Falkenhagen bunker
The Falkenhagen bunker is a bunker near Falkenhagen in the Märkisch-Oderland district , Brandenburg, which was built by the Wehrmacht from 1939 to 1943 for the production of chlorine trifluoride , camouflaged as N-Stoff, and sarin . Under the name Seewerk , the plant in Falkenhagen belonged to a series of ammunition factories that were operated by Deutsche Sprengchemie GmbH (DSC) until 1945 on behalf of the Wehrmacht .
From 1958 to 1964 the former Wehrmacht bunker was converted by the Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD) into an ABC-safe command center under the Warsaw Treaty .
history
The bunker was planned as an underground production facility at the end of the 1930s. Construction work began in 1939. It consisted of a central railway tunnel and underground rooms as a production facility for chlorine trifluoride. Until it was conquered by the Red Army in 1945, the bunker was used by the Wehrmacht.
After 1945 the area around the bunker was a restricted area, with a legend as a hospital or sanatorium and from 1959 as a vehicle repair shop. As early as 1946, the Falkenhagen area (without mentioning the bunker or its use) was named as the location for the rear command post of a front of the GSSD . Today's bunker was rebuilt in the 1960s by special forces from the NVA on behalf of the GSSD. The GSSD provided media and building materials for this conversion. The bunker was put into operation for the new function in 1965.
use
Until 1945, chlorine trifluoride was produced here for the rocket industry of the Third Reich, which was called N-substance for camouflage reasons. The room layout that emerged at that time was: a railway tunnel, two production halls and an annex for storing the end product. Immediately before the conquest by the Red Army , work began on expanding the sarin production facilities in the southern adjoining area of the actual bunker facility; however, the systems were no longer completed.
In the operational plan of the GSSD, Falkenhagen was probably of great military importance from 1965. It has not yet been clarified whether this importance was also reflected in the use of the bunkered production halls. As of November 2008 it is assumed that the actual use of the bunker by the GSSD only took place after it was converted into a command post.
Little is known about the exact use during the Cold War . It is likely that the bunker had two periods of use and that it had a different owner before 1979. The military and political situation in Poland and Eastern Europe, however, prompted users to modernize the building and use it for another purpose. The end purpose could have been a forward command post (VGS) for the control of the armed forces of the Warsaw Treaty in the western theater of war. In addition to a combat command center, the telecommunications support of the property also speaks in favor of this. The object was integrated into the GSSD's tropospheric communication system with the directions Wünsdorf and Ahlbeck. There are no known direct contacts with the strategic tropospheric radio system BARS of the Warsaw Treaty.
construction
The Falkenhagen bunker is a four-storey bunker that was originally built in the 1940s using the cut-and-cover method and covered by soil covering at a height of 10 to 15 meters. Since the current bunker is largely an extension and conversion (from 1958) of the existing facility, the spatial and functional planning had to be based on the existing conditions. At the same time, large parts of the former production halls were "converted" by adding new floor ceilings for use as part of the management concept. The unusual, above-ground structural parts (towers) are still used for earlier use, but then for supply air, exhaust air, emergency exit and media supply. Further conversions, which also included the renewal and replacement of technical components, took place between 1969 and 1973 and after 1979. At the same time, further new buildings were erected on the property after 1979, which made it possible to use it as a command post for higher command posts, because the majority of the permanently available On-call staff had to and was allowed to live on site.
The bunker has four floors, since the ground-level, but covered, rail tunnel is already a basement; In addition, there is a height offset between the first and second basement floor due to the ventilation system, so the correct counting method would be UG1 - UG1.5 - UG2 - UG3 - UG4 - floor slab. (Without counting the raised floor for the media on the lowest floor as a separate floor).
The system has a usable size of approx. 14,000 m² (not including service rooms, heating tunnels and other media rooms) and had several entrances. The main entrance and the entrance for access “5 to 12” were created by converting the former rail tunnel into the facility. The emergency exit is part of the former emergency air discharge and was created through renovation. The bunker had several building parts above ground. In addition to a supply air tower, there are two other towers with large pipelines. The function was as follows:
- West tower: emergency exit and exhaust air discharge for the area of the third basement floor, also used for cable entry, because opening the structure caused considerable problems in other places.
- Tower middle: Supply air tower for the emergency power systems and exhaust air tower for the exhaust gases from the generators
- Tower east: supply air tower for the entire system.
The emergency exhaust tower on the slope lost its importance after the connection to the earlier tiled emergency exhaust tunnel was cut in order to build an emergency exit that ends in the third basement (if the tunnel is counted as basement 1).
The property had other buildings which, after the renovation, had no structural connection to the manufacturing bunker. Before that, the generator building and the earlier emergency exit had a connection to the structure; However, these were closed as planned during the renovation in order to make the entire structure safe and to achieve a hermetic seal when the structure was transferred to a higher operating level. The water tower actually had a storage function during production times during World War II, which the tower later lost and was used as a dog kennel in the inner security ring and resting place for tired guards.
In the fourth basement there were several departments that were separated from each other by pressure doors. Two large central corridors run in the center, from which approx. 20 chambers of 15 m² in size can be reached. The dimension of the corridors and the large number of such small spaces is normal for a protective structure with the use described at the beginning.
Barracks and grounds
The area around the bunker is built on with a large number of now abandoned buildings. There was no subsequent use, the Soviet dismantling commandos handed over the property intact to the then Federal Property Office in Frankfurt (Oder). The Federal Property Office managed the property until 2003, when it was sold to a Berlin investor.
Emergency air tower
Tower 2
Tower 3
Water tower
literature
- Heini Hofmann: Secret object "Seewerk": From the secret object of the Third Reich to the most important secret object of the Warsaw Treaty , Heinrich-Jung-Verlagsges., 2nd, extended edition, 2008, ISBN 978-3-930588-79-4
- Peter Rentsch, Thomas Kemnitz: Falkenhagen management complex, edition vimudeap, 2005, ISBN 978-3-000155-34-5
- Operational plan of the Soviet occupation forces in Germany , 1946, In: Militärhistorisches Journal
- Joachim Kampe: Cold War bunkers, video documentation on the bunkers in Falkenhagen, Harnekop, Kolkwitz, Strausberg, Wollenberg and Wünsdorf
- Jenny Teichmann: A failed secret project - the Falkenhagen bunker system 1938-45. Master thesis submitted in the summer semester 2015 at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt / Oder.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heini Hofmann, "Secret Object Seewerk", Heinrich-Jund Verlag, Zella-Mehlis / Meiningen, ISBN 978-3-930588-79-4
- ↑ Peter Rentsch, Thomas Kemnitz: Leadership Complex Falkenhagen , edition vimudeap, 2005, ISBN 978-3-000155-34-5
- ↑ Authorities close the bunker in Falkenhagen , Berliner Morgenpost, December 12, 2012
Coordinates: 52 ° 25 ′ 48.6 ″ N , 14 ° 21 ′ 19.6 ″ E