Evacuation in Frankfurt am Main on September 3, 2017

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Similar bomb of the type found in Frankfurt

The evacuation in Frankfurt am Main on September 3, 2017 was necessary to defuse an air mine from the Second World War that was found during construction work in the Westend district . For security reasons, more than 60,000 residents within a 1.5 kilometer radius of the site had to evacuate the area for the duration of the defusing. This was the largest evacuation measure in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The defusing of air mines of the same type led to extensive evacuations in Koblenz in 2011 and in Augsburg in 2016 .

Location and type of explosive device

On August 29, 2017, a dud from the Second World War was found on a construction site on the Westend campus of Frankfurt's Goethe University . It was an HC 4000 , an air mine weighing 1.8 tons, of which about 1.4 tons were explosives, which the British Air Force dropped during one of around 75 air raids on Frankfurt am Main between 1940 and 1945. According to information from the Hessian ordnance disposal service , the bomb was found through a systematic analysis of archived aerial photographs ; it was not a chance find.

The location of the explosive device is on an area that was used by the armed forces of the United States from 1945 to 1995 , at times as the USFET European headquarters . Since 2000 it has been the seat of administration and most of the university's departments. In the surrounding densely populated districts there are not only housing estates but also the buildings of other institutions of local, regional and national standing.

Dangers to the population

In the event of a detonation, air mines of the HC 4000 type cause a detonation wave that completely destroys buildings of conventional construction within a radius of 100 meters, covers the roofs of buildings within a radius of several hundred meters or, in the event of a detonation in open terrain, windows and doors around a kilometer away can tear out. This was intended to ensure that incendiary bombs dropped at the same time fall into the interior of the houses and then ignite wild fires and even firestorms .

According to estimates by the ordnance disposal service, hundreds or thousands of duds can still be found in the ground in the Frankfurt city area. Every year, several duds have to be defused in Frankfurt, most of which are discovered through systematic checks and probing on construction sites. Duds can still explode decades later if the ignition device is triggered. For example , an HC 4000 air mine detonated during construction work in Euskirchen on January 3, 2014. One person was killed and 13 injured, some seriously. There was considerable damage to buildings in the area, and window panes were still broken in more than a kilometer.

The dud on the Westend campus was exceptionally large and threatened a densely populated area on the northern edge of the city center. According to the assessment of the ordnance disposal service, if the bomb had exploded during the defusing process, there was an immediate danger to life and limb for all persons within 1500 meters of the site, mainly as a result of the splintering effect of the windows destroyed by the detonation wave or objects flying around.

Approach of the authorities, protective measures

In a general decree of August 31, 2017, the city ordered the establishment of a restricted zone with a radius of 1500 meters around the site on Sunday, September 3, 2017 from 6 a.m. In the period from 8 a.m. until clearance after the deactivation was completed, it was forbidden to “stay or enter the exclusion zone inside and outside buildings as well as on streets, paths and squares”. The exclusion zone extended to parts of the districts of Bockenheim , Dornbusch , Nordend and Westend as well as smaller areas of Eckenheim , Ginnheim and the city ​​center .

According to initial estimates, the evacuation affected up to 70,000 residents who had to leave the exclusion zone. In addition, two hospitals, the Bürgerhospital and the Marienkrankenhaus, and around 10 nursing homes were cleared. The evacuation area included the Frankfurt Police Headquarters , the German National Library , the headquarters of the Hessian Broadcasting Corporation and the headquarters of the Deutsche Bundesbank . Several diplomatic missions, Protestant and Catholic churches, free churches and the Westend synagogue were also affected . A citizen phone was set up for the residents.

Thermal imaging camera on a police helicopter as used in Frankfurt

The residents were asked to leave the restricted area by 8 a.m. on Sunday, September 3. Buses were provided at five assembly points to drive the evacuees to the emergency accommodation set up for the occasion ( exhibition hall 1, room 1.1 and 1.2 and Jahrhunderthalle ) and to bring them back to the assembly points after the exclusion zone has been lifted. Afterwards, residents in need of help - more than 6,000 people were expected - were escorted out of the danger area by the emergency services of the disaster control from all of Hesse. The evacuation of the community hospital and the Marien hospital began on Friday, September 1st, 2017.

The police controlled the evacuation by patrol officers on site and by means of a helicopter with a thermal imaging camera and forcibly took any residents still present out of the evacuation zone. Some residents refused to leave their homes. This delayed the start of bomb disposal by about two and a half hours. The police issued 298 dismissals and took five people into police custody . A person could only be taken out of their apartment with the help of a turntable ladder . Representatives of the public order office of the city of Frankfurt and the police announced the examination of claims for damages and criminal consequences. In fact, no one was later held responsible for the delays.

Effects of the evacuation

Due to the evacuation of the main headquarters of Hessischer Rundfunk, the broadcasting centers for programs hr1 and hr3 could not be occupied. Only the broadcasting center of the hr4 in Kassel was available to Hessischer Rundfunk. Because of this, all three channels broadcast a combined program, which media reports jokingly referred to as hr8 . Songs from all typical music genres of hr1, hr3 and hr4 were played alternately. hr2-kultur brought a pre-produced program all day long, with programs starting every hour on the hour; for the news, the listeners were referred to the half-hour service from hr-info , where the normal Sunday program could also be heard. The youFM program sent a prepared playlist .

Because the area was not allowed to fly over while the bomb was being defused, air traffic at Frankfurt Airport could also have been affected if the wind was blowing from the east because certain departure routes would not have been available. However, this did not happen.

No Sunday services could be celebrated in the churches in the evacuation area. Instead, numerous Frankfurt churches in other parts of the city opened their gates for those affected by the evacuation. On the basis of an initiative by the German Architecture Museum, most of Frankfurt's museums granted the evacuees free entry on presentation of their identity card.

Defusing the air mine

The disarming began at 2:30 p.m. The air mine had three impact fuses , which were removed using rocket clips , and several detonators . In the event of failure, a water cutting machine should be used to cut out the igniter. When the detonators were removed, two of the detonators initially remained in the bomb and had to be removed separately using another method. The three detonators were later blown up on site. At 6:33 p.m., the defusing process was officially completed without any further incidents, and the explosive device was transported to the GEKA in Munster after a security check . About an hour later, the restricted area was gradually released again, the residents were initially able to return to their apartments on foot or by bike, and from around 9 p.m. also by car.

Whereabouts of the air mine

After the detonators had been removed, the air mine was dismantled at GEKA and the explosives were disposed of in a special incinerator. The shell of the air mine was taken over by the Historisches Museum Frankfurt in its collection in autumn 2017 , where the removed detonators are also located.

From March to July 2019, the air mine was exhibited for the first time as part of the special exhibition Forget - Why We Don't Remember Everything .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Leppert: The bomb that paralyzed Frankfurt for a day. In: fr.de . December 31, 2017, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Bomb found in the Westend - Frankfurt is facing the biggest evacuation of the post-war period . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 30, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  3. ↑ Florian Stark: These huge bombs destroyed Germany's cities. welt.de, September 2, 2017, accessed on September 4, 2017
  4. ↑ Evacuation in Frankfurt begins on Sunday at 6 a.m. (No longer available online.) In: hessenschau.de. August 31, 2017, archived from the original on September 5, 2017 ; accessed on September 5, 2017 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hessenschau.de
  5. ↑ a b c d e General decree of the City of Frankfurt am Main. (PDF) August 31, 2017, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  6. ↑ HC 4.000 "Cookie": This is how the Augsburg monster bomb works | BR.de. (No longer available online.) Bayerischer Rundfunk, December 23, 2016, archived from the original on September 4, 2017 ; accessed on September 19, 2017 .
  7. ^ Stefan Schlagenhaufer: 1st dud atlas for Frankfurt. Bombs are still everywhere here. November 9, 2009, accessed June 3, 2020 .
  8. ↑ One dead after a World War II bomb explosion , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung faz.net, January 3, 2014, accessed on September 18, 2017
  9. ↑ Excavator driver dies in a massive explosion , Kölnische Rundschau online, January 3, 2014, accessed on September 18, 2017
  10. ↑ Explosion in Euskirche: Experts identify air mine , Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung online, January 6, 2014, accessed on September 18, 2017
  11. Jump up ↑ Oliver Teutsch: Bomb in Frankfurt - bomb disposal: "Experience and a little gut feeling". In: fr.de. September 2, 2017, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Twitter from Frankfurt Fire Brigade on Sep. 3. 2017 04:34
  13. ↑ Larissa Niesen, Denis Hubert: Evacuation is a mammoth task for the helpers. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. September 2, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Thomas J, Schmidt: Those responsible draw a preliminary balance. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse. September 5, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017 .
  15. ↑ a b c d Denis Hubert, Sandra Busch, Anja Laud: Bomb in Frankfurt - all traffic closures lifted . Live ticker of the Frankfurter Rundschau from September 3rd, accessed on September 4th 2017
  16. ↑ Delaying the evacuation without penal consequences. In: faz.net. October 4, 2017, accessed June 1, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Frankfurt is about to evacuate superlatives , Stern.de, August 31, 2017, accessed on September 4, 2017
  18. ↑ Bomb disposal in Frankfurt successfully completed ( memento from September 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), mdr.de, September 3, 2017, accessed on June 1, 2020
  19. ↑ Anja Leud: Blocking radius also takes bomb explosion into account . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . August 31, 2017, accessed September 3, 2017.
  20. ↑ a b Jasmin Alley: Of explosive devices and people. Historisches Museum Frankfurt, blog entry from November 24, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2017
  21. ↑ Frankfurt World War Bomb is ready for the museum , hessenschau.de from November 29, 2017, accessed on December 16, 2017
  22. ↑ World War Bomb issued , fr.de November 30, 2017, accessed December 16, 2017
  23. ↑ Jasmin Alley: The Danger from the Ground, Historical Museum Frankfurt, blog entry from January 9, 2018, accessed on June 3, 2020
  24. ↑ Forgetting. Why don't we remember everything. Exhibition brochure, accessed on February 26, 2020

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 '46.4 "  N , 8 ° 40' 5.5"  E