Hirschhagen

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Hirschhagen
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 30 ″  N , 9 ° 41 ′ 58 ″  E
Height : approx. 459  (430-475.5)  m above sea level NHN
Residents : 172  (Nov. 15, 2011)
Postal code : 37235
Area code : 05602
View of the town in Hirschhagen

Hirschhagen is an industrial area (with partly residential development) and belongs to the core city of Hessisch Lichtenau in the Werra-Meißner district in Hesse . It went out of the era of National Socialism set up explosives factory Hessisch Lichtenau out and now serves mainly as a commercial area . Hirschhagen has its own local advisory board , but is not an independent district of Hessisch Lichtenau.

Geographical location

Hirschhagen is located in the natural area of Kaufunger Wald (with Söhre ) a few hundred meters east of the border with the Kassel district . Near the geo-nature park Frau-Holle-Land (Werratal.Meißner.Kaufunger Wald) it is 1.5 km north-northeast of the Hessisch Lichtenau district of Fürstenhagen . To the north rises the wooded Rohrberg ( 535.6  m ), on the southern flank of which the village is hidden at 430 (southern edge) to 475.5  m above sea level. NHN (western part) is located. The Hirschhagener ponds spread to the east .

history

As part of the armament and war preparations of the National Socialist German Reich , construction of the Hessisch Lichtenau factory for the recycling of chemical products began in 1936 . Planning, construction and operation of the explosives factory were carried out according to the Montan scheme . The factory was built by Dynamit AG (DAG) on behalf of OKH . The operation was then carried out by the Gesellschaft mbH for the recovery of chemical products ( recycling chemistry ) as a subsidiary of DAG on behalf of Montan GmbH , a front company of the Heereswaffenamt . After two years of construction, the factory went into operation in June 1938. The code name of the strictly confidential complex was Friedland .

The Hessisch Lichtenau explosives factory was the second largest in what was then the German Empire after the explosives factory in Allendorf . Between 1938 and 1945 around 135,000 tons of TNT and 7,000 tons of picric acid were produced and processed, and detonators and detonators were filled with delivered nitropenta . The factory premises cover an area of ​​233  hectares with a total of 399 buildings. In addition to the production buildings for the explosives, there were filling stations for ammunition, storage facilities, laboratories, workshops and, among other things, two separate power plants for the power supply. A 17 km long factory railway with a connecting station to the Kassel – Waldkappel railway was used for transport .

In addition to German conscripts, numerous foreign forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners also had to work in the factory. Working in the production and filling of explosives was quite dangerous, and over the years there have been twelve documented blast accidents with numerous deaths. Ten camps were set up in the vicinity of the factory to accommodate the workers and concentration camp prisoners. The Fürstenhagen settlement , which is still preserved today, was built in the style of homeland security architecture for the executive employees .

After the Second World War , the properties of the explosives factory were used for civil industry. Today the area is designated as the industrial area of ​​the city of Hessisch Lichtenau. In the earlier buildings of the plant there are commercial operations, but also some apartments.

Due to the fact that explosives are produced without any consideration for the environment, Hirschhagen is also a legacy of armaments . In 1992 extensive renovation work began on behalf of the State of Hesse. After extensive area-wide soil investigations, various redevelopment areas were identified. Here, the contamination of nitroaromatics and PAHs was removed by soil replacement or, to a small extent, also sealed by covering. The contaminated groundwater is cleaned of the nitroaromatics by means of water treatment using activated carbon filters. While the soil remediation was completed in 2008, the groundwater still has to be treated.

Hirschhagen tunnel

In future, federal motorway 44 will run southwest and south of Hirschhagen in the Hirschhagen tunnel , which is no more than 4.2 km long ; it will then also cross under Hirschhagener Strasse , which serves as a connection between Hirschhagen and Fürstenhagen. The tunnel, which has been under construction from 2013 until probably 2022, will be part of a section of the motorway that began construction in 2010 between the Helsa- East and Hessisch Lichtenau- West junctions .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Facts & Figures , accessed on January 20, 2016, at hessisch-lichtenau.de
  2. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

literature

  • Wolfram König, Ulrich Schneider: Explosives from Hirschhagen. Past and present of a munitions factory (= National Socialism in North Hesse. Vol. 8). University Library, Kassel 1985, ISBN 3-88122-231-6 .
  • Gregor Espelage, Dieter Vaupel : 700 years of Hessisch Lichtenau. A complementary contribution to local history. Arms production in "Friedland". The factory Hessisch Lichtenau for the utilization of chemical products GmbH Published by the Hessisch Lichtenau history workshop, Hirschhagen. Ekopan, Witzenhausen 1989, ISBN 3-927080-06-3 .
  • Project group Hirschhagen "Gesamtthochschule Kassel (ed.): Hirschhagen. Explosives production in the" Third Reich ". A guide to exploring the site of a former explosives factory , Kassel 1991

Web links

Commons : Hirschhagen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files