Sudelfeld subcamp - Luftwaffe

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The concentration camp Sudelfeld - Air Force of the Dachau concentration camp served in the era of National Socialism on the Sudelfeld in Bayrischzell in Bavaria the construction of a pilot plant of "proxy for high frequency research."

backgrounds

In order to catch up with the Allies' lead in radar research, a "Reich Office for High Frequency Research" was set up with around 1500 high frequency experts in various institutes in the German Reich. A Luftwaffe experimental facility with the designation “Sudelfeld planning center for special tasks of the Braunschweig Air Force, Sudelfeld b. Bayrischzell ”was located on the Sudelfeld near Bayrischzell in the Miesbach district in Upper Bavaria, for research into high-frequency technology. The Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler soon got involved in this work by providing premises and skilled concentration camp inmates. This was praised in a statement of accounts by the then management of the Commissioner for High Frequency Research in the person of State Councilor H. (Johannes) Plendl in Berlin-Gatow to Field Marshal Hermann Göring , Reich Minister of Aviation.

Subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp

In August 1943, for example, a “high-frequency research institute” was set up in the rooms of the Dachau concentration camp. This command was the forerunner of the “Wetterstelle” command, which was relocated to the Groß-Rosen concentration camp in Silesia in June 1944, and consisted of specialists in electrical and radio technology from among the concentration camp inmates. A branch was created at Sudelfeld. However, the list of places of detention under the Reichsführer SS ( ITS list ) does not differentiate between the SS-Berghaus Sudelfeld , a mountain sports and recreation home of the SS, and the planning office of the Air Force for the "construction of a test facility for the authorized representative for radio frequency research" . However, the latter is listed separately in the department “Labor deployment of the Dachau concentration camp” under the name “Sudelfeld - Luftwaffe”. Two change reports from this labor deployment department bear the designation "Sudelfeld - Luftwaffe" and have been preserved, they name the names of two prisoners who were transferred back to the infirmary of the main camp in Dachau. This air force external command also appears in the list "Prisoner deployment for purposes of the aviation industry" of the SS-Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt (WVHA) from January 1944 under the designation "Construction of a test facility of the agent [ollmächtigen] f. [Ür] high frequency [research]" The strength of the concentration camp command is given as 25 men; 4660 hours of work were done.

Preserved buildings

Concrete housing for a metal parabolic mirror for radar research

The buildings for the “test facility for high frequency technology” of the external command “Sudelfeld - Luftwaffe” were erected on the ridge of a mountain ridge north and above the German Alpine Road . Remains of the foundations for a material ropeway and concrete blocks, which carried aggregates of antenna systems, as well as a bunker and the solidly concreted housing with the approximate dimensions of 6.00 × 6.00 × 6.00 meters in the form of a spotlight with a recess pointing downwards have been preserved in the form of a parabolic mirror for receiving a mirror made of metal. Its shape and construction suggest that radio measurement methods (radar) have been tested. (See also: Würzburg (Radar) ). The mirror axis points in the direction of the small hilltop on the opposite side of the valley called Waldkopf, to which a just recognizable grass-ingrown route of a narrow road leads. However, there are no remnants of a remote station as the end point of a measuring section. Another platform was located further above in the same bearing direction on the Oberer Sudelfeld and is still clearly visible today from an access road that is also overgrown with grass. The so-called “air force barracks” was located at the valley station of the material cable car in the area of ​​today's large car park.

Towards the end of 1944 two wooden ammunition barracks were built not far from the test station to store one tonne of explosives each , the foundations of which have been preserved. In the building application submitted to the Rosenheim District Office, it was mentioned that the explosives were to be stored on behalf of the "Construction and Operations Office of the Braun - Helmhlotz (sic!) Institute [probably Helmholtz] in Landsberg / Lech Air Base ". Attached was a site plan on a scale of 1: 5000 with the schematically illustrated test stand and the “Muni barracks”, the only written evidence known to date that the remaining concrete remains are identical to the test facility. These are under monument protection .

To this day, rumors persist that the facility was used to develop and test a “smokeless gunpowder”, which the SS probably intended to deliberately mislead the local population. However, all of the written evidence that has been preserved indicates radar research.

literature

Coordinates: 47 ° 41 ′ 2 "  N , 12 ° 2 ′ 33"  E