Ahrbrück Air Force Training Area

The Ahrbrück Air Force Training Area (also known as the Ahrbrück Estate District ) was a military training area of the Air Force in the East Eifel that existed from 1938 to 1945. The name Ahrbrück is derived from the proximity to the village of Brück an der Ahr or from the Ahr bridge there.

The training area covered an area of about 100 square kilometers and was in today Rheinland-Pfalz belonging district Ahrweiler in the former Region of Koblenz .

Area

The practice area was bordered in the west by the Ahr valley , in the north by the valley of Kesselinger Bach and Staffeler Bach . In the south, the space reached close to the Hohe Acht , which at 747  m above sea level. NHN highest elevation in the Eifel. In the east, the area bordered the communities Kempenich , Spessart and Schalkenbach .

Village	local community	Office	surface	Pop.	eviction	location	NHN	belongs to today
Beilstein	Blasweiler	Koenigsfeld			0May 1, 1939	location	448	Heckenbach
Blasweiler	Blasweiler	Koenigsfeld	356.0 ha	157	0May 1, 1939	location	451	Heckenbach
Cassel	Heckenbach	Koenigsfeld			0July 1, 1938	location	547	Heckenbach
Because	Because	Bridge	467.7 ha	333	01st Mar 1938	location	197	Ahrbrück
Fronrath	Heckenbach	Koenigsfeld			0July 1, 1938	location	523	Heckenbach
Herschbach	Herschbach	Adenau	1,210.3 ha	309	0July 1, 1938	location	329	Kaltenborn
Kaltenborn	Kaltenborn	Adenau	587.5 ha	319	0May 1, 1939	location	455	Kaltenborn
Lederbach	Lederbach	Kempenich	449.3 ha	227	0Nov 1, 1938	location	509	Hohenleimbach
Niederheckenbach	Heckenbach	Koenigsfeld	2,407.1 ha	624	0Nov 1, 1938	location	327	Heckenbach
Oberheckenbach	Heckenbach	Koenigsfeld			0Nov 1, 1938	location	394	Heckenbach
Watzel	Heckenbach	Koenigsfeld			0July 1, 1938	location	363	Heckenbach
Weidenbach	Weidenbach	Bridge	1,373.7 ha	176	0July 1, 1938	location	283	Kesseling

Remarks:

1. ↑ ^{a b} The values ​​of the village of Beilstein, which belonged to the municipality of Blasweiler in 1938, are included in Blasweiler.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} The values ​​of the villages belonging to the municipality of Heckenbach in 1938 are included in Niederheckenbach.

The area (as of 1928) and population (as of June 16, 1925) are taken from the Prussian community encyclopedia from 1930. In addition to the areas mentioned here, around 3,000 hectares were added from the districts of Brück , Hönningen , Liers , Dümpelfeld and Lückenbach .

history

Air Force Training Area

Headquarters in Denn (today Ahrbrück district, south of the L85)

After the remilitarization of the Rhineland in March 1936, the first rumors became known about the military use of the region and the associated evacuation of the villages. In April 1937 the residents of the twelve villages were officially informed about the evacuation of the area by the district president in Koblenz . On the basis of a request from May 1937, Hermann Göring , Commander in Chief of the German Air Force , wrote to the then Bishop of Trier , Franz Rudolf Bornewasser : “Unfortunately, it cannot be avoided that the residents of the area required for the Air Force training area will be relocated, because it is not possible for them to remain due to the danger posed by the exercise. I entrusted the resettlement society with the implementation of the resettlement . ”The Reich resettlement society (RUGes) set up a branch in Ahrweiler in mid-1937 and began to organize the purchase of the land and the evacuation of the villages from here. A total of around 3,000 sales contracts were concluded and 13,000,000 Reichsmarks were paid. The German Reich (Reichsfiskus Luftfahrt) was entered in the land registers as the new owner .

On November 27, 1937, the planned evacuation dates were announced. For the community of Denn, the end of the evacuation was scheduled for March 1, 1938; the other localities followed in three stages by May 1, 1939. 400 families with over 2,400 people were affected by the resettlement. Before the area was cleared, there were roughly the following livestock: 60 horses, 1,400 head of cattle, 1,100 sheep, 520 pigs, 320 goats and 4,400 chickens.

Denn was the first village to be cleared and handed over to the Air Force on March 1, 1938. The commandant's office was set up here. The evictions of Fronrath, Cassel and Watzel were completed in November 1938. The last village to be reported was the evacuation of Blasweiler to Berlin on December 23, 1939.

The communities Blasweiler, Denn, Heckenbach, Herschbach, Kaltenborn, Lederbach and Weidenbach were dissolved and the area was combined in the " Guts Bezirk Ahrbrück".

There were three troop camps on the training area, Ahrbrück with the staff, another in the Ommelbachtal near Dümpelfeld (there is now a weekend area ) and a bivouac near the Hochacht forest workers' settlement. As well as bombing an area in the levels served "on the sausage" ( 615  m above sea level.  NHN ; ) south of Fronrath. Flak -positions were located near the Teufelsley ( 496  m above mean sea level. ; ) At Blasweiler and Hochacht. Railway connections with loading and unloading ramps for the guns were in Brück and in Dümpelfeld.

There were plans to enlarge the practice area by including more villages. In May 1940 the Reich resettlement company informed the commandant's office in Ahrbrück regarding an expansion of the area: "... we hereby confirm that the order for the inclusion of Kesseling and Staffel as well as part of Ramersbach in the Ahrbrück air force training area on May 18. received by us. We have started the work ”.

In March 1945 the region was conquered by the US Army and handed over to the French in July 1945 . As a former property of the Wehrmacht , the air force training area initially came into the possession of the French occupation troops and was used as a personal hunting reserve by the state governor of Rhineland-Palatinate, the big game hunter Hettier de Boislambert , because the game population had increased enormously after the war.

Repopulation

By decree of the French Governor General Hettier de Boislambert on November 13, 1946, the site was released for repopulation. On December 20, 1946, the Upper President of Rhineland-Hesse-Nassau, Wilhelm Boden, designated the area previously claimed by the Wehrmacht as a settlement and reallocation area and commissioned the "Kulturamt Adenau " with the planning and implementation of the resettlement. The "Siedlungsverband Ahrbrück", founded for this purpose, was responsible for the settlement.

Land allocation should primarily be made to returnees. There was an agreement between the settlement association, the regional cultural administration and the forest administration on the delimitation of the areas suitable for agricultural use and for the forestry areas. The settlement project covered around 10,000 hectares , of which 1,500 hectares were to be used for agriculture.

In 1949, the “Schleswig-Holstein Settler Relief Organization” found out about the settlement project in the Eifel. After preparatory work and negotiations by the settlement commissioner of the Caritas Association Schleswig-Holstein eV , Erich Kluckert, it was decided in February 1950 to settle in the predominantly Catholic "Gutsgebiet Ahrbrück" not only the native resettlers but also Catholic farmers from Warmia. Because in Schleswig-Holstein there lived numerous expellees who had escaped there with cattle and equipment from the Warmia .

The settlement authorities planned the construction of 166 homesteads for ten localities and the allocation of the land areas necessary for a viable operation. 96 were planned for resettlers and 70 for displaced persons. Since some of the earlier residents did not take advantage of their resettlement claims for various reasons, the number of East Prussian new settlers later increased. In addition, two new schools were built and four churches were restored.

On April 13, 1950, the first transport with 65 families from Warmia arrived at the Brück train station . They brought their small possessions with them from Schleswig-Holstein in 22 wagons, including twelve horses and agricultural implements. First, 35 families were housed in three barracks of the former air force in Denn (Ahrbrück), the rest in neighboring villages. The name "Ermland" of the former restaurant in Cassel reminded of this.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the company Pörner & Söhne from Gablonz (then Sudetenland ) acquired premises in Ahrbrück to set up a new company. The crystal cutting shop was set up in the buildings of the former "Kommandantur Ahrbrück".

Historical photos

• 
• 
• 
• 

Ahrbrück air force training area, command and guard building; 1952: Pörner crystal grinding shop in the former commandant's office

literature

• Arno Furth: The Ahrbrück Air Force Training Area: 1938-1945 . Helios, Aachen 2015, ISBN 978-3-86933-144-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Community encyclopedia for the Free State of Prussia , Volume 13: Rheinprovinz, 1930, pp. 7 ff
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Rudolf Leisen: The Air Force Training Area Ahrbrück - The clearing of twelve villages began 60 years ago, 1997 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Georg Habighorst ; The restoration of the former air force training area Ahrbrück , 1954 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
4. ↑ Warmian community Heckenbach: ( The Warmian settlement in the Eifel)
5. ↑ ^{a b} Andreas Basener: A new village grew out of ruins , 1965 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
6. ^ Ignaz Görtz : Verbandsgemeinde Altenahr - a young administrative unit with 750 years of history , 1999 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
7. ↑ Forester of the responsible state forestry office in Adenau was Mariano Baron von Droste zu Hülshoff since 1947 , who reports about it in his memoir
8. ^ Franz Schönberger: New life on dead land , 1953 Heimatjahrbuch of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
9. ↑ Forester of the State Forestry Office in Adenau , Mariano Freiherr von Droste zu Hülshoff had been since 1947 , and he reported on this in his memoirs
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ermländer settlement in the Eifel in "Das Ostpreußenblatt " of December 5, 1950, p. 561 ( PDF, p. 9 )
11. ↑ ^{a b} Robert Parschau: Origin and development of the Ahrbrück settlement area , 1959 homeland yearbook of the Ahrweiler district ( online edition )
12. ^ First harvest festival in the settlement area , Ahrweiler Rundschau, 1951, no. 233
13. ^ Walter Fabritius: Age of the settlement - Ermländer celebrate the 21st return of their arrival in Ahrbrück in Rhein- und Ahr-Rundschau, 1971, No. 103

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap