Territorial organization of the US armed forces in Germany

Husterhöh barracks in Pirmasens , 1953

The territorial organization of the US armed forces in Germany supplements the Wikipedia page List of American military locations in Germany . In order to preserve originality, the place names - as far as it seemed reasonable - follow the names used by the US armed forces (i.e. later community reforms are not taken into account).

Period of occupation 1945–1952

Military communities of the US armed forces in Germany 1947

After the four victorious powers of the Second World War took over the "supreme governmental power in Germany" in the Berlin Declaration of June 5, 1945 and the occupation of the agreed occupation zones, the USA as well as Great Britain , France and the Soviet Union faced the problem of territorial organization of defeated Germany . The US War Department entrusted the major organizations with the task of maintaining public safety in their respective stationing areas. The delimitation of the areas of responsibility was based on the borders of the former countries, provinces and districts. With effect from August 1, 1945, the United States Forces European Theater (USFET) headquarters in Frankfurt am Main under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower made the following division:

Eastern Military District in Munich , comprised the state of Bavaria and was controlled by the associations of the Third Army with HQ in Bad Tölz and Munich under the command of General George S. Patton :
- XV Corps
  - 1st ID "The Big Red One" ( Lower Franconia )
  - 102nd ID ( Upper Franconia )
  - 4th AD ( Upper Palatinate , Lower Bavaria )
  - XV Corps Artillery ( Middle Franconia )
- XX Corps
  - 9th ID "Old Reliables" ( Upper Bavaria )
  - 71st ID ( Swabia )
Western Military District in Heidelberg , comprised the states of Greater Hesse and Württemberg-Baden and was controlled by the Seventh Army units with HQ in Heidelberg under the command of General Alexander M. Patch :
- 3rd ID "Marne Division " (Greater Hesse without the districts of Bergstrasse and Erbach )
- 6th ID (Württemberg-Baden and the Hessian districts Bergstrasse and Erbach)
- 7th Army Headquarters Area (City of Heidelberg)
USFET Restricted Area , comprised the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden as well as the Obertaunus and Main-Taunus districts and was directly subordinate to the USFET headquarters
Berlin District for the American sector of the city of Berlin , controlled by 82nd Airborne Division "All American" (from November 24, 1945 by 78th ID "Lightning Division")
Bremen Enclave consisting of the cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven as well as the districts of Wesermarsch , Wesermünde and Osterholz , controlled by 29th ID.

From April 1, 1946 to June 30, 1946, Seventh Army Area was dissolved and both districts were merged under Third Army Area , Heidelberg. Now there was only:

1st ID, Regensburg , for Eastern Bavaria
Nuremberg - Fürth Enclave as a special territorial unit because of the war crimes trials
3rd ID, Würzburg , for Hesse and Lower Franconia
9th ID, Augsburg , for southern Bavaria and Württemberg-Baden
USFET Restricted Area still for Frankfurt and Wiesbaden
Heidelberg Area Command for the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim and their districts

With the approval of the US War Department, a year after the unconditional surrender at the urging of the Commander-in-Chief, General Lucius D. Clay, the family members of the soldiers stationed in Germany began to join them. The first transport of the "dependents" arrived at the Columbuskaje in Bremerhaven on April 28, 1946. 49 Military Communities were set up in Germany and 3 in Austria to accommodate the American families . Gießen was the first military community to report that it was ready for action on March 1, 1946. The mandate for these communities was something fundamentally new: it was no longer about taking care of occupation tasks, but rather supporting American families in establishing themselves at home in a destroyed country far from home. All military communities had to have a post exchange, or PX (department store) for short, a commissary (grocery store) as well as a bakery, cobbler's shop, laundry and dry cleaning. On May 23, 1949 an independent command area Austria (United States Forces, Austria) was created. The US European Command (EUCOM) was responsible for the logistic supply of the military communities. The following military communities emerged:

Third US Army Area , HQ Heidelberg:

Amberg , Augsburg, Bad Tölz, Bad Wildungen , Bamberg , Bayreuth , Berchtesgaden , Darmstadt , Fulda , Garmisch , Göppingen , Grafenwöhr , Heidelberg, Kassel , Kaufbeuren , Kitzingen , Landshut , Munich , Murnau , Nuremberg, Regensburg, Sonthofen , Stuttgart , Weiden , Wetzlar

US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE ) , HQ Wiesbaden:

Ansbach , Bad Kissingen , Erding , Erlangen , Fritzlar , Fürstenfeldbruck , Giebelstadt , Lechfeld , Neubiberg , Nordholz , Oberpfaffenhofen , Rhein Main , Schweinfurt , Straubing , Wiesbaden

Berlin District , US Army, HQ Berlin-Dahlem :

Berlin

Headquarters Command, USFET , HQ Frankfurt am Main:

Frankfurt

Continental Base Section , HQ Bad Nauheim :

Bad Nauheim, Giessen, Grohn (Bremen) , Hanau , Mannheim, Wesermünde , Würzburg

US Forces, Austria , HQ Salzburg :

Linz , Salzburg, Vienna

With the intensification of the East-West conflict, Washington prepared itself to have a permanent or at least significantly longer military presence in Germany than originally planned. Instead, the provisional performance of tasks by the active troops had become obsolete and a police force, which was more like a gendarmerie, was set up from the Third Army: → US Constabulary (USCON). The headquarters began its service on July 1, 1946 in Bamberg and reported ready to take over the border control (border control) of 1st, 3rd and 9th ID along the eastern border of the American zone. On February 15, 1947 USCON took over the functions of Third Army and moved to Heidelberg, from 1948 to 1952 in Stuttgart-Vaihingen , from November 24, 1950 as part of Seventh Army. On March 15, 1947, the central organization of the US armed forces in Europe was also adapted to the new requirements. USFET was reclassified to US European Command (EUCOM) in Frankfurt am Main and relocated to Heidelberg in 1948. Military Districts were set up to oversee the communities that have now been renamed Military Posts. From the 58 military communities (as of June 1946) 22 military posts were formed according to the criteria of expediency without taking into account national borders. Other locations were continued as sub posts or abandoned:

1st Military District in Bavaria (under HQ 1st Infantry Division Bad Tölz) with 10 Military Post HQ (Augsburg, Bad Tölz, Bamberg, Garmisch, Grafenwöhr (until April 30, 1947 in Amberg), Kaufbeuren, Munich, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Würzburg ),
2d Military District in the states of Hesse and Württemberg-Baden (under HQ US Constabulary Heidelberg), with 7 Military Post HQ (Darmstadt, Fulda, Gießen / Wetzlar, Hanau (immediately dissolved and distributed to Frankfurt and Fulda), Heidelberg, Kassel, Stuttgart), plus Frankfurt (under Headquarters Command) and Wiesbaden (under United States Air Force Europe ),
Bremerhaven Military Post and Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation in the state of Bremen,
Berlin Military Post.

All installations of the American air force in the areas of the individual military posts were exempt and were directly subordinate to the Wiesbaden Military Post and thus USAFE.This division of responsibilities between the US Army and the US Air Force can be noticed consistently to the present day. In 1948 the Military Districts were dissolved, after which the Military Post Division, HQ EUCOM took over the supervision.

Time of the stationing forces in the Cold War 1952–1990

Northern Germany (Garlstedt)

Military communities of the US armed forces in Germany 1974

The expansion of the stationing area to Rhineland-Palatinate brought another profound reorganization on December 1, 1952. Four Area Commands were formed above the Military Posts. The Commands were subordinate to United States Army Europe (USAREUR), except Wiesbaden Military Post, which was still assigned to United States Air Force Europe (USAFE). Military posts and subposts have been combined into Area Commands:

Headquarters Area Command (HACOM) :
- HQ Heidelberg ( Seckenheim , Hammond Barracks). Existing from the earlier Heidelberg Military Post (excluding Karlsruhe ). In 1958, HACOM was merged with NACOM.
Western Area Command (WACOM) :
- HQ Kaiserslautern (tank barracks). Consisting of Rhine Military Post founded in September 1950 as a subpost under Heidelberg (1951 Post). 1958 WACOM was merged with NACOM.
Southern Area Command (SACOM) :
- HQ Munich ( McGraw Barracks ). Consists of the former Augsburg , Garmisch, Munich, Stuttgart and Nuremberg (without Bamberg) Military Districts as well as Karlsruhe Subpost from the Heidelberg region. 1953–1954 Garmisch and Berchtesgaden merged to SEACOM (Southeastern Area Command), 1957 Karlsruhe to HACOM. In 1964 the number of posts was reduced from 5 to 4 (Grafenwöhr as 7th Army Training Center under Nürnberg Post). In 1964 SACOM and NACOM were merged, HQ SACOM dissolved and Munich was defeated as a subdivision (new name for the subpost) to Augsburg.
Northern Area Command (NACOM) :
- HQ Frankfurt am Main, from 1958 Heidelberg. Consists of the former Frankfurt and Würzburg Military Districts as well as Bamberg from the Nuremberg region. In 1958, HACOM and WACOM were merged with NACOM and the "12-post concept" was implemented in the enlarged NACOM.
Bremerhaven Port of Embarkation
Berlin Command

The USAACOM (US Army Area Support Command) in Frankfurt am Main became the new command facility .

In 1965 the US Territorial Organization was adapted to the federal structure of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Area Commands were given German geographical names (Wiesbaden remained unaffected as a USAFE subordinate Military Post):

Heidelberg (Seckenheim, Hammonds Barracks) - North Baden Area Command
Kaiserslautern (Panzer Barracks) - Palatinate Area Command
Bad Kreuznach - Rhineland Area Command
Augsburg (Reese Barracks) - South Bavaria Area Command
Nuremberg (Fürth, WO Darby Barracks) - North Bavaria Area Command
Stuttgart (Robinson Barracks) - North Württemberg Area Command
Frankfurt (3804 barracks) - Taunus Area Command
Giessen (Pendleton Barracks) - Hesse Area Command
Hanau (Pioneer Barracks) - Vogelsberg Area Command
Würzburg (Leighton Barracks) - Franconia Area Command

After only ten years, the territorial structure in the stationing area was rearranged by USAREUR and USAFE. On July 1, 1974, 39 military communities (40 with Wiesbaden) were formed, which were to remain in existence until the end of the Cold War. 1976, a brigade was in Garlstedt stationed and made for territorial concerns the North Germany Military Community, at the same time for Bremerhaven and locations of nuclear storage (→ 59th Ordnance Brigade ) in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony was responsible (for the locations in North Rhine-Westphalia was this casting MC). The communities were subordinate to:

USAREUR (HQ Heidelberg): Heidelberg MC,
Seventh Army Training Command (HQ Grafenwöhr): Bindlach-Bayreuth, Grafenwöhr, Hohenfels, Regensburg, Vilseck MC (Grafenwöhr and four other communities combined into one community in 1990),
21st Support Command (HQ Kaiserslautern; Palatinate and North Baden, plus North Germany): Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, North Germany, Pirmasens, Worms, Zweibrücken MC,
7th Support Command (HQ Rheinberg ): Rheinberg MC,
V Corps (HQ Frankfurt am Main; stationing area of the corps across from the " Fulda Gap "): Bad Kreuznach, Baumholder, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Fulda, Gießen, Hanau, Mainz, Wildflecken MC ( Wildflecken was dissolved in 1978 and Fulda was added),
VII Corps (HQ Stuttgart-Möhringen; stationing area of the corps in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, plus Garmisch, Munich and Augsburg): Ansbach, Aschaffenburg, Augsburg, Bad Tölz, Bamberg, Garmisch, Göppingen, Heilbronn, Munich, Neu-Ulm, Nuremberg-Fürth, Schwäbisch Hall, Schweinfurt , Stuttgart, Würzburg MC,
US Army Berlin (HQ Berlin-Dahlem): Berlin,
Wiesbaden (remained under USAFE until 1976 and was then subordinated to V Corps).

The territorial structure after the Cold War since 1991

In 1991, 12 Area Support Groups (ASG) and 26 Base Support Battalions (BSB) as well as Area Support Teams (AST) were formed from the 39 military communities in order to adapt the functionality to the new circumstances, in particular to the constantly decreasing number of troops. The troop withdrawals in the 1990s, which took place in rapid succession, led to a change that was also reflected in the territorial organization. At the end of 1995 there were therefore only 8 ASG with 16 BSB and 17 AST in USAREUR. The Area Support Groups ended in 2005. In an official ceremony in Heidelberg, all ASG and BSB were decommissioned. The European stationing area was divided into 21 US Army Garrisons (USAG). However, the liquidation process continued and led to decommissioning and mergers. In 2017 the Grafenwöhr garrisons were merged with Vilseck , Hohenfels and Garmisch to form USAG Bavaria, after a USAG Hessen had been created in Hanau, a USAG Franconia in Würzburg and a USAG Rhineland-Palatinate in Kaiserslautern. With the dissolution of USAG Rheinberg, the Lower Rhine area - like all of Northern Germany in general - was assigned to USAG Schinnen (Netherlands).

In 2017 USAREUR is still present in Wiesbaden (with Darmstadt), Ansbach, "Bavaria" (Grafenwöhr with Vilseck, Hohenfels, Garmisch), Stuttgart, Baumholder and Kaiserslautern. US Air Force currently has only two locations, Ramstein and Spangdahlem , in Germany.