Pinder Barracks
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The Pinder Barracks (German: Pinder barracks ) were a barracks in the Middle Franconian town of Zirndorf .
history
In the period of rearmament before the Second World War , the city administration of Zirndorf offered the National Socialist Reich leadership in 1935 to build barracks in Zirndorf .
As early as the spring of 1938, construction work began on a barracks approx. 500 m southwest and outside the city center on a gentle ridge. Since the facility was intended for the German Air Force , Hermann Göring , Commander in Chief of the Air Force , demanded that the barracks be designed in the " Franconian style". This is why the accommodation, which was officially called the Flak-headlight barracks, was popularly known as the "Hermann-Göring-Barracks".
Immediately after the construction work was completed in mid-1940, the barracks were placed under Air Command XII / XIII Nuremberg and occupied by anti-aircraft and searchlight units. According to the Federal Archives-Military Archives , the anti-aircraft department 5 was stationed in the barracks, which a year later set up a training department in addition to the replacement department , which, however, was moved to France shortly afterwards as anti-aircraft headlight department 686.
In the later course of the Second World War, among other things, parts of the 236th Volksgrenadier Division were stationed in the barracks, which was involved in fighting in the greater Nuremberg area against the 42nd US Infantry Division . At the end of April 1945, the property was occupied by the 26th US Infantry Regiment.
On May 11, 1949, the barracks was renamed Pinder Barracks in honor of the American soldier John J. Pinder Jr., who fell in the storm on the beaches of Normandy and was awarded the Medal of Honor . In general, the existing building structure was largely retained by the American troops after the war.
Notable additions were the construction of a tank washing facility , the construction of a new kitchen, the filling of the central extinguishing water pond , the demolition of smaller buildings and the relocation of parking and tank parking areas. In addition, numerous building renovations and conversions took place between 1947 and 1953 in order to be able to accommodate additional units in the Pinder Barracks after the closure of the second Zirndorf US barracks, the Adams Barracks . The striking building formations of the barracks, above all the tower with its integrated archway in the eastern area, were retained.
In the decades after 1945, various US Army units were stationed in the barracks. The artillery division of the 1st US Armored Division was stationed in the Zirndorf barracks for the longest period from 1971 to 1991 . The Zirndorfer Garrison was administratively subordinate to the Nuernberg Military Community , later to the 99th Area Support Group (ASG) in Fürth.
As deputy commander of the 1st Armored Division was from 1979 to 1981 who later became American Chief of Staff John Shalikashvili in Zirndorf commander of the division - Artillery .
Every year German-American folk festivals took place, to which the German population was invited.
After the Second Gulf War , a ceremonial re-entry of the returning associations was held, but most of the large equipment did not return from the Gulf to Zirndorf because of the military restructuring carried out after the end of the Cold War and was immediately transferred back to the USA .
From 1991 to 1993 the headquarters of the AAFES and the 7th Corps Support Group ( 7th Corps Support Group ) were stationed in the Pinder Barracks; the latter was withdrawn during a solemn farewell ceremony on May 31, 1995.
After almost 60 years of military use of the site, a settlement called Pinderpark was built on the site . As a widely visible identification mark and the last remaining building from the times of the barracks, only the tower with an archway remains today, which has since been integrated between modern glass and steel structures.
Coordinates: 49 ° 26 '24 " N , 10 ° 56' 53" E