Air raid on Schleiz

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On April 8, 1945, 25 fighter planes of the 9th Air Force flew an attack on downtown Schleiz in south-east Thuringia . They dropped 500 high-explosive bombs (equivalent to 34 tons of explosives), which destroyed 51 buildings and damaged 109. These included the residential palace and the town church of St. Georg . Over 200 people died, many of them children and young people.

Schleiz

Schleiz 1908 with the castle as the town crown

Schleiz, the former residence of the Princes Reuss younger line, was a district, civil servant and school town. It had no garrison and no operations that were important to the war effort. The small town had 6,500 inhabitants in 1939. At the beginning of April 1945, at the time of the bombing, there were significantly more: by evacuated from West Germany by air warfare, refugees from the eastern regions and foreign workers. From 1943 to the end of February 1945 (there are no documents for the time thereafter) air raids were triggered 179 times in Schleiz, usually because of overflights. In addition to the air raid shelters, the deep cellars under Schleiz, the caves , which were connected to one another, were included in the air defense . The old wine cellar under the castle had been converted into an air raid shelter.

The attack in detail

On Sunday, April 8, 1945, 155 twin-engine Havoc and Invader fighter aircraft of the 9th bomber division of the 9th US Air Fleet took off from their bases in northern France in the morning with the aim of targeting the fuel depots in Münchenbernsdorf in southeast Thuringia - according to sight to destroy. The blazing fires and the thick, heavy smoke from the dropping of 145 tons of explosives by the first 123 bombarding fighter planes were so intense that 32 of the following machines headed for the second target Schleiz, which was ordered for this case . Seven of them couldn't find Schleiz and instead released their bomb load via Pößneck .

25 fighter planes of the 409th bomber group reached the destination Schleiz and dropped their bomb load in several waves on April 8th, the "Bloody Sunday in Schleiz", from 10:21 am to 10:31 am (air alarm at 9:20 am) with excellent visibility from 2,500 to 2,900 meters over the city center: 500 GP (General Purpose) bombs of 150 US pounds each, equivalent to 34 tons. The crews reported many full and close hits, the bombing success was classified as “excellent” and “superior” by the command.

All US bombers involved in the attacks on Münchenbernsdorf, Schleiz and Pößneck landed safely in their places.

The destruction

US fighter aircraft Havoc ("Devastator")
US fighter aircraft Invader ("Intruder")

In the bombing raid on Schleiz, 51 buildings suffered total write-offs, 54 were seriously damaged and 55 were slightly damaged. 800 residents of Schleiz and 2,000 refugees were left homeless. The material damage was estimated at 2.5 million Reichsmarks. Not only residential houses, public buildings, businesses and businesses, but also cultural buildings were lost or damaged.

One of the three bomb carpets hit the castle, the Marstall with the two outbuildings, the neighboring Turnerheim and what was then Elisen-Straße (today Karl-Marx-Straße). The second carpet of bombs hit the town church and its surroundings. The third fell in the area of ​​the district court and the hotel "Goldene Sonne".

The following were hit:

  • The "(Great) Recreation" on Oschitzer Weg, a former community center that was a refugee camp at the time of the bombing and housed a kindergarten. The house was not rebuilt.
  • The “Wisenta House” from 1935 (planned as an agricultural school, used by the NSDAP district leadership) was damaged (and later rebuilt), the neighboring “Wisenta Hall” destroyed (and not rebuilt).
  • Houses around the “department store intersection” were destroyed or damaged, but the streets remained passable.
  • The hotel “Goldene Sonne” (Goethe was a guest here) in Schmiedenstrasse suffered a direct hit in the middle part right into the cellar area. Boys from Düsseldorf had been quartered in the hotel for a few days (21 dead), who had been housed in Burgk Castle as part of the Extended Kinderlandverschickung (KLV) from West German aerial warfare areas. The hotel ruin was demolished in 1947.
  • Houses opposite the “Goldene Sonne” hotel were destroyed or damaged, including the Alte Post.
  • Several houses (built from 1900 to 1905) with beautiful facades on the west side of Neumarkt were destroyed.
  • The old mint on Neumarkt (1678–1681), a Russian mint, a Renaissance building, suffered considerable destruction of the rear parts from the impact of bombs. It was so badly damaged that it should be torn down. "We owe the courageous commitment of responsible citizens that the old coin is still standing today". It was rebuilt in 1946.
  • Brunnengasse was badly damaged, many houses on the left side (seen from Neumarkt) destroyed.
  • "On April 8, 1945 Schleiz lost its crown with the castle". At the time of the bombing, the former residential palace contained 17 apartments and important historical rooms (White Hall) and collections. The old wine cellar with the adjoining caves had been converted into an air raid shelter . The castle, starting from the particularly affected north wing, burned down for over three days as a result of the bombing. The fire could not be extinguished because the main water pipe was also destroyed in the attack. The important Princely House Archive, the library (over 50,000 volumes), the weapons collection, the coin and medal collection, valuable art objects (including the well-known tapestries) from Osterstein Castle in Gera , which had been evacuated here before the air war , the local history museum " Oberland ”, parts of the city archive (25–30%) and the castle church (Dreifaltigkeitskirche). In April 1950, the demolition of the ruins began. "The planned demolition of the (burned-out) towers could be prevented by responsible Schleiz citizens". The tower ruins were only secured in 1993 after the "Wende" and were given pointed hoods in their old form.
  • The former royal stables below the castle were partially destroyed, the gym next door completely.
  • The park home in the city park also received a hit. "During the following repairs, it lost part of its charm".
  • The Schlossgasse (below the Marstall) was also hit.
  • Elisenstrasse (today Karl-Marx-Strasse) was "one of Schleiz's lifelines" for hundreds of years. It also suffered considerable destruction and damage to its building fabric, also from later demolitions. The north side has completely disappeared or replaced by new buildings.
  • The town church of St. George suffered heavy damage, including the ship and gallery vaults were destroyed, as well as the furnishings (pulpit from 1822) and the important altarpiece, restored only 1936-1939. The reconstruction in the old form lasted until 1952, the altarpiece was restored from 1954 to 1959.
  • The houses around the town church were particularly affected.
  • The station itself was missed, but there was damage to houses in the vicinity.

If seven Havoc fighter planes had not missed the “secondary target” Schleiz and instead dropped their bomb load of 9.5 tons on Pößneck , the damage done in Schleiz would of course have been even greater.

Documentation of the damage

In June 1945, the photographer Richard Schilling was commissioned by the US commandant's office to photograph the bomb damage in Schleiz for documentation purposes. Under the supervision of a military policeman, he took over 40 photos. Mayor Dr. Felix Seyffert (in office from 1912 to 1945) obtained the approval of the Americans for the negatives to remain in Schleiz. So the pictures of the destruction could also be published.

The fatalities

"The city of Schleiz shook the worst fate in its entire history on the morning of April 8, 1945. None of the city fires over hundreds of years earlier, no other event in Schleiz ever claimed so many victims ...". According to Juergen K. Klimpke, former mayor and chairman of the Schleiz Heimat- und Geschichtsverein, according to an official commemorative publication for the 750th anniversary of Schleiz from 1982 and according to the city's history on the Internet, the air raid on April 8, 1945 killed over 200 people required. The related text on a plaque embedded in the floor of the Neumarkt reads: “II. World war. April 8, 1945 The city was bombed by the US Air Force, over 200 people died, the castle and 150 buildings were destroyed ”. There is no justification for reducing the number to 105 or “around 100” deaths in other sources.

Many children and young people were among the victims. In the direct hit on the Hotel “Goldene Sonne” alone, 21 boys from Düsseldorf, high school students who had been quartered there a few days earlier from a KLV camp at Burgk Castle, died. In the bombing of the Turnerheim, Hitler Youths from Berlin who had been accommodated there as the "close combat tank brigade" were killed. Schleizer Hitlerjungen also died in the district court and in the prison, where they were charged with storing weapons. In the castle, not all residents and members of the Volkssturm practicing in the area could reach the protective old wine cellar. Since the air attack by fighter planes came very quickly and the residents were already used to many air raids without bombs, some of them may have gone to the shelters too late. The militarily insignificant small town was not expected to be attacked.

After the April 8th attack

Immediately after the attack, rescue and recovery work began on injured and dead victims of the attack. The extinguishing work, especially in the area of ​​the castle, was made difficult or impossible because the main water pipe had also been hit by bombs. Water pumped up from the Wisenta had to be used. The Schleiz fire brigade was supported by the fire brigades from Tanna , Gefell , Hirschberg and Bad Lobenstein . A unit from Gotha (which was already under American occupation) also helped. Almost all 16 vehicles of the Eisenach professional fire brigade that were parked near the castle were destroyed or damaged in the air raid (Eisenach was already occupied by US troops). The streets had to be cleared, bomb craters filled and duds defused.

The dead were buried on April 12th in a communal grave in the Bergkirchen cemetery. The NSDAP district leader held the funeral speech, Protestant and Catholic clergy were present.

On April 12th and 13th there was an air raid all day. On April 14th, artillery fire and the detonation of a total of 15 bridges could be heard.

On April 15, the “enemy alarm” sounded at 1.30 p.m. US units coming from Ziegenrück took up positions at the mountain church , which had been damaged by fire. From 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Schleiz was shot at by US tanks . This caused further damage to numerous houses: on Nicolai-Platz, Teichstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse, Hindenburgstrasse (Oschitzer Strasse) and Oberen Schütt. The city was partially without water and electricity.

On April 19, US military police searched every home for weapons. During this raid with riots by the residents (foreign workers), the “citizens' recreation”, Brunnengasse exit to Neumarkt, started to burn. The big building burned out completely. Arson was thought possible. The “Citizens' Recreation” was a stately two-and-a-half-story building from the late 18th century, with a twelve-axis facade and a six-axis central projection closed off by a triangular gable.

Burial and memorial site

War cemetery in the Bergkirchen cemetery in Schleiz

Most of the dead in the air raid were buried on April 12, 1945 in a communal grave at the Bergkirchen cemetery in Schleiz. Since 1994 there have been nine symbol crosses in the style of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge and a memorial . This shows in the middle under the heading “8. April 1945. The town of Schleiz commemorates the victims of the bombing “the names of 43 dead. On the left (from the viewer's point of view) under the inscription “The Düsseldorfer Heimat remembers its fallen boys with love” are the names of the 21 high school students from Düsseldorf who died in the bombing of the Hotel Goldene Sonne . On the right-hand side, under the heading “In memory of the fallen soldiers of various units and the victims who remained unknown”, there are 20 names and below that the sentence “20 unknown victims”. According to this, 104 war victims were buried in this communal grave.

photos

  • Tower ruins of the former castle (2016)

  • War cemetery at Bergkirchen cemetery

  • Plaque on Neumarkt: Over 200 dead in an air raid on April 8, 1945

  • Board in the atrium: 21 dead boys from Düsseldorf on April 8, 1945

  • Dragon fountain with memory: city fire on April 8, 1945

literature

  • 150 years of Schleiz Volunteer Fire Brigade 1862–2012 . Ed. Schleiz Volunteer Fire Brigade. AMK Info Verlag, Schleiz 2012. In it: “Fire extinguishing in Schleiz during the Second World War”. Pp. 22-25
  • Juergen K. Klimpke: Residence town Schleiz . Schleizer Heimat-Hefte No. 33. Published by Juergen K. Klimpke zu Schleiz, 1/2004
  • Juergen K. Klimpke: When death fell from heaven. April 8, 1945 . Schleizer Heimat-Hefte No. 38. Verlag von Juergen K. Klimpke zu Schleiz, 2/2005
  • Juergen K. Klimpke: The day before yesterday - yesterday - today (destruction in Schleiz on April 8, 1945). Schleizer picture booklet No. 4. Schleizer Heimat-Hefte No. 39. Verlag von Juergen K. Klimpke zu Schleiz, 3/2005
  • Günter Sagan: East Thuringia in the bombing war 1939-1945 . Michael Imhoff Verlag, Petersberg 2013. ISBN 978-3-86568-636-7
  • Rudolf Zießler: Schleiz (Schleiz district) . In: Fate of German Monuments in the Second World War . Edited by Götz Eckardt. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1978. Volume 2, pp. 522-524

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Sagan: East Thuringia in the bombing war 1939-1945 . Imhoff-Verlag, Petersberg 2013. pp. 149–150
  2. ^ Günter Sagan: East Thuringia in the bombing war 1939-1945 . Imhoff-Verlag, Petersberg 2013. p. 151
  3. ↑ Juergen K. Klimpke: Schleizer Heimathefte No. 39 (Schleizer picture booklet No. 4, inside cover), Schleiz 2005
  4. ↑ Juergen K. Klimpke: day before yesterday-yesterday-today . Schleizer picture booklet No. 4. Schleizer Heimat-Hefte 39. Schleiz 2005. p. 26
  5. ↑ Juergen K. Klimpke: day before yesterday-yesterday-today . Schleizer picture booklet No. 4. Schleizer Heimathefte 39. Schleiz 2005. p. 27
  6. ↑ Juergen K. Klimpke: day before yesterday-yesterday-today . Schleizer Heimat-Hefte No. 39, Schleizer picture booklet No. 4. Publishing house by Juergen K. Klimpke zu Schleiz, 3/2005
  7. ↑ 150 years of Schleiz fire brigade 1862–2012 . Ed. Schleiz Volunteer Fire Brigade, 2012, p. 22
  8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from April 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schleiz.de
  9. ↑ Juergen K. Klimpke: When death fell from heaven . Schleizer Heimathefte 38, 2/2005, p. 26
  10. ↑ Festschrift for the 750th anniversary of the city of Schleiz, 1982. Quoted from Günter Sagan, Ostthüringen im Bombkrieg 1939–1945, p. 205
  11. ^ Günter Sagan: East Thuringia in the bombing war 1939-1945 . Imhoff Verlag 2013. p. 151
  12. ↑ 150 years of Schleiz fire brigade 1862–2012 . Ed. Schleiz Volunteer Fire Brigade, 2012, pp. 22–25
  13. ↑ Gustav Würtenberg: Ver sacrum (Holy Spring). The story of two boys' camps and the Schleiz tragedy . Düsseldorf 1947 (available in the Schleiz City Archives)

Web links

Commons : Air raid on Schleiz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files