Köppern ammunition depot

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The ammunition depot Köppern is 254 hectares , the second largest ammunition depot of the Bundeswehr and is located in the forest between Wehrheim and Rosbach primarily on military Heimer district. The depot got its name because of the access road from Köppern .

history

On April 13, 1949, 154 hectares of forest and meadow areas were confiscated by the US occupation authorities and an ammunition dump was built there in the following years. In 1970 there was an intense political debate when the store was to be expanded from 60 ammunition storage bunkers by another 223 bunkers . In particular, the necessary clearing of 67.4 hectares of forest and worries about the groundwater were criticized by many Wehrheim citizens with Mayor Josef König ( CDU ) at the helm. Against these concerns, the construction was decided in December 1977 and implemented in 1978/1979. The emerging peace movement picked up on the criticism and held a number of protests on the edge of the site until the mid-1980s. Rumors about the storage of nuclear weapons also played a role. However, the warehouse was intended and used for the storage of conventional ammunition from the start. After the end of the Cold War , the ammunition depot was taken over by the Bundeswehr in 1997.

On January 1, 2001, an exchange of land was agreed between the federal government and the municipality of Wehrheim: The municipality exchanged its share of the ammunition depot of 154 hectares for 90 hectares of federally owned forest (part of the former military training area "Friedberg" of the US Army ) in the district of Rosbach community.

On September 24, 2009, the then Federal Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung visited the facility.

From 2010 onwards, extensive investments were made in the plant. From 2010 to 2013, 9.639 million euros were invested. This included the construction of a new administration and staff building for 2.74 million euros, a new heating system and a new 2.3 million euros fire station. The background to the expansion was the liquidation of the ammunition depots in Kriegsfeld and Rheinböllen and the relocation of the stocks there to Wehrheim.

The Köppern ammunition depot and its superior office, the Eft-Hellendorf ammunition depot in Perl, belonged to the 47th Logistics Regiment based in Dornstadt near Ulm , which was dissolved in 2014 . Since 2016, the Köppern ammunition depot is no longer subordinate to the Eft-Hellendorf ammunition depot , but to the ammunition supply center in Dorsten-Wulfen .

location

The depot is above the Bizzenbach valley on the very flat slope of the Wellenberg . The area was originally completely forested.

Through the grounds of the proceeds UNESCO World Heritage -ranked Upper German-Rhaetian Limes . Right next to the ammunition depot is the Kapersburg , one of the best preserved Roman castles on the Limes.

The transport connection to the camp is via a correspondingly developed access route to the L 3041 ( Köpperner Tal ). After a few 100 meters, the federal highway 455 leads from the Köpperner Kreuz to the Friedberg driveway of the federal highway 5 . An asphalt driveway ("forest railway") leads from the L 3041 over 3.5 km up to the depot through a mixed forest with a gradient of 4.3% and is a popular training route for cyclists, particularly suitable for so-called "hill repeats".

description

In 2010 the Federal Ministry of Defense stated that 42,870 tons of ammunition would be stored in 372 concrete bunkers on the extensive wooded area . Of these, 17,660 tons are old ammunition that should be disposed of. The inventory includes mines, artillery and guided missiles, tank ammunition and explosives.

There is a 40 km long road network on the site. An 8.7 kilometer long outer fence secures the facility.

101 permanent positions are planned in the ammunition depot, eight of them soldiers.

safety

The storage of explosives is inherently associated with risks. The Bundeswehr fire brigade has twelve permanent positions. The individual bunkers are divided into four security classes, depending on the ammunition stored. In the event of a fire in a bunker, it is planned not to extinguish it for safety reasons. The bunkers are arranged in such a way that a fire cannot spread to other bunkers. A forest fire would not destroy the ammunition stores. The flames went over the earth walls, the ventilation flaps had a fuse.

According to the Defense Ministry from 2010, a disaster control plan is not necessary. The camp is "largely protected" against the consequences of a plane crash. The bunkers cannot be protected against a direct hit by a missile.

Political controversy

In response to a small request from MPs Wolfgang Gehrcke , Christine Buchholz , Werner Dreibus , Sabine Leidig and the DIE LINKE parliamentary group , the Ministry of Defense reported in 2010 that the ammunition depot was also delivering ammunition for the fighting in Afghanistan . The Left Party - member of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Gehrcke, took this as an opportunity to call for the depot to be closed, as it would support the " unconstitutional war effort of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan ".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Ruppenthal: New commander in Eft-Hellendorf; in: Saarbrücker Zeitung from January 4, 2016

Coordinates: 50 ° 18 ′ 39.2 "  N , 8 ° 37 ′ 23.9"  E