Air raids on Mainz

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War memorial and symbol of the destroyed Mainz: The ruins of the Christophskirche

After a few small air raids in the First World War, air raids on Mainz were carried out several times between 1941 and 1945 in the air warfare of the Second World War . The attacks by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and US Army Air Forces (USAAF) claimed numerous lives in Mainz and caused great destruction.

First World War

A semicircular dark band of pavement embedded in the sidewalk around a white cobblestone field to commemorate the death of a woman in an air raid in 1918

Air raids were relatively rare and almost ineffective in the First World War . On March 9, 1918, eleven people were killed in a British air raid in Mainz Neustadt. In Adam-Karrillon-Strasse, a marker embedded in the ground reminds of this incident.

Second World War

Overview of major air raids on Mainz

  • Old Town (11/12 and 12/13 August 1942)
  • Bischofsheim (September 9, 1942, autumn 1944, January 13 and 27, 1945, February 27, 1945)
  • Ginsheim (April 23/24, 1944)
  • Gonsenheim ( Kathen barracks : October 19, 1944)
  • Gustavsburg (especially September 9, 15, 1944 and February 27, 1945)
  • Kastel (especially September 8, 1944)
  • Kostheim (autumn 1944)
  • Neustadt (11/12 and 12/13 August 1942, 20 December 1943, autumn 1944, 1 and 27 February 1945)
  • Weisenau (especially October 19, 1944, February 1 and 27, 1945)

Strategic assessment of the allies

The British Ministry of Economic Warfare compiled a list of almost all cities in Germany with a categorization of targets under the title “ The Bomber's Baedeker ”. Almost all of the destinations specified for Mainz were rated at most in category 3, including the customs and inland port in addition to the main train station , the two railway bridges ( Kaiser and Südbrücke ) and the Mainz-Bischofsheim train station with its large marshalling yard, which at the time had a capacity of 3,200 Wagons per day. The electricity and gas works were specified as further goals. The shipyards and the MAN plant in Gustavsburg as well as the wagon factory Gebrüder Gastell were also mentioned. The chemical plants included the Budenheim , Werner & Mertz chemical factory and a Degussa plant in Mombach.

1939 to 1941

After the beginning of the Second World War, the British RAF only dropped small explosive bombs for two years until September 1941. In the first major attack by the RAF on September 13, 1941, which was actually aimed at Frankfurt am Main , Mainz main station was hit and 22 people were killed.

1942 and 1943

Until August 1942 there were only minor attacks; on August 11, 1942, 158 RAF bombers launched a major attack on Mainz in Great Britain as part of the new Area Bombing Directive . The following night they dropped around 200  tons of bombs, including very dangerous phosphorus bombs . The next night, 133 bombers flew another attack. Again about 180 tons of bombs were dropped. Most of the bombs hit the old town with the Carmelite Church , the episcopal palace , the Orthodox synagogue and the Mainz Cathedral , but parts of the Neustadt and Mombach also burned down. The Mombach Nikolauskirche and bell tower, completed in 1703, were destroyed by fire bombs. St. Stephan was badly damaged, the Johanniskirche and the Bassenheimer Hof burned down completely, the Invalidenhaus became a ruin. The Eltzer Höfe and the building yard burned out. Hundreds of people died in the flames. Nonetheless, residential areas in the city center still remained habitable. Allied bombers bombed Bischofsheim on September 9, 1942 . In 1943, an attack on the inner city was only flown on December 20th.

1944

In the course of 1944 the air war intensified. A small British emergency drop caused fires in parts of Ginsheim on the night of April 23rd to 24th . The Protestant church also burned down. In the autumn, the targeted attacks on the city increased. The Alice Hospital was heavily damaged by a land mine on July 28. On 8 September, Kastel hit hard again on 8 and 15 September Gustavsburg. Parts of Kostheim were also bombed on September 8th and Weisenau on October 19th. On the same day, the Kathen barracks in Gonsenheim was also destroyed by bombs and fire. Throughout the autumn there were repeated air alarms due to bomber formations flying past.

On December 18, 1944, the railway facilities around Mainz were the target of the attack. According to operational reports released by the USAAF, 157 four-engine B-17 bombers of the 8th Air Force dropped a total of 430.7 tons of explosive bombs in several waves from a height of about 8,000 meters between 1:45 and 1:59 p.m. 89 people were killed.

January 1945

On January 13th and 27th, the 8th Air Force bombed railway facilities in Bischofsheim and Gustavsburg. A major raid by the RAF on Mainz was planned for February 1st, but the bombs missed the target and landed mostly on the Großberg near Weisenau. The Christ Church was destroyed on that day by incendiary bombs and a subsequent fire, except for the outer walls and the steel frame of the dome.

Air raid on February 27, 1945

Ruins in front of the cathedral in 1961

On February 27, 1945, 435 RAF bombers attacked the city. Between 16:29 and 16:45, 1,500 tons of bombs were dropped, which hit large parts of the Neustadt. St. Joseph and St. Boniface were destroyed. The old town, which was bombed in 1942, was not hit. A strong firestorm spread over a large area. Weisenau, Gustavsburg and Bischofsheim were also badly hit. The recently renovated Alice Hospital was completely destroyed. According to eyewitness reports, burned items were flown to Gonsenheim. The number of 1,209 deaths was comparatively low compared to other cities. Some of them were buried in the forest cemetery in Mombach . The actual destination, the railway systems, remained undamaged. Trains were running again just three days after the attack.

American invasion and French occupation

On March 22, 1945, the war ended for Mainz, which had been 80 percent destroyed. Units of the Wehrmacht and Volkssturm withdrew from the city across the Rhine or capitulated without a fight to the 3rd American Army under General George S. Patton . Mainz remained under American administration until July 1945, after which Mainz was placed under French administration .

Reconstruction after the war

Reconstruction after the war was very slow. While cities like Frankfurt am Main had long been rebuilt, there were only uncoordinated individual actions in Mainz. One of the reasons for this was that the French wanted to develop Mainz into a model city based on plans by Marcel Lods . The very first interest of the locals was the restoration of housing. Even after the failure of the model city plans, the French initiative (founding the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz , naming Mainz instead of the provisional solution Koblenz as the state capital of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1950 and the early resumption of the Mainz Carnival ), which gave the city decisive impulses for the positive later development after the war. It was not until the May Plan of 1958 that a regular reconstruction was possible. The monument conservator Fritz Arens was also committed to his hometown. Mainz was largely rebuilt for the two millennium celebrations in 1962, but around 1970 there were still isolated rubble plots.

See also

Movie

  • When fire fell from the sky - the inferno of Mainz. Film by Matthias Schaider, ZDFinfo 2010

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bollwerk Mainz: Gonsenheim airfield: location of fighter pilots in the First World War.
  2. ^ State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Rhineland-Palatinate : Cultural monuments of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate Vol. 2.1: City of Mainz, city extensions in the 19th and 20th centuries. Düsseldorf, 1985. ISBN 3-590-31032-4 .
  3. ↑ "The Bomber's Baedeker. Guide to the Economic Importance of German Towns and Cities, 2nd (1944) Edition “; Volume 2; P. 459
  4. ↑ "The Bomber's Baedeker. Guide to the Economic Importance of German Towns and Cities, 2nd (1944) Edition “; Volume 2; Pp. 460-461
  5. ↑ Günther Gillessen (Ed.): If stones could talk. Mainz buildings and their stories. Guided tours through an urban landscape. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1206-7 , p. 84.
  6. ^ Short chronicle of the Alice Sisterhood in Mainz 1870–2005
  7. ↑ Daniela Tratschitt: The mighty dome of the Christ Church. (No longer available online.) In: Der Mainzer - Die Stadtillustrierte. June 2012, archived from the original on December 13, 2013 ; accessed on December 8, 2013 (issue 261). 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.dermainzer.net
  8. ↑ Video Das Inferno von Mainz  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on February 3, 2014. (offline)

literature

  • Heinz Leiwig : The day when Mainz went under - February 27, 1945. Wartberg Verlag, 2004. ISBN 3-8313-1476-4 .
  • Heinz Leiwig: Bombs on Mainz. February 27, 1945. Facts, backgrounds, eyewitnesses with previously unpublished photos and documents. Wartberg Verlag, 1995. ISBN 3-928849-02-6 .
  • Ludwig Falck: Mainz - then, yesterday and today. A city that has changed over the past 60 years. Verlag JF Steinkopf , Stuttgart 1984. ISBN 3-7984-0599-9 .
  • Dieter Busch: The aerial warfare in the Mainz area during the Second World War 1939–1945. Mainz 1988.
  • Hans-Jürgen Kotzur : Mainz February 27, 1945. Contemporary witnesses report. Mainz 1995.
  • Richard Kurtz: Mainz on fire. A factual report on the air raid on February 27, 1945. Mainz 1951.
  • Friedrich Schütz : Mainz 50 years ago. In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, business. Volume 3, 1992 pp. 129-132.
  • Friedrich Schütz: Mainz became a front-line city. In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, business. Issue 4, 1994.
  • Friedrich Schütz: Until the bitter end ... In: Mainz. Quarterly issues for culture, politics, business. Issue 1, 1995.
  • August Schuchert : Air protection measures, aircraft damage and restoration work on Mainz Cathedral in 1939/45. In: Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz. Vol. 1, 1946. pp. 24-53.
  • August Schuchert: Churches, parish houses and monasteries in the diocese of Mainz 1939–1945 damaged by the air. A documentary report . In: Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz. Vol. 6 1951/1954, pp. 15-53.

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