Elsenborn military training area
The Elsenborn military training area is a military area north of Elsenborn in Belgium , a district of the municipality of Bütgenbach in the German-speaking community . Without the additional security zones, it is 28 km² in size and was created in 1895 for the Prussian VIII Army Corps , when Elsenborn was part of the Prussian Rhine Province and thus part of the German Empire . The camp Elsenborn (Camp Elsenborn) of the stationed or practicing soldiers is directly connected to the military training area.
Location and users
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The area is located between the places Elsenborn in the south and Sourbrodt in the west as well as the current state border between Belgium and Germany with Kalterherberg in the north and roughly the course of Krehbach and Schwalmbach in the east. It is located on a gently undulating plateau of 550 to 610 m, with the "Hohe Mark" on the northern edge at 610 m being the highest elevation of the practice area. In addition, publicly accessible forest areas to the northeast and east are signposted as safety zones, the closure of which is announced by notice boards and the local press.
On the south-western edge of the military training area is the associated Camp Elsenborn, where the accommodation, social and administrative rooms of the military training area command, as well as a chapel for the training troops and, since 1998, a public museum for visitors have been set up. Since 1976 the camp can accommodate up to 1,200 soldiers during the maneuvers.
The training area and the camp facilities were initially mainly used by artillery and cavalry units and later made accessible to all branches of service. On the practice area with its maximum length of around 8 km without safety zones, shooting ranges for light weapons, mortars and cannons are set up. The area is also available to the international air forces in order to be able to practice dropping bombs and rockets as well as shooting with on- board cannons . In addition, the training area is used by Belgian and foreign armies as part of joint maneuvers, including the Allied Command Europe Mobile Forces until a few years ago , as well as by soldiers who are preparing for their peacekeeping operations in Asia, Africa, the former Yugoslavia and other trouble spots around the world become.
Large areas of the military training area are designated as Natura 2000 protected areas under the Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive and are under appropriate observation and care.
Target practice and / or maneuvers are regularly made known to the public by the municipality of Bütgenbach.
history
Prussian VIII Army Corps
After the General Command of the Prussian VIII Army Corps, based in Koblenz , had been looking for a larger training area at the end of the 1880s, in 1891, after rejecting an initial suggestion to use vein areas between Sourbrodt and Malmedy , the decision was made to go to a fallow heath - and wasteland in the southern part of the High Fens . Initially, the project met with fierce resistance from the population of Elsenborn, worried about the preservation of their agricultural areas and the existence of their place of residence. Since the funds of ℳ 2,350,000 approved by the Reichstag for the expansion of the military training area including the entire village of Elsenborn, in addition to the compensation of the villagers, were not sufficient, since a total of 6,000,000 RM would have been required for this, the continued existence of the village of Elsenborn was assured. The situation was different with the opposition of the population to the expropriations of forest, fens and heathland areas, which was rejected by a judge in 1904 and declared the necessary cession of common land to be legal.
In the period that followed, the population nevertheless benefited from the new exercise area, as it gave the local businesses and service providers an enormous boost and numerous civilian jobs were set up in the new camp. In addition, new water pipes were built, the electricity network expanded, roads paved and schools and civil housing built. In addition, the community's military administration paid a considerable amount of compensation for each day of closure, and businesses also benefited from the “forced stay” of those passing through.
The camp made the neighboring Sourbrodt station on the Vennbahn line particularly important, as it was converted into a loading station for the units practicing on the square. The heavy tank transports reached Sourbrodt primarily via the Vennquerbahn , which came from Jünkerath via Bütgenbach and Weywertz , where head had to be made, to the Sourbrodt station.
In addition, the field railway of the military training area was built between 1900 and 1901 for operation with passenger and freight wagons between Sourbrodt station and the military camp with a track width of 600 mm and a length of 3.2 km. From 1918 D-coupled brigade locomotives were used on the German Army Field Railway . The small train and its locomotive used there were given the name " Fiery Elias " and they were mainly used to transport oats, barley and straw for the horses and to transport the soldiers who visited the shops and restaurants in town.
The training area itself was equipped with an airfield field east of the camp, several shooting lanes with movable target systems and three observation towers for observing maneuvers, and scheduled exercises could take place under realistic conditions. The military training area and the camp flourished up to the First World War , although the area was not particularly popular with the Prussian recruits due to the harsh climate and its remoteness . Among them the saying went: " Oh Elsenborn, oh Elsenborn, the Lord created you in his anger ". Another read: " Oh Elsenborn, deep in the Eifel, God did not create you, the devil created you ".
First World War
During the First World War , the training area was mainly used as a training center and artillery depot and as a prison camp for Polish and Russian soldiers. These were, among other things, committed during the years 1914/1915 a ring road of Kalterherberg to Nidrum to build to the burden of roads closed to through traffic over the old and through the restricted area extending tanks street be kept as low as possible. The prisoners were cared for by the pastor of the Sourbrodt pastor Abbé Nicolas Pietkin , of whom a memorial near the Sourbrodt church commemorates today. In December 1918 the camp was abandoned by the Prussian administration and initially taken over by English troops. Since the previous Prussian districts of Eupen , Malmedy and St. Vith had been integrated into the Belgian state association due to the Treaty of Versailles after the loss of the First World War , the Belgian army took over command of the Elsenborn military training area on February 4, 1920 . On May 2nd, 1920 King Albert I carried out his first inspection.
Between the two world wars, the military training area was modernized, new streets, paths and facilities were set up and the shooting ranges were upgraded with electro-automatic retractable targets. The airfield was moved to the location in the west of the area that is still used today and used by Belgian aviation and for training with tethered balloons . From March to October the area was mainly used by mounted artillery and in the winter months, pasture cooperatives were able to use the military area.
Second World War
In the run-up to the Second World War , due to the general mobilization of Belgium, most of the camp, with the exception of the permanent employees, was abandoned and in 1939 the small railroad to the camp was discontinued and the narrow-gauge railway was dismantled. On May 10, 1940, during the western campaign of the German armed forces, the training area was taken by German troops and put back into operation for their purposes. It served again as a training and prison camp , this time for Polish, Russian and Serbian prisoners of war. In 1944, the facilities were badly damaged by American bombs and then taken by the 9th US Infantry Division of the 12th Army Group after the retreating German troops had set fire to and destroyed large parts of the camp and the facilities. More than 200 civilian workers, German soldiers, especially prisoners of war, were killed, who were initially temporarily buried in a mass grave near Nidrum. As part of the Battle of the Bulge , German troops tried to recapture the training area, but only took the eastern part of the area and were driven out of there a little later.
Use from 1945
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After the war, the military training area and the camp were returned to the Belgian military administration by the 9th US Infantry Division, which took three years to clear the mines. In several construction phases, the infrastructure was restored and adapted to the new military requirements. In addition, the area was expanded by around 80 hectares and a new concrete road to Wirtzfeld and, in 1976, new shooting ranges and shooting posts. Between 1948 and 1956, a disciplinary unit was permanently stationed on the site, and various anti-aircraft missile units from 1959 to 1969, and later a department of the Wing Meteo weather service . With Belgium joining NATO , the training area could now be increasingly made available to NATO troops for their maneuvers.
From 1946 to 2005, exercises were carried out in association with the Vogelsang military training area , which is located to the north on German territory and is also under Belgian administration , the area of which is only a few kilometers away. In the 1950s, for example, the artillery fired twice a week from the Elsenborn military training area at the Wollseifen training village in the Vogelsang military training area . Between 1955 and 1960, King Baudouin inspected the training area several times, most recently in 1960 accompanied by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Persia .
Since the range of the newer heavy artillery exceeded the possibilities given at the military training area, the firing batteries were temporarily set up in an external fire position near Mont Rigi . This solution was abandoned in 1958, as possible duds endangered the villages of Sourbrodt and Elsenborn and were also not conducive to nature conservation in the High Fens or to tourism. In the 1960s, merging with the Vogelsang practice area was discussed. In 1994, consideration was given to reopening the Mont Rigi shooting range in order to be able to test grenade types with a range of 20 km, the only place in Belgium where this was possible (distance Mont Riggi - center of the training area approx km) In this context, the possibility of firing from this external fire position at a target area on Vogelsang (distance approx. 20 km) was considered again. The system of the external fire position ( location ) was aligned accordingly in such a way that both Elsenborn and Vogelsang could have been targeted. This request failed due to resistance from the population, regional politics and nature conservationists.
The connection via the Vennquerbahn to Sourbrodt station, which was discontinued in 1952 for economic reasons, was reopened on October 11, 1986 and since then heavy goods traffic with military freight trains has been resumed. The irregularly running trains carried tracked vehicles, tanks and self-propelled howitzers for large-scale maneuvers by the NATO forces stationed in Germany to the Elsenborn military training area and back again. In connection with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, NATO reduced its exercise program in Elsenborn and, step by step, military traffic was further restricted in the 1990s and finally stopped on October 18, 1999.
After the closure of the Belgian barracks on German soil and the associated withdrawal of the soldiers, various sub-units were stationed in Elsenborn from 1990, including a maintenance company for the army aviation and in 1994 after the abandonment of the Ratz barracks in Vielsalm, a sub-unit of the "Chasseurs Ardennais", also known as " Ardennes hunter ".
At the beginning of the 21st century, a long-standing dispute arose between the private armaments company Mecar from Petit-Roeulx-lez-Nivelles in the municipality of Seneffe in the province of Hainaut on the one hand and the municipal administration of Bütgenbach and local citizens' initiatives on the other. This involved the long-term use of the military training area by a private company and their ammunition tests, which were controversial among the population, especially with ammunition containing tungsten . Mecar initially received a 15-year concession contract from the Belgian Ministry of Defense in October 2002 with the approval to dispose of the military training area and to set up its own shooting range, which was extended in 2005 to the end of 2020. Since the municipal administration and the citizens had concerns about the private use of the practice area and the nature of the target practice and because this project was contrary to the ongoing Natura 2000 plans, appropriate appeals were lodged, which dragged on for years at several levels and instances. It was not until the beginning of 2016 that the Belgian Council of State finally declared that the contract with Mecar was invalid and that there would be no private use.
Camp Elsenborn
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After the approval for the establishment of a military training area, the designated training area was already in use from 1894 before there were suitable facilities to accommodate the soldiers. Some of these had to stay with farmers in the area or make do with a temporary tent camp. A year later, the first tin barracks were built for the officers and drinking water pipes were laid. Between 1896 and 1897, more barracks were built, this time made of sheet metal for the common soldiers and stone for the officers and wood for the horses. At the same time, special buildings for the garrison personnel, the commandant's office, the field post and for the casino as well as a guard and detention building were built. From 1898 a sick bay and several bathhouses as well as an electric plant were added and new power lines were laid. This allowed the camp to accommodate up to 5,000 soldiers and 1,500 horses, which at that time corresponded to about three brigades . In 1911/12, the camp was expanded to include a further building for a permanent post office and a barracks for permanent staff.
After the First World War, the Belgian military administration replaced the last tin barracks with permanent accommodation, and the horse barracks were expanded and modernized and a wooden chapel was built. The personnel permanently remaining in the camp included around 10 officers, 20 NCOs and 70 crew ranks as well as a transport unit with around 70 civilians, most of whom were recruited from the surrounding population. The transport unit was relocated to the barracks in Bressoux during the winter months when there were no exercises on the field.
After the destruction caused by the attacks in World War II, around 70% of the buildings could no longer be used and a large part of the infrastructure was no longer usable. After the end of the war, the reinstated Belgian administration built 60 barracks for the crews and renovated the largely intact barracks for the officers and non-commissioned officers, although the restoration of the horse barracks was waived in accordance with the new requirements. These were converted into garages, which were supplemented by additional open parking spaces. The chapel was renovated and around 26 km of streets, including 14 km for civil traffic, were renovated, and the drinking water system and the power grid were repaired. Thus, the camp could again accommodate around 300 officers, 400 NCOs and 2,100 soldiers. Since from 1959 additional troops, such as the anti-aircraft missile units, needed accommodation, the construction of new houses for the permanent staff and in 1965 the construction of a large petrol station became necessary. In addition, a building was set up as a school on the camp between 1948 and 1978.
Since the troop barracks soon no longer met contemporary requirements, a further 13 new buildings were built from 1972 onwards, which from 1976 could accommodate up to 1,500 soldiers. Furthermore, a self-service restaurant , designed for 2000 meals per day, was set up by 1981 , new garages were built in 1988 and a museum on the history of the camp was operated from 1998.
9 officers, 46 NCOs and 102 professional soldiers are currently in charge of the camp, which has now become one of the largest camps in the Belgian armed forces. However, as part of the Strategic Vision 2030 , the Ministry of Defense plans to reduce the permanent military personnel to 30 people. This should be made possible by outsourcing services to the private sector. All services on the camp, such as carpentry, garden maintenance, blacksmithing, kitchen, are already provided by civilian staff, making the camp an important social factor for the surrounding population. The camp administration works closely with the authorities of the municipality in Elsenborn, the soldiers are integrated into local sports clubs and other social groups and their children visit the respective schools in the municipality. In return, as part of the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 , it was possible to accommodate up to 500 refugees until November 2016 in the barracks on the camp that were built in the 1970s. Every two years, the warehouse management gives an insight into camp life as part of an open house.
Chapel camp Elsenborn
Even under Prussian administration, the camp's old post office building, which became vacant in 1911, had an improvised church room and a dressing room for the clergyman after the post office was housed in a new building. When the Belgian military took over the military training area in 1920, the new military administration approved the construction of a separate chapel. This was built in wood and burned down completely in 1929.
Then in 1932 the foundation stone was laid for today's chapel, built in stone according to plans by Verviers architect Emile Burget. It was dedicated to both St. Barbara , the patron saint of pioneers and artillerymen, and St. Christopher , the patron saint of telecommunications troops. During the Second World War, the chapel was misused by the German occupiers as a mattress store and cinema. Otherwise, the chapel had survived the American bombing relatively unscathed and in 1945, after the Belgians had taken over the camp again, it could be used as a church again. With the support of the Antwerp Jesuit Father Decker, who had become aware of the chapel as the clergyman of a forest troop working on site, the chapel could be restored accordingly and with the help of donations it was equipped with 45 new windows made in Brussels. Finally, at the end of September 1946, the chapel was ceremoniously reopened in the presence of the Belgian Queen Elisabeth and the papal apostolic nuncio Fernando Cento .
Since then, the chapel has been used regularly for services for the soldiers and their relatives as well as for the workers in the camp and the villagers. Every year on the Belgian “King's Day” on November 15, which is also the day of the German-speaking Community , the incumbent military pastor holds the traditional Te Deum in the camp's chapel , to which the soldiers, the population and prominent guests are invited . This event had to be canceled in 2016 because the chapel had to be closed for several months for structural safety reasons.
Rising costs for maintaining the gradually deteriorating condition of the building have recently led to the idea of Belgian Defense Minister Pieter De Crem to charge a fee for the use of the church building. Finally, in November 2016, the Brussels government pledged € 20,000 for the renovation of the church building, which is to be implemented in the coming months and years.
Truschbaum Museum
In order to bring the long and varied history of the military training area and Camp Elsenborn closer to the soldiers and the population, a public museum with indoor and outdoor areas was set up in the camp in 1998. In addition to the history, the various associations and branches of arms as well as numerous militaria are exhibited with its exhibits and important personalities related to the camp are portrayed. The museum is only open on working days from Monday to Thursday.
The name of the museum was given by the Truschbaum ( 600 m OP ), which is considered to be Elsenborn's landmark. The ancient and gnarled beech tree did not survive the storms of January 14, 1984, its already hollow trunk broke over. On November 15, 1984, a new trush tree was planted. The trush tree can also be found in the coat of arms of the military training area commandant's office.
Natura 2000
Most of the military training area is considered an area worth protecting because of its rare flora and fauna and for this purpose has been included in the flora-fauna-habitat directive of the “Natura 2000” program since October 2006 with the identification number “BE 33037”. The consistently acidic bog soil ensures that daffodils, barwort, arnica, heather, blueberries and lingonberries in particular can spread well. Large areas are occupied by the bristle grass , interspersed with smaller forest islands consisting of broom, ear willow, quivering aspen, mountain ash, buckthorn, silver birch and bog birch. In the northern area of the square there is a larger hut forest , which consists mostly of old beeches with their distinctive cane rashes and which owes its special structure to the grazing by larger herds of cattle.
In order to prevent trees and bushes from taking up too much space and to keep the areas open, certain areas are burned down in a controlled manner at regular intervals. As a result, the character of the site still corresponds to what it was before it was used as a military training area with its small-scale and agricultural use.
More than 78 bird species are native to the area of the exercise area and it is above all the brown and stonechat breeding on the ground and the black stork that find ideal living conditions there. More than 30 butterfly species are typical of the bog vegetation, including the blue iridescent fire butterfly and the ringed mother-of-pearl butterfly , which became home here as typical inhabitants of cold and humid habitats due to the post-glacial repopulation.
literature
- Leo Leyens, Léon Renardy, Leo Wintgens: ELSENBORN, camp and military training area - instrument of European history (1894–2014) , Helios Verlag Aachen, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86933-135-5
Web links
- Entry on the Elsenborn military training area in the " KuLaDig " database of the Rhineland Regional Association
- Old postcards from Elsenborn in the German digital library
- Description by the municipality of Bütgenbach
- Description on DEFENSIE
Individual evidence
- ↑ Target practice at the Elsenborn military training area ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Joerg Seidel: Camp d'Elsenborn with light rail. Around 1925.
- ^ Poultney Bigelow: travel report, New York Times of June 6, 1900. In: Elsenborn military training area . In: KuLaDig , Kultur.Landschaft.Digital. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
- ↑ Johny Houtsch: sheet 17 in La Vennbahn, ligne de chemin de fer des Fagnes. February 17, 2016 - December 27, 2017. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
- ↑ Christoph Hendrich: The Sourbrodter train station - heavenly blessing and hellish danger. (PDF; 101 kB) In: Vennbahn-Stories (10 Sourbrodt). May 22, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
- ^ Achim Konejung: The Rhineland and the First World War , Regionalia Verlag 2013
- ↑ Franck Destrebecq: DES OBUS AU-DESSUS DE ZONES HABITEES ?, MONT RIGI: TIRS DE BARRAGE CONTRE L'ARMEE Archives lesoir.be July 14, 1994, (French, accessed December 4, 2016)
- ↑ Stop Mecar on the website of the Parish Association of Bütgenbach
- ↑ The workforce in the Elsenborn camp will be reduced from 150 to 30 people , in grenzecho.net from May 15, 2017
- ↑ Présentation officielle du center d'Elsenborn le 1 octobre 2015 on the website fedasil.be (French, accessed on 2 December 2016)
- ↑ Elsenborn Chapel
- ↑ For the Te Deum in the Elsenborn camp, the chapel was once again the focus of BRF on November 10, 2015
- ↑ Military camp Elsenborn: 20,000 euros for the renovation of the chapel on BRF-Nachrichten of November 17, 2016
- ↑ Home Truschbaum Museum
- ↑ BE33037 - Camp militaire d'Elsenborn (French)
- ↑ Project Life Natura2mil (Engl.)
Coordinates: 50 ° 27 '52.2 " N , 6 ° 11' 19.7" E