Great Ziegenberg training center

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Aerial photo of the Großer Ziegenberg training center, 2013
Building complex on the Ziegenberg (2018)

The Großer Ziegenberg training center in Ballenstedt is a building complex that has a history of being a cadre forge for the two German dictatorships of the 20th century. Secluded in the forest on the outskirts, a state educational institute for national politics was founded there in 1934 . From 1936, Napola Anhalt was housed there for nine years . Strictly foreclosed the use followed from 1949 decades as a district party school Wilhelm Liebknecht the district headquarters hall of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany . Currently (2018) the monument is mostly empty, a usage concept is still pending.

time of the nationalsocialism

Logo of NAPOBI Anhalt in Ballenstedt (until 1945)

The "Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt Anhalt" (abbreviated NPEA Anhalt, commonly called Napola ) was one of 39 boarding schools that were founded after the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933. The one in Ballenstedt was the only new building of such a school. The foundation stone was laid in 1936 and construction work lasted for many years. The teaching building was not handed over to its intended use until October 1942. In 1943 the NPEA Anhalt took over the running of the Ilfeld Abbey School , which had also been used as the NPEA since 1934.

In the elite facility, more than 350 students were educated to become high-performing, line-loyal National Socialists. At the end of the Third Reich, after nine years of use, the Napola in Ballenstedt was dissolved in 1945.

Post-war and GDR times

Logo of the SED district party school in Ballenstedt (until 1989)

After the founding of the German Democratic Republic , the state-supporting Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) used the area as a state and later as a district party school. From 1956 to 1989 - that is, in a period of 33 years - more than 16,000 SED party members from the GDR districts of Halle (until 1989) and Magdeburg (until 1975) completed one-year courses there at the “ Wilhelm Liebknecht District Party School ”. While studying in Ballenstedt, they received 80 percent of their previous net salary as a scholarship.

The SED district party schools had the task of ideologically training young people to become potential leaders in the GDR party and state apparatus. After the “Karl Marx” college in Berlin, they were the state party's second highest cadre schools.

After the planned capacity was reached, up to 600 course participants learned and lived on the Ziegenberg. From 1979 to 1989 students of the ruling "Workers' Party of Ethiopia" (WPE) were also trained. In 1987 there were 33 students from Ethiopia and 20 from Sudan at the Ballenstedt District School .

The area of ​​the district party school was a largely autonomous, fenced and guarded campus that could only be entered with an appropriate document. People who did not belong to the group of around 150 employees of the district party school - i.e. teachers and employees who guarantee everyday tasks - were denied access in principle. The workload for the course participants was around 60 hours per week (Monday to Friday). There was a café, a clubhouse, a grocery store, a bookstore, a hairdresser and a sauna on the premises.

Until 1989 the large auditorium was used for youth consecration celebrations in the city of Ballenstedt. The annual small press festival of the daily newspaper " Freiheit ", the "organ of the district leadership hall of the SED", took place until 1967 on the premises of the district party school.

Militarization from 1966
Terrain view (2018)

The proximity to the border with the Federal Republic of Germany led to the integration of the district party school in the security system of the GDR in 1966. A combat group battalion was formed from among the party students. The area was completely fenced in, a guard service with five uniformed police officers and 25 armed civil men was introduced and an armory with infantry weapons, hand grenades and anti-aircraft machine guns for 250 fighters was set up.

From 1990 and present

Vandalism in the former lecture hall (2014)

With the peaceful revolution in the GDR in November 1989 the teaching activities of the district party school ended.

On July 1, 1990, the city of Ballenstedt took over the area. As a GmbH, the institution started with 120 employees in the market economy. In 1991 it was handed over to the trust. This invested in modernization, so that the University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration of the State of Saxony-Anhalt moved in and stayed until 1995.

Parts of the area, such as the tower house, are owned by an Austrian investor. The remaining buildings are owned by the city of Ballenstedt. The facility has been a listed building since the mid-1990s. The entire use of the building complex was open for a long time. Only the former dining room is still used - as a sports hall for the local table tennis and karate club.

At the end of 2018, two Chinese investors bought the site with the exception of the tower house. They plan to develop the area into a center for traditional Chinese medicine , martial arts and culture. For this purpose, a nursing home for the elderly, a center for ceramic art and culture, a medical educational facility and a sports center are to be built in the buildings. While the health center is scheduled to open in 2019, the other facilities are not scheduled to open until 2024.

architecture

The tallest building on the area popularly known as the "Kremlin" - today as it was back then with transmitting and receiving systems (photo from 2018)

The plan for the school complex, which was designed according to baroque design principles, comes from the government and building officer Kurt Ehrlich from Ballenstedt. The functional ensemble surrounds the roll call area, which is 140 meters long and 90 meters wide. Teaching and farm buildings form the north-south boundaries. The two-storey boarding school buildings were arranged with two blocks offset to the rear on the long sides - an arrangement not unusual for barracks buildings. This results in Siegrunes mirrored from a bird's eye view, not by chance - the symbol of the German young people.

The classrooms in the teaching building all face the roll call area. In October 1942 the building was handed over to its intended use. When the head of the institution and his office moved in in June 1943, it also functioned as an administration building. After 1945, the differently sized classrooms were rebuilt and modernized several times depending on the current usage requirements.

A ring of walkways connects all buildings in the school complex: the teaching building in the north, the four boarding school buildings in the east and west and the farm building in the south.

The 36 meter high bell tower on the teaching building of the school complex was not included in the initial planning. It even towers above the Ballenstedt Castle, the ancestral castle of the Askanians , and represents a landmark that can be seen from afar. For the campus, however, it actually has no function - apart from the two steel bells that once hung in it and are now (2016) in the Ballenstedt Museum in the Special exhibition on the topic can be seen (whether, for what and until what year the bells were used is unclear). During the time as the SED district party school, the tower received directional radio antennas.

After the war, Kurt Ehrlich became active again on the Großer Ziegenberg: As a specialist who was very familiar with the property, the SED superiors commissioned him to plan the renovation and expansion measures. The roll call square was planted with conifers.

The former manor house on the site - the Villa Koch - functioned as "Heim III" from April 1943 and was occupied by 80 "young men". While it was being used as the SED district party school, the building was converted into a clubhouse in 1970. The two prefabricated buildings used as boarding schools date from 1970.

exhibition

Exhibition banner at the Stadtmuseum Ballenstedt for the special exhibition (2016)

The association “Forum Großer Ziegenberg - Ballenstedt am Harz eV” succeeded in having an exhibition in Ballenstedt on the eventful history of the building complex since mid-2015: it was used as the “State National Political Education Institute Ballenstedt” and as the “Wilhelm Liebknecht” district school for the district management SED hall, Ballenstedt ”. The special exhibition in the city ​​museum "Wilhelm von Kügelgen" Ballenstedt comprises two rooms on the upper floor of the museum and is entitled "A school. Two stories. From NAPOBI to the SED party school. Großer Ziegenberg Ballenstedt. "

Trivia

The building complex is popularly known as the Kremlin because of its use until 1989 . An urban legend from Ballenstedt says that after 1945 some parts of the building had to be demolished because the floor plan of the building would have resulted in a swastika . The origin of this misinformation is not known. Instead, the floor plan of the two longitudinal buildings to the right and left of the parade ground is reminiscent of Siegrunen .

See also

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Meyer: The NPEA Anhalt in Ballenstedt , in: Wolfgang Schilling (Hrsg.): NAPOLA. Seduced elite in the Harz Mountains (Ballenstedt / Ilfeld). Blankenburg (Harz) 2018, pp. 103–159, ISBN 978-3-935971-94-2 .
  • Karl-Heinz Meyer: One school - two stories. From the national political educational institute Ballenstedt to the district party school of the SED "Wilhelm Liebknecht" , in: Justus H. Ulbricht (Ed.): Schwierige Orte. Regional memory, memorials, museums. Halle (Saale) 2013, pp. 153–170, ISBN 978-3-95462-130-9 .
  • Klaus Kleinau: In step, march. Trying to answer why I didn't know about Auschwitz. Memories of a Nazi elite pupil from Napola Ballenstedt. Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-87975-761-5 .
Documentary film
  • Werner Kiefer: From Napola to the SED party school . Documentary on behalf of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , German first broadcast on January 29, 2013; DVD, 30 minutes, EAN 4250015785690

Web links

Commons : Great Ziegenberg training center  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chapter 6.2.5 and 6.2.6 in: Ballenstedt in the 20th century, 1920 to 2000. Continuation of the Ballenstedter Chronik. Kulturverein Wilhelm von Kügelgen (Ed.), Quedlinburg 2003, ISBN 3-937648-00-3
  2. ↑ a b c d Thomas Kemnitz: The Great Goat Mountain - Place of Elite Education , accessed on January 4, 2017
  3. ↑ a b c d "Discover where you live" (TV series, MDR ): The unloved legacy of Ballenstedt - From Napola to the SED party school , accessed on January 4, 2017
  4. ↑ MZ: Medicine, Martial Arts, Culture Chinese want to buy Great Mountain of Goats. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .
  5. ↑ MZ: Former Nazi elite school Großer Ziegenberg is sold to the Chinese. Retrieved January 16, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 42 ′ 34.6 "  N , 11 ° 14 ′ 8"  E