Ledward Barracks
 Ledward Barracks
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Former headquarters of USAG Schweinfurt |
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| country | Germany | ||
| local community | Schweinfurt | ||
| Coordinates : | 50 ° 3 ' N , 10 ° 13' E | ||
| Opened | 1935-1936 | ||
| Formerly stationed units | |||
| 4th Panzer Regiment, 36th Panzer Regiment, 1st Infantry Division 10th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade 30th Infantry Division, 1st Brigade 38th Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade U.S. Health Clinic Schweinfurt and many more |
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Location of the Ledward Barracks in Bavaria |
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The Ledward Barracks were barracks of the US Army Garrison in Schweinfurt from 1945/46 to 2014 .
As the Adolf Hitler barracks (also: armored barracks ), the barracks were built for the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1936 and used by them until 1945.
The eastern, oldest area of the barracks is known as the old tank barracks, and has been used for civilian purposes since 1945.
location
The former 26.2 hectare barracks area is located in the northwest part of the city , approx. 1.5 km northwest of the city center. The area is located directly on Niederwerrner Straße, a major arterial road to the A 71 in the direction of Erfurt and the A 7 in the direction of Kassel . The area borders on the Willy Sachs Stadium to the west, the large allotment garden complex Alte Warte to the north, to the north-western part of the city (in the narrower sense) and to the south to the Musikerviertel district .
Schedule
Wehrmacht 1936–1945
In 1934 there was a fundamental decision to set up a garrison for the Wehrmacht in Schweinfurt. From 1935 to 1936, the tank barracks were built in a spacious, strictly geometric, clearly structured urban area.
Initially, the 4th Armored Regiment of the Army used the barracks as a training facility for tank crews . The regiment was in action in Austria in 1937/38 . Then the 36th Panzer Regiment moved into the barracks as part of the 4th Panzer Division , which was founded in 1938 in neighboring Würzburg . With the exception of the third block east of the courtyard (Building 203) on Niederwerrner Strasse, which was no longer rebuilt, it was not destroyed during the war.
Refugee camp and US consulate 1945–1948
The tank barracks (excluding the partially destroyed old tank barracks) served as emergency accommodation for refugees from Estonia , Lithuania , Yugoslavia and Poland from 1945 to 1948 . At that time, a total of around 9,000 people lived in the barracks, which also housed the US consulate .
Ledward Barracks 1946-2014
history
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Ledward Barracks,
Panzer Memorial 2012 |
Ledward Barracks,
Fallen Soldier Memorial 2013 |
After the 42nd Division of the Seventh United States Army (7th US Army) marched into Schweinfurt on April 11, 1945, it immediately occupied the tank barracks. It was named Ledward Barracks in honor of Lieutenant Colonel William J. Ledward on October 19, 1946 . He was in command of the 27th Artillery Battalion and fell in Italy in 1944 .
In 1948 the barracks were completely taken over by the US Army. The headquarters of the newly founded US Army Garrison Schweinfurt moved into the central administration building at the Ehrenhof . In the seventy-year American history of the barracks, countless units with a variety of tasks were stationed there. After the end of the Cold War , everyone, even with a car, was allowed to visit the barracks and bars and events without being checked.
The situation changed suddenly with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 . The barracks became inaccessible to outsiders. The former main entrance gate on Niederwerrner Strasse became the side access (South Gate) . On Kasernenweg, in the northwest corner of the barracks (towards Yorktown Village ), at the end of Ross Street, a new main entrance (Main Gate) was built. It had four lanes, with a covered checkpoint (security gate) , the size of border control systems at state borders, which, for example, surpassed Checkpoint Charlie on the former Berlin Wall .
Center for 12,000 Americans
The Ledward Barracks had about 14 troop accommodation buildings and a total of over 50 buildings and facilities. In 1991 the 3rd Squadron of the 4th Cavalry was relocated from Ledward to the Conn Barracks of USAG Schweinfurt. The Ledward Barracks were now heavily thinned out militarily and almost only an administrative, supply and leisure center for up to 12,000 Americans. The barracks finally had the infrastructure of a small American town: church, post office, clinic, department store, cinema, bank, car dealership, insurance, bars, Paradeplatz and bus routes to the other US areas in Schweinfurt and to Bad Kissingen , the former US location and beyond Place of residence.
The department store was operated by the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), a consumer goods supply chain with stores owned by the US Department of Defense , which u. a. served to supply the US Army. The goods in the department store, the "PX" ( Post Exchange , also "BX" for Base Exchange ) were tax-free, which is why only military personnel were allowed access.
The right-angled streets in the Ledward Barracks were called Avenues and Streets , following the example of Manhattan . The two 600 m long main and longitudinal streets were called Murray Avenue and Marne Avenue (the latter is now called Carus-Allee ) and the cross streets and shorter longitudinal streets Peden Street , Cobble Street and Ross Street . The two parallel one-way streets to and from Niederwerrner Strasse were called Gibson Road and Sqires Road . So the names of the streets indicated their different functions.
Withdrawal of the US Army in 2014
In 2014 the US armed forces were completely withdrawn from Schweinfurt (see: US Army Garrison Schweinfurt # dissolution of the garrison ). After the withdrawal, the Ledward barracks were available as a US conversion area for urban development . The barracks initially went into the possession of the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA) at the end of 2014, from which the city of Schweinfurt acquired the barracks for 9.1 million euros on February 26, 2015.
Reception facilities for refugees 2015–2019
The city of Schweinfurt rented a part of the barracks out of town, at the southwest corner of the area, to the Free State of Bavaria for four years and a total of 2.5 million euros . On June 1, 2015, a reception facility (also: initial reception facility ) for refugees was opened here.
Admitted persons in the reception facility (AE):
- 2015 (1.6. – 31.12.): 16,521
- 2016 (full year): 3,392
- 2017 (full year): 2,222
In 2018, the reception facility was temporarily converted into an anchor center of the same capacity (maximum 1,460 refugees) and relocated to the Conn Barracks in May 2019 in the area of the suburb of Niederwerrn . Since then, there have been no reception facilities for refugees in the area of the city of Schweinfurt.
Carus Park since 2017
Carus Park has been called the Ledward Barracks area since 2017. Since then, a new district for research , science , teaching, student housing and leisure has been created here, with the international university campus i-Campus Schweinfurt as the main user.
Old tank barracks
To the east of the Adolf Hitler barracks (later Ledward Barracks) a tank barracks was built immediately beforehand. In a broader sense, it is assigned to the western tank barracks, but is also referred to independently as the old tank barracks . It was 10 hectares and had a shooting range , the so-called Gabst . It is the oldest barracks (or part of the barracks) of a total of three barracks at the Schweinfurt military base. It is located to the east of Franz-Schubert-Straße, relatively close to the city center and was partially badly destroyed in World War II and was no longer used for military purposes, but only for civilian purposes.
The former barracks area has been home to the Schweinfurt municipal utilities since the early post-war period in the south-west , with administration and a bus depot. In the middle area, a large, new complex was opened for the Mercedes-Benz Schweinfurt branch in 1966 , until finally, in 2015, Mercedes moved to an even larger, new complex in the Main Valley . Around 1970, a residential complex was built in the northeast corner of the barracks area, with a high-rise and two point buildings .
See also
Web links
- Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA): Information on the Ledward Barracks
- Ron Mihalko: Plan of the Ledward Barracks
- Ron Mihalko: History of the USAG Schweinfurt barracks
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ron Mihalko, Forst : History of the US barracks in Schweinfurt
- ↑ a b c d e f Information from the Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA)
- ↑ a b c d e Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks (BImA), Conversion Schweinfurt: History of the properties of the military location Schweinfurt
- ↑ Several authors: How much longer do we have to live in these fears? . Verlagshaus Weppert, Schweinfurt 1995, ISBN 3-926879-23-8 , p. 117
- ^ A b c Government of Lower Franconia: Asylum seekers in Lower Franconia - Schweinfurt reception center. Retrieved June 29, 2018 .
- ↑ mainpost.de: So the anchor center is moving, February 8, 2019. Accessed February 10, 2019 .
- ↑ mainpost.de: The number of refugees being returned is increasing, May 3, 2019. Retrieved on May 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Measured using the BayernAtlas
- ^ History of Mercedes-Benz, EF Autocenter Mainfranken.de