Gisela news bunker
The bunkers of the Gisela intelligence center near the Hessian city of Gießen were a bunker complex of the German Wehrmacht . The bunkers were operated by the Army High Command (OKH) and served, among other things, to coordinate military movements in the war against France and as a training center for intelligence workers .
Geographical location
The bunkers are located east-southeast of Gießen in a forest area in the southern part of the “Rivers Automeile” industrial park, which was converted from former barracks . The area is directly on the federal highway 457 and a driveway on the Gießener Ring (Autobahn A 485 ).
Building description and use
From 1934, a new underground amplifier office with the code name “Gisela” was set up on the grounds of the “Verdun barracks” . A total of four staff bunkers with the code names V16 to V19 were also set up. Buildings V16 and V17 were combined under the term "Hansa I" and buildings V18 and V19 under the term "Hansa II". The four staff bunkers are therefore also referred to as the "Hansa bunkers". Access to the actual Gisela news bunker was via a fifth, separate building.
In addition to the uses already mentioned, the bunkers also housed workshops for repairing telecommunications equipment.
Each of the above-ground buildings had a floor plan of 36.20 meters × 16.39 meters and led several floors underground to protect against air attacks . The outer walls of the above-ground buildings had a wall thickness of 40-60 cm, whereas the wall thickness of the building core and that of the underground outer walls were 100 cm.
The external appearance of the four aboveground bunker buildings as well as the access to “Gisela” were based on the appearance of simple houses.
Use and research after 1945
On March 28, 1945, the German intelligence staff at the Verdun barracks withdrew. The US Army now moved into the area and used it as a reception camp for prisoners of war in the immediate post-war period . The barracks area was renamed "Rivers Barracks".
The underground bunker parts of the “Gisela” complex were flooded and probably also rendered unusable by explosions or fire. Indications of fire in the bunker systems were first received from dives by a Giessen diving club in 1992 in at least one of the flooded staff bunkers. The divers recognized suspended matter in the water, which was probably caused by fire. They also found cut cables and pipes as well as relics from days of war. It is not clear whether the German or US armed forces rendered the facilities unusable.
In 1993 a work group began pumping out the underground complex “Gisela” and carried out visits with groups of visitors.
The buildings of the “Hansa I” complex (V16 and V17) no longer exist today. The “V18” building today has the address “An der Automeile 18”, based on its original name. It houses offices for various companies and the Justus Liebig University in Giessen . The second basement is still under water today, while renovation work is being carried out on the first basement. The "V19" building is used by the Gießen Music and Art Association (MuK) for events and exhibitions. The access to the news bunker itself is now in a wooded area and is not open to the public.
literature
- Michael Grether, Hans Georg Kampe: Code name "Hansa". The bunkers in the planned headquarters of the OKH in Giessen. Project and publishing house Meißler, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-932566-51-3 ( military history sheets ).
- mö: Wehrmacht bunker in the city forest now under monument protection. In: Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung. November 7, 2012, archived from the original on November 13, 2012 ; Retrieved November 13, 2012 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Institute for Art Education at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen: Art in the Bunker. Site-specific art in the building of the MuK Gießen eV ( Memento from April 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), 2003, accessed on January 3, 2011
- ^ Bunker in Gießen ( Memento from December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) on luftschutzbunker-wilhelmshaven.de, accessed on January 3, 2011
Web links
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Hesse (Hrsg.): Material entirety Former forest or Verdun barracks In: DenkXweb, online edition of cultural monuments in Hesse
- “Gisela” on explorate.de , accessed on December 31, 2010
- "Gisela" on bunker-ig.de ( memento from November 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on December 31, 2010
- Projekt + Verlag Dr. Erwin Meißler: Site plan of the Verdun barracks with the "Hansa" bunkers and cross-section of the entrance structure and the supply wing of "Gisela" , accessed on December 31, 2010
Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 16.8 ″ N , 8 ° 42 ′ 38.2 ″ E