The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 prohibited the German Reich to have her own air force.
To get around this prohibition, the Nazi Party founded the Deutscher Luftsportverband (DLV or "German Air Sports Association") in 1933 as a disguise to accelerate the building of an air force.
Therefore, throughout Germany possible locations for air bases were sought.
One of these locations was close to the Celle district of Wietzenbruch.
According to official information the Deutsche Verkehrs-Fliegerschule GmbH ("German General Aviation School Ltd.“) would become the airport holder.
Ernst Sagebiel a leading architect in air base design was put in charge of the building works.

After exhaustive construction works, during which the boggy terrain was drained by creating several ditches, the flying school entered service in 1934.
Due to the boggy terrain the airfield had to be mixed with bitumen a few years later to prevent airplanes sinking in.
This made the ground elastic and resulted in the pilots calling the airfield rubber meadow (Gummiwiese).

On 9 March 1935 Hermann Göring officially announced the existence of a German Air Force and the D.L.V. was not needed any longer.
The Luftwaffe was officially declared as being the occupant of the air base and its employees revealed themselves as being members of the armed forces by openly wearing uniforms.

In the course of time, the type of aircraft stationed at Celle became larger and larger and crews were trained on almost all current military aircraft.
The extent of the training activities necessitated the construction of external landing strips at Hustedt and Scheuen.
The training in blind flight, the precursor of instrument flight, even had to be moved to Wesendorf.

At the beginning of World War II the training school was relocated to Leipzig and Celle Air Base was used by varying units, none of which were stationed there for any long period of time.

Although some production facilities for the Junkers Ju 88 were placed in Hangar V, Celle Air Base played only a secondary role during World War II.
This, together with skilful camouflaging of the hangars, prevented the air base from becoming a serious target for Allied tactical or strategic bombing.
Contemporary witnesses reported an American fighter plane attacking Hangar V in 1944 until the anti-aircraft fire forced the pilot to abandon his aircraft.

Without having suffered any serious damage the air base was surrendered by a German NCO to the British Army on 11 April 1945.
A few days previously, members of the last German unit stationed at Celle Air Base, Flying School A/B 6, had destroyed all remaining aircraft and left the base.
Furthermore, a last Allied attack on the airfield on 9 April 1945 had not caused any serious damage to the airfield.
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 prohibited the German Reich to have her own air force. To get around this prohibition, the Nazi Party founded the Deutscher Luftsportverband (DLV or "German Air Sports Association") in 1933 as a disguise to accelerate the building of an air force. Therefore, throughout Germany possible locations for air bases were sought. One of these locations was close to the Celle district of Wietzenbruch. According to official information the Deutsche Verkehrs-Fliegerschule GmbH ("German General Aviation School Ltd.“) would become the airport holder. Ernst Sagebiel a leading architect in air base design was put in charge of the building works.
After exhaustive construction works, during which the boggy terrain was drained by creating several ditches, the flying school entered service in 1934. Due to the boggy terrain the airfield had to be mixed with bitumen a few years later to prevent airplanes sinking in. This made the ground elastic and resulted in the pilots calling the airfield rubber meadow (Gummiwiese).
On 9 March 1935 Hermann Göring officially announced the existence of a German Air Force and the D.L.V. was not needed any longer. The Luftwaffe was officially declared as being the occupant of the air base and its employees revealed themselves as being members of the armed forces by openly wearing uniforms.
In the course of time, the type of aircraft stationed at Celle became larger and larger and crews were trained on almost all current military aircraft. The extent of the training activities necessitated the construction of external landing strips at Hustedt and Scheuen. The training in blind flight, the precursor of instrument flight, even had to be moved to Wesendorf.
At the beginning of World War II the training school was relocated to Leipzig and Celle Air Base was used by varying units, none of which were stationed there for any long period of time.
Although some production facilities for the Junkers Ju 88 were placed in Hangar V, Celle Air Base played only a secondary role during World War II. This, together with skilful camouflaging of the hangars, prevented the air base from becoming a serious target for Allied tactical or strategic bombing. Contemporary witnesses reported an American fighter plane attacking Hangar V in 1944 until the anti-aircraft fire forced the pilot to abandon his aircraft.
Without having suffered any serious damage the air base was surrendered by a German NCO to the British Army on 11 April 1945. A few days previously, members of the last German unit stationed at Celle Air Base, Flying School A/B 6, had destroyed all remaining aircraft and left the base. Furthermore, a last Allied attack on the airfield on 9 April 1945 had not caused any serious damage to the airfield.
Celle Air Base