Mürwik special area

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Map of Mürwik, as of 1945
Mürwik Naval School (Red Castle), 1929
Refugees board a warship in Pillau (today: Baltijsk in Kaliningrad Oblast )

The special area Mürwik was the name for an area of ​​around 14 square kilometers near Flensburg - Mürwik , in which the Dönitz government was staying. This last remnant of the Nazi state existed until May 23, 1945.

Location near Mürwik

The special area took up the area of ​​the Mürwiker naval base as well as adjacent areas up to Twedt and Twedter Feld . In addition, the barracks in Meierwik belonged to the special area. The area was two kilometers wide and seven kilometers long. The Glücksburg castle lay on the edge of the special area.

The eponymous place Mürwik is located on the Flensburg Fjord , about four kilometers from downtown Flensburg above an almost continuous cliff on the east bank of the fjord. In 1945 Mürwik still existed as an ingrown suburb of the city. At the end of the 19th century, Mürwik only had a few cottages and smaller brickworks . Mürwik's military installations were built gradually at the beginning of the new century. First in 1901/02 with the construction of the torpedo station of the Imperial Navy and in 1910 with the establishment of the naval officer school and the construction of the naval hospital . In the same year Mürwik was incorporated with Fruerlund , Twedt and Twedterholz . With the arrival of the navy, residential and commercial buildings were also built. The transport links of the then still remote, young Flensburg district were also improved through road construction and the construction of tram line 3 . Until the Second World War , the base's military facilities were continuously expanded. Planned as a war makeshift, some barracks were also built. Compared to other cities in the German Reich, Flensburg and Mürwik got off lightly in the Allied air raids . The Mürwik naval base was intact and undestroyed in May 1945. The population of Flensburg rose from 68,000 in 1944 to mid-1945 due to the influx of refugees from the east to over 110,000. Many of these refugees were housed in the former Wehrmacht camps and in the barracks of Mürwik, where some of them stayed for the next twenty years.

German pass for the special area
Photo that was taken after the Dönitz government was arrested on May 23, 1945 at the press conference in the back yard of the Flensburg police headquarters . Center: Dönitz, behind yodel and spear.

Time of existence of the special area

The last German Reich government was active in the Mürwik special area from May 3 to 23, 1945 . The Commander-in-Chief of the Navy , Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz , was appointed by Adolf Hitler in his political will (April 29, 1945) as his successor with the title of " Reich President ". Dönitz and his staff were in Plön in Schleswig-Holstein when news of Hitler's death reached him on May 1, 1945. Since British troops invaded Schleswig-Holstein from the south and were advancing quickly, he decided to move north. On May 3rd, Dönitz and his entourage arrived in Flensburg early in the morning . Doenitz immediately discussed the political and military situation and came to the conclusion that it was no longer possible to continue the war. In this last phase of the war he did not reside in the actual naval school, but in a simple office in the neighboring naval sports school .

Even Heinrich Himmler was with numerous command authorities and departments of the Reich Security Main Office and his personal RF-SS -rod come from about 150 people to Mürwik with the intention to participate in the government Doenitz. This established the rat line north .

Initially the most important goal of the Dönitz government was to enable as many soldiers and civilians as possible from the eastern German territories to flee to the west of the German Reich. Furthermore, Admiral General von Friedeburg , who had succeeded Dönitz as Commander in Chief of the Navy, was commissioned as head of a negotiating delegation to visit the British headquarters near Lüneburg on May 3, 1945 and, in the northern area, to reach an armistice agreement . This was achieved through the signing of the partial surrender of the Wehrmacht for northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands on May 4, 1945 on the Timeloberg near Wendisch Evern , which came into force on May 5, 1945 at 8:00 a.m. Even naval warfare were set. The air raids on Flensburg ended. After the gradual occupation of Flensburg, which began on May 5, 1945, the British military leadership granted the German government members freedom of movement as part of their area of ​​responsibility. The Wehrmacht area and the site were not regularly occupied by the military until May 22, 1945. However, this did not prevent the soldiers of the Allied High Command from moving freely inside and outside the barracks. The population noticed almost nothing of what was going on in Mürwik. Except for the barracks, the Mürwik special area was not fenced off, nor was there any demarcation line .

The attempt by the German authorities, nor possible to gain a lot of time to continue the population allow the escape from the East to, took place with the signing of the unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945 in Reims , and May 8 in Berlin-Karlshorst one The End. At the end of May 8th, the Wehrmacht troops had to remain at their current location. Among the British troops from 12 May also American soldiers arrived Allied Command under General Rooks after Mürwik and took on the barge Patria quarters. On the same day, a ban mile with a length of about seven kilometers and a width of about two kilometers was set up around the “government district” in Mürwik .

The government held cabinet meetings until May 22, but nothing more happened externally. On May 23, 1945 Karl Dönitz , Jodl and von Friedeburg were summoned to the Patria , where they were informed of the dissolution of the government and their arrest. Thus began Operation Blackout . Almost at the same time, the caretaker government at the marine sports school was arrested. On the same day, Dönitz, Jodl and Speer were brought from the Flensburg-Schäferhaus airfield to the Mondorf prison camp in Luxembourg . Friedeburg took his own life beforehand.

The military installations of the special area

Staff building in winter 2014/15
National emblem on the staff building

Mürwik Naval School

Adjacent and belonging to the Naval Officer School:

Further Wehrmacht facilities

  • Torpedo School of the Torpedo Station
    Training centers for torpedo personnel of the Navy. The torpedo station is the nucleus of the Mürwik naval site , the oldest service building from 1902. Teaching was discontinued at the end of the Second World War.
  • Marine port of the naval base
    Marinehafen with all the facilities necessary for the supply of combat ships, first permanent structures from 1901/02 for the torpedo training mentioned, new extensions in the 1930s. After 1945 civil use and British military services, from 1956 to 1998 main part of the base of the German Navy. Today civil use under the name Sonwik .
  • (Old) Blücherbrücke in the naval harbor: It served as the berth for the Patria , a HAPAG passenger ship that was used by the Navy as a barge . In May 1945, Grand Admiral Dönitz and part of the Reich government temporarily moved into quarters. Since May 12, 1945, it was the seat of the Allied High Command under the command of US General Rooks. Dönitz moved into the commanders' villa.
  • U-boat harbor at Kielseng
    for the establishment of the U-boat harbor was the during the Second World War Freeport pool used in Kielseng. The established submarine harbor was occupied with Kriegsmarine units. At the time of the surrender, outpost boats and the tender (supply ship) Danube were laid up here. The ships lying here were sunk or severely damaged by the explosion at the ammunition collection point on June 14th. The submarine harbor was retained as the Kielseng yacht harbor.
  • Fuel storage facility in Kielseng
    Built during the Second World War, fuel storage facility for ships of the Kriegsmarine, destroyed by blasting after 1945 (cf. Kielseng ).
  • News School
    Training centers for naval intelligence personnel. Between 1933 and 1939, extensive new buildings were built for the news school. The communication systems of the news school served the last Reich government as a command station. After May 1945, the school buildings served as quarters for British occupation troops, and later also for Norwegian units. From 1956 takeover by the German Navy with use as a naval telecommunications school . From 2003 school for strategic reconnaissance of the Bundeswehr .
  • Former Seefliegerhorst Fahrensodde
The Wasserflugstadtion near Fahrensodde was set up during the imperial era and finally abandoned after the Second World War. - On the stretch of coast between Fahrensodde and the Naval School, the bodies of at least 24 concentration camp inmates were driven and initially simply buried.

Wehrmacht camp in the special area Mürwik

These camps initially served as additional accommodation and workshops for the Wehrmacht. From May 1945 they were used partly to accommodate DPs ( Displaced Persons ), but also for refugees from the East. From around 1948 onwards, only refugees and those displaced from their homes who had since arrived lived in the camps. Most of the buildings had been demolished by 1965.

More places and places

  • Other small barracks and individual buildings that were scattered across Mürwik (such as the Blücher camp)
  • Blücherlager
Forced labor camp and prisoner of war camp set up during the Second World War . After 1945 initially accommodation for DPs . From around 1948 it was used by refugees from the east and displaced persons . From 1960/61 the camp was evacuated and demolished in stages.
  • Ammunition collection point
Set up in 1945 after the surrender by order of the British occupying forces for the temporary storage of ammunition , sea ​​and land mines and other explosives that were delivered here by ships and land units. On June 14, 1945 there was a severe explosion here, which caused great damage in Flensburg. 53 dead were counted, 21 people had to be accepted as missing because they could not be found.
Located on the west side of the fjord, across from Mürwik. Among other things, construction of submarines during the war, also with numerous slave laborers . The shipyard still exists today (2011) under its old name.
At the time of the capitulation, numerous war and merchant ships were anchored in the Flensburg Fjord. Some of them apparently also anchored at aquatic life. The ships also included freighters and barges with prisoners from the Stutthof , Sachsenhausen and Neuengamme concentration camps .
Located at the Alte Post in downtown Flensburg . Served as the mouthpiece of the last Reich government until almost mid-May 1945. The wooden Eiffel Tower in Flensburg- Jürgensby was used to broadcast the program .
The council meeting of Flensburg met on May 7, 2015 to commemorate the end of the war (70th anniversary) in the auditorium of the Mürwik naval school .

Remembrance culture on site

Many of the stone military buildings have been preserved. The swastikas were removed from the two eagles from the Nazi era. The buildings in question were registered as cultural monuments of the Mürwik district. The grave of Lieutenant Asmus Jepsen , who was executed as a deserter on May 6, 1945, is located in Adelby Cemetery . A street named after him, where the shooting range was on Tremmerupweg, commemorates him.

literature

  • Architectural monuments - state architectural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Finance Minister of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (publisher), Wachholtz, Neumünster 1987, article: Marineschule Flensburg-Mürwik .
  • Irene Dittrich, Study Group German Resistance (Ed.): Local history guide to sites of resistance and persecution 1933 to 1945 , Schleswig-Holstein I - Northern part of the country. 1993, chapter: City of Flensburg
  • Flensburg, 700 years of the city - a commemorative publication . Association for Flensburg City History, 1984. Volume 1: Flensburg in the history ; Contribution by Helge Berndt: Flensburg in May 1945 ; Contribution by Wolfgang Stribrny: Displaced persons and refugees in Flensburg . Volume 2: Flensburg in the present ; Contribution by Dieter Matthei: The Federal Navy .
  • Flensburg - History of a Border Town 1966 , Society for Flensburg City History, Chapter: Flensburg from 1920 to 1960 , with contributions by: Peter Hansen Petersen, Hans-Friedrich Schütt, Gerd Vaagt, Volker Weimar, Wolfgang Weimar, Horst Windmann
  • Flensburg: rat line north . In: Stern . May 3, 2005 ( Flensburg: Rattenlinie Nord ( Memento from March 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive )).
  • Long shadows. Flensburg Contributions to Contemporary History , Volume 5: End of the Nazi dictatorship and early post-war years in Flensburg . City archive Flensburg in cooperation with the University of Flensburg, 2000. Contribution by Broder Schwensen: May 1945 in the mirror of the Flensburg city chronicle ; Contribution by Peter Wulf: The occupation of Schleswig-Holstein and Flensburg by the British in May 1945 ; Contribution by Herbert Kraus: Karl Dönitz and the end of the “Third Reich” ; Contribution by Uwe Carstens : Refugees and displaced persons in Flensburg .
  • Government without empire. The Dönitz cabinet in Flensburg, May 1945. In: Volker Griese : Schleswig-Holstein. Memories of History. Historical miniatures. Norderstedt 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-1283-1 .
  • Holger Piening: When the guns fell silent: the internment of the Wehrmacht soldiers between the North and Baltic Seas in 1945/46 . Westholsteinische Verl.-Anst. Boyens, Heide 1996, ISBN 3-8042-0761-8 .
  • Percy Ernst Schramm (Ed.): The defeat in 1945. From the war diary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht . dtv, 1984, chapter: Dönitz diary (minutes)
  • Lutz Wilde u. a .: Cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2: City of Flensburg. Wachholtz, Neumünster 2001.
  • Contemporary witness reports, personal memories / local knowledge, cadastral sheets, private photos, aerial photographs as well as a privately recorded cine film from 1943 and various city maps and maps for the creation of the city plan / district "Mürwik 1945"
  • Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen: May 45 . End of the war in Flensburg. Society for Flensburg City History, Flensburg 2015.

Web links

Commons : Mürwik special area  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Although it is still occasionally claimed that Flensburg was the provisional imperial capital at that time, Flensburg did not become the imperial capital, but only the special area of ​​Mürwik as the provisional seat of government . (See Broder Schwensen in: Flexikon. 725 Aha experiences from Flensburg!, Flensburg 2009, article: Reich capital). (See Society for Schleswig-Holstein History, Flensburg ( Memento from January 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ); accessed on: May 6, 2014)
  2. ↑ a b Broder Schwensen : Article: Reich capital . In: Flexikon. 725 aha experiences from Flensburg! Flensburg 2009.
  3. ↑ a b c Helge Matthiesen: End of the war in Flensburg, the aftermath on the fjord. In: General-Anzeiger . May 6, 2015, accessed April 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ dtv atlas on world history. From the French Revolution to the present. Volume 2. Cologne 1987. p. 215, chapter: Second World War / collapse of the German Reich 1945.
  5. ↑ Joachim Pohl: Open Monument Day: History lesson in historical walls. In: Flensburger Tageblatt . September 15, 2014, accessed December 6, 2016 .
  6. ^ Gerhard Paul : Zeitlaufte: Flensburg comrades. In: Die Zeit , from September 8, 2013, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  7. ^ Writings of the Society for Flensburg City History (ed.): Flensburg in history and present . Flensburg 1972, p. 409.
  8. ↑ Gerhard Paul u. Broder Schwensen (Ed.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , Flensburg 2015, p. 210 f.
  9. ^ The downfall in Flensburg in 1945. (PDF) State Center for Civic Education Schleswig-Holstein , p. 18 , archived from the original on October 20, 2016 ; accessed on June 8, 2017 (talk on January 10, 2012 by Gerhard Paul ).
  10. ↑ Gerhard Paul and Broder Schwensen (eds.): May '45. End of the war in Flensburg , 2015, pages 121 and 215.
  11. ↑ Flensburg street names . Society for Flensburg City History, Flensburg 2005, ISBN 3-925856-50-1 , article: Am Sattelplatz.
  12. ^ Lutz Wilde: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany, cultural monuments in Schleswig-Holstein. Volume 2, Flensburg, p. 53.
  13. ↑ See traces of history. Telecommunications area 91 .
  14. ↑ Not to be confused with the Blasberg-West camp ; Cf. Uwe Carstens: Refugees and displaced persons in Flensburg In: Gerhard Paul, Broder Schwensen (Ed.): Mai '45. End of the war in Flensburg. Flensburg 2015, p. 162.
  15. ↑ Historical series about the end of World War II: Refusal to give orders from above: U-boats and warships sink in the Baltic Sea , from: May 20, 2015; accessed on: May 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ Flensburger Tageblatt : End of the war in Flensburg 70 years ago: "Tanz den Dönitz" and the request for humanity , from: May 6, 2015; Retrieved on: May 9, 2015.

Coordinates: 54 ° 48 ′ 55 ″  N , 9 ° 27 ′ 57 ″  E