Zeithain military training area
The Zeithain military training area was one of the oldest military training areas in Germany .
An area east of Zeithain was first used for exercises in 1730 during the Zeithain pleasure camp by the Saxon army under the Saxon-Polish Prince-Elector Augustus the Strong .
In the vicinity of Zeithain, a 3 km² permanent artillery firing range was set up for the first time in 1873 for the Dresden garrison of the Saxon army . In several stages, the practice area was expanded to an area of almost 100 km² in 1879, 1892 and 1899. In 1903 an imperial parade took place in Zeithain during the imperial maneuver. From 1920 to 1937 the military training area was largely demilitarized. Only the filling and ammunition facility, which later became the Army Munitions facility (Muna) Zeithain , remained northwest of Zeithain near Gohlis until 1937 .
On April 1, 1937, the military training area north of Zeithain was rebuilt. For the work on the site, after the beginning of the German-Soviet War in 1941, Soviet prisoners of war were used for forced labor , who were housed both on the military training area and, from 1941, in the nearby Stalag IV H. On April 23, 1945, Soviet troops of the Cavalry Corps of the 5th Guard Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front occupied the Zeithain military training area.
From 1953 to 1956 the military training area was first used by the Soviet Army , from 1956 to 1990 by the NVA and between 1992 and 1997 by the army .
The former Zeithain military training area with around 40 km² of used area was abandoned in 2007 and rededicated to the Gohrischheide nature reserve and Elbe Lower Terraces.
The site has considerable old armaments and duds . Occasionally it is still used by the ordnance disposal service in Saxony to detonate remains of ammunition that can no longer be dismantled.
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Coordinates: 51 ° 23 ′ 42 " N , 13 ° 20 ′ 9.7" E