Swallow i

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Schwalbe I gallery in the Hönnetal

The Schwalbe I project was one of the largest secret construction projects for the relocation of the Third Reich to the underground . The building with the original code name " Eisenkies " (the mineral name is the identifier for a new, specially set up tunnel system ) is one of the largest tunnel systems in the Sauerland and is located at the eastern end of today's urban area of Hemer (formerly the municipality of Deilinghofen ) on the border with today's urban area of Menden (Sauerland) near Oberrödinghausen . As part of the Geilenberg programTo secure the war-relevant mineral oil industry from total destruction by Allied air raids, work began on expanding this gigantic tunnel system at the end of August 1944 in the hidden Hönnetal of the Sauerland in the Emil 1 quarry of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kalkwerke (today Rheinkalk ).

history

Tunnel system

Due to its topography, the South Westphalia region was particularly suitable for the construction of underground plants and facilities. At the same time, the connection to the railway network , a well-developed road system and the proximity of the Ruhr area enabled favorable conditions for a planned start of production. In 1943/44, several locations in the vicinity of Hagen were given cover names and designated for relocation. However, there were only a few construction activities at the selected locations.

The location was carefully selected in advance by geologists and experts from the Todt Organization , which also retained the construction management and supervision of the advancement of the tunnel system during the course of the expansion. The client was Union Rheinische Braunkohlen fuel AG in Wesseling , which had a hydrogenation plant for fuel production and a dehydrogenation plant for the production of kerosene built in the tunnel system . It should produce 30,000 tons of fuel for jet fighters per month.

The raw materials, especially liquefied coal or stone and brown coal , water and energy, should be introduced in the planned for summer 1945 production start through pipelines from the Ruhr Valley and the Ruhr region.

The Todt Organization was responsible for the construction management. The address was Organization Todt Einsatzgruppe Rhein-Ruhr , later it became the Einsatzgruppe Hansa - Oberbauleitung Schwalbe . A total of 25 companies were involved in the work. The technical management was held by the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production - Geilenberg Task Force - Operations Officer Schwalbe 1 .

The ten-month tunneling and expansion was carried out through extensive work by 10,000 forced laborers and prisoners in shift work. In the late summer of 1944, the Dortmund Gestapo gave up control of the Hunswinkel labor education camp near Lüdenscheid in order to set up a new prisoner camp in the Hönnetal valley. Around 20 camps for forced laborers, prisoners of war and prisoners of war were set up between Balve and Fröndenberg. Initially, prisoners of the Wehrmacht were mainly used. The exact details of these camps are not known to this day. The people came from all over the territory of the German Empire. There were also German experts, including miners from the Ruhr area and the Saar. At the end of March 1945, around 850 prisoners had to walk north. This ended in the Werl prison, where the prisoners were freed by the US Army. This prevented a death march like those from other Nazi camps. (→  Death marches by concentration camp prisoners ) On April 14, 1945 the approximately 450 prisoners who were unable to march were liberated.

Honorary grave at the
Lendringsen cemetery

Numerous dead from Western European countries were buried in the Lendringsen cemetery, many of which were returned to their homeland after the war. There is a memorial for the victims at the Lendringsen cemetery. 132 names, including 41 Germans, are listed on the memorial.

Despite the building dimensions and the associated logistics, the project went unnoticed for a long time. Several strategic defensive measures were in place to defend the large construction site. Among other things, the project was defended around by anti-aircraft batteries . There does not appear to have been any major air raids.

Around 600,000 tons of rock were extracted from the rock. By the end of the war, a water pipe with a steel pipe diameter of one meter from the Westicker weir on the Ruhr to the facility had been completed in sections, mostly laid, but not yet welded. A tunnel through the Mendener Rodenberg was also built. The main purpose of the water was to cool the hydrogenation plant. The Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk AG built an additional 100 kV high-voltage line from Menden-Ohl to Lendringsen and another line was later to lead from Hemer via Deilinghofen into the Hönnetal. The efficiency of the Hönnetalbahn from Fröndenberg to the Hönnetal had been increased for the transport of hard coal, since the planned hydrogenation plant needed five tons of coal to produce one ton of fuel. Only the railway bridge over the Ruhr, torn away in the Möhne disaster in May 1943, remained as a single-lane bottleneck. The excavation work on the 20 tunnels and their connecting tunnels were almost complete by the end of the war. There were also plans to build a pipeline from the Hamm-Unna area into the Hönnetal in order to convey liquefied coal through this pipeline into the hydrogenation plant.

Police training area for special operations units in the Emil quarry

Contrary to what was initially planned, the tunnels were not blown up. Today there is a police training area for special operations units (SEK) in the quarry .

In August 2019, there were reports of heavy illegal visitor traffic in the tunnels at risk of collapse, despite the fence being closed. The owner, the Rheinkalk company , warned of mortal danger in the tunnels and spoke of trespassing .

To the location of Schwalbe I

The Emil I quarry and thus the actual facility was located in the area of ​​the municipality of Deilinghofen (today the city of Hemer). The quarry was located next to the border with the municipality of Lendringsen (today urban area of ​​Menden). The distance to the village of Oberrödinghausen was only 400 m, whereas the distance to Deilinghofen was 1.6 km. Due to its proximity to Oberrödinghausen, the location of Schwalbe I is erroneously stated in publications in Oberrödinghausen . A few offices and most of the German specialists were actually located in Oberrödinghausen. The forced laborers, prisoners of war and prisoners of war, were housed in about 20 camps in the near and further surroundings.

Analog projects

literature

  • Kai Olaf Arzinger: Tunnels in the rock and oil for the empire. 2nd Edition. Iserlohn 1997, ISBN 3-922885-70-5 .
  • Antonius Fricke: Report on the current status of my work on the subject of "Eisenkies" or "Schwalbe I" in the Hönnetal, on the camps of different types and in particular on the "West Command" = "Command X" = (from February 1, 1945) " Lendringsen prison camp ”. In: Bürger- und Heimatverein Hemer (Ed.): The key. Issue 1/2010, March 2010.
  • Antonius Fricke: Hydrogenation plant in the limestone cliffs of the Hönnetal in: Sauerland issue 4/2010, pp. 169–174.
  • Christoph Gunkel: Terror underground. (online) “When the Allies bombed Hitler's fuel factories in 1944, the Nazis had a desperate plan: Forced laborers should drive bomb-proof tunnels into the mountains and thus save gasoline and oil production. Hundreds died in the insane project - the traces can still be found today. ” Der Spiegel , September 29, 2009 (On the underground relocations after the Allied air raid on May 12 and June 22, 1944 on the Leuna , Böhlen , Zeitz , Lützkendorf and Brüx hydrogenation plants with the camps between the towns of Balve and Fröndenberg .)
  • Horst Hassel, Horst Klötzer: No jet fighter fuel from Schwalbe 1. Zimmermann Verlag, Balve 2011, ISBN 978-3-89053-127-4 .

Web links

Commons : U-Shift Schwalbe I  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Filmmakers penetrate the Menden Nazi tunnel Schwalbe 1 in front of Westfalenpost on August 7, 2019, accessed on August 10, 2019

Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 18.2 "  N , 7 ° 50 ′ 35.4"  E