Dessau Junkers Trail

Technikmuseum "Hugo Junkers" e.V.

The museum on the ground of the former 2nd Junkers airfield exhibits the life and work of the ingenious inventor, constructor and entrepreneur Hugo Junkers. He is attributed over 400 patents. The legendary aeroplanes (Junkers F 13, the "Tante"Ju 52), gas appliances, Junkers engines and the original prototype of a steel house.

1. 1.1. The museum
2. 1.2. Junkers airfield
3. 1.3. Steel experiment house
4. 1.4. Wind tunnel and compass compensating base
5. 1.5. Junkers tower block

1.1. Technikmuseum Hugo Junkers

Kühnauer Straße, in the Siedlung district;
http://www.technikmuseum dessau

The promotional association for the Technikmuseum "Hugo Junkers" in Dessau was founded on 12 August 1992 with the following objective "... to create a meaningful establishment for coming together, for educating and for recreation regarding the innovative industrial history of the city of Dessau and its surrounding area. In this establishment, a portrait of this city's technology, economy, society and culture over the course of time will be presented. The name of the museum is an indication that it deals with the era in which Professor Hugo Junkers shaped the industrial, technological, economic, social and cultural history of Dessau and in which he revolutionised the national, European and global economy in the field of aviation with his functions as a technician, a scientist, an industrialist, a democrat and a cosmopolitan."

The content of the exhibition objects of the museum can be divided into the following topic areas:

• Junkers thermotechnical devices
  Hot water appliances, calorimetres, calorifiers, heating technology and heat exchangers, gas cookers and electric cookers
• Junkers engine manufacturing
  Engines, stationary engines and aircraft engines, jet engines
• Aircraft construction aerodynamics
  The Junkers F 13 as an original replica, the first full-metal cabin commercial aeroplane. Developed in 1919 in a self-supporting low-winged and light construction. The Ju 52/3m, constructed in 1931, became an aviation legend. Its solid construction and excellent aviation properties, its high standard of safety which were at the highest technical level at that time as well as equipment, comfort and service were the foundation of its reputation as a passenger-friendly commercial aeroplane. The Ju 52 became the pioneer of modern aviation. Research on aerodynamics in Junkers aircraft construction documents the technical monument out in the open, the historical Junkers large wind tunnel.
• Building and living à la Junkers
  One house in the museum hall is the only building in the Junkers steel panel style in the world that is still preserved, built in 1933 and restored carefully in 2002. An original Junkers steel lamella roof construction, a significant exhibit as regards the history of construction, can be seen on the open-air exhibition grounds. In cooperation with the Junkers factories and putting their production-oriented options to use, the Bauhaus master Marcel Breuer was successful in developing his renowned tubular furniture around 1925/26. The refrigerated train cars from the Dessau economic sector of rail vehicle technology whose diesel motor aggregates are based on the Junkers engine construction principle can be seen as an emblem of a "city of iron".
• Collection and research activities
  The establishment of a reference library including the collection of patent specifications in the subject areas mentioned above with regard to the research into the life's works of Professor Hugo Junkers and his enterprises. In addition to collecting and documenting the exhibits, the research activities are oriented toward cooperation and collaboration with other facilities, institutions and museums.

This museum is directed by the chairman of the promotional association.

The chairmen of the promotional association since its founding have been:

• From 1992 - 1994, Dipl.-Ing. Helmut Erfurth as the founding chairman
• From 1994 - 2006, district president Klaus Maria Heinemann
• From 2006 - 2015, Dipl.-Ing. Peter Kuras
• From 2015 - 2021, Dipl.-Ing. Michael Otto
• From 2021 - present, Dipl.-Ing. Roland Bissot

1.2. Junkers airfield

In use since 1925, Siedlung and Kleinkühnau districts

Map of the Junkers factories with the airfield in Dessau, 1926. What was known as the Starterhäuschen, or take-off house, a small building in Junkers steel panel style, stood at the edge of the runway, design drawing from 1930.

• 1925-26 grass runway, 1927 addition of a concrete runway for the first attempt to cross the Atlantic from Europe to North America with the Junkers aeroplanes "Bremen" and "Europa" of the Junkers W 33 type on 14/08/1927;
• In 1927/28, a total of 39 aviation records are set by Junkers pilots at this airfield.
• Initial flight of the Junkers G 38 on 06/11/1929, the largest and most cutting-edge aviation land aeroplanes of this era. The Junkers G 38, the first major airliner, was successful in flying the Berlin-Amsterdam-London route of the German Luft-Hansa route network.
• From 1 May 1930 until the end of 1932, the airfield was part of the German domestic route network of the German air fleet.
• The new Dessau "Flight station with a reception building", August 1930, design by Franz Griebsch, Junkers construction firm. Designed with a self-supporting Junkers steel panel construction style (in accordance with patent no. 556 970 from 29/10/1930), torn down in 1934 when the new Junkers factory airfield was constructed.
• Further expansion as the Junkers factory airfield of the state-owned company Junkers Flugzeug- und - Motorenwerke (JFM) in three stages between 1934 and 1944;
• Reutilisation:
  • From 1948-1952 by Soviet air forces;
  • From 1953-1954 by the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP, Barracked People's Police);
  • From 1955-1956 branch office for training command 209 (KVP 209) for flying personnel;
  • From 1957-1963 Dessau transporter aviation school;
  • From 1964-1989 alternate airfield for the East German National People's Army;
  • From 1994-present Restoration of a part of the airfield facilities as the "Hugo Junkers" regional airfield in Dessau.

Take-off at the Junkers factory airfield II from the newly laid concrete runway for an ocean flight on 14/08/1927 at 6:21 p.m.

1.3. Steel experiment house in the self-supporting Junker panel building style

A turn around the Junkers steel panel house is required to observe the windows in their various designs.

The steel experiment house in the self-supporting Junker panel building style, built in a green space at the Dessau aircraft factory in March of 1933. Moved to the Junkers factory in Munich-Allach in December of 1935 for additional research purposes. Transfer to the Technikmuseum "Hugo Junkers" in Dessau in April of 1999 following an initiative of the 1st founder chairman. After being restored, it was integrated into the museum hall as an exhibition object in 2002 and is on display as the only preserved Junkers metal house using a panel construction style.

Design plans, floor plan and lateral cut of the steel experiment house, which is well insulated despite having thin walls. Leaflet title for Junkers garden furniture in front of a Junkers steel house, 1930.

1.4. Large Junkers wind tunnel and compass compensating base

Isometric sectional drawing of the large Junkers wind tunnel, drawing by Thomas Erfurth.
The view through the preserved wind tunnel.

Junkers large wind tunnel, 1934, design by the aerodynamicist Philipp von Doepp with the Junkers construction firm, an early industrial facility in shell structure concrete construction. The Dessau wind tunnel served as a prototype for the construction of additional wind tunnels such as for those in Warsaw and Moscow. Partially destroyed in 1946 following the right of occupation of the allied forces in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. Thanks to an initiative led by the former Dessau Junkers employees, it was made a technical monument in 1984.

Junkers compass compensating base, 1934, Junkers-Stahlbau construction firm, based on patent specification no. 562 340 from 21/11/1930. This compensation facility served to adjust (orient) magnet compasses.

1.5. Junkers tower block

Skeleton of the Junkers tower block steel construction, 14/11/1934. The first preliminary design for the new Junkers administration building of the aircraft factory with the planned Junkers steel tower block in the centre of the drawing. Junkers-Stahlbau design with the architect Werner Issel, January 1934.

Junkers tower block, Kühnauer Strasse, in the Siedlung district, 1934-36. Architect Werner Issel, Berlin, under significant support from the Junkers-Stahlbau construction firm (architect Erich Hänze, engineer Franz Griebsch). Administrative seat of the state-owned enterprise Junkers Flugzeug- und -Motorenwerke AG Dessau (JFM). Underneath the red clinker brick facade of the building complex designed by Werner Issel, there is a screwed together steel skeleton structure(Junkers concept) whose structural analysis was calculated by Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Klingenberg from the Junkers-Stahlbau construction firm. The high-rise industrial building, which still appears timeless today, reflects the intention of the technical modernity of that time in its construction and functionality. Classified as an architectural monument, the Junkers tower block was reconstructed between 1994 and 1998. Use as Dessau's regional council building, it now belongs to the state administration department of Saxony-Anhalt.

Evening atmosphere at the main administrative JFM corporate building, November 1936.

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