Hidden in the forests near Wittstock lies the old Flugplatz Alt Daber, also known as Fliegerhorst Wittstock. What was once a busy military base is now a quiet, overgrown landscape. Here, between crumbling barracks and empty hangars, stands a damaged Lenin statue — its face long gone, but its presence still powerful.

The story of this place begins in 1934, when the airfield was first built for glider training. Only a few years later, from 1938 to 1940, the site expanded to host a paratrooper school. During the war, the Luftwaffe used the base for training and operations. In autumn 1944, the first combat units arrived, taking part in Germany’s last battles against the advancing Soviet Army.

Home to MiG-15

After Germany’s surrender, the Red Army occupied the airfield on 3 May 1945. The Soviets turned the area into a strategic base. In 1952, they built a 2.5-kilometer-long concrete runway and added radar and missile sites nearby in Biesen and Wernikow. Wittstock became the headquarters of the Soviet Northern Fighter Corps, home to MiG-15 jets and later, from 1961, the 33rd Fighter Regiment (33 IAP) flying MiG-29s.

When the Soviet troops withdrew in 1994, the long history of the base came to an end. The site was briefly used as a racetrack and event location. In 2011, a solar park was built over much of the old runway, and in 2018, many of the remaining buildings were demolished.

Without a face

But one silent witness remains; Lenin. The statue stands without a face, weathered by time and neglect. No one knows for sure who made it or when it was placed here, only that it once looked over a proud Soviet airbase that has now vanished.

In 2024 someone painted a text on the statue: “I, named Lenin, have lost face, but didn’t we do you a huge favor in 1994? Think about it.”

Today, the faceless Lenin of Alt Daber is one of the last reminders of a forgotten chapter in German-Soviet history.