Garrison town of Görlitz
The city of Görlitz was an important garrison town in the Prussian and Lower Silesian part of Upper Lusatia between 1830 and 1945 . Even before the Prussian rule, Görlitz was garrison for short periods of time . B. for the 2nd battalion of the regiment "von Niesemeuschel" of the Saxon Army . The headquarters of the regiment, however, was in Bautzen . Between 1720 and 1723 the staff of the Saxon grenadier regiment "von Seckendorff" was stationed in the city. In 1810 the II. Battalion - a successor unit of the Seckendorff Grenadiers - was based in Görlitz under the name of the Line Infantry Regiment "Prince Anton".
In the period between 1815 and 1945, the city achieved a second political, economic and cultural boom as the center of Prussian Upper Lusatia and was one of the largest cities in the province of Lower Silesia . The garrison influenced the development of urban life in many ways and quickly created a bond with the new Prussian sovereign. The population grew by more than ten times. New residential areas, parks, schools, concert halls, theaters, churches as well as department stores and restaurants were built. The new barracks, riding arenas and parade grounds as well as shooting ranges for the military were lined up in the cityscape. Some of them were also used by the population as excursion destinations, such as B. the hunters grove in Moys.
A close connection between the military and the citizens can also be attested by the numerous local military associations and the involvement of the military in the city's cultural life. Many soldiers also served in the local garrison.
history
With the entry of eight officers and 180 soldiers from the First Rifle Division, the city became a Prussian garrison town on September 22, 1830. The rifle department, which later became the hunter battalion, was supplemented by a music corps with 18 French horn players and a bandmaster. First, the soldiers came to Görlitz families. The first mission of the unit stationed in Görlitz was shortly after the billeting in the fight against the Polish independence movement - the November uprising .
The garrison near Girbigsdorf owned the first shooting ranges . However, they had to be abandoned as early as 1834. Then they moved to the well-known location south of Moys station (today: Zgorzelec station ). The area soon got the name Jägerwäldchen after the type of troops stationed and became a popular destination for the people of Görlitz. After the withdrawal of the Jäger Battalion in 1887 and after numerous restrictions on civilians, the terrain became less attractive for the population. The first parade ground was on today's Furtstraße or on the current site of the town hall . When the Reichenberger Bridge was built, the parade ground had to give way and was relocated to Laubaner Chaussee in the east of the city. A second place was created on the city limits of Klingewalde . A parade ground was also laid out south of the Moys district. Main camp VIII A was set up on the site during World War II .
In return for the demolition of the old city fortifications, the Prussian rulers demanded that the city convert the former fortress roundabout - the Kaisertrutz - into a military armory and the construction of barracks and a blockhouse to protect the Neisse viaduct - a rail crossing over the Lusatian Neisse . In 1848, in the converted Kaisertrutz, the guard moved into their new domicile in addition to the armory. Before that, the guard was located west of the salt house on the Obermarkt .
The city built the barracks between 1854 and 1858 at the highest point on the edge of the old town on the Hältersberg. The three-wing system made of quarry stone gave it a defensive character. It was first used by members of the Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5 and was therefore given the name Jägerkaserne by the population . The log house on the Obermühlberg was completed in 1856 and leased to the city during times of peace. The premises were then used as an excursion restaurant.
The Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5 was also used in the Franco-German War of 1870/71 and captured the French cannon "Le Douai" at the Battle of Weissenburg , the first battle during the war. In 1871 the members of the municipal magistrate asked the Prussian king to hand over the gun for the erection of a war memorial. The king complied with the request and donated an additional 10,000 thalers to a municipal war support fund. In the same year Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke received the honorary citizenship of the city, which was accompanied by the renaming of some streets and squares. The southern part of Klosterstrasse was renamed Bismarckstrasse, Sommerstrasse Moltkestrasse and Neumarkt Wilhelmsplatz .
The “Le Douai” gun came into the city on June 23, 1871 and was initially set up in front of the Kaisertrutz. The Berlin architect Martin Gropius designed a memorial for the cannon at the request of the city magistrate in the early 1870s. The monument was ceremonially unveiled on August 4, 1874. Behind the cannon was a semicircular terracotta frieze by Rudolf Siemering , who also created the frieze for the substructure of the Berlin Victory Column . The frieze was later cast in bronze and used instead of the terracotta frieze. A copy of the frieze was installed in the reading room of the city library, which was inaugurated in 1907.
The Jäger Battalion was also enthusiastically received on its return from the victorious war on June 2, 1871. Several decorated gates of honor had been erected in the city for the reception. For example, the battalion marched through the decorated gate of honor on Berliner Strasse at the Hospitalstrasse intersection.
In the same year, after three years of construction, the garrison hospital on Girbigsdorfer Strasse in the north of the city was given its duties. The old garrison hospital was located on Berliner Strasse opposite the former city hospital, but no longer met the increased health care requirements for soldiers. The new military hospital was also a brick building, like many public buildings in the cityscape.
In March 1887 the Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5 stationed in Görlitz in 1830 was relocated to Hirschberg in the Giant Mountains . In its place, the 19th Infantry Regiment was stationed in the city. For the new regiment, the so-called New Barracks was built in 1896 on the former parade ground in the eastern part of the city , which was also known as the Red Barracks because of its red bricks . The staff, the 1st Battalion and the regimental music of the 19th Infantry Regiment were stationed in Görlitz. The 2nd Battalion, however, was relocated to Jauer and the Fusilier Battalion to Hirschberg. The fusilier battalion was moved to Görlitz in 1887 in exchange for the hunter battalion. From 1889 it was in III. Battalion renamed. Another eight years later, the 2nd Battalion was moved from Jauer to Görlitz and the entire regiment was in the city. But as early as 1898 the 2nd Battalion moved into new barracks in the neighboring town of Lauban . The staff and the 1st battalion were in the new barracks and the III. Battalion stationed in the Jäger barracks.
In 1910 the foundation stone for the regimental house was laid on the street "Am Friedrichsplatz 3" (today: ulica Partyzantów). The house was inaugurated on October 16, 1911. It was the meeting point for the officers' corps and also served to maintain military traditions. Numerous paintings, portraits and panels adorned the hall and the club rooms. In the 1930s the lettering "Regimentshaus IR 30" was placed above the entrance.
During the First World War, a prisoner-of-war camp was set up on the parade ground near Klingewalde , in which Arabs, English, French, Russians and Turkos were interned. Like the French prisoners, the prisoners of war were used as early as 1870 to pave the streets or to cut down the later Zeppelin and Winterfeldtstrasse. This is why Zeppelinstrasse was called Russenstrasse for a while .
On July 5, 1919, the infantry regiment "von Courbière" (2. Posensches) No. 19 was disbanded and the remainder went as III. Battalion in the Reichswehr Rifle Regiment 57. In the following two years there was only the Freikorps Görlitz (also Freikorps Faupel ), which also supported the Kapp Putsch . Six civilians, including two innocent women, were killed in clashes between cantilever soldiers and strikers who followed the call for a general strike. Wilhelm Faupel was said goodbye to the city with a farewell parade on Friedrichsplatz (today: Plac Jerzego Popiełuszki ). The Freikorps was later integrated into the Reichswehr and lost its independent existence. At the beginning of 1921 the troops of the new Reichswehr met and in Görlitz the III. Battalion of the 8th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment stationed. The Reich Defense Units used the two pre-war barracks and a few new buildings in the barracks complex on Potsendorfstrasse.
After the National Socialists came to power and the reintroduction of conscription in 1935, Görlitz's importance as a garrison town rose again. In the east of the city, the Kleist barracks were built on Hermsdorfer Strasse and the Winterfeldt barracks in Moys . On October 1, 1934, the III. Battalion of the 8th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment of the Görlitz Infantry Regiment. With the reintroduction of conscription in 1935, the regiment was again renamed Infantry Regiment 30. The 1st and 2nd battalions were in Görlitz and the III. stationed in Lauban. The 30th Infantry Regiment was involved in the invasion of the Sudetenland , among other things . On October 8, 1938, the regiment's troops crossed the border at Ottendorf and Tuntschendorf , but returned to the Laubaner and Görlitz barracks on October 21 of the same year, shortly afterwards at the attack on Poland and the other campaigns during the Second To participate in World War II. With the end of the Second World War, the city's tradition as a garrison location also ended.
Stationed units
The following table gives an overview of the units stationed in Görlitz between 1830 and 1945 .
| Unit name | Deployment period |
|---|---|
| 1st Silesian Jäger Battalion No. 5 | 1830-1887 |
| 1st Battalion / Infantry Regiment “King Ludwig III. von Bayern "(2nd Lower Silesian) No. 47 | 1860-1864 |
| Fusilier regiment "General-Feldmarschall Graf Moltke" (Silesian) No. 38 | 1867 |
| Infantry Regiment "von Courbière" (2nd Posensches) No. 19 | 1871-1919 |
| 1st Battalion / 1st Guard Grenadier Landwehr Regiment | |
| Freikorps Faupel | 1919-1920 |
| III. Battalion / 8. (Prussian) infantry regiment | 1921-1935 |
| Görlitz Infantry Regiment | 1934-1935 |
| 1st and 2nd Battalion / Infantry / Panzer Grenadier Regiment 30 | 1935-1945 |
Barracks
At first the Prussian soldiers lived with Görlitz families. It was only 28 years after the first garrison troops had moved in that the soldiers moved into the hunter barracks built by the city. Over the decades, more new barracks were built, but they were located in the suburbs east of the Neisse. Especially in the 1930s, the Oststadt developed more and more into a district shaped by the military. The airfield established in 1925 was also claimed by the Luftwaffe from the 1930s onwards. In the penultimate year of the war in 1944 there also existed airbase -Kommandantur.
After the end of the Second World War, the eastern part of the city was placed under Polish administration. Some barracks that were in the former eastern part of the city were now also used by the Polish armed forces. The radio technology reconnaissance battalion was the last unit to leave the city of Zgorzelec in 1998 . The former barracks in today's Görlitz and Zgorzelec are all used civilly.
Jäger barracks
The Jägerkaserne was built between 1854 and 1858 as compensation by the city for the demolition of the city fortifications. It served as a barracks until 1945 and is now the seat of the Görlitz city administration.
New barracks / Courbière barracks
The construction of the new barracks began in 1890 on the eastern side of the Lusatian Neisse. The barracks complex was built on the former parade ground. The spacious inner courtyard provided space for soldiers to train.
On October 1, 1896, the first soldiers moved into the new barracks building at Potsendorfstrasse 10 (today: ulica Armii Krajowej ). The first units included the staff and the 1st Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 19. The building was a typical Prussian clinker brick building from the prewar period. Due to the red bricks, the barracks were popularly known as the Red Barracks . From 1938 it was also called "Courbière barracks" after the regiment of the same name once stationed here or after the Prussian General Field Marshal Wilhelm René de l'Homme de Courbière . In the mid-1930s, the barracks were modernized and additional buildings were added, e.g. B. the Winterbergblock . A stone Wehrmacht eagle was created on the eastern outer wall .
Today the barracks complex houses a primary school, a notary's office, a car workshop and numerous wholesalers and retailers.
Kleist barracks
The Kleist barracks was built in 1935 on Kleiststrasse (today: ulica Bohaterów II. Armii Wojska Polskiego ) in the eastern part of the city not far from the New Barracks . The 2nd Battalion of Infantry Regiment 30 of the 18th Infantry Division moved into the barracks before the construction work on the two- to three-story houses was completed . At the eastern entrance to the barracks there was a pillar in the middle of the driveway that was crowned by a Wehrmacht eagle with a swastika in a wreath of honor. The name Kleist-Kaserne , which the barracks received in memory of the Prussian General Field Marshal Friedrich von Kleist , could also be read on the column .
Exercises and regular demonstrations for the population as well as swearing-in ceremonies took place in the extensive courtyard of the barracks. Air raid or tank exercises were demonstrated at the annual Soldiers' Days.
Winterfeldt barracks
The Winterfeldt barracks was the last new barracks to be built before the outbreak of the Second World War and was built in 1936 in what was then the southeastern Görlitz district of Moys as a training center and accommodation for observation department 18 . At the eastern entrance to the barracks there was a Wehrmacht eagle resting on a massive, rectangular base made of regularly hewn stones. Below the eagle's claws was a swastika and again below the inscription Winterfeldt Kaserne . The base still exists today, but the imperial eagle, the swastika and the inscription have been removed. The name donor of the barracks was the Prussian general Hans Karl von Winterfeldt , who was seriously injured nearby in the battle of Moys and finally died of his injuries in Görlitz.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Royal. Saxon. Upper Lusatian Society of Sciences (Hrsg.): New Lusatian Monthly . First part. First to sixth piece. Görlitz 1807, p. 271 .
- ^ Napoleon-online.de: Saxony Infantry 1806 . Retrieved March 30, 2012 .
- ^ A b Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 6 .
- ↑ a b Andreas Bednarek: Görlitz - as it was . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-7700-1007-8 , p. 45 f .
- ↑ a b Andreas Bednarek: Görlitz - as it was . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-7700-1007-8 , p. 46 .
- ↑ Andreas Bednarek: Görlitz - as it was . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-7700-1007-8 , p. 46 f .
- ↑ a b c d e Andreas Bednarek: Görlitz - as it was . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1993, ISBN 3-7700-1007-8 , p. 47 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 13 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 16 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 18th f .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 26 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 60, 64 .
- ^ Georg Tessin : German associations and troops. Vol. 1 . Osnabrück 1974, p. 63 f., 111, 145, 157 ff .
- ↑ Reinhard Liehr; Günther Maihold; Günter Vollmer: An institute and its general. Wilhelm Faupel and the Ibero-American Institute . Vervuert, Frankfurt / Main 2003, ISBN 3-89354-589-1 , p. 159 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 80, 106 f .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 8th f .
- ↑ Johann Gottlieb Mischke (ed.): The Markgrafthum Ober-Lausitz: royal Prussian share, in statistical and topographical terms . Lauban 1861, p. 95 .
- ^ A b preussenweb.de: Regiments of the Prussian Army . Retrieved March 30, 2012 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 18, 60 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 60 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 60, 80 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 80 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 80 f .
- ^ Richard Jecht: History of the City of Görlitz, Volume 1, Half Volume 2 . 1st edition. Verlag des Magistrates der Stadt Görlitz, 1934, p. 653 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 19, 22, 80, 83 .
- ↑ dresden-und-sachsen.de: From the Görlitz town history . Retrieved April 1, 2012 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 80, 86 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 89, 96 .
- ^ Ernst Kretzschmar: Görlitz as a Prussian garrison town . 1st edition. Stadtbild-Verlag, 2005, p. 80, 87 .