Step by step back into the air

A new start and new profile

After the end of the war many German research institutions were disbanded by the Allied Control Council. These also included the German Aviation Testing Unit (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, DVL) based in Berlin. One of the DVL's many institutes was the Institute for Gas Dynamics, headed by Arthur Weise.

As the institute was now literally "up in the air", Weise set off in search of a new home. Stuttgart College of Technology showed an interest in employing him, even though funding was very scarce at the time. Weise would thus only be able to employ two assistants and a technician. Despite this he decided to move to Stuttgart. The move took place in 1946/47 and brought the institute from Sonthofen, where it had been evacuated to, to Ruit above Esslingen, the former site of the FGZ.

Having arrived there, the first concern was to furnish the offices and workshops in preparation for recommencing research. After 1945 aerodynamic research was strictly forbidden by the Allies.

Weise did not just make efforts to reinstate aviation at Stuttgart in the years that followed. Renowned engineers such as Eugen Sänger and Heinrich Focke moved to Stuttgart for a short time and founded institutes, which, although they were only short-lived, brought a new impetus to the college. Thus the new Institute for Gas Currents under Arthur Weise became a focal point for new aviation research in Stuttgart.