Stendal was the site of a Luftwaffe airfield in World War II, which had been the site of the first German "Fallschirmjäger" training school from 1936; the famous boxer Max Schmeling was trained as a paratrooper here in 1940/41. The town suffered from strategic bombing. In April 1945, the aerodrome served as starting place of the "Sonderkommando Elbe" unit, only a few days before the local authorities surrendered to the US Army. On May 4, the commander of the Wehrmacht 12th Army, General Maximilian von Edelsheim, signed the capitulation document at the Stendal town hall.