Test center for motor vehicles
The test center for motor vehicles , or Verskraft for short as it was used at the time , was a department of the Heereswaffenamt , WaPrüf 6 department (motor vehicles and combat vehicles) in Kummersdorf until 1945 .
history
After the necessity of automobile warfare was recognized in the course of the First World War , increased army motorization was sought. In 1917 a "test center for conveyor rail and vehicle operation" was set up in Kummersdorf. The associated circular and test routes were located at the Gottow community. In 1926 the "Verskraft" test center for motor vehicles was set up on the site of the Kummersdorf firing range, west of the barracks on the east firing range.
In the 1930s, however, the area now used by the Kummersdorf Army Research Center became too small due to increased requirements and the Neue Verskraft was built on an area a little further south-east (on Luckenwalder Straße) from 1938 onwards . The test site for vehicles of all kinds was now located southeast of it, near the Schlage Mountains around Horstwalde .
tasks
The Verskraft tried u. a. all prototypes of German tanks (up to the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus ) as well as booty tanks of the Second World War , Kräder , NSU Kettenkrad , trucks , tractors , half-track vehicles , caterpillar tractors East , VW bucket and VW float vehicles , and much more besides administration, accommodation, workshops, test stands and vehicle hangars, there were dust chambers for testing under extreme conditions, as well as a hall for climate simulation.
Branch offices
There were branches in Putlos ( Schleswig-Holstein ), in Berka-Großenlupnitz ( Thuringia ) and, since 1939, in Sankt Johann ( Tyrol ) for testing motor vehicles under appropriate terrain and weather conditions . In the occupied territories, too, captured material was tested and evaluated by employees of the Verskraft.
After 1945
With the end of the Second World War, the activities of the Verskraft ended and Kummersdorf was occupied by the Soviet Red Army . Subsequently, units of the 64th Mobile Brigade (64 автомобильная бригада, Куммерсдорф-Гут) of the Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD) and the Western Group were barracked. Since the withdrawal of the West Group in 1994, the Verskraft site has been waiting for a new use. Until 2012, the private technology museum in Kummersdorf was housed in some halls .
Although the area is controlled by security guards, metal theft and vandalism contribute to further deterioration.
Horstwalde test site
The Soviet troops used the test site near Horstwalde to train military drivers.
From 1957 the National People's Army (NVA) also operated a test site for motor vehicles and military technology, which was incorporated in 1975 into the Military Technical Institute (MTI) in Königs Wusterhausen . The civil vehicle industry of the GDR also carried out factory tests here.
In 1990 the MTI became the "Institute for Product Testing and Industrial Toxicology" (IPI) and part of the Office for Standardization, Metrology and Goods Testing ( ASMW ). After its dissolution in the same year, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) took over the area.
In 1995, the Friends of the Verkehrs-Versuchsanlage Horstwalde eV (FKVV) was founded, which leases the test site and operates an off-road route there.
literature
- Wolfgang Fleischer : Heeresversuchsstelle Kummersdorf - eyewitness reports, photographs, files 1874–1945. Verlag Dörfler Zeitgeschichte, ISBN 978-3-89555-409-4 .
- Wolfgang Fleischer : The Army Research Center in Kummersdorf - mice, tigers, panthers, lynx, rockets and other weapons of the Wehrmacht during testing. Verlag Dörfler Zeitgeschichte, ISBN 978-3-89555-408-7 .
- Gerhard Kaiser, Bernd Herrmann: From the restricted area to the forest town - the history of the secret command centers in Wünsdorf and the surrounding area. Verlag Christoph Links, Berlin 1993, ISBN 978-3-86153-434-1 .
Web links
- Image documentation 2013/2014 with virtual tour , accessed on December 4, 2014
- Friends of the Transport Test Facility Horstwalde e. V. , accessed December 29, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ Locations of Soviet military units in the GDR (Russian)
- ↑ FKVV: History of the Horstwalde test site
Coordinates: 52 ° 5 ′ 35.7 ″ N , 13 ° 22 ′ 6.5 ″ E