U-shift bulldog

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Marie shaft

The underground relocation Bulldogge housed underground, war-essential production facilities between 1937 and 1945. It was located in the former Bartensleben potash and rock salt works in Beendorf ( Saxony-Anhalt ).

history

Potash and rock salt extraction

The potash mining in Beendorf began in 1897. From this period dates the pit building . The mining at the Marie mine was stopped on November 1, 1924; the one at the Bartensleben shaft due to the 1931 Reich Scale Act. The plant was kept open as a reserve facility. At the time of National Socialism, the Burbach Group leased the facility to the Air Force , where it served as an ammunition factory from May 1, 1937.

Conversion of the mine to an ammunition plant

The engineering office Walter Schlempp was responsible for the expansion and reconstruction of the Marie shaft . It organized u. a. the accommodation of the aviation equipment factory in Hakenfelde and the necessary reconstruction of the shaft tube and conveyor system. A new, lower headframe was erected and an electric hoist was installed instead of the existing steam hoist .

The Air Force took advantage of the sections of the mine for safe storage of anti-aircraft ammunition . From February 1944 onwards, further armaments companies were relocated from Berlin to the mine.

Forced labor

Inmates were used in arms production. This was accompanied by the founding of the Beendorf concentration camp in February / March 1944. Among other things, a satellite camp of the Neuengamme concentration camp was set up in Beendorf .

Many prisoners from Hungary, Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the USSR were taken to the satellite camp. Inmates from other concentration camps were also moved to Beendorf, including from Buchenwald , Sachsenhausen , Auschwitz , Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme itself. The male inmates were mainly used to expand the underground facilities, while the female inmates were used to produce armaments. The relocation of inmates to Beendorf continued until 1945. From 1944 onwards, in addition to ammunition production for the Air Force and Navy, electronic parts for the V1 and V2 were also manufactured. The prisoners' shift time was twelve hours, they worked in two shifts, 72 hours a week for each inmate.

According to an official report of March 25, 1945, a total of 2021 women and 749 men worked in the camp, including a command of around 200 Soviet prisoners, Italian prisoners of war and around 3,000 forced laborers from all over Europe. Due to the increased importance of the Beendorf site, attempts were made in the late war years to camouflage the white salt excavation in front of the underground facilities with trees and other wood residues in order to prevent possible bombing by air raids. The components of this cloaking device are still clearly visible today.

Todays situation

In 1971, on the initiative of the school principal, an exhibition room was set up in the school adjacent to the shaft.

The Marie shaft is part of the Morsleben repository for radioactive waste (ERAM) .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Reuter: The shafts of potash mining in Germany . In: Stadtverwaltung Sondershausen (ed.): SONDERSHÄUSER HEFTE on the history of the potash industry . No. 13 . City administration Sondershausen, Department of Culture, Sondershausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811062-3-7 , p. 27, 41 .
  2. ^ Helmstedt-Beendorf (men) - memorial. Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, accessed on January 18, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Beendorf Concentration Camp Memorial. Gedenkstaetten-uebersicht.de, accessed on February 28, 2014 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 12.7 ″  N , 11 ° 5 ′ 28 ″  E