Commercial kitchen ship
The large kitchen ship was in 1944 part of the civilian disaster protection and part of the Nazi infrastructure in major German cities with navigable canals and rivers.
development
After the Allied bombing raids , the bombed-out population had to be provided with sufficient food. This task was carried out by mobile Wehrmacht kitchens and trains of the Deutsche Reichsbahn until 1944 . The organization was in the hands of the German Labor Front and the Nazi People's Welfare , which with relief teams took over the feeding of the needy. Due to the intensification of air attacks, new possibilities had to be used, which could be realized especially in cities with numerous waterways, since experience has shown that ships could avoid major destruction.
Excursion ships with diesel engines were particularly suitable for conversion into large kitchen ships.
The large kitchens consisted mainly of kettles and a larger cold kitchen, cooling equipment and storage rooms. In some cases, up to 10,000 servings of warm food could be prepared on the ships. Mainly stews like pea soup, potato and beet soup and low-meat spoon dishes with whole soy were cooked. The cooking program also included pasta dishes and sweet dishes. The volunteers supported the permanent staff in the preparation of up to 20,000 sandwiches so that the supply ship was able to bring help to the victims of the devastating war the moment it arrived.
The staff was instructed to start preparing the food in the event of an air alarm and to organize the distribution and portioning after arrival.
The ships were designed with a lightweight construction, since use should also be possible in canals with low water levels.
Drinking water, bread, cutlery, coffee substitute , tea, warming containers were just as much a part of the basic equipment as fresh vegetables, canned food and sausage.
The large kitchen ships were used in Berlin, on the Rhine and in the Ruhr area. "As a result of air strikes and evacuation measures, more and more people became dependent on communal meals because the private kitchen was destroyed or the wives, at that time the natural breadwinner of the family, had been evacuated."
The National Socialist People's Welfare Association (NSV) distributed the homeless after the air raids in Munich to restaurants, schools and other suitable buildings in order to feed them. “The innkeepers couldn't cope with this task, so the NSV set up a large kitchen on the edge of the English Garden. With 24 kettles you could prepare a total of 7200 liters of stew or soup at once. "
literature
- Kitchen and cellar, German hotel news. Official Reich organ of the catering and accommodation business group (publisher), Hamburg, September 30, 1944.
- BZ at noon on August 10, 1944.
- BZ at noon on July 23, 1944.
- Thomas Schaufuß: The political role of the FDGB holiday service in the GDR. Social tourism in the SED state (contemporary history research; Vol. 43), Duncker & Humblot Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-428-13621-6 , page 63, DAF, NS Organization.
- Wolfgang Franz Werner: Leftover. German workers in the National Socialist war economy . Schwann Verlag, Düsseldorf 1983, p. 209.
- Hans Erich Graßhoff: Higher performance through communal catering . In: Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft, 13 (1944), NR 16, page 465/466.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Drews: The "Nazi Bean". Cultivation, use and effects of the soybean in the German Reich and Southeast Europe (1933–1945). Series: Politics and History, Vol. 4. LIT-Verlag Münster, 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7513-X , p. 155.
- ↑ Florian Wimmer: The national order of poverty. Communal social policy in National Socialist Munich. Wallstein Verlag, May 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1402-3 .