Bunker in Hamburg
In Hamburg in was World War II, more bunkers built than in any other city. Estimates assume 1200 bunkers and bunker-like shelters, most of which were underground. At the end of the war there were 1,051 bunkers. In 1950 there were still 1026 bunkers, including 76 high-rise bunkers, 415 tubular bunkers, 356 round bunkers and 11 air defense towers. In 2018 there were around 650 bunkers, including 57 high bunkers.
history
Bunker construction in World War II
Until the beginning of the Second World War, only a few public air raid shelters were built; for a long time, expanded cellars were considered sufficient to protect the civilian population. The large underground facilities such as at Spielbudenplatz and at the main train station , but also most of the other bunkers in the city area, were therefore not built until the so-called " Immediate Führer Program " from October 1940. This was triggered by the air raids on Berlin and other German cities by the British Royal Air Force in retaliation for the German Air Force attacks on Great Britain (" The Blitz ").
Softening after the end of the war
After the end of the war there was initially a phase of so-called “ loosening ”. At the instigation of the Allied Control Council , all bunker systems with a capacity of over 100 people were to be blown up or made unusable. However, many facilities were used as emergency shelters for bombed-out people and refugees, and there was also a risk that buildings in the neighborhood could be damaged if they were blown up. For this reason, many bunkers "that were necessary for the German civilian population" were excluded from the destruction and in 1950 the bunkers were completely stopped.
Rearmament in the Cold War
With the escalation of the Cold War after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the incorporation of the Federal Republic into NATO and the associated rearmament , a new civil defense system was set up and the bunker facilities were used again. The "guidelines for shelter structures" of July 27, 1955 largely corresponded to those of the "immediate Führer program" of 1940. From October 1957, replacement buildings had to be created for demolished bunkers. The “Protective Building Act” of November 1962 finally called for the restoration of existing air raid protection systems and conversion to the requirements of a possible nuclear war .
Bunker types
Tubular bunker
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By far the most common type of bunker in Hamburg were so-called tubular bunkers (officially: tubular protective structures ), which were mainly built in the densely built inner-city residential areas in backyards, parks or other open spaces close to the residential buildings. They could be "partially submerged" or completely underground and consisted of one to five concrete tubes, depending on the space available. With a wall thickness of around one meter, they were not considered bomb-proof, but merely offered protection from flying splinters and debris and were therefore officially not called bunkers, but shelter.
A 4-tube bunker of this type can be viewed today in the Hamburg Bunker Museum in the Hamm district , a smaller 2-tube bunker on Ernst-Thälmann-Platz is looked after by the Eppendorf history workshop and is occasionally opened for guided tours and readings.
Underground bunker
Bomb-proof underground bunkers were comparatively expensive to manufacture and were mainly built in the city center. At the time, the largest underground bunker in Hamburg was located under Spielbudenplatz in St. Pauli and was designed for 5000 people; others are located near the main train station ( underground bunker Steintorwall and Hachmannplatz), in the ramparts and at the Berliner Tor train station ( underground bunker Berlinertordamm ).
High bunker (bunker houses)
Bunker houses were standardized type buildings on a square or rectangular base, which were built in large numbers (around 100) as part of the immediate program from 1940/41, especially in residential areas near the city center. Free spaces were needed for their construction, some of which had arisen after the first air raids or were cleared by expropriations. The wall thickness for the bunker in the first construction phase was 1.10 meters, the ceiling thickness was 1.40 meters. The bunkers of the "second wave" had two meter thick outer walls and 2.50 meter thick end ceilings. Depending on their size, the bunker houses offered protection for up to 1200 people and were also designed for longer stays.
There were high bunkers throughout the city, especially in the densely populated inner-city residential areas from Altona to Eimsbüttel, Barmbek to Hamm or Wandsbek.
Round bunker (round protective structures)
Round bunkers or round protection structures were usually above-ground, single-storey structures that were erected in large numbers, primarily in the less populated outskirts of the city, e.g. B. in Finkenwerder . They were available in different sizes (for 25 to 100 people) and designs: the "bomb-proof" variants had an outer wall thickness of 1.10 m and a ceiling thickness of 1.40 m and were also equipped for a longer stay, while the lighter " Shelters ”with a wall thickness of 60 cm only offered protection from bomb fragments and debris flying around.
Round towers (Zombeck towers)
Even before the immediate program was issued, a total of eleven “Zombeck” air defense towers were erected in Hamburg between 1939 and 1941, nine of which still exist today. These towers are mostly located near train stations or bridges and were primarily intended for short-term stays by train travelers and passers-by. Each Zombeck tower was designed for 600 people; in fact, over 1000 people sought protection in each of the bombing raids on Hamburg .
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The two demolished round bunkers were located next to the Museum of Art and Industry at the main train station ( demolished in 2002 as part of the expansion of the bus station ) and on today's Ottenser Hauptstraße near Altona train station (demolished in 1951, now the Mercado shopping center ).
Another round tower is located in the harbor near the Arningstraße ferry terminal in Steinwerder . However, this is not a Zombeck tower, but a so-called “ring stair tower”, which instead of a stepless ramp has several staircases inside, each of which opens up one floor. Another ring stair tower was also located in Steinwerder on the site of the former Howaldtswerke near Rosshafen. It was demolished in 2009.
Flak towers
Submarine bunker
Plant protection bunker type "Salzgitter"
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This type of bunker, named after its presumed development location Salzgitter , was built around 200 times across the empire from 1944 as part of the so-called Geilenberg program , ten of them in the area of the Port of Hamburg alone. It served as a factory air raid shelter, primarily in the mineral oil industry . Typical for this type of bunker is the barrel-shaped ceiling with a thickness of 2.50 meters, the tubes were around 30 meters long and 4 meters wide.
Multipurpose systems (MZA)
Even when the bunkers were built in the Second World War, a later “use of peace” was often part of the concept, for example the underground bunker under Spielbudenplatz , which was planned from the start as an underground car park and is still used today.
As a multi-purpose plants , however, are signified those who in the course of the Cold War have been built since the 1960s. In addition to underground garages, this primarily affects several rapid transit stations that were newly built when the S-Bahn and U-Bahn network was expanded. In the event of war, these facilities would have been converted into shelters for up to 5,000 people within a short period of time. Trains were to serve as lounges in the stations and beds were to be set up on the platforms.
- Underground : Steinfurther Allee , Mümmelmannsberg , Niendorf Markt , Schippelsweg , Joachim-Mähl-Straße and Niendorf Nord .
- S-Bahn : Reeperbahn , Stadthausbrücke and Harburg Town Hall . The latter is Hamburg's largest shelter and designed for 5,000 people.
The shopping arcade above the Jungfernstieg station (intermediate level) was also intended to serve as a shelter in the event of war. The Landungsbrücken station , on the other hand, is not a multi-purpose facility. There are only two smaller shelters for a total of 180 people between the S-Bahn and U-Bahn levels.
Multi-purpose facilities used as underground car parks are located in the districts of Barmbek, Bergedorf, Neustadt and Rahlstedt. Because of a lack of financial resources, only urgently necessary structural maintenance measures have been carried out there since around the year 2000.
Civil reuse and dismantling
Immediately after the war, several bunkers were demolished and used for residential or other purposes. The best- known example is the former anti-aircraft bunker Heiligengeistfeld or the bunker at Allendeplatz used as a university institute. The underground bunker Steintorwall and the Zombeck Tower at the Berliner Tor served at times as a hotel, the Zombeck Tower at the Moorweide to this day as a cocktail bar. Numerous other bunkers were rented for a wide variety of commercial purposes, mostly as storage rooms or as rehearsal rooms for professional and amateur musicians ("music bunkers").
Favored by the expiry of the civil protection bond and advances in construction technology (diamond wire saw ), the remaining bunkers have been increasingly torn down or converted into offices and apartments since the turn of the millennium.
Example of a post-war renovation: Allendeplatz
Rebuilt in the early 2000s: Tonistrasse in Eilbek (2008)
Bunker Eilbeker Weg during the renovation (2014)
Barmbeker Strasse in Winterhude
Painted and converted bunker Löwenstrasse ( Falkenried-Terrassen )
Former MZA Drosselstraße built over with apartments (as of 2020)
Places of remembrance
Bunker memorials
- Since 1985, a memorial by the sculptor Hildegard Huza on Hamburger Strasse in Barmbek has been commemorating 370 people who were suffocated in a nearby air raid shelter during the air raids in July 1943 .
- In Wandsbek , a memorial plaque commemorates the former high-rise bunker Hogrevestraße, which was not yet completed at the time of the air raids and in which around 100 people fled, of whom over 40 were killed. In 1972 the bunker ruins were covered with earth and planted.
Bunker Museum Hamburg
The Hamburg Bunker Museum has existed since 1997 in a tube bunker built in 1940/41 in the Hamm district . The entrance is behind the Wichernkirche, which was rebuilt after the war was destroyed at Wichernsweg 16. The bunker consists of an entrance structure with stairs and gas lock , an emergency exit structure and four concrete tubes. The floor is about five meters underground, the tubes are each 17 meters long, two meters wide and have a clear height of 2.25 meters. Each of the tubes was intended for around 50 people, so there was space for 200 people in total. Dry toilets, heating and lighting as well as a hand-operated ventilation machine were planned. Wall inscriptions are preserved inside. Only the entrance and emergency exit structures are visible above ground.
In addition to items of equipment, the museum also exhibits documents on the subject of air protection and the various air raid shelters from World War II. Reports from contemporary witnesses who witnessed the Hamburg firestorm in Hamm in 1943 are also shown. The tube bunker is looked after by the Hamm district archive and has been entered in the Hamburg monument list since October 2002.
Hamburg underworlds
The non-profit association “Hamburger Unterwelten e. V. ”has existed since January 2006 and has set itself the goal of researching, maintaining and documenting underground structures in Hamburg. The association regularly offers guided tours through various buildings, including the Steintorwall underground bunker directly at the main train station and the Wedel auxiliary hospital under the Johann-Rist-Gymnasium .
Under Hamburg
The association was also founded in January 2006 and uses the Berlinertordamm underground bunker for public tours. On the initiative of the association, the bunker of the former governor Karl Kaufmann behind the Budge-Palais on Rothenbaum was placed under monument protection in 2010 and also used for guided tours. In addition to the bunkers, the focus is also on other underground structures such as tunnels and canals that are otherwise hidden from the public.
literature
- Ulrich Alexis Christiansen: Hamburg's dark worlds. The mysterious underground of the Hanseatic city. Ch. Links, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-473-0 .
- Michael Foedrowitz : Bunker Worlds. Air raid systems in northern Germany. Ch. Links, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86153-155-0 .
- Michael Grube, Christel Grube: Rosshafen ring stair tower. An air defense tower in Hamburg. Documentation. Books on Demand GmbH., Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8370-1750-2 ( series of the Hamburger Unterwelten eV 2), ( Info ).
- Ronald Rossig: Hamburg's bunker. Dark worlds of the Hanseatic city. Ch. Links, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86153-799-1 .
- Helga Schmal, Tobias Selke: Bunker - air protection and air defense construction in Hamburg. With the collaboration of Henning Angerer. Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1385-0 . ( Cultural authority, monument protection office. Topic series 7).
Web links
- Civil defense bunker in Hamburg Extract of the civil defense system database at geschichtsspuren.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Jochen Lambernd: Hamburg is a bunker stronghold. In: ndr.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, December 20, 2016, accessed on February 21, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Alexander Schuller: Nights in the cellar, days in the bunker. In: Hamburger Abendblatt , July 5, 2018, p. 10.
- ↑ Michael Foedrowitz: Bunker Worlds. Air barrier systems in Northern Germany , p. 9 ff.
- ↑ Foedrowitz, Bunkerwelten ... , p. 168.
- ↑ Foedrowitz, Bunkerwelten ... , p. 174.
- ↑ Foedrowitz, Bunkerwelten ... , p. 176.
- ↑ Schmal / Selke p. 65 ff.
- ↑ a b c The Hamburg Bunker Museum. In: hh-hamm.de, city district archive. District initiative Hamm for Leisure and Culture eV, accessed on May 20, 2011 .
- ^ Underground air raid shelter in Tarpenbekstraße The "Subbühne" - another memorial for Wolfgang Borchert - Eppendorf history workshop. Accessed June 3, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Schmal / Selke p. 64.
- ↑ Schmal / Selke p. 84 ff.
- ↑ Finkenwerder round bunker: Numerous round bunkers in Finkenwerder. In: Hamburg and Northern Germany. January 16, 2012, accessed March 15, 2020 .
- ↑ Schmal / Selke: Bunker. Air protection and air defense construction in Hamburg ... , p. 70 ff.
- ↑ a b Michael Grube: Air protection towers - construction types and types. In: geschichtsspuren.de. Retrieved February 21, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael and Christel Grube: Ringtreppenturm Rosshafen. (PDF; 6.6 MB) An air defense tower in Hamburg. In: Series of publications. Hamburger Unterwelten e. V., April 4, 2014, accessed on February 21, 2017 (free eBook for download).
- ↑ Rossig, Hamburgs Bunker, p. 46 f.
- ↑ Memorial plaque at the location of the former bunker. Retrieved February 7, 2017 .
- ↑ Ronald Rossig: Hamburg's Bunker. Dark Worlds of the Hanseatic City, Ch. Links Verlag 2014, p. 56 f.
- ↑ Hamburg Bunker Museum. (PDF; 295 kB) Air-Raid Shelter Museum Hamburg. District Initiative Hamm, January 17, 2014, accessed on February 21, 2017 (German, English).
- ↑ Michael Grube: Hamburger Unterwelten eV - Bunkers, Tunnels, Catacombs - Hamburger Unterwelten eV Accessed on March 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Ronald Rossig: under-hamburg eV - under-hamburg. Retrieved March 16, 2018 .
