Grafenwoehr Training Area

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The Grafenwöhr military training area is a training area for the US armed forces ( Grafenwöhr Training Area (GTA)) in the Upper Palatinate ( Bavaria ).

geography

Position and extent

The training area is located near the southwest of the city of Grafenwoehr in Neustadt an der Waldnaab (Oberpfalz) in Bavaria and belongs largely to the district of Grafenwoehr. It occupies an area of ​​233 km². The east-west extension is about 25 km and the north-south extension is about 14 km.

Natural space

The practice area is located in the Upper Palatinate hill country natural area in the middle latitudes . The potential vegetation consists of deciduous forest and partly also meadow landscapes. The natural space is still preserved in large parts of the practice area. As a result of the practice operations, areas are partially damaged by the fire.

topography

In the west of the area the character of the low mountain range dominates, to the east the landscape gradually slopes down. The south is characterized by the wooded ridges of the Schwarzenberg.

history

Grafenwoehr troop camp, postcard around 1910
Command and garrison administration, postcard around 1915

The Kingdom of Bavaria had a shooting range for the III. In the sparsely populated wooded area in the northern Upper Palatinate from 1907 to 1910 . Corps of Army set. Around 230 people had to leave their homes for this. The following localities were dissolved and relocated: Annahütte, Erzhäusl, Flügelsburg, Grünhund, Grünhunder Schmierhütte, Hirschmühle, Schwarzenhäusl, Wolfslegel and Ziegelhütte.

From 1914 to 1918, the Grafenwöhr prisoner-of-war camp existed on the site of the military training area .

After the NSDAP regime had pushed the armament of the Wehrmacht from 1935 onwards , the area was greatly expanded from 1936 to 1938 and the "Reich resettlement company RUGES" was founded. There is an amateur film about the resettlement: “The forgotten land” by Peter Ponnath (Telefilm, Fürth ). For the people, giving up their ancestral home was very difficult. Many were housed in Wolfskofen / Mintraching near Regensburg in a model rural settlement. In order to calm the people there, the probably only Catholic church building that the National Socialists paid for was built. In this church are the altars and the image of the Virgin Mary (the original came to the Strahov Monastery in Prague during the Thirty Years' War ) of the Pappenberg Church . The following places became extinct due to the expansion of the site by the National Socialists:

Altenweiher , Altneuhaus , Baumühle, Beilenstein, Bergfried, Bernhof, Bernreuth, Betzlhof, Boden im Thal, Braunershof, Dorfgänlas, Dörnlasmühle, Dornbach, Ebersberg, Eibenstock, Erlbach, Fenkenhof, Fronhof , Grünwald, Haag , Hammergänlas , Hebersreuth , Hellziechen , Hermannshof, Hirschmühle, Höhenberg, Hopfenohe , Kaundorf , Kittenberg, Kotzmanns, Kühberg, Kumpf, Langenbruck, Leuzenhof , Luisenhof / Hub, Meilendorf , Netzaberg, Netzart im Thal, Nunkas , Oberfrankenohe , Pappenberg , Pinzig, Pommershof, Portenreuth , Rauersbühl, Sommerhühl, Schloßfrankenohe , Schwarzenhäusl, Stegenthumbach, Unterfrankenohe, Walpershof, Weihern, Wirlhof, Wolframs , Zeltenreuth, Zissenhof.

A total of 780 families (more than 3500 people) were resettled. The villages were destroyed and torn down, a few remains are still standing today as ghost towns , for example the ruins of the Hopfenohe and Pappenberg churches . Special new locations were built for military exercises in house-to-house warfare .

During the Second World War, around 300 Soviet prisoners of war were used in labor detachments for forced labor . During so-called “checks” , the Gestapo separated out Jews , commissioners and “agitators” and transferred them to the Flossenbürg concentration camp for “ special treatment ” , where they were shot . This happened, for example, on August 25, 1941 with 41 of these prisoners of war. Many more Soviet citizens perished from disease and hunger. One officer was shot for not obeying orders. 32 of them have been buried in the Auerbach cemetery in Upper Palatinate since 1987 .

American soldiers during an exercise with an M777 A2 howitzer at the Grafenwoehr training area, 2009
British Challenger 2 tank firing at the military training area

After the Second World War , the US Army took over the training area and continued to use it in its original purpose. On September 2, 1960, a 203 mm shell, which was shot too far, struck a tent camp owned by members of the 3rd US Armored Division , killing 17 soldiers and injuring 25; the accident was the most casualty that has ever occurred among US troops in Germany.

Computer-controlled shooting ranges were built from 1979 to 1984 at a cost of around 210 million Deutschmarks. The Grafenwöhr military training area was considered the most modern shooting range of NATO at that time .

Since the resettlement and dissolution of the communities of Haag , Höhenberg , Hopfenohe , Kaundorf , Leuzenhof , Nunkas , Oberfrankenohe and Pappenberg in 1938/39, these have been community-free (subsequently decreed by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior on August 22, 1951) and formed the core area of ​​the community-free Grafenwöhr military training area, which was incorporated into the town of Grafenwöhr on July 1, 1978, the community-free area was thus dissolved.

The history of the military training area also includes a six-week maneuver stay by Elvis Presley , which is documented in the museum. In 1958 the film Time to Live and Time to Die was shot in the ruins of Hopfenohe , Bernreuth and Altenweiher .

Todays use

General

The training area is under the administration of the US Army and is part of the US Army Garrison Bavaria.

The training area has been known as the Joint Multinational Command Training Center (JMCTC) since 2006 and offers space for around 4,000 American soldiers. The 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment recently moved into new quarters . The then so-called “New Town”, today the Netzaberg settlement, which forms a separate part of the city of Eschenbach in Upper Palatinate , was built near the military training area, as a new home for the soldiers of the 2nd SBCT.

Transfer

The military area was given to the USA by the Federal Republic of Germany for the exclusive use, whereby the US armed forces are authorized according to an administrative agreement from 1993 to allow the joint use of other foreign troops. The US military use of the area is regulated by the NATO troop statute and its supplementary agreement.

The units of the United States Army Europe (USAREUR), the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and other NATO forces exercise in Grafenwoehr. Around 40 percent of the military units that train on the military training area are NATO partners from Europe, Africa and Asia.

Furnishing

The military training area is an extensive training area with shooting ranges and target area (impact area) and is considered the most modern training area in Europe. The administration and accommodation area as well as the camps for training troops and the siding are located in the northeast, the Vilseck Military Community on the southern edge and the Netzaberg settlement on the northern edge of the square. In the eastern part of the military training area, the US Army maintains a military airport, Grafenwoehr Airfield , where mainly cargo planes land.

Others

The military training area is an important economic factor and one of the largest employers in the region (3600 local employees).

Due to the development of the situation in Ukraine, the material for an additional heavy US Army Brigade was stationed in Grafenwöhr in 2015.

According to a US insider, the training area was used by the US military for years to train Ukrainian soldiers without the German authorities having been informed about what would constitute a breach of the information obligation to the German government.

Coordinates: 49 ° 43 '  N , 11 ° 54'  E

Netzaberg Housing Area

Netzaberg Housing Area under construction, 2008
One of the 3000 residential units in the Netzaberg Housing Area, 2008

At the military training area near the town of Eschenbach in the Upper Palatinate , the Netzaberg Housing Area was built from 2006 to 2008 as the largest US garrison outside the mainland US territory . As part of the relocation of the American armed forces to Eschenbach, 832 houses were built for 3,600 US soldiers and their families. As a result, a new city with the necessary facilities and a non-denominational garrison church has been built. The houses were built by the Bayreuth construction company Zapf . The 200 million euro project was financed by the Danish investor group NORDICA.

Until the second expansion of the Grafenwöhr military training area in 1936, the village of Netzaberg, which was abandoned in 1938 , was on the ridge where the New Town is today .

The Netzaberg site is geologically controversial for residential development. As early as 1960, in the explanation of the geological map of Bavaria, it was stated: “G. Usable deposits: galena and white lead ore in nest-like to scattered occurrences can be found in sandy shell limestone layers on Netzaberg east of Eschenbach and northeast of Grafenwöhr ”.

This means an increased lead load in the soil. In addition, increased natural radioactive radiation was found when drilling wells.

Personalities

Elvis Presley was stationed with the tank battalion of the 3rd Armored Division in Friedberg (Hesse) between 1958 and 1960 . During this time he was twice on maneuvers in Grafenwoehr as part of his soldier training as a jeep driver.

armed forces

Coat of arms of the DMV TrÜbPlKdtr Grafenwöhr

The Bundeswehr uses the military training area for exercises and sharp shooting against payment . The German military representative at the military training area command (DMV TrÜbPlKdtr) represents the interests of the Bundeswehr. This agency has 130 posts and will be reduced to 110 as part of the realignment of the Bundeswehr . She takes an active part in the administration of the military training area.

ecology

Short documentation of the NATO Channel on biodiversity at the Grafenwoehr Training Area

The extensive habitats of the military training area with bristle grass lawns, dwarf shrub heaths, dystrophic to nutrient-rich still waters as well as low and transitional moor communities accommodate a large number of rare and disturbance-sensitive animal and plant species. The military area represents the largest moor-heather area in southern Central Europe.

flora

The following habitat types occur in detail at the military training area:

  • Transitional and swinging lawn bogs
  • Lime-rich fens
  • Lime (semi) dry lawns and their stages of shrubbery
  • Species-rich bristle grass lawn
  • Pipe grass meadows
  • Moist tall herbaceous vegetation
  • Limestone cliffs with crevice vegetation
  • Bog forests
  • Alder, ash and softwood alluvial forests
  • Dry heaths
  • Base-rich or lime pioneer lawn
  • Running waters with flooding aquatic vegetation
  • Nutrient-poor to moderately nutrient-rich still waters with beach lions or dwarf rush communities
  • Natural and near-natural nutrient-rich still waters with spawning or frog-bite communities
  • Dystrophic still waters

fauna

The military area offers suitable habitat conditions for the following animal species:

A large number of endangered bird species use the military training area as a habitat:

The Grafenwöhr military training area is now also an area where wolves can expect . After the animals were exterminated there in the middle of the 19th century, individual individuals are being sighted again today. So far, two couples have been proven who could start their own pack, but no offspring yet.

The semi-open landscape with extensive forest areas and large open land areas of the military training area offer red deer ideal habitat conditions. Around 7,000 red deer animals roam the steppe-like landscape of Grafenwöhr, also known as the Bavarian Serengeti . The US soldiers therefore named the site Deer Heaven . Every year in autumn around 120 red deer (Cervus elaphus) of Class I and II are hunted on the practice area as part of the guest hunt.

Protected areas

Large parts of the military training area are registered as a European bird sanctuary and FFH area to the EU Commission and are therefore part of the Natura 2000 network . The two Natura 2000 sites have a considerable size of 19,279 hectares. The forest portion of the two protected areas is 9704 hectares.

German-American folk festival Grafenwoehr

The German-American Volksfest Grafenwoehr takes place every year on the first weekend in August on the military training area in Camp Kasserine. More than 80,000 people attended the festival in 2011. The income is administered by the German-American Joint Committee Grafenwöhr and donated to charitable purposes. In 2013, the festival was canceled for the first time in the wake of cost-cutting measures by the US Army. The festival has been held annually since 2014. Due to the threat of terrorism, increased security measures and admission controls are in place.

See also

literature

  • Eckehart Griesbach: Grafenwöhr military training area - history of a landscape.
  • Hans-Jürgen Kugler: Hopfenohe - history of a parish. [2]
  • Hans-Jürgen Kugler: Nitzlbuch / Bernreuth - History of a rural region in the northern Upper Palatinate. [3]
  • Gerhard Müller: History of the Grafenwöhr military training area. Military Department Exhibition.
  • Dominikus Kneidl, Olaf Meiler: Grafenwöhr military training area. Illustrated book
  • Paul Burckhardt: The Major Training Areas - Grafenwoehr / Vilseck, Hohenfels, Wildflecken. (1st and 2nd edition, English)
  • Paul Burckhardt: The military training areas - Grafenwoehr, Hohenfels, Wildflecken. (3rd edition, German)
  • Peter Heigl: Sergeant Elvis Presley in Grafenwoehr. German / English, Buch & Kunstverlag Oberpfalz, Amberg 2007.
  • Gerald Morgenstern: "Grafenwoehr Training Area" yesterday - today, Grafenwoehr 2010.
  • Christian Sebald: How the military is transforming a huge area into a natural gem. Article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, online version from September 22, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Grafenwoehr Training Area  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GTA ( Memento from September 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b GRAFENWÖHR TRAINING AREA. US Army Europe, accessed July 27, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Grafenwöhr military training area. Federal Ministry of Defense of the heads of the press and information staff, accessed on April 29, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Map of the main natural space units and natural space units in Bavaria. Bavarian State Office for the Environment, accessed on April 30, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Memorial sites for the victims of National Socialism. A documentation. Volume 1. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89331-208-0 , p. 143.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Volkert (ed.): Handbook of Bavarian offices, communities and courts 1799–1980 . CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-09669-7 . Page 459
  7. ↑ Training area. City of Grafenwoehr, 2018, accessed on April 29, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Legal framework for the use of the Grafenwöhr and Hohenfels military training areas by foreign armed forces. Scientific Services of the German Bundestag, 2016, accessed on June 8, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Written question from the MP Jürgen Mistol BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN from April 21, 2017. Bavarian State Parliament, October 13, 2017, accessed April 30, 2018 .
  10. ^ Troop reinforcement ( Memento from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Michael Weißenborn: "Don't say anything, don't ask". Stuttgarter Nachrichten, September 13, 2017, accessed on January 1, 2018 .
  12. ↑ "largest OCONUS garrison"
  13. ^ Zapf company; Press release of October 24, 2008 [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.zapf-gmbh.de  
  14. ↑ Explanation of the Geological Map of Bavaria, sheet no. 6237 Grafenwöhr; H. Hauenschild, B. Schröder, Munich, 1960
  15. ↑ Upper Palatinate Network ; Newspaper article from July 14, 2007 http://www.oberpfalznetz.de/zeitung/1042159-127,1,0.html
  16. ↑ 100 years of Grafenwöhr military training area. VISIER, September 2010, accessed April 30, 2018 .
  17. ^ BMVg: The stationing of the Bundeswehr in Germany
  18. ↑ a b c d e 6336-301 US military training area Grafenwoehr (FFH area). Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  19. ↑ NATURA 2000 Bavaria Area-specific specification of the conservation objectives. Free State of Bavaria, February 19, 2016, accessed January 3, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Wolf couple in Grafenwoehr Training Area
  21. ↑ Wolferwartungsgebiet Grafenwoehr Training Area on Google Maps
  22. ↑ Hans Schuh: In the sky of the deer. In: THE TIME. January 7, 2010, accessed May 6, 2018 .
  23. ↑ a b Christian Sebald: The military is transforming a huge area in the Upper Palatinate into a natural gem. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. September 24, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Hunting opportunities - Grafenwöhr. Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks, 2018, accessed on May 6, 2018 .
  25. ↑ 6336-301 US military training area Grafenwöhr (FFH area and EU bird sanctuary). Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation . Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  26. ↑ Natura 2000 in the Neustadt ad Waldnaab district. Office for Food, Agriculture and Forests (AELF) Weiden, Free State of Bavaria, accessed on April 30, 2018 .
  27. ^ Oberpfalznetz.de: German-American folk festival canceled. US Army has to save. Article dated April 30, 2013, accessed June 4, 2013.