Moorslede barracks
The barracks Moorslede is a former Air Force - barracks in Cologne-Dellbrück . It is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany and is mainly used by the Customs Criminal Police Office . There are also units of the Federal Police and European customs authorities . The barracks have been a listed building since 1994 ; The Cologne District Government is responsible as the lower monument authority .
history
The facility was built from 1936 to around 1940 for pioneer and flak units of the Luftwaffe and was known as Hermann-Göring-Kaserne until 1945. In May 1940, airborne troops who were involved in the raid on Belgium and the capture of the Eben-Emael fort were temporarily housed here . After the Americans marched into Cologne on the right bank of the Rhine at the end of March 1945, the barracks served temporarily as a collection camp for prisoners of war and forced laborers before they were returned, most recently under British administration. In 1945/46 the Belgian occupation army took over the barracks. It was initially called Kwartier Becquevort, but was then given the permanent name Moorslede in memory of a small Belgian town that was destroyed in the First World War. From 1951 to 1992, the Moorslede barracks served mainly the 6th Engineer Battalion (Genie) of the Belgian Army . Around 1950 several settlements, a school, cinema, supermarket and casino were built in Dellbrück outside the barracks for their officers and married men . In 1955 the occupying armies were transformed into NATO forces. An American unit was also stationed in Moorslede in connection with the storage of missiles capable of nuclear weapons . In 1992 the Belgian units left the barracks as part of the gradual withdrawal of all Belgian troops from Germany, which was completed in 2002. From 1994, the barracks were renovated and rebuilt for the Customs Criminal Police Office, taking into account the requirements of monument protection, and the latter gradually moved in.
buildings
The barracks were built on a comparatively small area between Bergisch Gladbacher Straße and the S-Bahn line to Bergisch Gladbach . The center is a three-storey three-wing complex open to the east, the team building. On the south side of Bergisch Gladbacher Strasse from east to west, the gate building with the main gate, the former commandant's office and a double residential building are in front of it, each on one level. To the east of the team building is the former casino, a single-storey H-shaped building. In the north-east corner are the thermal power station and the commandant's former house. To the west of the team building are extensive garages, which are supplemented by a former car workshop in the north-west corner (now outside the site). In the south-west and north-east corner there is a separate building complex each with an anti-aircraft gun hall . H. the standardized accommodation of a mobile anti-aircraft unit. Another former team building in the north and another canteen building on the eastern edge of the site have been preserved from Belgian times; they are not listed. Additional garage complexes have since been demolished. After the demolition and conversion of the other barracks from the Nazi era used by the Belgians, the Moorslede barracks is the last completely preserved facility of its kind in Cologne.
literature
- Becker, Boris; Becker, Jürgen: cleared area, Cologne: König 1995.
- Kier, Hiltrud; Liesenfeld, Karen; Matzerath, Horst (Hrsg.): Architecture of the 30s and 40s in Cologne: Materials on the building history under National Socialism. Writings of the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne, 5, Cologne: Emons 1999, p. 152, 459.
- Goege, Thomas: The conversion of the former Moorslede barracks in Cologne-Dellbrück, in: Military buildings and preservation of monuments / ed. by Udo Mainzer, Essen 2000, pp. 175–180.
- Schierloh, Rolf: Conversion area: The barracks in Cologne-Dellbrück, in: Cologne - his buildings 2000: Fixed edition for the 125th anniversary of the Cologne Architects and Engineers Association from 1875 / ed. from the Architects and Engineers Association Cologne eV from 1875. Ed. zsgest. by Heribert Hall. Cologne, 2000, pp. 105-108.
- Kierdorf, Alexander: Moorslede - from the Air Force barracks to the Belgian garrison to the Customs Criminal Police Office, in: Fortis Colonia: Magazin 2018; 2018, pages 51–55.