Explosion accident in Detmold

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Monument in the Ehrenhain on Blomberger Straße

The explosion in Detmold was an accident in a munitions factory on Elisabethstrasse in Detmold . On May 31, 1917, 72 people died there, the majority of them young women working in the factory.

The ammunition factory was located in the Fürstlich-Lippische Staatswerkstätten , which had been built for the production of war material . The investigation into the accident revealed unauthorized productions and a blatant disregard of safety regulations. After investigations by the public prosecutor's office, ammunition production began in the middle of a residential area . Due to the prevailing censorship , the accident and its cause could not be reported in the media. However, it was not possible to keep the disaster a secret from the Detmold population. Trade unions and social democrats managed to get the incident dealt with in the Detmold city council and in the Lippe state parliament . Ultimately, however, no one was held accountable.

The factory manager was Walter Keller from Barmen . He had obtained arms contracts and business was flourishing. After the devastating explosion, production continued and just a few days later the press was looking for new workers. On June 3, 1917, the victims were buried in a mass grave and declared "heroic dead of the fatherland". Keller demonstratively took over the cost of a so-called “honor grove”, as indicated by a plaque on the back of the monument at the entrance. In this way, the victims of an avoidable accident were put on an equal footing with those killed at the front.

At the Detmold cemetery on Blomberger Straße there is a memorial next to three bronze plates in the lawn of the honor grove with the names of the victims. It bears the inscription:

"These men and women were killed in the explosion in a munitions factory on May 31, 1917"

- Memorial at the Detmold cemetery

The explosion caused the introduction of the trade inspection in Lippe.

The Detmold playwright Reiner Woop addressed the misfortune in his drama "Shock" and staged it as a memorial project in Hangar 21 for the 100th anniversary.

literature

  • Erich Kittel: home chronicle of the Lippe district . Ed .: Archive for German Heimatpflege GmbH. Cologne 1978, p. 280 .
  • Christian Kuhnke: Lippe Lexicon . Detmold 2000, ISBN 3-935454-00-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Christian Kuhnke: Lippe Lexicon . Detmold 2000, ISBN 3-935454-00-7 .
  2. ↑ a b c Ehrenhain. Retrieved August 29, 2010 .
  3. ↑ "Shock" - a drama of urban history . ( hangar-21.eu [accessed September 20, 2017]). "Shock" - an urban historical drama ( memento of the original from September 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hangar-21.eu

Coordinates: 51 ° 56 ′ 28.5 "  N , 8 ° 51 ′ 51.3"  E