Air raids on Kiel

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Two thirds of the shipyard Deutsche Werke Kiel (DWK) was destroyed. In the background the wreck of the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper , May 1945.

The air raids on Kiel during the Second World War caused severe damage to the city of Kiel and its surroundings. Nearly 3,000 people were killed and over 5,000 were injured in 90  air strikes by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

sequence

In the aerial warfare of the Second World War from July 1940 to May 1945, a total of 44,000 high-  explosive bombs , 900  air mines and around 500,000  incendiary bombs fell on the city area. Of the around 272,000 people living in Kiel at the end of 1939, 167,000 became homeless . In particular, the area bombing of civil targets (inner city, residential areas and others) by the RAF took place on the basis of the Area Bombing Directive issued by the British Air Ministry on February 14, 1942 .

After the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht in May 1945, over 5 million cubic meters of rubble lay in Kiel. 35% of all buildings were destroyed, another 40% damaged. 40% of the apartments were destroyed, 40% damaged and only the remaining 20% ​​intact.

meaning

The heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen was launched at the Germania shipyard in Kiel on August 22, 1938.

As a base of the Kriegsmarine , end point of the Kiel Canal and location of the three large shipyards Howaldtswerke , DWK and Germaniawerft on the east bank of the fjord , the city came into the focus of Allied bombers early on: the first British air raid was on July 2, 1940 In 1943 alone there were six major attacks. The air strikes on May 14th and December 13th that year left around 500 dead and great destruction in the city center. During the heaviest attack on August 26, 1944, 800 machines dropped around 300 air mines, 1,000 high-explosive bombs and 100,000 incendiary bombs between 10.55 and 11.20 p.m.

Flag roll call in one of the children’s deportation camps .

The number of victims would have been higher if numerous air raid shelters had not been built during the war , over 150,000 residents of Kiel had been evacuated and children had been sent to less endangered areas as part of the Kinderland deportation . At the end of 1942, over 306,000 people lived in the city, many of whom were forced laborers and eastern workers employed in industry and shipyards . On January 1, 1945, there were 143,000 fewer than half. (see also population development of Kiel )

A population increase resulted from the beginning of 1945 from the refugee transports of the Kriegsmarine for the evacuation of several hundred thousand civilians from the Baltic States ( Memelland ), East / West Prussia , Pomerania and Mecklenburg . These also brought refugees and displaced persons to Kiel. In the last weeks of the war it was no longer possible to give an air raid alarm because many sirens were destroyed or failed.

Altstadt , Brunswik and Ellerbek were hit hardest. Only 3–4% of the buildings were spared. The area north of the Brunswik between Holtenauer and Feldstrasse was also badly damaged. The destroyed public buildings on the Alter Markt included the Nikolaikirche , the old town hall and the Persian houses , some schools, the main building of the Christian Albrechts University in the palace garden , the Buchwaldtsche Hof and the regional church office in the suburbs . The Kiel main station , the town hall, the shipyards in Gaarden and Dietrichsdorf and all public utilities were badly damaged . The Kiel town hall tower also survived the last attack on the center on the night of May 2nd or 3rd, 1945.

“Towards the end of the war you could see large areas that had previously been densely built up. So you saw z. B. from Holtenauer Straße near Lehmberg to Pauluskirche on Niemannsweg, and anyone looking at the old town from the boat harbor or from other sides could see the natural, flat hill shape of the old town, as it must have looked in the days of Kiel's founding . "

- City archivist Hedwig Sievert

End of the air raids with the end of the war

The German Admiral von Friedeburg signed on 4 May 1945 in the order of the last Reich President Karl Doenitz on the "Victory Hill" in Wendisch Evern in the presence of British Field Marshal Montgomery the surrender Decla- ration for the three in northwestern Germany standing armies of the Wehrmacht .

As early as May 2, 1945 at 9:30 p.m., the Naval High Command East announced that Kiel should not be defended. The night of May 3rd and 4th finally brought the 633rd and last air raid alarm. Some explosive bombs fell in Kiel-Holtenau and on the Kiel Canal . For "all land, sea and air forces in Northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands" , Hans-Georg von Friedeburg capitulated on May 4, 1945 on behalf of the last Reich President Karl Dönitz on Timeloberg ( Victory Hill ) near Lüneburg. The 21st Army Group was represented by Bernard Montgomery . On May 5, the Netherlands , Denmark , Northern Germany and thus Schleswig-Holstein entered a ceasefire , which ended the threat of air raids.

On the afternoon of May 4th, a delegation from the British Army appeared at the town hall to see Lord Mayor Walter Behrens . She gave him orders on the behavior of the population. The town was surrendered without a fight. On the morning of May 5th, the first British troops reached Kiel; The soldiers were initially largely undestroyed operations of Hellmuth Walter ( Walter drive for submarines), ELAC ( sonar technology) and the work Friedrichsort the DWK ( Torpedobau take) in possession. Gail Patrick Henderson , who later became Deputy Governor of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein , came to Kiel on May 6 and two days later took over the 312nd Provincial Military Government. Kiel was completely occupied on May 7th. On May 14, 1945, Henderson appointed Otto Hoevermann as provisional chief president . The last Reich government in the Mürwik special area in Flensburg was finally arrested on May 23.

aftermath

The war air strikes are still a problem for the city of Kiel today. Experts estimate that about 10% of the bombs dropped remained as duds . How many of them have not yet been removed is unknown, as no records were kept of the bombs cleared during and immediately after World War II. To this day, duds are regularly discovered in the urban area, mainly during earthworks. Kiel is one of 168 cities in which an inspection for explosive ordnance is required before civil engineering work. How many have to be eliminated each year varies. The ordnance disposal service usually defuses several bombs a year. In 2013, 16 large bombs were defused throughout Schleswig-Holstein, compared to 21 in 2014.

See also

literature

  • Detlef Boelck: Kiel in the air war 1939-1945 . Special publication by the Society for Kiel City History, Vol. 13, Kiel 1980.
  • Jürgen Jensen: Kiel contemporary history in the press photo. The 40s / 50s in pictures by Friedrich Magnussen . Special publication by the Society for Kiel City History, vol. 16, Neumünster 1984.
  • Jürgen Jensen: Kiel theater of war. Aerial photos of the city destruction in 1944/45 , 2nd edition. Wachholtz Verlag 1997. ISBN 978-3529026973 .
  • When Kiel was in ruins . Journal, supplement to Kieler Nachrichten , May 2, 2015.
  • Doris Tillmann; Johannes Rosenplänter: Air War and "Home Front". War experience in the Nazi society in Kiel 1929-1945 . Solivagus-Verlag, Kiel 2020, ISBN 978-3-947064-09-0 .

Web links

Commons : Bombing of Kiel in World War II  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Kiel Memorial Day: May 4, 1945 60 years ago - in May 1945 the end of the war and the occupation of Kiel by the British. Website of the state capital Kiel, Web.archive
  2. ↑ Jörg Friedrich: The fire. Germany in the bombing war 1940–1945 , p. 83.
  3. ↑ M. Palomino
  4. ^ Die Zeit : Die 21 Tage der Dönitz Government , page 2, of: November 8, 1951; Retrieved on: April 25, 2016
  5. ↑ Surrender on the Timeloberg
  6. ↑ https://www.shz.de/regionales/schleswig-holstein/panorama/kampfmittelraeumdienst-in-sh-mit-deutlich-mehr-einsaetzen-id8448746.html
  7. ↑ https://www.shz.de/regionales/schleswig-holstein/panorama/kampfmittelraeumdienst-in-sh-mit-deutlich-mehr-einsaetzen-id8448746.html
  8. ↑ http://www.gesetze-rechtsprechung.sh.juris.de/jportal/portal/t/4pre/page/bsshoprod.psml/action/portlets.jw.MainAction?p1=9&eventSubmit_doNavigate=searchInSubtreeTOC&showdoccase=1&doc.hl=0&doc .id = jlr-KampfmVSH2012V3Anlage & doc.part = G & toc.poskey = # focuspoint
  9. ↑ https://www.shz.de/regionales/schleswig-holstein/panorama/kampfmittelraeumdienst-in-sh-mit-deutlich-mehr-einsaetzen-id8448746.html
  10. ↑ https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/Landesregierung/POLIZEI/DasSindWir/LKA/Kampfmittelraeumdienst/kampfmittelraeumdienst.html

Remarks

  1. ↑ In the same night Königsberg was bombed for the first time, see air raids on Königsberg .