On Tuesday, the German newspaper Bild reported on the discovery by historian Mirko Kühn of a secret underground Nazi aircraft hangar, codenamed Alpendohle, near Altenburg Airport in Thuringia, eastern Germany. Kühn had been researching the mysterious history of the legendary Leinawald forest for over ten years, according to Bild.
"Here, directly at the airport, the Nazis built an underground aircraft hangar. The hangar bore the codename Alpendohle. There are eyewitnesses, aerial photographs, and measurements that confirm my theory," said Kühn, according to Bild. He claimed that the hangar was 200 meters long, 25 meters wide, and at least five meters high, capable of accommodating up to ten airplanes.
Kühn noted that he identified the hangar using old aerial photographs and documentary evidence, and he claimed to have identified the entrances of the structure on these photographs. To strengthen his suspicions, Kühn conducted a measurement of a magnetic field, which can indicate the presence of a large amount of metal in the area of the suspected hangar, reported Het Nieuwsblad.
"Down there is the buried entrance," he said, pointing to the broken slope downwards, as reported by Bild. "Bird names were used for underground structures," explained Kühn, indicating a pattern in naming. The codename Alpendohle (Alpine Jackdaw), known to old aviators, supports his theory, Bild reported.
When asked what might be stored in the mysterious hangar, Kühn stated, "That's hard to say. Of course, an aircraft is the most likely," according to Bild. He believed that a simple excavation at one of the presumed emergency exits of the hangar could lead to discovery with little effort, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda.
For decades, myths surrounded the Leinawald forest massif near Altenburg Airport in Thuringia, Germany, reported Bild. Treasure hunters and local historians have speculated that the area around Altenburg Airport contains the Amber Room, stolen in Russia, and a secret cult site of the Nazis, according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
According to Kühn's theory, the Nazis used the labor of Soviet prisoners of war to build the hangar, reported Bild. Archive research indicated that at least 110 prisoners of war lost their lives in and around the Leinawald, Het Nieuwsblad reported. In 2011, a mass grave with the bodies of 66 Soviet soldiers was discovered just a few hundred meters from the structure, and the site of the mass grave was identified through aerial photographs, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
The authorities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) tried to investigate the structure in 1964 but stopped the excavations due to an alleged leak of poisonous gas, which the Stasi confirmed. Almost thirty years ago, American treasure hunter Norman Scott attempted to search the area without success, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Before the German reunification of 1991, the area was in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), communist East Germany. The Leinawald bordered an airfield that was operational during both World Wars. Due to the proximity of the airfield, the location of the hangar could have been a targeted objective for Allied air attacks, which was the main reason to build it underground.
"Underground aircraft storage facilities seemed like something out of a James Bond film," notes Het Nieuwsblad. The hangar, was capable of storing about ten airplanes of various sizes and should have been able to accommodate and shelter about a dozen aircraft from bombs. Dozens of unfinished jet fighters of the type Heinkel He-162 were stored there, reported Het Nieuwsblad.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.