Wittstock military training area

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Map of the former Wittstock military training area

The military training area Wittstock (also Bombodrom ) was a military training area in the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide in the northwest of the state of Brandenburg . It was used from 1952 to 1993 by the Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD) and then handed over to the Bundeswehr . Since the beginning of the 1990s, a political dispute developed over plans by the Bundeswehr to use the military training area as an air-to-ground firing range . In 2009 these plans were discarded. The use of the military training area was discontinued in 2011 by the Bundeswehr.

geography

The former military training area covers an area of ​​118.99 km² in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district in the area of ​​the cities of Wittstock / Dosse , Rheinsberg and Neuruppin and the municipality of Temnitzquell . The Brandenburg state road 15 ( Schweinrich - Neu Lutterow section ) runs through the northern part of the site.

On the former military training area there are large grasslands and heather areas of particular importance for nature conservation . Areas in the northern part of the site are included as a landscape conservation area in the Stechlin-Ruppiner Land nature park . In the central and southern part of the site, areas are designated as FFH area Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide . About 40 km² in the southern part are looked after as national natural heritage by the Heinz Sielmann Foundation .

history

Use by Soviet troops

The practice area in the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide was created in 1952 with the gradual use by the GSSD , which first carried out tank exercises there and later also increasingly trained low-level bombing . The original landowners were forced to lease the land to the Soviet Army on very favorable terms and sell it in 1959. The name Bombodrom goes back to the use by the Soviet Army . In 1992 the Soviet and Russian troops stopped all training flights. The Brandenburg citizens' initiative "Freie Heide" was founded with the aim of converting the practice area into tourist use. In 1993 the armed forces of the Russian Federation finally withdrew and the German government decided to continue using it for military purposes.

Use by the Bundeswehr and expansion plans

The German Air Force planned to use the area as a training area for low-level flights and bombing . A total of 1700 flight hours should be completed per year. This was justified with the relief of two smaller practice areas near Nordhorn and Siegenburg . A garrison of around 800 men was to be built near Wittstock.

According to the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of December 14, 2000, the Bundeswehr is not allowed to use the site for military exercises before the completion of a proper planning process in accordance with the rule of law.

On July 31, 2007, the Potsdam Administrative Court rejected the new operating license issued by the Ministry of Defense and thus upheld three lawsuits against the use of the Bombodrom by the German Armed Forces . Commissioning of the site for military training operations is therefore still prohibited. An appeal was accepted by the Higher Administrative Court in Berlin-Brandenburg and a decision was rejected on March 27, 2009. The Ministry of Defense initially insisted on his plans.

On July 2, 2009, the Bundestag spoke out against the planned air-to-ground firing range. The MPs followed a request from the Petitions Committee . On July 9, 2009, Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung announced that the Federal Government would refrain from expanding the Wittstock military training area and would not appeal the judgment of the Higher Administrative Court.

On April 21, 2010, Defense Minister Guttenberg announced in his speech that there was no “other military requirement” for the Wittstock military training area. The 80 people who are employed by the Bundeswehr in Wittstock will be withdrawn. The air space above the military training area will be released again. For the Prime Minister of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck , the citizens 'initiative "Freie Heide" and the local communities who fought for 17 years against its use as a military training area, this is a great success of a broad citizens' movement against the bombing site.

The last 80 soldiers who were stationed in the garrison near Wittstock were continuously withdrawn before the command post at the Wittstock military training area was officially dissolved by the Bundeswehr on January 13, 2011.

Resistance to expansion plans of the Bundeswehr

"Free Heide" warning pillar 2007

The planned expansion of the military training area led to protests from the local population, the tourism industry and anti-militarist groups . The vast majority of the population in the region believed that the Bombodrome would destroy the prospect of economic growth through tourism. The district council of the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district as well as the state parliaments of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Berlin House of Representatives had positioned themselves accordingly. All relevant state parties supported the resistance against the bombodrome, but also federal politicians, for example the Vice-Presidents of the Bundestag Petra Pau ( Die Linke ) and Katrin Göring-Eckardt ( Alliance 90 / The Greens ).

Protest marches were an essential means of the protest movement. The largest Easter march in Germany took place in the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide with more than 10,000 visitors in 2009. Another focus was legal disputes, a total of 27 court cases were won. On March 3, 2007, the FREIeHEIDe initiative received the Göttingen Peace Prize on behalf of all initiatives against the Bombodrom . On June 13, 2008 , Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck also deputized the award of the Order of Merit of the State of Brandenburg to the co-founder and spokesman of the citizens' initiative Freie Heide, Benedikt Schirge .

The Bundeswehr put forward two arguments in favor of using the training area: on the one hand, the burden distribution between East and West Germany, and on the other hand, exercise opportunities are necessary to maintain operational readiness. Winfried Nachtwei ( MP B90 / Greens ), member of the Defense Committee of the Bundestag , expressed the opinion in his opinion that the dropping of unguided bombs at low altitude, as it should be trained on the training area, neither for the national defense nor for the tasks in the area international crisis operations is necessary.

The novel Die Nachhut by Holger Witzel , published in 2008 under the pseudonym Hans Waal, plays in part on and around the former Bombodrom site and uses motifs from the demonstration movement for the plot.

After military use

The long-term use of the military training area as a firing range led to an extremely high level of old ammunition. Estimates assume around 1.5 million grenades, bombs and duds. Live ammunition parts continue to explode, triggered by erosion or wildlife. In the next 15 years, the federal government intends to provide 80 million euros for securing the site, which, according to current estimates, should only be enough for around 3% of the site.

Public use of the site is not foreseeable until further notice. The Heinz Sielmann Foundation is considering settling bison on part of the site based on the model of the Döberitzer Heide . The barracks have been demolished since summer 2016. In their place, photovoltaic open space systems are to be built. In spring 2017, the research project NaTec - KRH started, which investigates the use of the latest techniques of geo remote sensing and automatic robotics for heather maintenance under the aspects of nature conservation and ecosystem research. For this purpose, in addition to the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, the Helmholtz Center Potsdam - German Research Center for Geosciences is involved in the development of a comprehensive, remote sensing-based monitoring plan for species and habitats for at least six years. The Kyritz-Ruppiner Heide is thus identified as a model area for the development of the latest methods of biodiversity monitoring in the long term.

Web links

Commons : Wittstock military training area  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry of Defense : Administrative decision of the Federal Ministry of Defense on the future military use of the military training area and air-to-ground firing range Wittstock. July 9, 2003 ( bundeswehr.de [PDF; 100  kB ; accessed on December 31, 2014]).
  2. ↑ Landscape profile 77601 Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide. (No longer available online.) Federal Agency for Nature Conservation , March 1, 2012, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on December 31, 2014 . 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.bfn.de
  3. ↑ "Bombodrom" soon to be Sielmann's natural landscape Kyritz-Ruppiner-Heide. Heinz Sielmann Foundation , February 24, 2014, accessed on December 31, 2014 .
  4. ^ Hans-Peter Richter: "The" Bombodrom "in Brandenburg - A military base preparing the new wars?
  5. ↑ Chronology of the dispute over the "Bombodrom" ( memento from September 28, 2008 in the web archive archive.today ) on ndr.de
  6. ↑ a b Jung insists on military use of the Bombodrom. In: Märkische Allgemeine . July 16, 2008.
  7. ↑ The Bundeswehr does not use the “Bombodrom”. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010, accessed on August 14, 2020 . .
  8. ↑ No low-level flights over the "Bombodrom". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . July 31, 2007.
  9. ↑ Jung sticks to the plans for the air-to-ground firing range in the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide. January 2008.
  10. ↑ Government renounces the "Bombodrom". In: The time . July 9, 2009.
  11. ^ A b Peter Rieck: Decommissioning of the Wittstock military training area command. Armed Forces Support Command, accessed April 5, 2012 .
  12. ↑ Platzeck: No bomb dropping point in the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide. March 31, 2004.
  13. ↑ "Bombodrom" capitulation inspires friends and foes. in Spiegel Online . July 9, 2009.
  14. ↑ Answers from the Bundeswehr to the most frequently asked questions about the future use of the Wittstock training area.
  15. ↑ Statement ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the “Supplementary Justification” of the BMVg on the “Necessity of the immediate commissioning of the TrÜbPl Wittstock by the Bundeswehr as an air-to-ground firing range” of December 6, 2005 by Winfried Nachtwei. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gruene-opr.de
  16. ↑ Hans Waal: The rearguard . Plöttner, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-938442-43-2 .
  17. ↑ An explosive legacy - Brandenburg and the Bombodrom. Contribution to the ZDF program Frontal 21 on November 29, 2011 by Johannes Hupka-Enwaldt and Melanie Stanszus ( manuscript PDF).
  18. ↑ Andreas Vogel: Wisente for the Bombodrom Natur Sielmann Foundation wants to use the Wittstock-Ruppiner Heide. In: Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung. November 19, 2011.
  19. ↑ NaTec - KRH

Coordinates: 53 ° 5 ′ 10 "  N , 12 ° 38 ′ 42"  E