Nuclear weapons in Germany

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Nuclear weapons in Germany have been stored in special ammunition and special weapons stores since the Cold War . Their deployment was planned in the west by the Bundeswehr within the framework of nuclear participation and other NATO armed forces in the event of a defense and in the east by the group of Soviet armed forces in Germany .

The Bundeswehr today provides weapon systems for the use of nuclear weapons in the United States . Currently this is the Tornado fighter aircraft of the Tactical Air Force Wing 33 at the Büchel Air Base for the B61 nuclear weapon , in the past also missiles and howitzers from the Air Force and artillery .

Germany has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Historians estimate that the United States alone temporarily stored more than 5,000 nuclear weapons in the Federal Republic. In addition, there were nuclear weapons from the United Kingdom .

Federal Republic until 1990

On October 3, 1954, Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer gave the London Act the undertaking that the Federal Republic of Germany would refrain from manufacturing NBC weapons on its territory. In 1957 a treaty was signed with France and Italy to develop their own nuclear weapons.

Guns (so-called Atomic Annie ) with atomic artillery projectiles were stationed by the United States for the first time in 1953 at the 42nd Field Artillery Group of the 7th US Army in West Germany. When the public learned of the nuclear armament through an interview with Federal Chancellor Adenauer on April 5, 1957, the Göttingen appeal took place . In the period up to August 1958 the Initiative Fight against Nuclear Death protested against nuclear weapons. On March 25, 1958, however , the German Bundestag approved the stationing with a majority of votes from the CDU / CSU parliamentary group . In 1960, 1,500 American nuclear warheads were stored in the Federal Republic and a further 1,500 in the rest of Western Europe.

In 1963 the number of nuclear weapons tests with 180 explosions reached a record worldwide. The radiation exposure continues to have an impact in Central Europe to this day. The 1963 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Tests in the Atmosphere, Space and Underwater was designed to reduce the burden.

The stationed arsenal in Germany included nuclear aerial bombs, missile warheads, as well as artillery shells and mines . Initially, from around 1957, the Matador cruise missile was used . The types of short-range missiles included Honest John in the period 1965 and 1977 and Sergeant until 1982, which were replaced by the ballistic Lance from around 1975. Air defense was supported by nuclear-armed Nike Hercules . Also for the howitzers M109 and M110 were different degrees of nuclear warheads available. The atomic mines were portable and were intended, for example, to destroy motorway bridges, ports and freight stations.

The nuclear weapons were also available to the Bundeswehr for training and use in the event of war (“ defense case ”). The dropping of atomic bombs was trained on the air-to-ground firing ranges Nordhorn and Siegenburg Range .

The provision was incumbent on the SASCOM , which was formed in 1960, and the AWSCOM , formed in 1959. The AWSCOM consisted of the 71st Ordnance Group, which was renamed the 59th Ordnance Group (Ammunition) in March 1962 and took over the tasks from 1972 onwards. From 1969 the 567th Engineer Company (ADM) was responsible for the so-called Zebra package . In 1977 the 59th Ordnance Group was renamed " 59th Ordnance Brigade ".

As part of the nuclear participation, each corps of the Bundeswehr Army was assigned a US artillery group (USAAG) to support it:

From 1958 onwards, the German Federal Government urged the Allies to obtain permission to use nuclear-powered submarines. The ambitions were represented by Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss and Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano , among others . In the extended Brussels Treaty of March 17, 1948, which the Federal Republic of Germany had acceded in 1954, the manufacturing waivers were recorded. The request was denied. It remained with the nuclear energy-powered " Otto Hahn " commissioned in 1962 for test purposes under the command of the former submarine captain Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock .

Between 1967 and October 1983 the German and European peace movement grew , which was expressed in many rallies. The deployment of the Pershing II and cruise missiles ( BGM-109 Tomahawk ) was approved on November 22, 1983 by the German Bundestag with 286 votes to 255. It was implemented a few days later. 108 Pershings were stationed; the federal government demanded a commitment from the United States between 1981 and 1984 that this limit would remain.

As early as November 16, 1983, the Greens had turned to the Federal Constitutional Court to prevent the storage and use of nuclear missiles on the territory of the Federal Republic in an organ dispute against the Federal Government. The lawsuit was rejected in December 1984 (BVerfG, 2 BvE 13/83 - judgment of December 18, 1984).

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed the INF treaty in Reykjavík on December 8, 1987, to dismantle all American and Soviet medium-range missiles in Europe within three years.

Locations

During the height of nuclear armament in the mid-1980s, 7,300 US nuclear weapons were in storage in Europe. There were also other nuclear warheads from Great Britain and France. They were housed in more than 130 special depots in West Germany.

The warhead storage facilities were called special ammunition storage facilities . Missile bases were used to station and support mobile missile launchers.

Nuclear weapons were stored at the following locations in West Germany (selection):

designation district state from to weapons
Nike fire position Kleingartach Heilbronn district Baden-Württemberg 1959 1977 Nike Hercules, later Pershing IA
Siegelsbach special ammunition depot Heilbronn district Baden-Württemberg ? 1992 Nuclear warheads for Honest John, later Pershing II, nuclear projectiles for self-propelled howitzers.
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany
Special ammunition dump Golf District of Reutlingen Baden-Württemberg 1965 1991 Nuclear warheads W52, later W70
Fort Black Jack District of Sigmaringen Baden-Württemberg 1969 1983 Pershing IA
Mottschieß ammunition depot District of Sigmaringen Baden-Württemberg 1969 ?
Forest heather Heilbronn Baden-Württemberg 1977 1990 Pershing IA, later Pershing II
Mutlanger Heath Ostalbkreis Baden-Württemberg 1983 1990 Pershing II
Nike firing position Dallau Baden-Württemberg
Clay pit District of Neu-Ulm Bavaria 1969 ? Pershing IA, later Pershing II
Hemau special ammunition depot Regensburg district Bavaria
Stand-by position Görisried-Ochsenhof District of Ostallgäu Bavaria 1976 1986
Memmingen Airport Memmingen Bavaria 55 × type B61 nuclear aerial bombs (4 × in QRA readiness )
Landsberg-Leeder special ammunition depot Landsberg am Lech district Bavaria
Lechfeld Air Base District of Augsburg Bavaria Pershing
Riedheim special ammunition depot District of Günzburg Bavaria Nuclear warheads for short-range missiles Honest John, atomic bullet for self-propelled howitzers
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany
Treysa special ammunition depot Schwalm-Eder district Hesse 1962 1992 Nuclear warheads, atomic artillery shells
Nike firing position Albach
1st battery of FlaRakBtl 23 		District of Giessen Hesse 1964 1987 Nike-Hercules missiles with nuclear warheads (2-40 kt)
Alten-Buseck special ammunition depot District of Giessen Hesse 1960s 1980s Atomic ammunition of the 5th Panzer Division for the weapon systems Honest John, PzHaubitze M109 and M110
Special ammunition depot Gießen
US Site # 4 		District of Giessen Hesse 1974 1988 W70 nuclear warheads for Lance short-range missile (on site)
Bellersdorf special ammunition depot Lahn-Dill district Hesse 1965 1992 W70 nuclear warheads for the Lance short-range missile
One of the ten main storage facilities for nuclear weapons in Germany
Nike firing position Kemel
3rd battery of FlaRakBtl 23 		Rheingau-Taunus district Hesse 1964 1987 Nike Hercules missiles with nuclear warheads (2-40 kt)
Nike firing position Schöneck
2nd battery of FlaRakBtl 23 		Main-Kinzig district Hesse 1964 1987 Nike Hercules missiles with nuclear warheads (2-40 kt)
Special ammunition storage facility Hanau-Erlensee
US Site # 5 		Main-Kinzig district Hesse 1960s 1986 Atommunition, nuclear warheads
Special ammunition storage facility in Eschborn Main-Taunus-Kreis Hesse 1969 1984 Nuclear mines
Special ammunition depot Münster-Dieburg Darmstadt-Dieburg district Hesse 1960s 1980s Atommunition, atomic mines, nuclear warheads
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany
August-Euler-Flugplatz Griesheim Darmstadt Hesse 1961 1970 Nike Hercules
Lahn special ammunition dump Emsland district Lower Saxony Central storage facility SACEUR for nuclear warheads W70, W50, W52 (up to max. 400 kt)
One of the ten main storage facilities for nuclear weapons in Germany
Special ammunition store service shop Verden district Lower Saxony Nuclear warheads for rocket artillery, artillery shells
Liebenau special ammunition depot District of Nienburg / Weser Lower Saxony
Special ammunition depot in Dünsen District of Oldenburg Lower Saxony
3. Batt./FlaRakBtl. 25th Diepholz district Lower Saxony 1961 1988 Nike Hercules missiles
Hombroich missile station Rhine district of Neuss North Rhine-Westphalia ? 1988 Nike, Pershing
Special ammunition depot Wesel-Diersfordt Wesel district North Rhine-Westphalia Short-range missile nuclear warheads Sergeant, later Lance
Special ammunition depot Dortmund Dortmund North Rhine-Westphalia
Ostbevern-Schirlheide special ammunition depot Warendorf district North Rhine-Westphalia 1964 1991 Nuclear warheads for short-range missiles Honest John and Lance as well as nuclear projectiles for self-propelled howitzers
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany.
Special ammunition depot Werl Unna district North Rhine-Westphalia
Special ammunition storage facility in Büren Paderborn district North Rhine-Westphalia
One of the ten main storage facilities for nuclear weapons in Germany
Sennelager special ammunition depot Paderborn district North Rhine-Westphalia
RAF Brüggen District of Viersen North Rhine-Westphalia British atomic bombs WE.177
Wahner Heide special ammunition depot Rhein-Sieg district North Rhine-Westphalia 1960 1962 Warheads 1st Belgian Corps; Honest John; Artillery shells 155 mm and 203 mm
Dülmen-Visbeck special ammunition depot Coesfeld district North Rhine-Westphalia Warheads for 2./RakArtLehrBtl 72; Honest John
Nike firing position Oedingen District of Olpe North Rhine-Westphalia 1963 1987 ten nuclear warheads with an explosive power of 2 to 40 kt
Stilleking special ammunition depot Märkischer Kreis North Rhine-Westphalia 1960 1963
SAS Arnsberg-Holzen Hochsauerlandkreis North Rhine-Westphalia
NATO airfield Geilenkirchen District of Heinsberg North Rhine-Westphalia including warheads for the Pershing I / IA (MGM-31A).
Nike firing position Obersayn
4th battery of FlaRakBtl 23 		Westerwaldkreis Rhineland-Palatinate 1964 1987 Nike Hercules missiles with nuclear warheads (2-40 kt)
Kriegsfeld special ammunition depot Donnersbergkreis Rhineland-Palatinate Warheads for Honest John and Nike, nuclear projectiles for self-propelled howitzers
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany
Büchel Air Base District of Cochem-Zell Rhineland-Palatinate ? today B61 nuclear bombs
Fischbach special ammunition depot Southwest Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate Warheads W-80 and W-85 for Pershing II missiles, W-33 and W-48 for self-propelled howitzers
One of the ten main stores of nuclear weapons in Germany
Pydna missile base Rhein-Hunsrück district Rhineland-Palatinate 1958 1981 Matador, Nike Hercules
Ramstein Air Base District of Kaiserslautern Rhineland-Palatinate ? 2005 probably nuclear bombs of the type B-61-3 and B-61-4
Horressen special ammunition depot Westerwaldkreis Rhineland-Palatinate 1969 1981 Warheads for Sergeant, Lance; for the rocket artillery battalion 350
Kellinghusen special ammunition depot Steinburg district Schleswig-Holstein 1963 1992 Nuclear warheads for rocket artillery, atomic artillery
projectiles One of the ten main storage facilities for nuclear weapons in Germany
Meyn special ammunition depot Schleswig-Flensburg district Schleswig-Holstein 1973 1993 Nuclear warheads for the rocket artillery battalion 650 , nuclear artillery projectiles

Incidents

A number of accidents and incidents occurred while handling the weapons.

date place description
February 22, 1970 Boettingen A Pershing missile's nuclear warhead falls to the ground during maintenance work.
November 2nd 1974 Weeze -Laarbruch A WE 177 atomic bomb falls down while being loaded onto an airplane.
November 28, 1977 West Germany, without details of location A Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter loaded with nuclear explosive devices crashes.
February 24, 1981 Swechselberg As a result of an engine fire, the solid propellant of the two rocket stages of the Pershing-IA being transported burned.
November 1, 1982 Schwäbisch Gmünd A semi-trailer truck with a Pershing comes off the road due to a brake failure.
2nd November 1982 Waldprechtsweier Carom from three semi-trailers with Pershing II, 1 dead.
May 2, 1984 Bruggen A container with a British WE 177 atomic bomb falls from the transport vehicle and hits the asphalt.
September 24, 1984 Walkersbacher Tal, Alfdorf district A semi-trailer truck loaded with a Pershing II missile slips off a forest path and tips over, the missile breaks apart in the middle.
January 11, 1985 Forest heather Explosion during assembly work on the first propulsion stage of a Pershing II rocket. 3 dead, 16 injured.
June 30, 1986 West Germany. Location not known. The warhead of a Pershing missile falls to the ground.
May 5th 1987 Heilbronn In a traffic accident, a Pershing II missile falls into a trench.

Protest actions

There were a number of events and protests by the peace movement in Germany that were specifically directed against nuclear weapons in general and in Germany in particular:

date place description
1957-1959 Nationwide Various campaigns (demonstrations, collections of signatures, strikes) against equipping the German armed forces with delivery systems for nuclear weapons are organized under the motto Fight against Nuclear Death .
Easter 1960 Lower Saxony The first Easter March in the Federal Republic, a multi-day star march in Lower Saxony, ends in Bergen-Hohne . It is directed “against nuclear weapons of all kinds and every nation” in the East and West. The occasion was press reports about the start of testing of Honest John nuclear missiles near the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Since then, the Easter marches have become the annually recurring traditional form of expression for the protests of the German peace movement.
November 1980 to around 1983 Nationwide Over four million people signed the Krefeld appeal against retrofitting.
October 10, 1981 Bonn Around 300,000 participants demonstrated at the peace demonstration in 1981 in Bonn's Hofgarten against the "retrofitting".
June 10, 1982 Bonn Around 400,000 participants demonstrate at the peace demonstration in Bonn .
August 1 to August 8, 1982 Engstingen-Haid First sit-in blockade of a nuclear weapons storage facility in the Federal Republic of Germany, which lasted several days : In August 1982 the special ammunition storage facility in Golf was blocked around the clock for a whole week by around 700 people from all over Germany, divided into around 60 reference groups .
September 11, 1982 Bochum Artists for Peace with around 200,000 participants.
September 1st to 3rd, 1983 Mutlangen / Mutlanger Heide On the three days around Anti-War Day 1983, the so-called “ celebrity blockade ” near Mutlangen in front of one of the three stationing locations of the Pershing II medium-range missiles in the Federal Republic caused a nationwide sensation. With around 1,000 participants (including around 150 "prominent" public figures from politics, culture, science and the church), it is one of the best-known and largest blockade actions in the course of the movement against “rearmament”, and formed a kick-off between 1983 and in 1987 the campaign “ Civil disobedience to disarmament ” initiated by Mutlangen .
October 22, 1983 Nationwide Nationwide day of action against “ retrofitting ” as part of the so-called hot autumn of the peace movement: 200,000 people take part in the human chain from Stuttgart to Neu-Ulm . 500,000 people demonstrated at the event in Bonn's Hofgarten . 1.3 million people demonstrate nationwide.
October 11, 1986 Bell / Beller Markt / Hasselbach (Hunsrück) / Pydna (rocket base)

About 200,000 people came to the largest peace demonstration in the Hunsrück that day to demonstrate against the stationing of missiles on the nearby Pydna (missile base) . At the end of the event, the so-called "Hunsrück Declaration" was read out, which particularly advocated a reversal in security policy. On the adjacent Friedensacker there are still three warning wooden crosses, representing the original 96 crosses, one for each rocket. The entire demonstration was very peaceful.

As part of the many demonstrations of the peace movement, especially in the activities against retrofitting, there were sit-in blockades and other actions with which the demonstrators consciously and deliberately questioned the interpretation of individual provisions of the Federal Republic's Criminal Code in the sense of civil disobedience . Over the years, almost 3,000 blockers have been arrested at Mutlanger Heide . Many of them were sentenced to fines by the responsible district court in Schwäbisch Gmünd on charges of coercion and other offenses; some had to face imprisonment sentences of up to several months because of their refusal to pay the fines - or in the case of recurrence.

It was not until 1995 that the interpretation of the law was finally modified by the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) (AZ 1 BvR 718/89) on the basis of various constitutional complaints : “ The criminal courts' interpretation of the concept of violence in Section 240 (1) of the Criminal Code [violates] Art. 103 (2) GG. “So the constitutional judges in their judgment. In the specific case of sit-ins, the act is not punishable against the background of the principle of certainty of Article 103, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law , since the reprehensibility of the means in connection with the proportionality of the punishment is indefinite and therefore questionable, and the overstretching of the The concept of violence in Section 240 of the Criminal Code is ultimately unconstitutional .

The Federal Court of Justice then overturned the judgments against many blockers. The fines already paid were reimbursed when a retrial was applied for .

Due to the BVerfG judgment of 1995, thousands of corresponding judgments that had been pronounced over the years in connection with sit-downs in front of many other military facilities, authorities, nuclear power plants or at other demonstration events in the Federal Republic had to be revised.

German Democratic Republic

With the Warsaw Treaty of May 14, 1955, a military alliance was concluded between Albania, Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Czechoslovakia , Hungary , Poland , Romania and the Soviet Union , which was dissolved in 1991. This alliance was officially initially considered a conventional arms treaty. Nuclear war plans only became known in retrospect.

R-5 nuclear missiles were briefly stationed on the territory of the GDR in two bases of the Soviet GSSD in 1958/59 . The nuclear weapons stationed on the soil of the GDR until 1991 included nuclear free-fall bombs for the air force and SS-12 nuclear missiles . After 1983, 54 of these specimens were distributed across four locations, but these were withdrawn again in 1988 under the INF contract . The relationship in the GDR was ambiguous; weapons were kept secret from the population, and the withdrawal was welcomed with relief. SED General Secretary Erich Honecker described them as "the devil's stuff". From 1968 to 1990, the armed forces of the Soviet Union kept nuclear warheads in the special weapons camps at Himmelpfort and Stolzenhain , which were to be given to the GDR's National People's Army in the event of war . From June 29, 1991, the area of ​​the former GDR was officially free of nuclear weapons.

  • Soviet SS-12 in the museum in Saint Petersburg

  • 1993 abandoned by the GSSD "Granit" type bunker in Großenhain

  • Soviet R-5 missile in the museum in Ukraine

Locations

Locations for these weapons included:

designation district state from to comment
Altenburg special weapons warehouse Altenburger Land Thuringia 1991 nuclear free fall bombs
Special weapons store fire ( ⊙ ) Dahme-Spreewald Brandenburg 1962 1991 911th Jagdbombenfiegerregiment (Grossenhain)
nuclear free-fall bombs
Groß Dölln special weapons warehouse Uckermark Brandenburg
Finsterwalde special weapons warehouse Elbe Elster Brandenburg 1991
Fürstenberg special weapons warehouse Oberhavel Brandenburg 1958 1959 R-5M = 72nd Engineer Brigade
Grossenhain special weapons warehouse Meissen Saxony 1991
Himmelpfort special weapons warehouse Oberhavel Brandenburg 1968 1990 also: Lychen II; nuclear warheads
Lärz special weapons warehouse Mecklenburg Lake District Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 1963 1991 nuclear free fall bombs
Stolzenhain special weapons warehouse Elbe Elster Brandenburg 1968 1990 nuclear warheads
Werneuchen special weapons warehouse Barnim district Brandenburg 1991
Wittstock special weapons warehouse Ostprignitz-Ruppin Brandenburg
Vogelsang special weapons warehouse Oberhavel Brandenburg 1958
1983		 1959
1988		 R-5M = 72nd Brigade of Engineers
nuclear warheads
Base of operations in Bischofswerda Bautzen Saxony 1984 1988 SS-12
Koenigsbrück base of operations Bautzen Saxony 1983 1988 SS-12
Warenshof special weapons warehouse Mecklenburg Lake District Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 1983 1988 also: OpBasis Warenshof = GS 675. u. 806. RAbtlg (Warenshof) / GS 152. GRBrig (Warenshof, Waren (Müritz) )
Wokul special weapons warehouse Mecklenburg Lake District Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 1983 1988 also: OpBasis Wokuhl = GS 229. RAbtlg ( Strelitz-Alt ) / WGS 152. GRBrig (Warenshof, Waren (Müritz))
Mobile missile technology base Halle (Saale) Halle (Saale) Saxony-Anhalt Approx. 1965 1989/1990 (1991?) Storage for nuclear warheads and carriers of tactical missile units of the 8th Guards Army (Red Army) for the FROG (missile) and SS-21 Scarab weapon systems ; Field post number 38673
1648. Mobile missile technology base in Altengrabow District of Jerichower Land Saxony-Anhalt Approx. 1965 June 1991 Storage facilities for nuclear warheads for missile units of the 3rd Shock Army and storage facilities for nuclear artillery ammunition for FROG (rocket) , R-17 and SS-21 Scarab weapon systems ; Field post number 57851

Germany after reunification

Demonstration in Büchel, August 30, 2008

The reunification took place on October 3, 1990. In Article 3 Paragraph 1 of the Treaty on the final regulation with regard to Germany , which came into force on March 15, 1991 (Federal Law Gazette 1990 II p. 1317), the united Germany renounces production, Possession and control of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. The area of ​​the former GDR was officially cleared of Soviet nuclear weapons from June 29, 1991.

On July 8, 1996, the International Court of Justice ruled that the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons were fundamentally contrary to international law; The court expressly left open whether threats and use were permissible in an extreme case of self-defense . According to Article VI, all member states of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are obliged to immediately start negotiations on complete nuclear disarmament and bring them to a positive conclusion.

American nuclear weapons in Europe are currently being stored in underground pits at airfields in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Turkey and Great Britain according to the Weapon Storage and Security System WS3 . An internal investigation by the US Air Force found in 2008 that “most of the facilities” did not comply with the security regulations of the Department of Defense.

The Büchel Air Base is currently the last location for nuclear weapons in Germany. There are 20 B61 bombs stored here , as was shown in 2010 by the publication of cables from US embassies by WikiLeaks .

In April 2009, Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier demanded the withdrawal of all US nuclear weapons from Germany. In the coalition agreement between the union parties and the FDP, the federal government promised to withdraw nuclear weapons from Büchel in 2009 . In October 2009, Guido Westerwelle demanded the withdrawal of the last nuclear weapons during the election campaign. Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted, however, that the negotiations on the withdrawal of the missiles should be carried out jointly with the other NATO countries and under no circumstances alone. As Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Westerwelle started the debate again in February 2010 with a letter to NATO.

In particular, Christoph Heusgen , ministerial director in the Chancellery and Merkel's foreign and security policy advisor, expressly distanced himself from Westerwelle's demands to the US diplomats, according to a memorandum of November 12, 2009, which was published during the Cablegate . The coalition agreement to remove all nuclear weapons in Germany was enforced by Guido Westerwelle, but it makes no sense.

In April 2010 the peace activist Elke Koller filed a lawsuit against the stationing against the Federal Government before the Administrative Court in Berlin , after coordination with IALANA , which forwarded the lawsuit to the Administrative Court in Cologne . The administrative court in Cologne dismissed the action as inadmissible by judgment of July 19, 2011 .

NATO's strategy should continue to focus on nuclear weapons. Corresponding recommendations were published in May 2010. In November 2010 they were decided: "... as long as there are nuclear weapons in the world, NATO will remain a nuclear Alliance."

In March 2010, the Bundestag decided with a large majority that the federal government should "vigorously advocate the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Germany against its American allies."

In March 2012, Der Spiegel pointed out that Büchel Air Base was to be abandoned and that the federal government was assuming a withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany. In August 2012, however, it became known that the USA was planning to modernize and that Germany wanted to keep tornado fighter planes for dropping the bombs operational until 2024.

In November 2013, Der Spiegel reported that the US government wanted to modernize nuclear weapons in Germany from 2020 with retreaded B61-12 bombs.

In May 2014, after the so-called Crimean crisis , the federal government confirmed at the request of the Greens that the USA had subjected its atomic bombs in Germany to a so-called "lifespan extension program" without negotiating with the federal government. In addition, the Federal Republic is to support the renewal of the nuclear weapons depot in Büchel with several million euros.

In September 2015 it was announced that the USA will deposit 20 new American atomic bombs of the type B61-12 in Büchel, which are much more precisely targeted than those previously stored there. In the event of war, German tornado pilots are said to fly the attacks with the US bombs. Maria Sakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said: “We are concerned that states that do not actually have nuclear weapons are practicing the use of these weapons, as part of NATO's practice of nuclear participation. This is a violation of Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. "

Although the German government took part in the talks of the UN Open-Ended Working Group in 2016, it voted against the convening of a negotiating conference in the 2016 UN General Assembly.

On March 27, 2017, UN negotiations began to ban nuclear weapons as the first step towards a nuclear weapons convention . In order to encourage the federal government to participate, a 20-week campaign presence started at the Büchel air force base, including a permanent camp at the main gate, vigils, discussions, cultural campaigns and actions of civil disobedience - in continuation of earlier protests . Another objective was to stop nuclear armament through modernization and to withdraw nuclear weapons from Germany. Similar actions took place in 2018, with reference to the now adopted nuclear weapons prohibition treaty and the award of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, which played a key role in it .

The approximately 20 B61-4 bombs in Büchel are to be replaced by more modern and more precise B61-12 bombs from 2021. This was implemented in autumn 2019: the warheads were brought to the USA for two days from Büchel Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate with a C-17 transport machine at the end of August. A software update for the weapon systems was installed there. Then they were flown back. In an emergency, the warheads are to be dropped by tornadoes of the Bundeswehr. The Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) intends to replace the Tornado nuclear weapon carrier, which has reached the end of its useful life, as a bridge solution with 45  F-18s for nuclear participation, but also for electronic combat . The BMVg does not expect a purchase before 2022.

See also

literature

  • Helmut R. Hammerich : Das Heer 1950 to 1970. Concept, organization, installation (= security policy and armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. 3). Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-486-57974-6 .
  • Hans M. Kristensen : US Nuclear Weapons in Europe. A Review of Post-Cold War Policy, Force Levels, and War Planning. Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington DC 2005, ( online ; PDF; 5.2 MB).
  • Henk J. Neuman: Nuclear weapons in Europe. NATO double resolution, arms control, glossary. The manual for the current debate. Osang, Bonn, 1982, ISBN 3-7894-0085-1 .
  • Kristina Spohr Readman: Germany and the Politics of the Neutron Bomb, 1975–1979. In: Diplomacy & Statecraft. Vol. 21, No. 2, 2010, ISSN  0959-2296 , pp. 259–285, doi: 10.1080 / 09592296.2010.482473 .
  • Florian Reichenberger: The »Devil's Spiral« to the Apocalypse - The Bundeswehr leadership under the spell of nuclear war . In: Military History - Journal of Historical Education . No. 4 , 2018, p. 4-9 .
  • Wilhelm von Spreckelsen, Wolf-Jochen Vesper: Blazing Skies. The history of the Air Force anti-aircraft missile force. Isensee, Oldenburg 2004, ISBN 3-89995-054-2 .
Peace Movement Literature of the 1980s
  • William M. Arkin, Richard W. Fieldhouse: "Nuclear Battlefields". The nuclear weapons report. Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-7610-8391-2 .
  • Storage and transportation of nuclear weapons. Information Office for Peace Policy, Munich 1982.
  • Burkhard Luber: Threat Atlas Federal Republic of Germany (= manuals for development policy and educational work. 6). Jugenddienst-Verlag, Wuppertal 1982, ISBN 3-7795-7371-7 .
  • Alfred Mechtersheimer , Peter Barth (Ed.): Militarization Atlas of the Federal Republic. Armed forces, weapons and locations, costs and risks (= Luchterhand Collection. 608). Luchterhand, Darmstadt et al. 1986, ISBN 3-472-61608-3 .
Locations in East Germany
  • Stefan Best: Secret bunker systems of the GDR. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-02332-1 .
  • Paul Bergner: Nuclear Bunker - Cold War - Dolphin program. On the trail of the bunkers built for the Cold War. Heinrich-Jung-Verlagsgesellschaft, Zella-Mehlis 2007, ISBN 978-3-930588-78-7 .
  • Stefan Büttner: Red places. Russian military airfields, Germany 1945–1994. Air bases - aerodromes - military fallow. Aerolit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ USA secretly stored nuclear weapons in Germany. In: Spiegel online. March 4, 2012 (online)
  2. ^ The Avalon Project. Annex I
  3. ^ German rearmament: When the atomic bomb dreams burst. In: Spiegel online. August 5, 2011.
  4. ^ Atomic Annie. In: nuclear weapons az . (on-line)
  5. ↑ Hans Karl Rupp: Extra-parliamentary opposition in the Adenauer era: The fight against nuclear weapons in the fifties. 1st edition. Pahl-Rugenstein-Verlag, Cologne 1970. (3rd edition. Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7609-0904-3 )
  6. ↑ Florian Reichenberger: The »Devil's Spiral« to the Apocalypse - The Bundeswehr leadership under the spell of nuclear war . In: Military History - Journal of Historical Education . No. 4 , 2018, p. 7 .
  7. ^ BAG: Environmental radioactivity and radiation doses in Switzerland. 2003.
  8. ↑ The little general. In: Der Spiegel . December 11, 1957 (online)
  9. ↑ Per Hinrichs: Forgotten Places: Atomic Bomb in the Gully. In: Der Spiegel. 2/2008, quoted in Spiegel online.
  10. ↑ a b c Just went well again. Germany and nuclear weapons. In: TERZ . January 9, 2008. (online)
  11. ^ A b Otfried Nassauer : US nuclear weapons in Germany and Europe. July 2008 (online)
  12. ↑ 59th Ordnance Brigade. (on-line)
  13. ↑ Corpsartillery in the German Army from 1957 to 1994. on: bw-duelmen.de
  14. ↑ Why were American soldiers stationed in Herbornseelbach? to: traditionsverband-aartalkaserne-herbornseelbach.de
  15. ↑ Konrad Adenauer's CDU government wanted nuclear submarines for the navy, as previously secret files from British and German archives show. The NATO partners resisted. In: Der Spiegel. 18/2008. (on-line)
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  75. ↑ Steinmeier calls for the withdrawal of US atomic bombs. In: Spiegel online . April 10, 2009 (online)
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  79. ↑ 2009 November 12, Canonical ID: 09BERLIN1433_a. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR HEUSGEN ON AFGHANISTAN, MIDDLE EAST, IRAN, DETAINEES, RUSSIA, NUKES AND BALKANS. In response to Gordon's question about how the government planned to take forward the commitment in the coalition agreement to seek the removal of all remaining nuclear weapons from Germany, Heusgen distanced the Chancellery from the proposal, claiming that this had been forced upon them by FM Westerwelle . Heusgen said that from his perspective, it made no sense to unilaterally withdraw "the 20" tactical nuclear weapons still in Germany while Russia maintains "thousands" of them. It would only be worth it if both sides drew down. Gordon noted that it was important to think through all the potential consequences of the German proposal before going forward. For example, a withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany and perhaps from Belgium and the Netherlands could make it very difficult politically for Turkey to maintain its own stockpile, even though it was still convinced of the need to do so. Wikileaks
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