Extreme high voltage barrier
The high voltage fence in Belgium , official German name Grenzhochspannungshindestis , French Clôture électrique , Dutch De electrical draadversperring , also called De Draad , Dodendraad or Dodenhek ( the wire , dead wire or dead fence ), extended to the Belgian during the First World War from 1915 to 1918 - Dutch border over a length of 300 kilometers from the then four-country corner at Neutral-Moresnet to the Belgian North Sea coast at Knokke .
prehistory
The construction of the fence was decided in 1915 by the German General Government of Belgium in order to close the open border with the Netherlands. It could only be secured poorly by German Landsturm troops . Thousands of Belgians left the country across this border, especially after the Belgian King Albert I and the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Mechelen Désiré-Joseph Mercier had issued a call for volunteers at the end of 1914. Even smugglers and agents often crossed the border.
At the beginning of 1915, the German leadership had an electric wire barrier erected at the southern end of the Western Front , on the Alsatian border with Switzerland , eleven kilometers in length.
The high voltage barrier
Work began almost simultaneously in seven operating phases, first in the 1.8 km long section from Vaals / Aachen district Vaalserquartier to what was then the four-country corner. For this purpose, the Kgl. Bay. Landsturm Pioneer Company No. 1 and parts of the 60th Armierungs-Battalion deployed. This section was put under high voltage on August 23, 1915 ; from August 29th the plant was in operation up to the Meuse.
The obstacle consisted of three fences with patrol corridors in between. A warning fence made of barbed wire stood on the Dutch side, then came the actual high-voltage fence and another wire barrier on the German or Belgian side to keep people away. Before that, a 100 to 200 meter wide exclusion zone was designated, which could be entered without warning.
Touching the wire triggered audible alarms. Various sections of the route were illuminated with headlights at night. The individual switching houses were connected to one another by telephone lines.
Border high voltage barrier Belgium-Netherlands
Border high voltage barrier Belgium-Netherlands
Border high voltage barrier Belgium-Netherlands
The high voltage barrier was secured by various German troops that changed over the course of time. So that was Dragoons "king" (the second of Württemberg) no. 26 October 1916 to October 1916 for the section Lommel - Hammont - - Hugbrechts-Lille Bree responsible.
The high voltage fence
The actual high-voltage fence was almost two meters high and consisted of wooden poles to which porcelain insulators were attached at intervals of 20 to 30 cm. The insulators were connected by copper or zinc wires. Later, the longitudinal wires were connected by vertical wires to prevent them from slipping through.
The voltage was either fed in via nearby factories or via our own supply lines and transformer houses . To regulate the voltage on site, switching houses were set up along the border about every two kilometers. To save power, it was switched on and off in individual sections at different times of the day and night. A track master was responsible for a section between two switching houses. He was able to switch off the voltage and checked the condition of the fence, which was often damaged by border crossers.
Back then, electricity and its properties were hardly known in the rural border areas . The population was warned by notices and signs near the high voltage barrier.
Use
Despite the ban, around 20,000 Belgian war volunteers came to the Netherlands between 1915 and 1918. Mail and food were also smuggled into Belgium. In order to overcome the high-voltage fence, in addition to cutting through the wires with insulated pliers, sometimes adventurous methods were used, such as pushing a barrel without a lid and bottom between the wires to crawl through, covering the fence with rubber mats, using rubber suits or items of clothing that came with Porcelain plates were occupied, up to and including jumping over (pole vault). Two to three thousand people were killed at the high voltage barrier.
After the war ended, the fence disappeared quickly as farmers used the stakes and wire to build pasture fences. With the fence, the memory of it faded at first. It was only in the last decades of the 20th century that research brought the barrier back into consciousness.
today
In 1920, Count D'Oultrement had a memorial erected in a wooded area near the Belgian village of Sippenaeken near what is now the German-Belgian-Dutch border triangle . On May 10, 1940, German troops blew up the memorial. In 1962 a new memorial stone was erected on the same site.
In 2000, a piece of the border obstacle was reconstructed at the border near Hamont-Achel .
literature
- A. Vanneste: Kroniek van een dorp in oorlog. Neerpelt 1914-1918. Het dagelijks leven, de spionage en de electrical draadversperring an de Belgisch-Nederlandse grens tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog , Deurne 1998 (with a facsimile map of the fence line!)
- A. Vanneste: Het eerste 'IJzeren Gordijn'? The electric draadversperring aan de Belgisch-Nederlandse grens tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog , Het Tijdschrift van Dexia Bank, LIV, 2000, no. 4, pp. 39-82.
- Article in Die Zeit about the electric fence on the border between Belgium and Germany , accessed on February 6, 2010.
- WDR - Radio 5 on April 6, 1998, Martin Herzog: Der Zaun - On the Trail of an Unknown Death Strip Transcript, accessed February 6, 2010
- Südwestrundfunk SWR2 Wissen, broadcast: Friday, May 24, 2002, 8.30 a.m., archive no .: 051-5393 Transcript, accessed February 6, 2010 ( RTF ; 43 kB)
- Herbert Ruland: The electric fence in the border region from 1915–1918 , in: Border history section Ostbelgien, end-of-year edition 2005, PDF
Web links
- HetIJzeren Gordijn van 1914–1918 (The Iron Curtain from 1914–1918) , accessed on May 11, 2013.
- Gerhard Hirschfeld: Encyclopedia First World War , accessed on February 6, 2010.
- High-voltage barrier: de electrical grensdraad tussen Nederland en België in de Eerste Wereldoorlog (PDF; 528 kB), accessed May 11, 2013
- Entry in encyclopedia. 1914-1918-online.net
Remarks
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↑ SWR2: “Liège, June 23, 1915.
For the production of the high-voltage fence recommended by the Generalgouvernement on the Belgian-Dutch border, the following personnel are required:
a) Technical personnel: Dispatch from the 2nd Landsturm Pioneer Company: a Captain , three officers, 70 non-commissioned officers and commons
b) to unskilled workers: Dispatch from the reinforcement battalion: 80 men with appropriate supervisory staff, technicians if possible, as well as wood and iron workers. The working hours are expected to last seven to eight weeks. ...
The production work on the high voltage fence will start on Monday the 28th of this month.
Another order follows.
Drawn Riecke, Lieutenant Colonel. " -
↑ SWR2: “To the Second Bavarian Landsturm Pionier Company:
The poles are to be soaked with tar on the lower part, which is sunk into the ground. Here, too, as with the piles, it should be appropriate to have the tar clearing carried out before transporting it to the points of use in the vicinity of the stations mentioned. The poles are to be unloaded as soon as they arrive, checked and made safe for transport to the point of use. " -
↑ SWR2: “To the Second Bavarian Landsturm Pionier Kompagnie:
The company will be sent the order for 26 tons of four millimeter thick galvanized iron wire, eleven tons of three millimeter thick galvanized iron wire and 500 kilograms of two millimeter thick galvanized binding wire at porting in Antwerp for your information .
- of 45,000 insulators at a price of 10 marks per 1,000 pieces sent to the Pohl brothers, Schmiedeberg, Riesengebirge, for information. Half of the insulating rolls must be sent to the train stations in Visé and Bleyberg. " -
↑ Martin Herzog: “Warning! Risk of death!
A fence charged with high-voltage electricity has been erected along the Belgian-Dutch border. Any touch of the fence marked by warning signs is absolutely fatal, as is touching people, animals or objects that have got stuck in the fence.
Crossing the fence is strictly forbidden. The troops are instructed to use the weapon whenever they attempt to commit the offense.
Liège, August 18, 1915
The Governorate "