Camp Astrid
Camp Astrid [kæmp astrid] is the name of a former Belgian barracks , which was built after the Second World War by the then Belgian occupation forces in 1948 on 37 hectares in the Propsteier forest near Eschweiler in what was then the district of Aachen (today the Aachen city region ). The official name was Quartier Reine Astrid in French or Kwartier Koningin Astrid in Dutch - named after Astrid of Sweden . The property thus represented an extra-territorial area . A material and ammunition depot was attached to the barracks. The surrounding fence of the entire property was about 10 km long and enclosed an area of 350 hectares.
Belgian Armed Forces base in Germany
Logistics units and the staff of the 29th Logistics Battalion of the Belgian Armed Forces in Germany (BSD) were stationed at Camp Reine Astrid . Several material depots for vehicles, spare parts, etc. and an ammunition depot for the 1st Belgian Army Corps were attached .
The camp and the ammunition depot were separated from each other by a fence. Ammunition for the Belgian battalions stationed in Germany was stored in the depot . Up to 1,200 soldiers were stationed in the camp and depot at the same time.
There were other Belgian facilities of the 1st Belgian Army Corps in the immediate vicinity, for example in Aachen , Merzbrück , Eschweiler , Düren and Vogelsang .
The BSD maintained numerous other garrisons in their corridor from Aachen to Kassel : Weiden (headquarters of the 1st Belgian Corps), Aachen- Hitfeld, Aachen-Brand , Merzbrück , Düren , Euskirchen , Cologne , Cologne-Dellbrück , Cologne-Longerich , Cologne- Ossendorf , Cologne-Butzweilerhof Airport , Bergisch Gladbach- Bensberg , Troisdorf-Spich , Siegen , Lüdenscheid , Arnsberg , Werl , Soest , Brakel , Marsberg -Essentho, Bad Arolsen , Kassel and other smaller locations.
Military task and main areas of activity
The primary task was the replenishment , the supply of the units with so-called consumer goods. This resulted in the activities of military transport, transshipment, storage and guarding of material and ammunition, recovery and repair of vehicles and equipment, ensuring the operational readiness of vehicles and equipment. Another focus and task was the training of soldiers in military terms and in their professional uses.
The facility had its own siding so that transport could also be carried out by rail. Furthermore, it had a motorway junction that was only approved for military vehicles directly at the Aachener Land service area .
The camp, located in the forest, had many facilities designed to make work and life pleasant for the Belgian soldiers and their families: church, casino , cinema, outdoor swimming pool, post office , shop, sports field, tennis court, sports hall and fishing pond. The families of the regular and professional soldiers, however, lived in Stolberg in their own settlements outside the barracks. The children went to their own schools.
At the end of 1946, construction began on Camp Eschweiler in the Eschweiler city forest near Donnerberg . It was later renamed Camp Zeebrugge and, together with Camp Astrid, is the second Belgian barracks in the Eschweiler urban area. The first Belgian soldiers entered in the summer of 1947. On December 20, 1956, the Belgian camp Zeebrugge was partially taken over by the newly established Bundeswehr , and it still exists today as Donnerberg barracks in Eschweiler .
When the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO in 1955, the 1st Belgian Corps became a protecting power from the occupying power and was part of the NATO forces in the corridor assigned to the Belgians, which stretched 270 km in length and 190 km in width from Aachen to Kassel.
Volker Rühe , Federal Minister of Defense from 1992 to 1998 , personally presented the banner of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1995 in recognition of their joint work for peace and freedom .
Post-military use
Under the influence of glasnost and perestroika , the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War , the Belgian armed forces were also restructured. A large part of the Belgian facilities in Germany were closed and the soldiers were returned to Belgium. Camp Astrid was given up in 1995, and when the Belgian soldiers left after almost 50 years and the end of military use, the property reverted to the Federal Republic of Germany. The property had been idle since 1995.
The city of Stolberg acquired 32 hectares from the southern part of the barracks from the Federal Property Office in order to set up an industrial area called "Camp Astrid" on 23 hectares . In 2004, the structural facilities of the camp were removed and large parts of the forest area on the Stolberg side cleared. Existing spruce forest areas were converted into mixed forest and 5 hectares of new forest were replanted as a compensatory measure. At the end of 2006, after the city of Eschweiler had ceded another piece of land, a new southern driveway was built, which crosses the route of the Cologne-Aachen railway via a bridge . The first plots for commercial development were sold in 2007.
The city of Eschweiler would like to preserve the Propsteier Forest as a local recreation area and has designated several areas as biotopes. In the area of the former ammunition depot in the Eschweiler city area, there are still hundreds of former ammunition bunkers and storage rooms. These and other military legacies have yet to be removed.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ 29th Logistics Battalion. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 24, 2012 ; Retrieved April 4, 2013 . 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.
Web links
- Youtube video
- Private photos on the condition of the camp in the 1950s
- Commercial side of the business park
- Another plan on possible re-use, status 2012
- The future will soon be made in the forest at: sustainableindustrialsites.eu
- 1945-2002 Belgian soldiers in Germany. Exhibition 2011 in Brussels (PDF; 221 kB)
- Friends of Propsteier Forest
- Camp Astrid today (The photos are not from Camp Astrid, but Camp Hitfeld)
- Nostalgic pictures
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 ' N , 6 ° 13' E