Waldheide, Natural glade in Heilbronn, Germany

Waldheide is a roughly 50-hectare clearing in the Heilbronn city forest, about one kilometer north to south and 500 meters east to west, at around 310 meters above sea level. It lies on a flat step of the Keuper formed by erosion-resistant Schilfsandstein, about 150 meters above the city and four kilometers east-southeast of the center.

The Waldheide was laid out as a military drill ground from 1883, when Heilbronn again became a Württemberg garrison town; the city cleared a 400-by-400-metre area for it. From 1951 US forces occupied the site, and from 1974 they built it into a base for nuclear-armed Pershing IA missiles, replaced by Pershing II from 1984 under the NATO Double-Track Decision. A 1985 rocket-stage explosion killed three people and fuelled West Germany's peace movement. After the 1987 INF Treaty the US Army withdrew by 1991, and the site was renaturalised by 1997.

The name Waldheide took hold in the early Weimar Republic years, possibly coined by Heilbronn's Volksbildungsausschuss, which held a summer "Volksfest auf der Waldheide" in 1922; the city later adopted it officially. Before 1945 the clearing was called Angerweide, and during its time as a drill ground locals nicknamed it "Exe" or "Esel".

The glade lies about four kilometres east-southeast of Heilbronn's centre, roughly 150 metres above the town, reached via the Donnbronner Straße (Kreisstraße 9550) off Moltkestraße past Trappensee and Jägerhaus. The site is flat and open. From April to October, some runs of city bus line 1 continue past Trappensee up to the Waldheide on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The site was called Fort Redleg by the US Army. On 11 January 1985 a Pershing II rocket stage exploded during a test, killing three soldiers; the accident fuelled West Germany's debate on missile dangers and strengthened the peace movement. The army left by 1991 under the 1987 INF Treaty, and the area was renaturalised by 1997.