Gallery in the Kohnstein

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Coordinates: 51 ° 32 ′ 25.6 ″  N , 10 ° 44 ′ 6.5 ″  E The tunnel system in the Kohnstein is an extensive underground structure in the area of ​​the 334.9  m high Kohnstein in the Harz region near Nordhausen in the Nordhausen district in Thuringia , which wasconsiderably expandedby concentration camp prisoners during the Second World War and used as a " Mittelwerk " for the production of armaments. The concentration camp "Dora" was built for the prisoners on the southern slope of the Kohnsteinas the largest single location as well as the headquarters of the headquarters of the "KZ Mittelbau", which was reorganized in autumn 1944 . Parts of the tunnel system are accessible via the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial .

description

Complete model of the tunnel system in the Kohnstein, exhibited in the tunnel A
In 1947, the former entrance to tunnel A with remains of track was blown up

The tunnel system in the Kohnstein consists of two main tunnels (the drive tunnel A and the drive tunnel B to the west of it , which technically represent tunnels , although they are called tunnels), which are roughly in a north-south direction with a slight S-shape 200 meters away were driven parallel to each other through the mountain. The facility was so from the north as from the south side with two mouth holes ascended . The two main tunnels were each about 1.8 kilometers long and about 30 meters high. They are connected to one another by 42 crosscuts , and a smaller supply line runs in the north-south direction in the middle between the two main tunnels. Further routes are located at tunnel A in its southern area.

The two main tunnels could be used by both trucks and trains . For this purpose, tracks were laid in them in order to transport the parts required for production in the “ Mittelwerk ” into the mountain and to transport the completed rockets out. The tunnel system was connected to the Northeim – Nordhausen railway line via its own siding .

The first portion of the tunnel system is viewed from the north to 19 cross passages as North plant called. This is followed by the area of ​​the former Mittelwerk I , and the former Mittelwerk II to the south .

The total length of all mine workings in Kohnstein was around 20 kilometers in May 1945, a total of at least 120,000 m² were excavated with a planned 750,000 m². This means that the tunnel in Kohnstein is still one of the largest underground systems in the world.

history

Mining and underground fuel storage

From 1917, the Badische Anilin- & Soda-Fabrik (BASF) had sulphate rock mined in the Kohnstein by the ammonia plant in Merseburg. Since the mining of these rocks was no longer economical in the mid-1930s, the management of the plant suggested that the Reich Ministry of Economics establish a joint venture. The rock, which has so far mainly been mined in opencast mining , was also to be mined underground by tunneling and the resulting system of tunnels served the German Reich as an underground fuel store for the Wehrmacht .

This proposal was received positively by the Reich Ministry of Economics and the implementation of the same was entrusted to the newly founded Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (WiFo). From July 16, 1936, 250 skilled workers began work on a tunnel system. By September 1937, two driving tunnels, which were connected by twelve cross tunnels, had been completed. Through this project, WiFo received inexpensive underground storage space and the factory received the mined rock, which was further processed in Merseburg .

The tunnel system was provisionally completed by autumn 1942. As early as 1938, WiFo was able to store fuels and other chemicals in the finished areas of the tunnel system. In the summer of 1943, 2,500 workers were already employed in the construction projects in the Kohnstein, including a considerable number of Eastern workers . The building projects in the Kohnstein were constantly supplemented and expanded.

Conversion to a production facility for armaments

After the bombing of the Peenemünde Army Research Center by Operation Hydra of the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the night of August 17-18, 1943, Adolf Hitler , Armaments Minister Albert Speer and Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler made the decision to manufacture the " V2 " - To move the rocket and the " V1 " flight bomb from Peenemünde underground . The existing tunnel system in Kohnstein was selected as the future production site, which was to be converted into a factory for armaments by concentration camp prisoners as quickly as possible. From Buchenwald to one was Außenkommando with the code name "labor camp Dora" was launched. The first prisoner transport with 107 prisoners reached the Kohnstein on August 28, 1943, ten days after the destruction of the facilities in Peenemünde. With the expansion of the tunnel system to the underground rocket factory " Mittelwerk " the WiFo was commissioned as owner; The manufacture of the rockets according to the specifications of the Peenemünde Army Research Institute was transferred to Mittelwerk GmbH , which was only officially founded as a company on September 24, 1943.

The conversion of the tunnel into a production facility lasted from the late summer of 1943 to the beginning of 1944. By the end of 1943 alone, a total of 11,000 concentration camp prisoners had been taken to the Kohnstein. The manufacture of weapons did not begin immediately; instead, the floors were concreted in the tunnels, roads were built, tracks laid, additional chambers laid out and the large production machines installed. All work was carried out by the prisoners, mostly without special transport or aids. In order to create an exit on the southern slope of the Kohnstein, concentration camp prisoners first had to expand tunnel A. Railroad tracks were laid in tunnel A and B so that the parts required for production could be transported into the mountain and the completed rockets out. The prisoners also built a freight station near the southern tunnel entrances and a railway bridge over the Zorge so that the tunnel system a rail connection to the South Harz Railway could get.

When the first group of inmates from Buchenwald concentration camp arrived in August 1943, there was still no accommodation for the inmates at Kohnstein. Only the tunnels of the fuel depot existed. Initially, the prisoners were temporarily housed in a tent camp on the Kohnstein and later under inhumane conditions in the tunnel system itself. The prisoners were forced to set up "sleeping tunnels" for themselves in the first four side chambers. Most of the prisoners who were deployed in the tunnels until early 1944 were kept in the tunnels by the SS around the clock. In the first few months, thousands of them died of exhaustion, malnutrition , due to the catastrophic sanitary conditions and lung diseases caused by the dust from the explosions. These took place during the day and at night, so that even regular sleep in the tunnels was not possible. Only after V2 production had started in the “ Mittelwerk ” was an above-ground prisoner camp built on the southern slope of the Kohnstein (see Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp ).

Use for "Mittelwerk" and other companies

The production of the V2 in the " Mittelwerk " under the Kohnstein began in January 1944, six months after the establishment of the "Arbeitslager Dora" external command . By the time rocket production in the tunnels fully started in the spring of 1944, around a third of the prisoners died from the inhumane supply and living conditions. While the production of armaments began after the necessary machinery was set up and the specialist personnel moved to Lower Saxony , the tunnel system was continuously expanded. On average, around 5,000 prisoners were employed in the V2 assembly under the supervision of around 3,000 civilian employees . The majority of the prisoners were not used in rocket production, but in the construction of tunnels for the underground relocation of further operations and the construction of additional external camps in the Harz Mountains .

In April 1944 Mittelwerk GmbH had to cede the northern part of the tunnel system in Kohnstein to Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG upon intervention by the Armaments Ministry . From mid-1944, the Junkers works had jet engines produced there by forced laborers . From the summer of 1944, suppliers were also relocated to the Kohnstein to protect against air raids, and from January 1945 the V1 was also produced. In relation to V2 production, however, the production of the V1 in the Mittelwerk was rather insignificant, as the V1, in contrast to the V2, was produced at several locations. In addition, Heinkel had his “Volksjäger” Heinkel He 162 manufactured in the tunnel system from autumn 1944. Mittelwerk GmbH, which was already working to full capacity, was unable to carry out any further projects. Orders for the production of the anti-aircraft missiles " Taifun " and " R4M " did not get beyond the test phase. Until the war-related cessation of rocket production at the end of March 1945, a total of around 6,000 V1 rockets and roughly the same number of V2 weapons were manufactured. Due to the war-related situation, lack of transport, lack of components, technical problems and the ever decreasing fuel reserves and power capacities, rocket production was stopped in March 1945.

The plan that was worked out at the beginning of 1945 to establish a huge missile center in the tunnel in Kohnstein, in which around 30 missile research companies were supposed to be active as the "Mittelbau development community", could no longer be implemented due to the war and therefore remained an illusion.

During the British bombing raids on Nordhausen on April 3 and 4, 1945 , the tunnel in Kohnstein served as a shelter for the surrounding area. The Nordhausen City Hospital, which had already been evacuated on the evening of April 3rd, moved to the tunnels on April 8th. From 3rd / 4th April also many thousands of northern houses fled to the former missile factory.

History of the tunnels after the end of the war

After the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp on April 11, 1945, British and American special forces secured material and machines from the Mittelwerk.

After the technical equipment had been cannibalized by the Allies , the Soviet military administration , which had taken over Thuringia from the US Army on July 1, 1945 , planned to blow up the entire tunnel system in the summer of 1947 with 196 wagon loads of old ammunition and explosives. The full blast failed, however, as the explosion pressure escaped through the ventilation shafts and only the tunnel linings collapsed in which the explosive charges were detonated. As a result, only the four entrances to the main tunnels A and B on the north and south sides of the Kohnstein and the entrances to tunnels C, C1, D and D1 in the north of the facility were blasted.

After the resumption of anhydrite mining on the Kohnstein, the C and D areas of the tunnel system on the north side of the mountain were reopened in the 1970s. The C-tunnels served as a ventilated, later three rooms as a forced-refrigerated vegetable store. The mountain temperature of 8 ° C with a relative humidity of 60% allowed grain storage and storage of screws and the like for the telecommunications system. The area of ​​the D-tunnel served as a potato store. From the C area via the ventilation shaft, the A and B areas were completely dry and accessible. Some of the 160-meter-long former production chambers had collapsed (quite a few had fallen from a ridge height of nine meters). After the dismantling, only air ducts, workbenches and z. B. an annealing furnace noticeable.

After the fall of the Wall in the GDR in 1989, the tunnel system , which used to be located on the Iron Curtain , became the scene of numerous looting by treasure hunters and trophy collectors who gained entry via the unsecured access to the anhydrite mine in the northern part of the Kohnstein. Devotional collectors and amateur archaeologists stole an estimated 70 tons of material from the former Mittelwerk between 1993 and 1998. The rear entrance to the tunnel system has been blocked since 2004, so there is hardly any looting any more.

Today's access to the tunnel system in the Kohnstein

The tunnel system in Kohnstein, however, remained closed to public visitors until German reunification . Between 1988 and 1991, as part of the redesign of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial, a new access tunnel to the tunnel system was created; the construction work was finally completed in 1994. Guided tours through a small part of the tunnel system have been possible since 1995 by employees of the Mittelbau-Dora Memorial.

Conflicts with anhydrite extraction

Anhydrite breakdown on the Kohnstein

While the tunnel system is now included in the concept of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorial , anhydrite continues to be mined at the Kohnstein. Monument protection and industry sometimes pursue different interests.

Via the Treuhandanstalt , the Kohnstein came into the possession of the private Bavarian mining company Wildgruber (WICO) on September 30, 1992, which had the anhydrite deposits exploited by FBM Baustoffwerk Wildgruber GmbH & Co Anhydritwerke KG , based in Lower Saxony . Wildgruber only acquired the mountain, but not the tunnel system and the remains of the Mittelwerk that remained in it. It was planned to put the tunnel system under monument protection and to make an inventory of the material remaining in it (rusted rocket parts etc.). In the purchase contract it was also stipulated that Wildgruber (WICO) had to observe a protective layer of 50 m to the tunnel system when mining anhydrite. This fact led to conflicts between the company, which was concerned about the profitability of its company, and the monument protection authorities and former concentration camp prisoners who demanded the protection of the tunnel system. In December 2002 Wildgruber had to file for bankruptcy and close the plasterworks on the Kohnstein. In February 2004, the Knauf Gips company took over WICO and with it 72% of the shares in the Kohnstein quarry. An agreement was reached with the new owners on the preservation of the historic tunnels.

From 1992 the underwater archaeologist Willi Kramer was able to inspect the remains of the Mittelwerk in the tunnel system flooded by groundwater for the first time in dives on behalf of the State of Thuringia. Between 1993 and 1998 the mine operator Helmut Wildgruber banned all research activities by Kramer in the Kohnstein with reference to his house rules, although the remains of the Mittelwerk are Thuringian property. In 1998, the entire system was measured by Kramer on behalf of the State of Thuringia and the existing inventory was documented.

literature

  • Tim Schäfer: Photos, facts, fanaticism: the tunnels of the SS Mittelwerk in Kohnstein b. Nordhausen; from the WiFo order of the RKM Reich Ministry of War & Camp for Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, via SS Brigadier General Dr.-Ing. Hans Kammler, Arms Relocation and to the inmate hell of the Mittelbau-Dora labor camp and concentration camp in Nazi Germany (1918–1945) . Iffland, Nordhausen-Salza 2005, ISBN 3-939357-00-6 .
  • Udo Breger: The rocket mountain. Kohnstein, Dora and the V2 . Peter Engstler, Ostheim / Rhön 1992, ISBN 3-9801770-7-6 .
  • Hilmar Römer: Little Kohnstein Primer . reproFactory, Nordhausen 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
  2. ^ Nordhausen district. near the Free State of Thuringia: Thuringian State Institute for Environment and Geology
  3. ^ A b Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Göttingen 2001, p. 288.
  4. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner : Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Göttingen 2001, p. 146ff.
  5. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Göttingen 2007, p. 32f.
  6. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. In: Wolfgang Benz , Barbara Distel (eds.): The place of terror . History of the National Socialist Concentration Camps. Volume 7: Niederhagen / Wewelsburg, Lublin-Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch (Vught), Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2 , p. 231f.
  7. ↑ Volker Bode, Christian Thiel: Raketenspuren - Waffenschmiede and military base Peenemünde. Berlin 1995, p. 86ff.
  8. ↑ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Göttingen 2007, p. 45f.
  9. ↑ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Göttingen 2007, p. 49f.
  10. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Göttingen 2001, p. 200ff.
  11. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Göttingen 2001, pp. 205ff.
  12. ^ Jens-Christian Wagner: Production of death: The Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Göttingen 2001, pp. 274-275.
  13. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Göttingen 2007, p. 152f.
  14. ^ A b c d Sebastian Christ: Traces of History - Remains of a Murder Regime. In: Der Spiegel . Special. 3/2005, May 9, 2005.
  15. ↑ Jens-Christian Wagner: Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp 1943–1945. Accompanying volume for the permanent exhibition at the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp Memorial. Göttingen 2007, p. 3180.
  16. ↑ Hans Wagner: "Mittelbau-Dora" - Death in the Deep. In: Focus . No. 29, July 19, 1993, p. 36.
  17. ↑ Current: Gipsmarkt-Nachrichten , on naturschatz.org
  18. ^ Willi Kramer: The underground armaments center "Mittelwerk / Mittelbau-Dora". In: Archeology in Germany. 3, 2008, 34 f.