The building, which was also called the “spinning wind tunnel”, was built by the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL) between 1934 and 1936 at the former Berlin-Johannisthal airfield. It stands next to a 130 meter long large wind tunnel from the same years, which is also a listed building. Both are registered in the Berlin state monument list as part of the former DVL location.[1]
When it was built, the tower represented an “absolute technical innovation” with which the dangerous state of spinning could be simulated in the laboratory for the first time. The experiments helped to better understand the complex processes involved in spinning. In this way, it was determined how to intercept pilotless aircraft that stagger towards the ground and control them again. A (precisely manufactured) model could be introduced into a vertical airflow (running from bottom to top) so that it always flew at the height of the observation device and could be filmed by high-speed cameras. The speed of the airflow could be regulated to match the falling speed of the model. The fixtures are no longer there.
The tower currently belongs to the Aerodynamic Park on the Adlershof campus of the Humboldt University and is part of the architectural ensemble of technical monuments of aviation research in Berlin-Adlershof from the 1930s. The entire site is part of the Adlershof WISTA science and business location, which has been built since 1992 on an area of around 420 hectares. Since 2005, a connecting path between Max-Born- and Brook-Taylor-Straße has been called Zum Trudelturm.