Burgwald barracks

Burgwald barracks
country	Germany
local community	Frankenberg (Eder)
Coordinates :	51 ° 2 '  N , 8 ° 47'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 2 '7 "  N , 8 ° 46' 56"  E
Workforce	800 soldiers and civilian employees
Stationed troops
Battalion Electronic Warfare 932 Family Care Center Frankenberg / Hessen Regional Security and Support Company North Hesse (Supplementary Troop Part 2) Support Personnel Regional Security and Support Company North Hesse Support Personnel Location Elder Frankenberg / Eder
Formerly stationed units
Artillery battalion 22 insert reinforcement Fernmeldebataillon 320 driving school group Frankenberg telecommunications training company 427 telecommunications training company 5 / III telecommunications training company 6 / III Fernmeldebataillon 320 telecommunications company 2 (EW) telecommunications company 5 (EW) telecommunications regiment 320 Heeresinstandsetzungslogistik base Schwarzenborn branch Frankenberg (Eder) repair training company 6 / III repair training company 11 / III Landeskommando Hesse family care center Frankenberg / Eder lightweight engineering battalion 340 (GerEinh) material equipment medical premises 44/13 Engineer battalion 743 (GerEinh) rocket artillery 22 sanitary unit Frankenberg (Eder) medical center Stadtallendorf subunits Frankenberg (Eder) site telecommunications equipment 415/212 Truppenarzt Frankenberg Wall Master troop 436 Wall champion squad 441/9 dental group 413/2 dental clinic (Terr) H 413 dental station H 05/2
Location of the Burgwald barracks in Hesse

The Burgwald-Kaserne is a barracks of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg (Eder) , in which since 1962 mainly telecommunication troops and electronic warfare units were housed. It has been home to the 932 Electronic Warfare Battalion since 2003 . The barracks area covers about 11.5 hectares. About 800 soldiers and civilian workers are currently stationed there.

Prehistory of the location

The history of the Burgwald military site near Frankenberg (Eder) goes back to the 1930s. In 1935 the National Socialists planned for an ammunition plant for the Luftwaffe southwest of Frankenberg and north of Wiesenfeld in the forest area on an area of ​​155 hectares. In May 1936, construction work began on the air ammunition facility 2 / XII. A total of around 2000 workers had moved together. 125 bunkers, 10 warehouses, 5 workhouses, 15 tool sheds, a wash house, a commandant's office, officers 'apartments, soldiers' quarters, workshop buildings, fire brigade, parachute hall, railway unloading halls, water house, vehicle administration and various residential buildings were built. In addition, a railway connection was built that branched off the Marburg – Warburg line south of the Birkenbringhausen station. From 1937, aircraft bombs and other on-board weapons and anti-aircraft ammunition were stored in the ammunition facility. Construction work was completed in 1938. In the course of the Second World War , aerial bombs with chemical warfare agents were added. Due to the advance of the Allied forces, the Wehrmacht began transporting chemical weapons before the end of the war. 1000 bombs filled with the nerve gas tabun were transported to the Lossa ammunition depot .

On March 29, 1945, units of the 104th US Infantry Division took the facility. They found 3400 tabun bombs (50 liters each), 1356 Weißkreuz bombs (500 kilograms each), 9200 Grünkreuz bombs (250 kilograms each) and 500 Grünkreuz bombs (50 kilograms each). The US troops transported the munitions stocks, partially destroyed them and disposed of the remaining ammunition. 118 of the 125 bunkers of the munitions plant were blown up, while the storage and production halls were mostly preserved and from 1947 onwards were used for civilian purposes by commercial enterprises. This is how the Industriehof, which later became the Burgwald district of the municipality of the same name, was created .

Construction and usage history

While many other cities and municipalities in the Federal Republic tried in the second half of the 1950s to establish a location for the Bundeswehr, the city of Frankenberg (Eder) was not one of them. Rather, it was the military area command IV of the Bundeswehr that wanted to close the gap in the Kassel - Fritzlar - Marburg - Butzbach military line by stationing an infantry battalion in Frankenberg with a strength of 900 to 1000 soldiers . The mayor informed city councilors and city councilors about these plans on March 25, 1957. On May 27, 1957, the city council gave a majority approval in principle to the project. The faction of the SPD was against it and feared disadvantages for tourism and price developments in the city. On August 30, 1957, a 15-member government commission visited Frankenberg to find a suitable location for the barracks. Initially, three locations were examined, but finally an area south of the city area at the Burgwald, near the industrial yard and the former air ammunition plant 2 / XII of the Wehrmacht was favored.

On December 9, 1957, the mayor informed the city council that the first talks about a land purchase had taken place. A total of four farmers with 11.5 hectares should be used. The renewed referral to the city council on May 17, 1958 led to the approval of the construction of the barracks on the condition that the city would not incur any costs. Again the SPD parliamentary group voted against it. It was now thought of the stationing of a field artillery battalion and possibly a regimental staff. A practice area was to be created on the remaining areas of the former ammunition plant. At the same time, 110 families of Bundeswehr soldiers were to be accommodated in Frankenberg. On September 1, 1958, the state government also approved the project, with 1024 soldiers from an artillery battery and a close-up reconnaissance battalion being stationed. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on November 11, 1959 with planned construction costs of around DM 20 million. The construction of the infrastructure was started by mid-1960. Construction began on June 6, 1960. While the topping-out ceremony for the commercial and administrative buildings could already be celebrated on June 22, 1961, this did not take place until November 17, 1961 for the troop accommodation, the laundry and the heating center.

The Wallmeistertrupp 436 was formed as early as 1961 and was deployed in the Burgwald barracks on October 1, 1973 until it was renamed Wallmeistertrupp 442/2 and relocated to the Fulda site. He was later replaced by the Wallmeistertrupp 441/9, who came from Hessisch Lichtenau ( Blücher barracks ).

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd batteries of Artillery Battalion 22 were the first to be ordered to move to the Burgwald barracks on February 15, 1962. By order of September 15, 1959, the battalion had been set up in the Donnerberg camp in Eschweiler near Aachen . It belonged to Field Artillery Regiment 2 in Kassel, which was subordinate to the 2nd Grenadier Division. The 2nd battery, formed on January 16, 1960, was relocated to Wolfhagen on April 4, 1960 , and from there it came to the Burgwald barracks. The 1st and 3rd batteries are set up on the Schwarzenborn military training area on September 16, 1961. On February 15, 1962, the marching orders for all three batteries were given to the Burgwald barracks. On May 28, 1962, part of the 22nd Artillery Battalion with around 60 soldiers moved into the barracks. A few days earlier, on May 25, 1962, an advance command of the telecommunications battalion 320 had inspected the barracks after the order for this unit and the telecommunications training company 427 from the Federal Ministry of Defense to the III. Corps had fared. The command had to find out that the construction work in the barracks had not yet been completed. Some quarters were not ready for occupancy, the property was not fenced in, telecommunications lines had not yet been laid and rooms with the furniture that had been delivered were blocked. Nevertheless, on June 1, 1962, 144 soldiers arrived at the barracks to set up the 320 telecommunications battalion. They were followed on July 1, 1962 by another 187 men. In addition, 95 recruits were called up for duty in the barracks. On July 18, 1962, the barracks were handed over with a ceremony in the town of Frankenberg.

The artillery battalion was 22 with short-range missiles of the type MGR-1 Honest John equipped, could carry nuclear warheads. As a rule, these units were therefore stationed in the vicinity of special ammunition depots, in which US units kept watch over the nuclear warheads and would have issued them to the Bundeswehr in the event of an incident. Frankenberg did not have such a warehouse in the immediate vicinity. At the Harthberg barracks in Schwalmstadt - Treysa, however, there was a special ammunition store . On June 16, 1962, the 4th battery of the battalion, set up in Schwarzenborn and Gießen , moved to Treysa. The 5th battery was already located here, which was set up in Neustadt / Hessen on April 6, 1961 and moved to Schwalmstadt on September 25, 1961. From February 2 to 7, 1969, the battalion staff and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd batteries were finally relocated to Treysa and the unit was renamed the 22nd rocket artillery battalion. The battalion ended its service there on September 30, 1992 after the political situation had changed due to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification.

The telecommunications battalion 320 set up on June 1, 1962 in the Burgwald barracks as a unit of III. Corps existed until September 30, 1992. It was responsible in particular for the acoustic monitoring of Warsaw Pact troops in the south of the GDR during the Cold War . For this purpose, the telecommunications operators accessed the "telecommunications reconnaissance center near the border" with surveillance technology in a tower on the Hoher Meissner as early as August 1962. From 1972 the Burgwald barracks also had a high-frequency antenna field for acoustic monitoring. From June 1, 1962 to the 1980s, the battalion had a reinforcement. The battalion was reclassified to the 320 telecommunications regiment on October 1, 1992. In 2003, another reclassification into the Electronic Warfare Battalion 932 was carried out. It initially consisted of 5 companies. On April 1, 2013 a 6th company (supplementary troop part 2) was added.

The telecommunications training company 427 set up on June 1, 1962 was renamed on July 1, 1980 to telecommunications training company 5 / III. In 1994 the company was integrated into the 320 telecommunications regiment.

On September 17, 1962, 60 of the planned 174 apartments for families of the Bundeswehr soldiers had already been occupied and 34 were under construction.

On September 1, 1970, the 743 engineer battalion was formed as a device unit in the Burgwald barracks. On the same day it was renamed the light engineer battalion 340 (equipment unit). It was stored in Emmerzhausen in 1974 in the mobilization base there, renamed Pionierbataillon 340 on October 1, 1980 and disbanded on September 30, 1993.

Telecommunications training company 6 / III, which was set up in the Falckenstein barracks in Koblenz in 1966, was relocated to the Burgwald barracks in 1974 and renamed to maintenance training company 6 / III on October 1, 1975. In 1981 this unit was given the name of repair training company 11 / III. On October 1, 1993, she was transferred to the Westerwald barracks in Montabaur , where she retired in 1996.

On August 1, 1979, Telecommunication Company 2 (Eloka) and Telecommunication Company 5 (Eloka) were set up, which belonged to the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Division and 5th Panzer Division, respectively. Both companies were dissolved on April 1, 1992 and incorporated into the 320 telecommunications regiment.

There was also protest in Frankenberg (Eder) against the NATO double decision of December 12, 1979. The peace movement demonstrated on the edge of public vows in the city in the 1980s.

The Frankenberg driving school group began its service on January 1, 1986, and stayed here until it was closed on March 31, 1994.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the mission and everyday life of the units in the Burgwald barracks also changed. In 1991, recruits from the new federal states were welcomed to Frankenberg (Eder) for the first time.

The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 brought the soldiers of the Burgwald barracks to new areas of operations abroad. In particular, from 2002 the Electronic Warfare Battalion 932 was deployed in Afghanistan . On June 7, 2003, a suicide attack occurred in Kabul , in which four German soldiers were killed and many more injured. A memorial stone in the barracks today commemorates these victims.

On January 1, 2007, the Hessen State Command set up the Frankenberg / Eder Family Care Center, which has been called the Frankenberg / Hesse Family Care Center since February 1, 2013.

Since March 3, 2009, the army repair logistics base Schwarzenborn has been active with the Frankenberg (Eder) branch in the Burgwald barracks.

After the suspension of compulsory military service, volunteer recruits were welcomed for the first time in the Burgwald barracks in July 2011.

The deployment decision of the Federal Ministry of Defense in 2011, which sealed the closure of many locations, was awaited with concern, but the Burgwald barracks in Frankenberg (Eder) were not included. On October 26, 2011, Federal Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière ( CDU ) announced that the location would be retained, but that the number of posts should be reduced from 1,060 to 680. Instead of closing the Frankenberg (Eder) site, the Alfred Delp barracks in Donauwörth with the Electronic Warfare Battalion 922 stationed there were given up.

The regional security and support company North Hesse was formed on April 1, 2013 and is still stationed in the Burgwald barracks today. It has support staff.

In May 2019 it was announced that the Bundeswehr was planning extensive investments in the site amounting to 55 million euros. In the same month the foundation stone for a new sports hall was laid. In addition, a new armory building, a medical supply center, a workshop for the on-site shooting range and the gradual demolition and construction of the troop accommodation by 2030 are envisaged. Previously, investments were made in new data lines and fire protection.

From July 1, 1972 to June 30, 1997, the medical area 44/13 at the site was equipped with medical supplies. The troop doctor Frankenberg was deployed from April 1, 1984 to December 31, 1997. From July 1, 2004 to September 30, 2015, there was the Frankenberg (Eder) medical team and the Stadtallendorf medical center with sub-units Frankenberg (Eder). Finally, from March 1, 1965, the dental station H 05/2 was set up, which was renamed to the dental station of the Territorial Army 413 on October 1, 1972 and reclassified to the 413/2 dentist group on April 1, 1981. On December 31, 1998, the group was finally disbanded.

In the 1980s, the site telecommunications system 415/212 existed.

The on-site shooting range 441/5 in Burgwald, which was set up on April 1, 1972, remained in place until November 30, 2000.

After the Bundeswehr moved into the Burgwald barracks, a site administration was initially set up in Frankenberg. In the winter of 1962/63, work began on a new building complex with a planned construction cost of 2.4 million DM. In December 1965, the company moved into the new administration rooms on Königsberger Strasse. Initially, 33 employees worked here. By the mid-1980s, the office had grown to around 100 employees. In 1993 the site administration was dissolved and the building was converted into a primary school in 1995 for 8.2 million DM.

In the nearby mobilization base Wiesenfeld, which was located in the Burgwald district (Industriehof) on the site of the former air ammunition plant, telecommunication train 44 (device unit) was stored from October 1, 1974. He was moved to the Jäger barracks in Kassel in April 1984 and dissolved there on September 30, 1994. From April 1, 1983 to June 30, 1996, the 7441 military hospital was also housed here as a device unit. After all, the security battalion 28 (equipment unit) was in the mobilization base from 1981 until it was disbanded on September 30, 1996.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Burgwald community: History of the Burgwald district. Retrieved June 20, 2020 . 
2. ^ Kulturverein Burgwald e. V .: History of the "Muna". Retrieved June 20, 2020 . 
3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Adler: Burgwald - The air ammunition facility 2 / XII Frankenberg was in the forest. Retrieved June 20, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Reinhard Kahl: Death was ominously close. July 20, 2012, accessed June 21, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Preservation of monuments in Hesse: Muna air ammunition facility. Retrieved June 21, 2020 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Waldeckische Landeszeitung: Training and working in a large construction site. From the history of the Frankenberg garrison - second part: from the planning to the first months. April 30, 2012, accessed June 20, 2020 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: 60 years of the Bundeswehr in Germany - since 1962 in Frankenberg. November 12, 2015, accessed June 20, 2020 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr: location database of the Bundeswehr in the Federal Republic of Germany as well as the training grounds used by the Bundeswehr abroad. Retrieved June 20, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: “Mahl: Initiative was asked”, HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 3 from April 28, 2012
10. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: "With timpani and rockets", HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 2 of April 21, 2012
11. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: "Guard kept around the clock", HNA series: 50 years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg, part 2 of April 21, 2012
12. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: "Our Sons and Brothers", HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 3 from April 28, 2012
13. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: "Our Sons and Brothers", HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 3 from April 28, 2012
14. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: “Obedience was to the east”, HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 5 from May 12, 2012
15. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: "Warm tea at the barracks gate", HNA series: 50 years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg, part 6 from May 19, 2012
16. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine / Karl-Hermann Völker: "Vows by torchlight", HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 6 from May 19, 2012
17. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: “Pre-Command with Three Soldiers”, HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 10 of June 16, 2012
18. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: “A Fanal des Schreckens”, HNA series: 50 years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg, part 11 of June 23, 2012
19. ^ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: "Premiere on the parade ground", HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 11 from June 23, 2012
20. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: “The barracks is saved”, HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 11 from June 23, 2012
21. ↑ Waldeckische Landeszeitung: Bundeswehr invests 55 million euros in Burgwald barracks in Frankenberg. May 30, 2019, accessed June 21, 2020 . 
22. ↑ Waldeckische Landeszeitung: Burgwaldkaserne in Frankenberg gets new accommodations for 15 million euros. November 16, 2019, accessed June 21, 2020 . 
23. ↑ Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine: “Millions for the location”, HNA series: 50 Years of the Bundeswehr in Frankenberg Part 4 from May 5, 2012