Thin forest firing range

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Shooting range with overgrown earth walls left and right (2018)
A promenade crosses the former shooting range today (2018)

The Dünnwald shooting range was on Kalkweg in Cologne-Dünnwald . During the Nazi era , it was also used as a place of execution .

history

In 1887 the firing range was laid out by the Prussian Army in an area southeast of the Cologne district of Dünnwald. The area was then known as Kützeler Heide and is now part of the Dellbrücker Wald landscape protection area ; The Dünnwald Wildlife Park and the Dünnwald forest pool are located slightly north of it . The shooting range consisted of up to six shooting lanes with a length of 400 to 600 meters, which were separated from each other by earth walls. On the side towards the forest pool was a brick wall with ball traps . After the defeat of the German Reich in World War I , the facility was shut down in the course of demilitarization by the Allies .

In 1936, as a result of the armament of the Wehrmacht , the firing range was put back into operation and used as a military training area until 1945. Between October 15, 1940 and October 23, 1943, the firing range was also used as a place of execution: 23 men, so-called “ military disruptors ” or “ deserters ”, were shot here after they had been sentenced to death by military courts . Most of these men were buried in the Westfriedhof , on a cemetery that was initially believed to have mainly been used to bury victims of bombs or those who had died in a war effort . Subsequently, further death sentences were carried out against members of the Wehrmacht in Klingelpütz with the guillotine , where a total of around 70 deserters were beheaded. These were almost exclusively soldiers of the lower ranks.

After the capture of Cologne on the left bank of the Rhine and thus also the Klingelpütz by US troops on March 6, 1945, two executions of soldiers took place in the right bank of the Rhine , but not on the shooting range, but either, according to the pastor who was present at the time, in one not far gravel pit located between the streets Auf dem Flachsacker and Thuleweg in the Höhenhaus district, or, in the opinion of unspecified older local people, on the extension of the street Auf dem Flachsacker beyond the Höhenfelder mousepath.

The last to be executed was the 23-year-old Jakob Brock from Cologne on April 7, 1945, who had served as a soldier on the Eastern Front , among other places . He had applied to extend his eight-day home leave because he had married. According to later statements from his family, he had received approval for the vacation by telephone. Due to the turmoil of the last days of the war, however, this had not reached his commander or was lost, which is why he was considered a " deserter ". A court martial in the primary school building on Honschaftsstrasse in Cologne-Höhenhaus pronounced the death sentence against him. The execution was attended by a Catholic clergyman. Brock left behind his wife and a daughter born in November.

After the war , the firing range was used by the Belgian armed forces , the German armed forces and the police until the 1970s . The brick wall, the fence and the gatehouse were demolished. The earth walls and the shooting lanes are now overgrown, but still recognizable. The area belongs to the LSG Dellbrücker Wald and is accessible via walking paths.

Research and memory

Stele at the former Dünnwald firing range in memory of the victims of Nazi military justice (2019)

In 2007, the Dünnwald shooting range was considered as a possible location for a central memorial for the victims of military justice in Cologne, but not because of its location far outside. The deserter monument was unveiled on September 1st, 2009 in downtown Cologne on Appellhofplatz .

A project group from the NS Documentation Center of the City of Cologne began to research the number and names of the executed men with the support of volunteers, including in the Freiburg military archive . In 2014, the historian Karola Fings presented a first report on the results achieved.

In Cologne-Höhenhaus a path was named after Jakob Brock on September 1st, 2007.

Simultaneously with the decision for the central monument in the city center, it was suggested that “the history of the place [...] in any case by means of an explanatory board or something similar. made visible ”. On November 5, 2018, the Mülheim district council decided to set up a board at the former shooting range according to a concept developed by the Nazi Documentation Center and coordinated with citizens of Dünnwald. A design by Ruedi and Vera Baur (Paris) was realized , which is visually based on the memorial for the victims of Nazi military justice on Appellhofplatz. On September 29, 2019, the memorial was inaugurated by Norbert Fuchs, the district mayor of the Mülheim district council, in the presence of the artist couple. Werner Jung , director of the NS Documentation Center Cologne, and Karola Fings, who researched the fate of the deserters shot in Dünnwald, spoke at the celebration . A citizens' initiative from Dünnwald around Wolfgang Corzilius also played a major role in the conception. These and the Dünnwald citizens' association collected donations. The inscription is a quote from the former Wehrmacht deserter Ludwig Baumann : "What better thing can you do than betray the war."

literature

Web links

Commons : Schießplatz Dünnwald  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 59 '30.2 "  N , 7 ° 3' 28.1"  E

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Fings, Victims of Nazi Military Justice , p. 98.
  2. ↑ a b c Entry by Klaus-Dieter Kleefeld on shooting range Dünnwald in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association , accessed on January 29, 2018.
  3. ^ Fings, Victims of Military Justice , p. 100.
  4. ↑ a b c Fings, Victims of Nazi Military Justice , p. 99.
  5. ↑ Cologne Documentation Center - Cologne deserters - Kalkweg in Cologne-Dünnwald. In: museenkoeln.de. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Etscheid / Haas / Ochsenschläger, You wanted to live , pp. 7–8, 16.
  7. ↑ Tobias Christ: Firing range in Dünnwald: Where soldiers were once executed in Cologne. In: ksta.de. January 15, 2016, accessed January 31, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Andreas Rossmann: The horizon is open. In: FAZ.net . September 3, 2009, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  9. ^ NS Documentation Center Cologne - location search. In: museenkoeln.de. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Pascal Beucker: A way to remember. In: taz.de . September 3, 2007, accessed January 30, 2018 .
  11. ^ NS Documentation Center Cologne - location search. In: museenkoeln.de. Retrieved January 12, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Information board of the former shooting range in Dünnwald in memory of the victims of the Nazi military justice (with draft drawing). In: Council information system of the city of Cologne. November 5, 2018, accessed January 12, 2019 .
  13. ^ Message from the NS Documentation Center Cologne (PDF on bv-opfer-ns-militaerjustiz.de) and Kölner Wochenspiegel, Mülheim edition, from October 1, 2019 with photos.