Airfield is a small special-use aerodrome (Sonderlandeplatz) near Eschbach in Baden-Württemberg, on the east bank of the Rhine close to the French border, occupying a single hard-surfaced runway that was once a full French and German military air base. Today it serves general aviation and gliding from what remains of a much longer Cold War-era runway, and its layered military history makes it an interesting stop for a simulator pilot exploring southern Germany.
Bremgarten Airfield lies at Eschbach in Baden-Württemberg, close to the Rhine and the French border, and is today classed as a Sonderlandeplatz (special airfield) used for general aviation and gliding. It occupies part of a former French and later German Luftwaffe air base, and the surviving hangars, tower and a restaurant named Fliegerhorst give the field a strong military heritage feel that is unusual among small German airfields.
The airfield sits on the east bank of the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg, near Eschbach, in the region historically forming the border area with France. It was originally built within the French zone of occupation and later operated as a Luftwaffe base until 1993, after which the surrounding land was largely returned to civilian and light industrial use as the Gewerbepark Breisgau.
Bremgarten has a single hard-surfaced runway aligned 05/23, lit, with the 05 threshold offering 5630 ft and the 23 threshold 5658 ft of usable length. Field elevation is 692 ft.
Air-ground communication is provided on 124.03 MHz under the callsign Bremgarten Radio. An AFIS/flight information frequency of 128.95 MHz, associated with Langen Information, is also listed for the field. There is no ILS at Bremgarten.
Bremgarten was built from 1952 as a French air base on the east bank of the Rhine, on land forming the border with France, and was declared fit for use in 1954. Base Aérienne Tactique 136 moved in from Friedrichshafen on 31 March 1954, hosting the 4e demi-Brigade de Chasse flying the Dassault Ouragan and later the Republic F-84. The base was renamed Base Aérienne d'Opération 136 in 1961 when the 11e Escadre de Chasse arrived with North American F-100D/F Super Sabres, and it took the simpler designation Base Aérienne 136 in 1963. From September 1964 it also hosted Sikorsky H-34A helicopters of Escadron d'Hélicoptères 1/67 until that unit disbanded in March 1966. Following France's withdrawal from NATO's integrated military structure, the 11e Escadre de Chasse left for Toul-Rosières in September 1967, and the base was redesignated Base aérienne et Moyens de Support et de Soutien 178 before being handed to the Bundeswehr on 1 May 1968. Shortly afterwards the Luftwaffe's Aufklärungsgeschwader 51 (AG 51), the 'Immelmänner' reconnaissance wing, moved in, initially flying the Lockheed RF-104G Starfighter and from 1973 the McDonnell-Douglas RF-4E Phantom II, which it operated for two decades. AG 51 was dissolved in 1993 following the end of the Cold War, and the Franco-German Brigade continued to use parts of the site until the end of 1995, after which only a shooting range and a training ground remained in military use. Twelve local communities founded the Gewerbepark Breisgau on 1 October 1994 to redevelop the site, and the Sonderlandeplatz has existed since 6 June 1997. The airfield's ICAO code changed from EDSG to EDTG after the Fliegerhorst closed, and the usable runway length was reduced by over 1000 metres from its military-era length, with a 600-metre grass strip later laid out parallel to the main runway in front of the tower.
Since 1997 Bremgarten has operated as a civilian Sonderlandeplatz run by Gewerbepark Breisgau GmbH, occupying part of the former Fliegerhorst site. The old control tower still stands, and a restaurant named Fliegerhorst has been built next to one of the surviving hangars on the platform, reflecting the field's air base origins.
