Explosives factory in Ueckermünde
The Ueckermünde explosives factory was one of two neighboring explosives factories near Ueckermünde and Torgelow in what is now Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , which were built in 1936 as part of the armament and war preparation of the National Socialist German Reich .
The camouflage names for both factories were See I and See II (not to be confused with the Seewerk , a factory for warfare agents near Falkenhagen in Brandenburg built from 1940 to 1945 ).
history
Since 1936 a private explosives factory has been built under the cover name See I in the forest between Ueckermünde and Eggesin on behalf of and financed by the Wehrmacht . The Wehrmacht as principal hid it under the mining scheme behind the misleading company names " collecting society for mining industry GmbH " and " society m. b. H. for the recovery of chemical products ”(“ recovery chemistry ”for short).
In the forest area east of the Uecker and north of the Randow , a DSC (Deutsche Sprengchemie GmbH) plant, a subsidiary of WASAG ("Westfälisch-Anhaltische Sprengstoff AG", today H&R WASAG), was built according to the same model under the cover name See II .
The production of explosives by DSC began in 1938. Until the beginning of April 1945, mainly POL powder (“powder without solvents”), which served as a propellant for ammunition, was produced.
An Allied bombing raid took place in August 1944. On April 27, 1945, the Red Army occupied the facilities. After the end of the war, extensive dismantling (mostly by women from the rural district) and the blowing up of the plant were carried out. During production, almost 400 people were killed in the plant due to industrial accidents, bombing and overloading.
From 1952 a barracks for the People's Police was built on the site in Torgelow-Spechtberg . After 1960, a little-used military training area in Jägerbrück was built on the grounds of the DSC works .
buildings
The See II explosives plant included various access roads, its own rail connection and several production sites for the production of nitrocellulose , nitroglycerine and black powder , as well as for the extraction of highly concentrated acids, which were far apart for safety reasons . In addition, buildings for chemical laboratories and tests were built. The plant was supplied by three power plants and one waterworks . All buildings were solid masonry or built from reinforced concrete . Numerous bunkers with walls up to 90 cm thick were built between the facilities.
In addition to the production facilities, settlements for the workers were created around the plant . A workers' camp was located in Eggesin to the west of the plant. Farther away, in Torgelow, southwest of the facility, and on the outskirts of Ueckermünde, settlements for managerial employees and skilled workers were built. An additional workers camp with wooden barracks was built in the remote Spechtberg district .
The See II facility was closely guarded and operated in secret and camouflaged. In addition to the permanent engineers and skilled workers, thousands of German and foreign forced laborers had to work here. The extremely hard work was often done by women.
Current condition
The former barracks of the People's Police are now used by the Panzer Grenadier Brigade 41 of the Bundeswehr . A psychiatric nursing home was built in Torgelow in 1946 on the site of a housing estate. The buildings were renovated and reconstructed by Kursana in 1998 . The care facility for mentally ill people called the “Waldsiedlung” is located at the exit from Torgelow in the direction of Anklam, surrounded by the pine forest . In Eggesin, the housing estate is operated today under the name "Wohngebiet Karl-Marx-Straße".
The actual production facilities are hidden deep in the Ueckermünder Heide . The ruins of the earlier production facilities are often visible between birch and spruce trees. Today the area is considered an unguarded military restricted area ; it is cut through by a high-voltage line. Numerous pollutants were found during investigations; a final assessment of these investigations is still pending.
literature
- State archive Greifswald , including online research
- Dietmar Materna: Cover name lake. A report about two former plants for powder and explosives production in the Ueckermünde district. Milow 2000, ISBN 3-933978-30-0 .
- Dietmar Materna: Letters against oblivion, former forced laborers remember. City of Ueckermünde, Ueckermünde 2001.
- The primer. Förderverein Güstrow eV, Güstrow 2001.
Footnotes and individual references
- ↑ torgelow.de: Historical sights - Waldsiedlung , accessed on November 12, 2014.