Bunker in Emden
The seaport city of Emden in East Frisia has a large number of preserved bunkers . During the Second World War , 35 large air raid bunkers and another 141 shatterproof small bunkers were built in Emden from 1940 . This may be explained by the importance of Emden in the Second World War as a port and shipyard location and resulted in corresponding air raids .
Many of the structures have been preserved to this day, but have been used for other purposes over time.
prehistory
The first command post for air raid protection in Emden was put into operation in 1938 under the northern extension in a cellar of the inn church on the former Kleine Brückstrasse (behind the town hall). From there, in the event of an attack on the city of Emden, the air raid protection measures, the security and auxiliary services as well as the members of the Reich Air Defense Force were to be coordinated. This command post was set up with gas-tight doors, a gas lock , several emergency exits, a telephone exchange and a command post that was separated from the other rooms. Due to an order of the Reich Commissioner for Aviation from November 8, 1935, the city of Emden belonged to the first order air raid shelter. Even at this time, air raid exercises were held in Emden at regular intervals, organized by the NSDAP .
The party called on “tried and tested national comrades” for air protection at an early stage and the population was made aware of the problems of comprehensive air protection. From 1937, exercises were carried out on the grounds of the Neutor School with women from Emden who were equipped with gas masks, steel helmets and overalls. Exercises were also held at the Kaiser-Friedrich-Schule, during which the Reichsluftschutz explained the effects of incendiary bombs.
Preparations were made by the Reich Air Protection Guidelines and the Reich Aviation Ministry on June 26, 1935 ( Reich Air Protection Act) for simple protection in the event of a possible air war on the civilian population . As early as 1936, the people's gas masks of the type "VM 37" were issued to the population in the German Reich . Everyone, young or old, had to purchase a gas mask. It wasn't long before the Second World War began.
At the beginning of the war on September 1, 1939, with the exception of four public air raid shelters and a command post, no further air raid protection structures for the population (population 35,189) had been completed. After Great Britain and France entered the war on September 3, 1939, British aircraft entered the rest of the German Reich over East Frisia and the German Bight . According to the war diary of the main customs office in Emden, more flights were recorded over our area. On November 8, 1939, a British aircraft was driven over the port by the flak. Likewise, on November 17, 1939 at 11:30 a.m. and on the same day at 12:00 p.m., three planes were made out over the Knock. On November 27, 1939, three foreign planes were flying over the Dollart and turning west.
At this point in time, 70 public air raid shelters were built in the urban area by the expanded air protection forces , which only offered poor protection against air raids. Of the around 5,000 existing buildings, 2,000 had appropriate cellars that could only be restored to a limited extent. The basement ceilings were stiffened, beams were drawn in and the windows and doors were provided with splinter protection. If there were bombs in the immediate vicinity, deaths were expected. However, previous experience had shown that the cellars prepared in this way would consistently withstand the collapse of the houses. Up to 5400 people could find shelter in the cellars.
The first major attack on the city of Emden took place on July 13, 1940, in which seven residents were killed, 17 injured and 78 left homeless. The bombs fell in the area of the Chain Bridge, Mühlenstrasse and Brückstrasse. The actual target, the telegraph office, was badly damaged on the east side. On July 17, 1940, the siren signal was introduced: “Fliegeralarm”. Going to the air raid shelters in the event of an alarm became mandatory for the population.
Those responsible at the time in the city administration recognized early on how important it was to protect citizens from possible bombing attacks. It is thanks in particular to Lord Mayor Renken that the citizens of Emden were "bunkered". If it had not been for the air raid shelters, many citizens would have lost their lives in the nights of bombing that followed the attack in July 1940. In the autumn of 1940, work began on moving the city's irreplaceable art treasures, the armory, the silver treasure, the painting collection and the city archive from Emden and later to the newly built air raid shelter .
Construction of the bunker
The construction of bomb-proof bunkers began in Emden on November 21, 1940 immediately after the “Führer's Decree” of October 10, 1940. The first construction site was set up by the newly established Emden Air Protection Building Office on November 22, 1940. By the time the first bunker in Lienbahnstrasse was completed on June 27, 1941, the British bombers had carried out 28 attacks on the city of Emden, in which 33 were killed and 73 injured. From September 1, 1939 to August 20, 1941, there were 429 air raids in Emden with an average duration of about three hours and 31 attacks. The air raids and attacks by the “terror bombers” were essentially given and flown at night. The German Reich spent a total of 20 million RM on the construction of the shelter in Emden.
The Holzsägerstrasse air raid shelter (special building no.1)
| Size of the building |
|---|
| Length: 14.06 m |
| Width: 13.70 m |
| Height above ground: 18.35 m |
| Storeys: six |
| Basement: one |
| Construction pit: 4.35 m |
| Reinforced concrete: 2,901 m³ |
| Volume: 3,039 m³ |
| Slab thickness: 1.40 m |
| Wall thickness: 1.10 m |
| Inner walls: 0.40 m |
| Berths: 276 |
| Seats: 84 |
Unfortunately, the construction files of the Holzsägerstrasse air raid shelter can no longer be found. There are still the drawings of the building, a certain number of photographs and other information from the building output book, etc., but this only begins on March 16, 1943, when the bunker was already completed. Before the bunker was built, the houses at Große Burgstrasse 23 and 24 stood on the property. After the building was demolished on April 1, 1941, the foundation and excavation work for the bunker was carried out. The bunker stands on 10.0 m long wooden stakes that have been driven into the ground. There is a photo from July 1941 of the finished base with the reinforcing iron in the lattice reinforcement. The actual planning of the air protection building was completed by the air protection construction office on June 4, 1941.
The concrete work on the Holzsägerstrasse bunker was completed on April 14, 1942. The Petershagen construction equipment was transported back to Delmenhorst on August 18, 1942.
According to the construction plan dated June 4, 1941, the bunker contained a total of 28 rooms for the civilian population. There were two different room sizes: depth 3.0 m and width 2.10 m and 3.0 m by 3.20 m. In the smaller rooms there were three beds and in the remaining nine beds one above the other. In each mezzanine there were small kitchens and the toilets with washrooms. The common areas for those seeking protection were on the opposite mezzanine. The guard for the bunker, an infirmary and nurses' room, the ventilation system and the emergency power generator were housed in the basement. Originally, according to the present plan, an anti-aircraft gun was to be built on the bunker to ward off low-flying aircraft. The service teams, ammunition and equipment were to be housed on the top two floors. The flak stand for a 3.7 cm anti-aircraft gun was not built due to interventions by the city administration and Mayor Renken as the local air raid protection officer, as there would be a great risk to the houses from flak fragments in the city area. After negotiations with the Navy, the installation of anti-aircraft guns in residential areas of the urban area was generally refrained from.
The bunker location in the old town was laid out in such a way that it could be reached within ten minutes from the respective apartments. When designing the air raid shelter, greater emphasis was placed on the comfort of the occupants for its users. The stress of an attack should not be increased by inconveniences such as crampedness, bad air or poor sanitation. Rather, a wide staircase, sufficient exits and entrances, bedrooms and lounges, kitchens and heating were planned for the cold season. Attention was paid to good interior lighting and good ventilation of the bunker.
The bunkers after the war
Many smaller bunkers were demolished or filled, three high bunkers were completely destroyed and seven were deconsolidated. The other bunkers were preserved because they were used as storage buildings, for living or as a hotel immediately after the war. In a bunker in the city center, the Bunkermuseum of the association Arbeitskreis Bunkermuseum has been set up since 1995 , which describes the history of the Emden bunkers, the air protection, persecution and the people who found protection in the air raid shelters. Since the demolition of many bunkers was out of the question, some of them have been used for civil protection and a larger part has meanwhile been used for other purposes.
Here are a few examples:
- Culture : The culture bunker was opened in the Barenburg district in 2005 . The bunker was prepared with a financial outlay of more than two million euros. Sections of the outer wall were removed with a diamond drill in order to be able to install sufficiently large windows. The building now houses an event center and a community center for the district.
- Housing : Three bunkers in the city center have been converted into residential buildings. Here, too, parts of the wall or the ceiling for windows and stairs were cut out. One building was completely surrounded by a clinker brick cladding, the other whitewashed to make the bunkers, which are usually gray-brown, more friendly. The third was planted with ivy and is now completely overgrown. In a fourth case, also in the city center, a multi-storey residential building was built directly in front of a bunker, the bunker itself (which is now hardly visible from the main front of the house) houses the supply facilities for the residential building. A similar concept is being pursued for the construction of a new, multi-storey building for the Emden city administration (construction started in 2005). Two penthouse apartments have been built on an air raid shelter in the Boltentor district . The interior of the bunker is currently being rebuilt.
- Music : Several bunkers in the city of Emden are used by music groups who have set up rehearsal rooms, recording studios, etc. there.
- Museum : The bunker museum has been set up in the former Holzsägerstrasse air raid shelter .
- Storage : Deutsche Bahn uses a bunker near the freight station as a storage facility, the Emden city administration also uses two bunkers as accommodation: The bunker in the Borssum district, for example, housed a large part of the relocated exhibits during the two-year renovation of the East Frisian State Museum (completed in 2005). A smaller bunker in the city center is used by the Emden city archive. In the past (and in some cases still today) businesses have also set up storage facilities in bunkers.
- Energy : The south facade of a bunker near the town hall was completely equipped with solar cells for energy generation, otherwise the bunker has been preserved in its original form.
- Miscellaneous : So far, no further use has been found for a number of other bunkers.
Web links
- Bunker Museum in Emden (with further information on building bunkers in the city)
- Culture bunker in Emden
- Air raid shelter in Emden
Coordinates: 53 ° 21 ′ 57.9 ″ N , 7 ° 12 ′ 13.5 ″ E