Wuppertal barracks
On the southern heights of Wuppertal there were four former military barracks , which were most recently assigned to Defense District Command 34 of Defense District Command III of the Bundeswehr.
history
The barracks were built in the mid to late 1930s as part of the armament of the Wehrmacht operated by the Nazi regime . The first Wehrmacht surveying troops arrived in Wuppertal in 1935 and began looking for a suitable site. They found what they were looking for on the southern heights along the border between the districts of Elberfeld , Barmen and Ronsdorf . Villa Braus , located on the planned site of the so-called Waldkaserne II near the Ronsdorf facilities near Wolfskuhle , was expropriated in 1936 and later used as an officers' mess.
On October 17, 1936, the garrison contract was signed with the city of Wuppertal. According to this the garrison of a motorized should divisional headquarters , a motorized artillery - regimental headquarters , two motorized artillery divisions , two motorized infantry - battalions , a motorized news company , a military site administration with Laundry, an army bauamt / Army addition to convincing office and a military detachment with Military registration offices exist.
The city had to transfer a 70.9 hectare site with a unit value of the individual plots of 150,000 Reichsmarks to the tax authorities . In addition, the city of Wuppertal undertook to develop the site with the necessary access roads, irrigation and drainage channels, gas, electricity and water lines at its own expense. Since the city could not raise the cost of around 1.6 million Reichsmarks from its budget, the tax authorities granted it a loan of the same amount, which provided for annuities with 4% interest and 5% repayment. In addition, special tariffs were agreed for soldiers to use municipal facilities.
First plans followed, which finally led to the start of construction in January 1937. On October 16, 1937, the Ronsdorfer Beautification Association was forced to cede the part of the Ronsdorfer facilities north of Parkstraße (today's Landesstraße 419 ) to the Wehrmacht, which seized the area as part of the Scharpenacken training area . The association received compensation of around 93,000 Reichsmarks for the expropriation .
In November 1938 the staff of the newly established 1st Light Division, later the 6th Panzer Division , moved into the Villa Waldesruh on Boltenberg . In addition to Wuppertal , the division's other locations were Krefeld , Cologne , Iserlohn and Mülheim an der Ruhr .
From July 1938, one of the most famous officers stationed in Wuppertal was the resistance member and Hitler assassin Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg , who was a second general staff officer (Ib) on the division staff of the 1st light division under Lieutenant General Erich Hoepner , who was also stationed here .
During the Second World War , various infantry, grenadier , artillery replacement and training battalions were stationed in Wuppertal . With the end of the war and the surrender of the Wehrmacht, the garrison was dissolved and the military facilities were taken over by the British armed forces . In 1946 they set up an administrative department to look after the barracks and in the following years stationed several troop units in all four barracks.
Two months after the compulsory military service law came into force on September 21, 1956, the Wuppertal District Armed Forces Replacement Office commenced operations as the first service in the Bundeswehr . This was followed on 1 July 1957 site management . After the first Bundeswehr units moved into the Sagan barracks, the site command was set up in 1962 and the Scharpenacken training area was taken over in 1963 . The first site commanders were Captain Freese and Major Berg. With the deployment contract dated March 1, 1965, the site command was replaced by Defense District Command 324, so that its commanding officer was now also the site elder.
The site elders were:
- Lieutenant Colonel Kaupisch-Jüchter (from April 1, 1965)
- Lieutenant Colonel Panten (from April 1, 1966)
- Lieutenant Colonel Volle (from April 1, 1969)
- Lieutenant Colonel Giraud (from April 1, 1971)
- Lieutenant Colonel Fleck (from April 1, 1975)
- Lieutenant Colonel Küpers (from June 1, 1985)
- Lieutenant Colonel Schwabe (from October 1, 1988)
- Lieutenant Colonel Knabe (from April 1, 1991)
- Lieutenant Colonel Hoeglauer (from October 1, 1993)
- Colonel Hoffmann (from April 1, 1994)
With the ratification of the CFE contract on November 8, 1991, the Wuppertal site became a "registered inspection facility". The only inspection of the contractually registered Panzerjägerkompanie 200 and the rocket artillery battalion 72 in Wuppertal took place without notice on July 8, 1993.
The troop reduction began in 1992. Panzerjägerkompanie 200 was relocated to Hemer by September 30, 1992 , and the reclassified Missile Artellerie Battalion 72 to Wesel by September 30, 1993 . On that date, the 810 Telecommunications Battalion and the 800 Pipeline Engineer Battalion were disbanded. The new units that had emerged from the battalion were relocated to Höxter and Emden .
The location was given up between 1993 and 2004 and the individual properties belonging to it were gradually converted . The last facility to be closed was the site administration in 2006. In 2011, the part of the Ronsdorf facilities that had been expropriated in 1936 was bought back by the Ronsdorf Beautification Association.
Saarburg barracks (Bangor Barracks / Generaloberst Hoepner barracks (1969 to 1993))
The Saarburg barracks ( 51 ° 14 ′ 23 ″ N, 7 ° 9 ′ 42 ″ E ) , named after the Lorraine town of Sarrebourg , was built on the Freudenberg in Wuppertal- Elberfeld . It was occupied on March 15, 1938 by the II. Division of Artillery Regiment 76 under the command of Major Stoephasins, who had previously been stationed in Żagań in Lower Silesia .
After the Second World War it was used by the British Army, who renamed it "Bangor Barracks". Between August 1947 and December 1951 the barracks were the headquarters of the newly formed 6th Infantry Brigade . Other units stationed there were 2 Section, 4 Gds Pro Coy RMP (approx. 1961), 111 Company (GW) RASC (approx. 1961), 6 Company, RASC (approx. 1961) and 6 Sqn RCT (approx. 1965). On the site is also one was Infant and Primary School ( primary school ) for children of military personnel.
From November 2, 1965 to April 1, 1966, it was handed over to the Bundeswehr in blocks. In 1969 it was renamed Generaloberst Hoepner Barracks. The 800 Pipeline Engineer Battalion was stationed here and provided the personnel for the Pipeline Engineer Regiment. Military use ended in 1993.
After withdrawal of the Bundeswehr three quarters of the barracks were for about 60 million marks to a Campus Freudenberg the University of Wuppertal rebuilt, which the Department of E (since 2003 electrical engineering , information technology and media technology houses). In addition to new buildings, the old buildings were modernized and converted to meet the new needs. Residential buildings were built on the remaining parts of the site.
Sagan Barracks (Anglesey Barracks / Manchester Barracks)
The Sagan barracks ( 51 ° 14 ′ 13 ″ N, 7 ° 9 ′ 37 ″ E ) was built in 1936/37 and moved into on May 15, 1938 by the 1st Division of Artillery Regiment 76 from Sagan under the command of Major Polzer, which left the barracks again in 1942.
The barracks were also used by the British armed forces after World War II. The barracks was initially named "Anglesey Barracks". The North Irish Horse , coming from Austria, first quartered in 1946 , then on June 7th of the same year the 14th / 20th King's Hussars . With the stationing of the 1st Battalion The Manchester Regiment ( 4th Infantry Brigade Group ) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Archdale from July 1948 to March 1950, the name was changed to "Manchester Barracks".
Other deployed units were the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards from 1950 to 1952 , the 1st Battalion The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) in 1952 and the 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles ( 6th Infantry Brigade ) from April 1954 to March 1957 .
The Bundeswehr took over this property as the first of the four Wuppertal barracks in May 1957. On October 1, 1957, Feldjäger Battalion III was the first Bundeswehr association to be stationed in the Wuppertal site. The Bundeswehr then used the barracks until 1993 through the 810 telecommunications battalion (mFmBtrbBtl 810 and FmAKp 811).
In 1998 the development center and the German headquarters of Delphi were located on the site , as well as the Wuppertal technology center W-tec in the modernized barracks building .
Colmar Barracks (Harding Barracks)
Another barracks ( 51 ° 14 ′ 29 ″ N, 7 ° 11 ′ 40 ″ E ) was built on Lichtscheid in Wuppertal- Barmen. It was named after the Alsatian city of Colmar and was founded in November 1938 by the III. Division Cavalry Rifle Regiment 4 was related under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Höfer.
It was also in British hands after the Second World War under the name "Harding Barracks". The 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers were stationed here in 1946 , the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards ( 4th Infantry Brigade Group ) from February 1947 to December 1947 , the 1st Battalion Royal Scots from December 1951 to May 1952, the 1st Battalion Royal Scots from October 1952 to October 1953 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters , 1st Battalion Suffolk Regiment (all 6th Infantry Brigade ) from November 1956 to June 1956 , 3rd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets from 1958 to 1962 , 1st Battalion The King's Own Royal Border Regiment from 1962 to 1964 , from From 1965 to January 1966 the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards and from January 1966 to March 1968 the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards (last two 4th Guard Brigade Group ).
As the last of the Wuppertal barracks, it was also handed over to the Bundeswehr in blocks by October 21, 1969. The local clothing store, the Defense District Command 324 (afterwards in the Saarburg Barracks), the Homeland Security Command 15 , the associated headquarters company, the Panzerjägerkompanie 440 and the tank mortar company 440 were housed here. From October 1, 1981 to 1993, the Bundeswehr's 72nd rocket artillery battalion was stationed here, as was Panzerjägerkompanie 200 and the training battalion 203 of Panzer Brigade 20 . The site telecommunications system for the Wuppertal site was also located on the site. At the barracks bordered training area Scharpenacken .
From 1994 two company buildings in the barracks were temporarily used as urban transitional housing for asylum seekers and resettlers and as a block of flats for riot police . Other parts were merged with the neighboring Diedenhofen barracks (new Generaloberst Hoepner barracks). The site is also being developed together with that of the Diedenhofen barracks. By the end of 2008, the wagon halls of the barracks on Scharpenacker Weg were demolished in order to make space for residential developments. This area comprised 11.4 hectares. With one exception, the company and staff buildings were preserved with an area of 6.1 hectares. In October 2009, the company building located directly on Oberbergische Strasse and previously used as a temporary residence was demolished.
Diedenhofen barracks (Waldkaserne / Keightley Barracks / Generaloberst-Hoepner-Kaserne (from 1994))
The Diedenhofen barracks ( 51 ° 14 ′ 21 ″ N, 7 ° 12 ′ 5 ″ E ) in Wuppertal- Ronsdorf , named after the town of Diedenhofen in Lorraine, was built as a forest barracks in 1937 . The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on September 3, 1939 and, after completion in the spring of 1939, was taken over by Lieutenant Colonel Versen and his 1st Division Cavalry Rifle Regiment. In 1941 the forest barracks was renamed Diedenhofen barracks.
After the Second World War, it was converted into a makeshift hospital called " Deutsches Lazarett Wuppertal-Ronsdorf " on April 24, 1946 , and then on July 31, 1951, like the other barracks, it was confiscated and used by the British armed forces. During this time it was called "Keightley Barracks", named after General Sir Charles Frederic Keightley (1901–1974).
The 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers were stationed here from November 1951 to November 1952 , the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry from December 1952 to June 1955 , the 1st Battalion The Buffs (Royal East Kents) from June 1955 to November 1957 , from January 1960 to November 1960 the 1st Battalion The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (all 6th Infantry Brigade ), from November 1960 to June 1962 the The Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) , from June 1962 to April 1964 the 1st Battalion King's Own Royal Border Regiment / The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and from May 1964 to 1965 the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards (all 4th Infantry Brigade Group / 4th Guards Brigade Group ).
The first Bundeswehr soldier at the site was stationed on October 1, 1957 in a part of the barracks. Almost at the same time as the Sagan barracks, the Diedenhofen barracks were finally handed over to the Bundeswehr on December 1, 1965. The first user was the missile squadron 2. On April 1, 1970, the anti-aircraft battalion 110 was set up, which was renamed the anti-aircraft regiment 100 on October 1, 1980. The training company 7/7 was also housed.
Until the final abandonment of the Wuppertal site in 2004, it was used for the staff battery of the mixed anti-aircraft regiment 1 (H) established on April 1, 1993, the anti-tank missile battalion 100 (H), the light anti-aircraft missile battery 100 (H), the Wuppertal driver training center (SKB) and a small medical center of the anti-tank missile battalion. On August 8, 1994 it took over the name Generaloberst-Hoepner-Kaserne, which had previously been used by the former Saarburg barracks on Freudenberg. It also bordered the on-site training area. The barracks covered an area of 6.7 hectares for the company and staff buildings and 8.7 hectares for truck hangars and the parade ground . Another 6.1 hectares within the barracks area were forested.
Protection as a monument and conversion
In 2003 the Rhenish Office for Monument Preservation worked to put the entire barracks under monument protection. The district government of Düsseldorf issued an order to enter all buildings including the technical halls, the parade ground, the fence and the rifle shooting range in the list of monuments of the lower monument authority in Wuppertal, which happened on February 6, 2004, despite the opposition from the city, as instructed.
The protection was met with resistance from the city of Wuppertal, which wanted to use the barracks as a commercial area. The city worked out a compromise with the district government on the scope of the protection: two thirds of the site could be built on, the technical halls with one exception could be demolished. The company and staff buildings should be preserved. Despite the compromise negotiated, the city maintained its opposition to the protection status.
In 2007 the city sold the site together with that of the neighboring Colmar barracks (together approx. 39.8 hectares) to a Dutch project development company, which from the end of 2008 built a so-called Engineering Park Wuppertal in addition to residential developments. The Villa Braus , which is also located there , was already a listed building and was integrated into the project. By November 2008, despite the compromise, all company and staff buildings as well as all technical halls had been demolished and then built over together with the parade ground. The long gun shooting range was built over in 2012 by the Wuppertal-Ronsdorf correctional facility .
Location management
The site administration began operations on July 1, 1957. It was located, covering 2.2 hectares, east of the GOH barracks, as well as parts of the Scharpenacken military training area and the shooting range. In 2007 plans were presented to build a police barracks, two state schools and the Wuppertal-Ronsdorf correctional facility on a large part of this area . The latter was built from 2009 to 2011 and opened in August 2011. The on-site administration buildings, which were newly built in the early 1990s, are empty and are to be partially integrated into the police barracks that are yet to be built.
Site training area, ammunition defeats and shooting range
The 254-hectare training area at Scharpenacken bordered the Colmar barracks and the Diedenhofen barracks. On the training area near the hamlet of Erbschlö, there was a long gun shooting range and a site ammunition defeat , which the new prison in Wuppertal-Ronsdorf had built over until 2010 . The 24.8 hectare site ammunition defeat in Wuppertal for the site's anti-aircraft weapons was on the city limits between Radevormwald and Halver .
literature
- CDROM: History of the Mixed Air Defense Regiment 1. Overall editorial management: OLt Döhne, OLt Glasow; Overall technical management: Gefr Oberste-Ufer, Bundeswehr, 2002.
- REGIMENTS AND CORPS OF THE BRITISH ARMY ; Ian S. Hallows, 1991, ISBN 1-85891-237-7 .
Web links
- Memorial stones in the Sagan barracks
- Engineering Park Wuppertal
- Urban development master plan for the area of the GOH barracks.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Klaus-Günther Conrads, Günter Konrad: Ronsdorfer Heimat- und Bürgererverein | from 1925 to 1949. In: ronsdorfer-buergerverein.de. www.ronsdorfer-buergerverein.de, accessed on February 1, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d " 6th Infantry Brigade - 1947 to 1977" on britisharmyiniserlohn.blogspot.com
- ↑ Bangor Barracks on baor-locations.org
- ↑ Anglesey Barracks on baor-locations.org
- ↑ a b c " 4th Infantry later Guards Brigade - 1947 to 1977" on britisharmyiniserlohn.blogspot.com
- ↑ Manchester Barracks on baor-locations.org
- ↑ Harding Barracks on baor-locations.org
- ↑ Keightley Barracks on baor-locations.org
- ↑ Registration order of the district government ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Report on the meeting of the Ronsdorf district council on April 19, 2004 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
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