Bautzen fire department
| Fire department Bautzen Wohnjowa wobora Budyšin |
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|---|---|
 Office of the city of Bautzen
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 Main fire station Bautzen |
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| Professional fire brigade | |
| Founding year: | 2009 |
| Locations: | 1 |
| Employee: | approx. 36 |
| Volunteer firefighter | |
| Founding year: | 1780 |
| Departments: | 5 |
| Active members: | approx. 350 |
| Youth fire brigade | |
| Groups: | 5 |
| www.feuerwehr-bautzen.de | |
The Bautzen fire brigade , in Upper Sorbian Wohnjowa wobora Budyšin , is one of the oldest fire brigades in Germany. On August 6, 1780, the volunteer citizen fire company was founded. After the fire brigade (BF) after turning to a volunteer fire department (FF) was converted to full-time workers, there are in Bautzen a professional fire again since January 1 of 2009.
The Bautzen fire department consists of a professional fire department and five volunteer fire departments.
history
General
1548-1780
The oldest known fire regulations were handed over to the city council of Bautzen on June 6th, 1548. It was created on behalf of the King of Bohemia . It contained information and instructions on preventive and defensive fire protection . In the years 1616, 1671, 1710 and 1781 the city council of Bautzen issued its own fire ordinances, which regulated the structure and structure of the city's fire fighting system. Before a professionally organized fire brigade was founded, the fight against the fire was almost hopeless, as the water supply could only be ensured using bucket chains. Even the purchase of the first fire engines did not simplify extinguishing, as many people were needed to operate them and they were also filled with a chain of buckets. The large number of helpers required usually caused chaos at the scene.
1780-1866
In order to counter the untenable situation, Johann Christian Markstein founded the voluntary citizen fire company in 1780 . After five months of preparation, it was ready for use on August 6, 1780. Around 80 volunteers served in this volunteer fire brigade. As early as the five-month construction phase, instructions were drawn up containing regulations and instructions for the members of the fire brigade. Despite a tight organization and good training , the Voluntary Citizens Fire Compagnie was still dependent on the help of the National Guard and committed citizens to ensure the fire water supply and operate the fire engines . Due to a fire extinguishing ordinance issued by the city council on July 1, 1850 , the voluntary citizen fire company lost its independence and was assigned to a so-called fire extinguishing institute. In 1866 there was another complete restructuring, in which case the name “Freiwillige Feuerwehr Bautzen” was used. A compulsory fire brigade continued to exist in parallel .
1866-1945
At the beginning of the 20th century the number of members had grown to 200 volunteers who served in four companies. In 1922 this number could be increased again to 250 through the incorporation of the Seidau . The first professional firefighter was hired as a kit master in 1920. Fritz Hardtmann followed as a driver in 1926. By 1935, the number of full-time workers had grown to 15, who were responsible for fire protection in the city in two 24-hour shifts. Stagnation followed from 1941 onwards when men were called up for military service. The workforce collapsed except for 3 permanent firefighters. On November 23, 1938, the Reich Fire Extinguishing Act came into force. As a result, the fire brigade was transformed into a so-called fire-fighting police and was henceforth part of the police. In addition, the SS jurisdiction now applied to fire brigade members, leaving the deployment site without permission was tantamount to desertion.
1946-1990
With the abolition of the voluntary fire brigades in the Third Reich and the devastating cuts in the number of full-time workers, fire protection was at the lowest level in the post-war years. From 1946, this was counteracted by hiring 18 full-time firefighters. Between 1947 and 1950, the fire brigade was again under municipal sponsorship. This changed when the Ministry of the Interior decided to return the professional fire brigades to the police . This situation was to remain until the political change in 1989/1990 . Since the Bautzen fire brigade had to serve a disengagement area beyond the district boundaries in the following years and, as mentioned, there was no volunteer fire brigade, the staffing level had to be increased further. In 1950, 54 professional firefighters worked in two 24-hour shifts at the Bautzen fire brigade. A branch was even maintained in Bischofswerda until 1956 . But in 1951 and 1953 again setbacks in the workforce followed. Due to the decision 2/51 of the Ministry of the Interior (release of all firefighters who were more than three months in western captivity) and 15/52 (firefighters born 1932–1934 were transferred to the barracked People's Police ) the number of professional firefighters fell rapidly. In response to this, a volunteer fire brigade was founded in the same year. The first members were recruited from FDJ fire protection activists and Bautzner craftsmen. Fire protection was ensured in this way until 1989/1990.
technology
The fire ordinance for the city of Bautzen was approved by the city councilor Dr. Klien issued on July 1, 1850 and at the same time represented the comprehensive restructuring of the city's fire extinguishing system. The first fire extinguishing director was Robert Schramm, who was until then the commander of the volunteer citizen fire company.
In the fire ordinances from 1671, house owners and craftsmen were obliged to keep fire extinguishing equipment such as simple hand sprayers (“stick sprayers”), fire buckets , axes , tear hooks and ladders , but also water , in their buildings and workshops . However, if it was not possible to suffocate the fire in the early stages, these means mostly proved to be largely ineffective. After Böhland, the city of Bautzen took over its first two syringes from a manufacturer in Magdeburg in 1671. In the Bautzen Fire Ordinance of 1710, three “large metal syringes” are already mentioned. These were undoubtedly the so-called "gooseneck syringes".
1922-1970
In that year, the city council bought an automobile syringe from Koebe ( Luckenwalde ) with an output of 1000 liters per minute, which was only equipped with the most essential items. In 1928 a second automobile sprayer followed, also from Koebe, with a pump output of 1200 liters per minute. The vehicle performed its service in Bautzen until 1950 and was then used by the fire departments in Bischofswerda and Weickersdorf until 1970 . In 1935 a Mercedes-Benz turntable ladder with a climbing height of 27 meters was acquired.
From 1937 the external appearance of the fire engines changed, so the license plates of the vehicles bore the prefix “Pol” (police), since the fire department was integrated into the police (since 1938 fire police ). From March 1, 1937, it had to be repainted in the color "fir green" (police green), but this was only realized in Bautzen in 1941. The city coats of arms also had to give way to the national emblems of the police. From 1950 the number plates bore the prefix "VP" for People's Police. During the GDR era, the centrally controlled train routing of various fire fighting and special vehicles took place in stages, each of which was replaced after some time by new and further developments. These included fire-fighting vehicles and tank fire-fighting vehicles on H3A , S4000 and W50 chassis, turntable ladders and hose trolleys on S4000 and W50 chassis, as well as fire-fighting and special vehicles based on the tried and tested Robur LO . After the reunification, the vehicle fleet was gradually renovated and expanded, so that today modern and powerful fire-fighting and special vehicles are available for all types of operations. The license plates also took on a civil character again, the prefix “VP” became “BZ” for Bautzen.
Fire stations
The first syringe house was built in 1694 between two pillars on the east side of the Petridome , where the two syringes were then housed. Until then, they were probably housed in the municipal courtyard on Äußere Lauenstrasse.
In 1780 there were already four larger syringe houses, spread over the "Reichen-Viertel", the "Lauen-Viertel", the "Ortenburg-Viertel" and the "Wendische-Viertel".
On August 19, 1899, the building with three parking spaces on the church square was handed over to the fire brigade. The syringe house on Salzenforster Strasse in Seidau was still used, as were some other branch offices. Later there were still space problems that were difficult to resolve.
The only way out of all the confinement could only be a completely new construction of a fire station that met all requirements and was expandable. At the beginning of the 1970s, for example, there was a plan to build a new fire station on the east side of Thomas-Müntzer-Straße .
But this plan was rejected again. In 1992 the city council commissioned the city administration to develop a program for the construction of a new fire station. After a long search, the former Scheunenviertel on Gesundbrunnenring was chosen as the location . According to the design of the company "kplan" from Siegen , after securing the financing, the first excavator lift took place on March 1, 2001, the foundation stone was laid on May 25, 2001 and the topping-out ceremony on October 24, 2001. On September 15, 2002, after less than 18 months of construction, Bautzen's new fire station was built at a cost of 3.3 million euros. The architecturally interesting functional building consists of three interconnected structures, a 25 m high exercise tower and spacious open and parking areas.
Alerting
In earlier times, fires in the city and its surroundings were associated with considerable noise in order to mobilize as many helpers as possible. The night watchmen were given the task of watching out for fires and taking the appropriate measures. Reinforcement when beating the noise came later from the military, who had to beat the drums. In the course of time, special regulations for the storm ringing by the tower keepers of the Petriturm, the Lauenturm and the Reichenturm were issued:
- A single ring meant a fire in the Seidau or in the surrounding villages.
- Two rings meant a fire in the suburbs.
- Three rings meant a fire in the inner city of Bautzen
The storm bells rang for the last time in a major fire on July 7, 1939, when a roof truss was on fire on the Große Brüdergasse. In order to give the citizens and guests of the city of Bautzen an impression of how this alarm worked, the Petriturm rang again on August 28, 1999. The occasion was a large-scale exercise carried out with historical technology on the main market , which was part of the demonstration for the opening of the special exhibition in the city museum on the history of the Bautzen fire brigade.
The first fire alarm was introduced in 1910 . The message when triggered first ran on the police station on the main market, then later in the telecommunications and alarm center on the church square. By 1929, 29 detectors were distributed in the city area. Most recently there were 42 public notifiers.
In 1959 the first siren was installed on the clock tower of the Stadtmuseum / Sparkasse building. By 1992 their number had risen to 10, three of them in the Gesundbrunnen district alone . This means a lot of noise for the citizens, especially at night, when the firefighters are called to action. In the meantime, however, the introduction of alarms by radio signal receivers (FME) , which began in 1969/70, had progressed so far that sirens could be dispensed with, especially since economic constraints made this necessary. On April 20, 1993, the city's residents were last alarmed by the howling of sirens. Alerting now runs through a digital alerting process.
Times of war
Even if we have no evidence of operations, the Voluntary Citizens Fire Company was likely to have been under great tension, especially in May of 1813, when numerous villages in the immediate vicinity of the city went up in flames during the Napoleonic War . In the course of the First World War in 1917, the rapidly increasing number of conscripts for military service made it necessary to fill the unbearably strong ranks of the Bautzen volunteer fire brigade with high school students. Every higher educational institution in Bautzen had to provide a "voluntary" team. In addition to school-specific colored hats, the students also wore armbands in the city colors of blue and yellow. Every week an exercise was held on the Schützenplatz. In the middle of 1919 the school fire brigade was disbanded and the school authorities forbade the pupils to remain with the fire fighting teams. However, it could not be prevented that some students found their way back to the fire department after leaving school. Once again, a war should fall back on the youth in the course of its preparation. As early as 1935, the first efforts in Germany to bring existing youth groups in the fire brigades into contact with the Hitler Youth .
1938-1945
In 1938 the “Office for Voluntary Fire Brigade” in the Reich Ministry of the Interior and the “Reich Youth Leadership” agreed to set up the first pure HJ fire brigade troops. In 1942 a HJ fire brigade group, which initially comprised 20 and later 30 young people, was set up and trained in Bautzen.
Youth fire brigade
In all five local fire brigades of the Bautzen volunteer fire brigade, there are youth groups with members between 10 and 18 years of age.
In the east of Germany, the youth fire brigades for the most part emerged from the school working groups “Young Fire Protection Helpers” in the GDR, whose primary task was to spread the idea of preventive fire protection. In 1952, an FDJ fire protection active was formed in Bautzen, whose members between the ages of 14 and 16 received basic fire fighting training and in 1954 formed the starting point for the reorganization of the voluntary fire brigade of the city of Bautzen. However, there is a reference to organized youth work as early as 1928. Hermann Porsche (1857-1935), laundry owner and active member of the climbing platoon of the Bautzen Volunteer Fire Brigade, began working with fire-brigade-loving boys, who are usually 10 years old, that year . Must have reached the age of six. The boys not only had a small, functional hand pressure syringe built for the use of children's hands, but also a child-friendly climbing tower on Porsche's property on Bleichenstrasse. The exercises began every Sunday at 9 o'clock sharp, which always attracted a large number of spectators. In the procession for the 51st day of the Bautzen District Fire Brigade Association on July 3, 1932 in Bischofswerda, “Porsche's Youth Fire Brigade” was allowed to take part with its own float, which proudly carried the small hand-operated sprayer. It is characteristic of the political situation at that time that the National Socialists who came to power already banned this youth fire brigade in 1933 because it was beyond their control.
Departments
Professional fire brigade
After the professional fire brigade was converted into a voluntary fire brigade with full-time workers after the fall of the Wall, there has been a professional fire brigade again in Bautzen since January 1st, 2009. Now there are two guard departments with 18 comrades per shift, who ensure security in the city of Bautzen and the associated districts 24 hours a day.
Volunteer firefighter
Bautzen center
The voluntary fire brigade Bautzen-Mitte has existed since 1780. It has around 90 members who are divided into the youth fire brigade, the emergency department, and the age and honor department. The forces of the voluntary fire brigade Bautzen-Mitte are housed together with the professional fire brigade in the fire station in the Bautzner Gesundbrunnen.
Stiftitz
On July 4, 1924, the Stiebitz- Rattwitz volunteer fire department was founded.
According to a log book that is still available, the beginnings of the Stiebitz-Rattwitzer fire brigade go back to 1914 as a mandatory fire brigade. Very little is noted about their activity as such, apart from the holding of amusements in order to cultivate comradeship.
The bugler was notified to alert the fire brigade. He then rushed through the town by bike or on foot and blew the fire alarm.
In 1959 a steel mast was erected for the first large local siren . Today the alarm is sent via digital alarm receivers (DME).
In the course of the incorporation into Bautzen, Stiebitz has been a local fire brigade of Bautzen since 1994.
The Stiebitz local fire brigade has around 30 active members, 12 of whom are trained to wear breathing apparatus .
Niederkaina
The Niederkaina volunteer fire brigade currently has an emergency fire fighting group vehicle 10 and a fire fighting group vehicle 8-TS on an LO basis , which is used as a reserve or traditional vehicle .
Kleinwelka
In 1847 the “Organized Extinguishing System” was founded in Kleinwelka . The extinguishing system was divided into the two departments of Kleinwelka Colony and Kleinwelka Village. On August 1, 1890, the organized fire fighting system became a volunteer fire brigade. 18 members were doing their duty in the fire brigade at this time. Five motorized syringes and five ladders were available as operational technology . A total of 900 m of hose material was housed on the motorized syringes .
The two departments were combined to form the Kleinwelka fire brigade in 1932. In 1942 the first motorized sprayer was put into service. The first fire chief of the Kleinwelka fire brigade was called Wagner. In 1959, the first Steyr towing vehicle was built in-house. In 1968 a Granit 30K phenomenon was delivered, which was later used by the Luga volunteer fire brigade .
In 1990, the 100th anniversary of the Kleinwelka volunteer fire brigade was celebrated.
In 1993, a fire fighting group vehicle was put into service on a Mercedes-Benz . The vehicle was built by Ziegler . Later still came crew transport vehicle added, rebuilt from the main station Bautzen.
Salt forest
A portable pump vehicle W / Z is currently in service at the Salzenforst volunteer fire brigade .
literature
- Ulrike Telek, Hans Joachim Nitschmann: 225 years of voluntary fire extinguishing in Bautzen , Bautzen City Museum, Bautzen volunteer fire department.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ August Böhland: The strangest fates of Upper Lusatia and its old capital Budissin together with a small topography of the latter. Ernst Gottlob Monse: Budissin 1831. p. 194.
- ↑ TSF-W / Z (portable pump vehicle with water tank and additional extinguishing device). Voluntary fire brigade Bautzen - Salzenforst local fire brigade, accessed on March 7, 2016 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 11 ′ 14.5 " N , 14 ° 26 ′ 20.2" E
