Three airports served West Berlin, with commercial passenger service usually operated out of Tempelhof in the American Sector or the newer Tegel Flughafen in the French Sector. The third, Gatow, in the British Sector was mainly used for military activity. East Berlin and the surrounding areas of the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Zone of Germany, was served by Schoenefeld Flughafen. Built in lush farmland as part of a World War II aircraft factory (Henschel 1934-45), Schoenefeld was developed into a commercial airfield, taking advantage of minor improvements to autobahn and railway connections that were nearby. With the first commercial flight in 1946 by Aeroflot (the Soviet airline), the pattern of traffic being dominated by Eastern European airlines was set. Jet service began in 1969.
By my 1969-71 time in Berlin, the premier air carrier from Schoenefeld was Interflug, the GDR airline. It provided ground services at the airport and its flights radiated in most directions, but many routes offered only sparse traffic. Some of these politically-driven routes carried a steady flow of GDR technicians, military officers, diplomats, and intelligence personnel. Just as the Pan Am route network of the time offered a map of United States influence in the world, so did that of Interflug. Schedules were roughly coordinated with other carriers, including Malev, the Hungarian flag line, and Austrian Airlines. Mysteries of Interflug include the Berlin-Vienna flights listed in the Austrian Airlines timetable, but not in the Interflug schedules included in the back of the Deutsch Reichsbahn timetables in effect at the same time.
Interflug equipment utilized in 1970-71 included the TU-134 as seen here in Malev service. These Soviet-built jets covered flights from Schoenefeld to Moscow, Kiev, Sofia, Bucarest, Zagreb, Belgrade, Nicosia, Damascus, Beirut and Vienna. Plane watchers near Schoenefeld might have also seen an IL-18, IL-62, or AN-24 in Interflug colors, depending on the day of week. The only Interflug flights busy enough to justify daily service linked Berlin and Moscow, Prague, and Budapest.
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For the official history of Schoenefeld Flughafen in English.
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