Hoykenkamp is a small village in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, north west of

Delmenhorst Delmenhorst (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Demost'') is an urban district (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of 74,500 and is located west of downtown Bremen with which it forms a contiguous urban area, whereas the ...

. Hoykenkamp is part of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Ganderkesee Ganderkesee (Northern Low Saxon: ''Gannerseer'') is a municipality in Oldenburg district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Ganderkesee is located on the northern edge of a nature park called "Wildeshauser Geest". The northernmost part of the c ...

and belongs to the district of

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

History

Hoykenkamp's main claim to fame is to be the place where, starting in 1937, German

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

were constructed and built by

Focke Achgelis Focke-Achgelis & Co. G.m.b.H. was a German helicopter company founded in 1937 by Henrich Focke and Gerd Achgelis. History Henrich Focke was ousted in 1936 from the Focke-Wulf company, which he had cofounded in 1924, due to shareholder pressure. ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it became a target of allied air raids and during the nights of June 28 and June 29, 1942 was bombed by British bombers. The construction facilities were subsequently re-built. In 1944 the management of

Weser Flugzeugbau GmbH Weser Flugzeugbau GmbH, known as Weserflug, was an aircraft manufacturing company in Germany. History The company was founded in 1934 as a subsidiary of the ship and machine company Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG (DESCHIMAG). It began prod ...

transferred from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

to Hoykenkamp, taking over offices from

. As part of the

and

wartime activities, a number of specialists but also

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

ers were relocated to Hoykenkamp and barracks were placed on the local sports grounds. To facilitate access to Hoykenkamp from

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, Hoykenkamp got its own railway station on the Bremen to

and Bremen to

Nordenham Nordenham () is a town in the Wesermarsch district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located at the mouth (on the west bank) of the Weser river on the Butjadingen peninsula on the coast of the North Sea. The seaport city of Bremerhaven is located ...

lines.

External links

Technik@tlas Niedersachen: Hoykenkamp - Entwicklungsstätte des deutschen Hubschrauber
Villages in Lower Saxony Oldenburg (district)