Torpedo Research Institute Neubrandenburg

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Soot. Inventory of the TVA from 1947

The Torpedoversuchsanstalt Eckernförde Department Neubrandenburg was a branch of the Torpedoversuchsanstalt (TVA) Eckernförde during the Second World War .

The German navy established torpedo testing stations during the Second World War . Military main tasks were the testing, development and refinement German submarine - torpedoes and the setting of torpedoes respect ignition control, low attitude and speed. In addition, the necessary specialist personnel for the navy was trained here.

Torpedo from the TVA with information board

Emergence

The branch in Neubrandenburg was established in 1941 and 1942 . The location was chosen because the Tollensesee seemed ideally suited, Neubrandenburg lies far inland and thus offered protection from espionage and bombing and also had a good connection to the transport infrastructure. The proximity to the decision-makers in Berlin was also decisive. After negotiations with the city of Neubrandenburg and the acquisition of the property directly at Reichsstrasse 96 , construction of the TVA began. Russian and French prisoners of war were also used for this purpose .

Information board on the history of the TVA
TVA sea building from information board

investment

18 buildings were built, five of them large, hall-like with chain pulleys and an air raid shelter. The area was provided with a feeder track from the Neubrandenburg train station for the transport of materials. The most striking building, the shooting range, was on an artificial island, which was connected to the buildings on the bank with a bridge / footbridge construction. The shooting range was based on two reinforced concrete foundation strips spanned by a reinforced concrete slab. In the area of ​​the tower-like central unit, which rose seven floors above the plate and had three axes on the lake side, the three-story main building, which each had seven axes and connected to the rear wall of the central unit, was connected to the left and right when viewed from the lake side . The lower two floors of the main building reached the front of the central unit. The width of the main building was divided into six axes. The city side of the main building consisted of 19 axes. On the city side, a two-story building section was designed symmetrically to the main building, which had 15 axes including the tower, the width was divided into three axes. The entire structure was a reinforced concrete skeleton structure. The entire complex of the TVA was divided into different levels of secrecy from mid-1942.

The bunker of the TVA Neubrandenburg (demolished in 2015)

task

All torpedoes that were fired in the TVA Eckernförde Abt. Neubrandenburg had no warheads. The only task of the research institute was to specify the direction of travel of the torpedoes in order to increase the probability of hits in later use. Submarine officers were also involved in research and development.

The end

The Trollenhagen Air Base was occupied with front-line airmen who were supposed to fight the leaders of the Red Army . Soviet advance troops under Tibuyev reached the area around the city on April 28, 1945. On the same day, Neubrandenburg was abandoned and the last of the TVA personnel was evacuated. A roll command set the TVA on fire. Explosive cables were laid as far as the Oberbach. However, the demolition did not take place. In the evening the air base burned too. At 11:00 p.m., top Red Army personnel explored the TVA.

1945 to 1990

In the harsh winters of 1946/47 and 1947/48, large parts of the bridge / footbridge construction were removed as firewood by the ailing Neubrandenburgers. Construction companies used the building equipment. On April 20, 1947, the Russian command office ordered the shooting range to be blown up. The landside buildings were also looted. In October 1947 the site was handed over to the city. In 1949 the company commissioned a local company to pull the piles of the footbridge / bridge construction. After that, the Mecklenburg Industrial Office (MIB) was the main user of the site. From 1952 the military use of the property began again. The Ministry of the Interior decided on an investment plan for the major RWN repair facility in Neubrandenburg with the task of carrying out all repairs on tracked vehicles of the GDR military and training the necessary specialists. From 1954, the transition to assembly line repairs and the expansion of repairs to other weapon technology began. The number of employees was 160 in 1953 and increased to 2,278 by 1978. Up to 5000 people worked there in the 1980s. On January 1, 1956, the RWN became the state-owned company " VEB Repairwerk Neubrandenburg" (RWN). Due to orders from other states of the Warsaw Pact and Iraq , expansions were necessary and so the plant grew into what is probably the largest of its kind in Europe. A test track for tanks was laid out along the Tollensesees in Nemerower Holz, which was designated as a restricted area.

1990 until today

After 1990 the then independent city acquired a large part of the land, the lake and the former restricted area. Due to the 4-to-1 talks between the Allies and NATO , the RWN's main client was no longer available. However, there were still enough disarmament and scrapping orders. The successors of the RWN were the vehicle works Neubrandenburg (at that time a subsidiary of the Diehl group). In December 2001 the plant had to close due to a lack of orders. In 2003 the former 2.6 km long industrial railway was dismantled to the Neubrandenburg train station. Today there are various medium-sized companies, a marina and restaurants in the area of ​​the then TVA. In the restricted area, the Augustabad lido has been rebuilt and the Tollenseradweg could be built. In March 2014 it became known that the area had been bought by several local investors.

literature

  • Oliver Zimmermann: In the footsteps of the German Navy. Torpedo Research Institute Eckernförde, Neubrandenburg Department. Verlag Steffen, Friedland 2005, ISBN 3-937669-49-3 .
  • Chronicle of the VEB RWN "We and our company", author collective company history, part I 1952–1961, 1983

Web links

Commons : Torpedoversuchsanstalt Neubrandenburg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Blasting at Tollensesee - the old tank factory should be a colorful part of the city , on nordkurier.de from April 10, 2015
  2. Quintet buys sought-after area on Tollensesee , in: Nordkurier March 19, 2014, page 23

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 30.5 ″  N , 13 ° 14 ′ 55 ″  E