Fireworkers
A fireworker is an ammunition specialist whose tasks include ammunition clearance (EOD), i.e. the localization, removal and dismantling (rendering harmless) of ammunition . Ammunition here means explosive devices of all kinds. Fireworkers do their duty in the military and police service.
In general, pyrotechnicians are also referred to as fireworkers .
Fireworkers in a civil environment
Some of the fireworkers work for private ordnance disposal companies. One of the main tasks is locating and recovering ammunition and ordnance. The required qualification is regulated in Section 20 of the Explosives Act. Training institutions for state ordnance clearance services and for private ordnance clearance companies are GFKB MV, the Sprengschule Dresden, EMC-Kampfmittelbesichtung and DFAB GmbH (business association of the professional association "Bund Deutscher Feuerwerker und Wehrtechniker eV").
Pyrotechnicians, on the other hand, are responsible for setting down fireworks , but are not trained in explosive ordnance disposal.
Fireworkers in a military environment
Historical review
The fireworks function was first mentioned in a document in Nuremberg in 1406. His main task was initially to operate the artillery firearms of the time and to manufacture projectiles. In the older artillery , the fireworkers were assigned to operate the projectiles (firecrackers, mortars ) and, together with the gunsmiths (who were responsible for firearms, especially for the infantry ), formed the first class of artillerymen. The fireworks mostly came from the gunsmith trade . In 1533, Emperor Charles V issued the Fireworks Ordinance. For centuries this was considered a guideline. At the head of a laboratory there was a “fireworks master” who was an officer. Due to the special knowledge and skills required for their work, the fireworkers, professionally organized, belonged to the privileged layers of the soldier's class until the middle of the 17th century. With the formation of the standing armies in the German states, the fireworkers were taken over as administrative staff in the rank of subordinate in the artillery troops at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century, in Prussia in 1683.
Since then, "fireworks" has only been the name of a higher group of non-commissioned officers in the artillery, or the fireworks are members of a group of people who are particularly concerned with the manufacture and use of gunpowder and explosives applications. During this time, the activity characteristics that are still characteristic today developed. With the rapid expansion of the artillery, the number of fireworkers in the army grew steadily. They were also used in the Prussian-German naval forces from the middle of the 19th century.
Classification in the military hierarchy
In the army, the fireworkers were on an equal footing with the NCOs , the chief fireworks with the sergeants . They were deck officers in the Navy . The technical superiors of the fireworks were so-called fireworks officers, who were usually subordinate to an artillery captain as a fireworks master. In 1901, the entire fireworks personnel were subordinated to the Feldzeugmeisterei.
For the initial and ongoing qualification of the fireworks special courses and schools were set up, for example in 1840 a high fireworks school as a military training institute in Berlin, in Munich a similar one in 1876. When the First World War broke out, the high fireworks schools were closed; It was not until 1918 that a newly founded war fireworks school in Berlin-Spandau resumed the training of fireworks. The courses lasted around 20 months and the school's capacity was around 200 aspirants. From 1868 onwards, suitable chief fireworkers were promoted to firework lieutenants and later captains in the German army after passing a special examination.
In the Reichswehr, fireworkers were first trained in special courses at the artillery school in Jüterbog, until an independent army fireworks school was established again in 1929 in Berlin-Lichterfelde on the site of the former guards barracks . The fireworks officers were now given the designation weapon officers (Officers (W)).
In the Austrian Armed Forces until the end of the 1960s, non-commissioned officers ranks in the armed forces of artillery and anti-aircraft guns instead of the term " Wachtmeister " were used by the term "Feuerwerker" (fireworker to senior staff fireworker).
Fireworkers in the Wehrmacht
In the German Wehrmacht , fireworkers of the various ranks in the army were mainly used in the staffs of artillery, infantry and cavalry regiments, and also in the organization and operation of the ammunition supply and replenishment of the fighting troops. The commander of an ammunition dump was usually at least one chief fireworker or fireworks officer. In the navy they were used on ships, in shipyards and ammunition depots . Since 1935 there were also fireworks in the Air Force. The team ranks were now equal to sergeants or sergeants.
Fireworkers wore a fabric patch in the basic color of their Wehrmacht uniform on their right forearm, on which an " F " was embroidered in Gothic script .
Today's use of fireworks in military, police and civilian use
With the development and mass introduction of new weapons and weapon systems (explosives, ammunition, etc.) into the armed forces since World War II, the tasks of the fireworks increased considerably.
Today, however, experts understand the term "fireworker" to also mean an ammunition specialist whose tasks include clearing ammunition , i.e. locating, removing and dismantling (rendering harmless) ammunition and explosive devices of all kinds.
Fireworks are mainly used by the munitions clearance services of the federal states, the armed forces and the police . While the fireworkers in the ordnance clearance services and armed forces deal with military ammunition, the police often have to deal with self-made laboratories, so-called unconventional explosive and incendiary devices ( IEDs ) by criminals, which is why the fireworkers there are specialized as defusers (USBV) .
The patron saint of devout fireworkers is Saint Barbara .
literature
- o. V .: Dictionary on German military history ; Military Publishing House of the German Democratic Republic (VEB); Berlin, 1985, vol. 1, p. 202
- o. V .: Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon ; Publishing house FRBrockhaus Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna; 14th edition, 1894, vol. 6, p. 758.
- Regulation H.Dv. 190/2, curriculum and examination regulations of the army fireworks schools, 1939
- Wilhelm Hassenstein: The fireworks book from 1420. 600 years of German powder weapons and gunsmithing. Reprint of the first print from 1529 with translation into Standard German and explanations, Munich 1941.
- Josef Werlin: A fireworks text from the 16th century. In: Centaurus , Volume 9, 1963, pp. 272-287.
Periodicals
- Federation of German Fireworkers and Defense Technicians eV (Ed.): Messages . DNB 1002137454 (Appears every two months. Also appears as an online version ).
