Wahmbeck warehouse
The camp Wahmbeck was a German officer POW camp in World War I in Wahmbeck .
The camp was located on the grounds of the “Sommerfrische Rothhaus” hotel on the Weser , which had been converted into a camp by prisoners of war in May / June 1915 . The construction of the camp thus falls at the end of the early phase (1914/1915) of the German camp development, when prisoners of war were temporarily housed in empty buildings. The construction of the prison camp brought significant changes for Wahmbeck, so a line was laid from neighboring Lippoldsberg to supply the camp with electricity , which meant electrification of the village. During the war, only officers (as well as some ordinaries ) were held prisoner in the Wahmbeck camp , although according to the available sources the camp never had more than 150 prisoners. Immediately after the camp was established, there were mainly Russian and French officers in Wahmbeck, and from 1917 mainly British . In contemporary German propaganda, Wahmbeck was transfigured as a model camp for "officers in need of recovery and sick". In fact, the living conditions in the camp were very cramped, which neutral inspectors repeatedly brought up during visits to the camp. Administratively, the Wahmbeck camp was under the direction of the Deputy General Command of the X Army Corps . The camp management on site in 1915 comprised a captain (officer) , four non-commissioned officers, 24 guards and some military camp officials.
After the fall of the monarchy in the German Empire , the situation in the Wahmbeck camp remained comparatively calm. A soldiers 'council in Wahmbeck formed in the course of the November Revolution saw itself as a guarantor of order and intervened in the dismissal of a soldiers' council in the neighboring district town of Uslar . At the same time, members of the Wahmbeck Soldiers' Council took part in public events in Uslar against the idea of a soviet republic and called for elections to a national assembly.
Meanwhile, the camp continued to be used after the Compiègne armistice . At first it was used to detain Russian prisoners of war whose repatriation was prohibited by the armistice treaty. From 1920 it provided quarters for Russian civilians who had fled to Germany due to the Russian Revolution . In this function, the camp continued to exist until March 1, 1922.
The building, which is used as the DRK leisure center, has again been home to refugees since January 2016 .
literature
- Alexander Wierzock: "Some special sanatoriums have been set up for officers who are in need of rest and who are sick ...". The officers' prison camp in Wahmbeck (1915–1922) . In: Sollinger Heimatblätter. History and culture magazine. 31, 2015, no. 4, pp. 11-24.
- The officers' prison camp in Wahmbeck: The enemy lived in the village. In: Hessian Lower Saxony General. 4th November 2014.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Backhaus: The prisoners of war in Germany. Around 250 photos of reality from German prison camps. Siegen 1915, p. 18.
- ↑ Photo and press report on the Wahmbeck camp from 2014
- ↑ Press report on the conversion of the Wahmbeck leisure home from 2016
Coordinates: 51 ° 37 ′ 42.7 ″ N , 9 ° 31 ′ 32.6 ″ E