Theresienkapelle (singing)

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The Theresienkapelle in autumn 2018

The Theresienkapelle , which is now in the Singen industrial area, was built in 1946/47 by German prisoners of war under French occupation . At the time of construction, workers and planners lived in the same barracks that had been used in the previous years, from 1941 to 1945, to accommodate so-called " Eastern workers ". After the camp was closed in September 1948, the church was hardly used and fell into disrepair. It could only be maintained through the commitment of the citizens of Singen, including Wilhelm Waibel , against much resistance.

The Theresienwiese as a warehouse for forced laborers from Poland and the Soviet Union

Since 1939 foreign workers and prisoners of war were used as workers in the Third Reich . These included, for example, Poles, Serbs, Dutch and French. The lack of workers was due to the massive mobilization for the Wehrmacht since the attack on the Soviet Union and the increase in production in the armaments industry, which was seen as necessary. Since they were basically viewed as enemies, no difficulties were seen in using the population of the conquered states as forced laborers in Germany. In addition to the foreign workers mentioned above, there were also Soviet prisoners of war, the Eastern workers , who came from 1941 . These were even lower in the hierarchy than the Poles or French. The massive recruitment of workers took place through deportation by rail. In addition, young people were attracted through recruitment attempts; They were promised both a higher standard of living and good working conditions. For many of the predominantly rural population in some regions, for example in the Poltava region in Ukraine, the offer seemed to be a good opportunity to start a new life under better conditions. Although there were rules and regulations for the deployment of Eastern workers that had the appearance of legality and legality, several reports show that these were not complied with, for example because there were no contracts on wages or fair treatment. The aluminum works in Singen , Georg Fischer AG and Maggi were also to be supplied with workers and therefore received forced labor from the east. About 1300 of these Eastern workers lived in the barracks on Theresienwiese near the aforementioned Singen companies.

The then 13-year-old Belarusian Sinaida Dorofejeva from the village of Bluew, Rogachev district , describes her way to Singen in a letter from the spring of 1989 :

“The sighs, the screams, the sobs - that's in my ears to this day. I went in felt boots with holes in the soles, no stockings, and we were escorted by the police. [...] They drove us on in the baggage car, the windows were barred, the door locked. We drove mostly at night. In the wards, we beat the doors with our hands and feet. We were let out and in the presence of the German guards we had to relieve ourselves. […] We arrived in Singen on December 10, 1942. Our column was led to a warehouse in an aluminum factory. There were many girls from the Ukraine, from the Symska district. There were only a few from Belarus. We looked awful. […] The camp was surrounded by a solid fence; there was barbed wire upstairs and there were towers with guards. "

POW camp of the French occupation forces

Plaque

In March 1945 units of the 1st French Army crossed the border near Karlsruhe . After the first French tanks reached Singen on April 24, 1945, they took over the city without any attempts at defense. The night before, almost 80% of Singen's population had fled their hometown to nearby Switzerland , leaving only 4,000 of the 21,500 residents behind. However, due to the surrender without a fight, they returned on April 24th. After the surrender of the German Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation at the Yalta (February 4–11, 1945) and Potsdam (July 17–2 August 1945) conferences . France, which had received the status of a victorious power, occupied territories in southwest Germany. Singing was now in the French zone . The Theresienwiese was now used for the accommodation of German prisoners of war (until September 1948). They lived in the same barracks that were used from 1942 to 1945 as a camp for the forced laborers (the so-called " Eastern workers ").

The construction of the Theresienkapelle

The French commander of the Singen prisoner of war camp, Jean Le Pan de Ligny, wanted to employ the prisoners on the Theresienwiese in a meaningful way and from 1946 to 1947 he organized the construction of a chapel , which was built on the foundations of an air raid shelter . 14 people were mainly involved in the construction of this church, with Commander Ligny mainly helping with the procurement of materials. The management was taken over by the former architect Wilhelm Gottschalk, who, however, had no previous experience with building churches. Master plasterer Fritz Horst was able to help the other participants with the masonry and plaster work. The wall and glass paintings are from Heinz Ort. Before his time he worked as a prisoner in the profession of graphic artist and created the wall frescoes of St. John and St. Theresa. Helmut Weber forged the lighting fixtures, with the two large ceiling chandeliers representing special masterpieces. Over time, however, they had to be removed and replaced due to renovation work and are now in the attic of the chapel. Other people involved were Alfred Bader, Hans Busch, Jakob Eschbach, Eugen Gauß, Eugen Hölz, Hans and Reinhold Meier, Wilhelm Müller and Karl Sommermann. The chapel was consecrated in 1947. Due to the closure of the camp in September 1948, the Theresienkapelle gradually fell into disrepair and could only be preserved as a souvenir of the camp through the use of citizens of Singen.

Wilhelm Waibel

Wilhelm Josef Waibel , called Willi Waibel, grew up in the southern part of Singen. He worked in IT at Georg Fischer AG for many years . There he came across files that documented the use of slave labor. For 40 years he then took care of the processing of their history at the local industrial companies, including Maggi . Initially his attempts were unsuccessful, as the documents from 1933 to 1945 "apparently could no longer be found" in some archives. In the course of time, however, he sifted through around 1,500 files from the large industrial companies in Singen . Based on this experience, he later sought contact with former forced laborers and, in 1993, initiated the town twinning between Singen and Kobeljaky in the Ukraine . He also campaigned for the preservation of the Theresienkapelle. In 2016 he received honorary citizenship of the city ​​of Singen for his services .

The chapel today

Since 2015, the Theresienkapelle has been a memorial for the following three time layers:

  1. the experience of National Socialism and the use of forced labor in the Singen industry
  2. the immediate post-war years
  3. dealing with the dictatorship experience in the memory of the Federal Republican society

In addition, the chapel is now used by the Italian community, the Missione Cattolica Italiana Singen-Villingen, for their services.

literature

  • Britta Panzer, Carmen Scheide (ed.): 70 years Theresienkapelle. City archive, Singen 2017, ISBN 978-3-942058-12-4 .
  • Ludmilla Ovdienko: We are no longer enemies. Memories of Ukrainian forced laborers and their daughter. Singing 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-046837-7 .
  • Wilhelm Waibel: Shadows on the Hohentwiel: Forced laborers and prisoners of war in Singen. Labhard Verlag, Konstanz 1995, ISBN 3-926937-22-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Waibel: Shadows on Hohentwiel - Forced laborers and prisoners of war in Singen . Labhard-Verlag, Konstanz 1995, ISBN 3-926937-22-X , p. 39 ff .
  2. ↑ Britta Panzer, Carmen Scheide: 70 years Theresienkapelle - forced labor, imprisonment and worship . City archive, Singen (Hohentwiel) 2017, ISBN 978-3-942058-12-4 , p. 91-93 .

Coordinates: 47 ° 45 '20.6 "  N , 8 ° 51' 4.8"  E