Leader headquarters Waldwiese
| Leader headquarters Waldwiese | ||
|---|---|---|
| place | Glan-Münchweiler | |
| builder | Organization Todt and some private subcontractors | |
| Client | Adolf Hitler | |
| Construction year | 1939-1940 | |
| demolition | 1946 | |
| Floor space | Bunker: 285 m²; Barrack: 96 m² | |
| Coordinates | 49 ° 28 '13.1 " N , 7 ° 26' 58.9" E | |
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 Location of the FHQ Waldwiese in Europe |
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The Waldwiese plant, planned as the Führer’s headquarters , was created during the preparations for the French campaign at the end of 1939 / beginning of 1940 in what is now the state of Rhineland-Palatinate near Glan-Münchweiler between the two villages of Kusel and Ramstein .
history
The construction work on the leader's headquarters in Waldwiese began in October 1939. The construction of the new leader's headquarters was carried out exclusively by the Organization Todt (OT) and a few private subcontractors. By April 1940, in addition to the corresponding access roads, three bunkers with a total usable area of 285 m² and a barrack with 96 m² usable area were built.
Hitler's accommodation was north of Bettenhausen . The telecommunications bunker , disguised as a residential building , was built in the center and the truck and car garages, a log cabin as crew accommodation, a crew bunker for 60 people and a wooden observation tower in the southwestern part of the town of Glan-Münchweiler .
By April 1940 a total of 4,250 m³ of concrete had been used. Labor input at the headquarters leader "meadow" was 38,750 Tagwerke (a "day's work" of the working corresponding to a worker on a workday). The following were employed or employed on the construction site:
| month | Employees | |
|---|---|---|
| October | 1939 | 200 |
| November | 1939 | 300 |
| December | 1939 | 500 |
| January | 1940 | 300 |
| February | 1940 | 100 |
| March | 1940 | 100 |
| April | 1940 | 50 |
The Führer headquarters "Waldwiese" was never moved into. Hitler never stayed in "Waldwiese" either. At the beginning of April 1945 units of the American 76th Infantry Division reached the former Führer headquarters "Waldwiese". The plants fell into the hands of the Americans, completely intact. In the summer of 1946, the three bunkers of the Führer Headquarters "Waldwiese" were blown up by American pioneers . The concrete rubble was recycled by refugees who had set up a settlement cooperative on the site .
literature
- BA-MA, RW 19/686, sheet 2, command OKW / WFA June 1, 1940.
- Peter Hoffmann : The security of the dictator. Hitler's bodyguards, protective measures, residences, headquarters. Piper, Munich et al. 1975, ISBN 3-492-02120-4 .
- Percy Ernst Schramm (ed.): War diary of the high command of the Wehrmacht (Wehrmacht command staff). 1940-1945. Volume 4: January 1, 1944 - May 22, 1945. 2 half volumes. Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt am Main 1961.
- Franz W. Seidler : Fritz Todt. Builder of the Third Reich (= Ullstein-Buch. 33095). Extended and updated edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1988, ISBN 3-548-33095-9 .
- Franz W. Seidler , Dieter Zeigert : The Führer Headquarters. Facilities and planning in World War II. FA Herbig Verlagbuchhandlung, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-7766-2154-0 .