The Development of Air Navigation in West-Germany after 1945

Part I of this documentation dealt with the development of air navigation from 1919 onward until the end of WW II for Germany in May 1945. This second part explains the continuation in the further development of the establishment of military tactical air navigation services units beginning under the military governments of the victorious powers and the succeeding allied occupation forces in Germany. This transportation service of the first decade after the end of the war constitutes the cradle of modern European Air Traffic Control (ATC) as the major part of the overall air navigation services system.

It closes with the partial reconstitution of air sovereignty in West Germany (FRG) in 1955 and the end of the supervision on the re-established German federal air navigation services administration (BFS) by the Allied Civil Aviation Board - CAB of HICOM by mid 1956. The air navigation services, immediately after the war, are now under the exclusive authority of the victorious powers of the United States of America, Great-Britain and France (in the three western occupation zones) and the Soviet Union (the Four Allies). The German governmental air navigation services system did no longer exist.

In the soviet occupation zone of East Germany the authority over the air navigation services between 1945 and 1953 was vested in the Soviet Military Administration of East Germany (SMAD) based on a decision of the allied control council of September 1945 and was later on transferred to the ministry of transport of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). During the years of 1957 to 1960 the main department for civil aviation matters (HAZV), thereafter called „HVZL“ with INTERFLUG, took over the responsibilities for the air navigation services until 1990.

In West Germany until 1949 it was vested in the three military governments of the vicotrious powers until the joint allied Civil Aviation Board (CAB) had been established. The duties and authority of the CAB were transferred to the newly created German Federal Administration for Air Navigation Services (BFS) in 1953. In 1956, on demand of the three western allied forces, the FRG was permitted to join the International Civil Aviation Organization - ICAO as its 66th member state.

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The Development of Air Navigation in West Germany after 1945
Vol 2, The first ten years - when nobody knew Air Traffic Control (ATC) existed
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