Pirna water place

The waterfront in Pirna was on the left bank of the Elbe between the station area and the Elbe and extended from the mouth of the Gottleuba river to the banks of the Elbe.

Royal Saxon Pioneer Battalion No. 12

history

Around 1900 to 1945

Around 1900 the area behind the Pirna train station belonged to the company Hoesch & Co. This is where the basic materials for the pulp mill were delivered and stored. The Royal Saxon Pioneer Battalion No. 12, stationed in Pirna on Rottwerndorfer Strasse in the barracks , rehearsed in the adjacent open spaces . The Elbe embankment had been demolished and fortified for this purpose. In 1928 the Reichswehr acquired the site and built some barracks. Military exercises were tried out and carried out in the pioneering field . In 1935 the Wehrmacht took over the water area and expanded it further. This resulted in four two-story buildings, each with ten large garage boxes to accommodate watercraft , motor boats , speedboats , tug boats , pontoon bridge parts and boat equipment. On top of the massive basement, the upper floor was built using timber frame construction. In addition to guard buildings, other supply structures and sanitary facilities were built. The Elbe embankment was further fortified and a fortified counter landing area was created on the right-hand side of the Elbe. River rescue, ferry and various river crossing exercises (with footbridges, pontoon bridges) could be rehearsed.

Use after 1945

Water place 2018

At the end of the Second World War , the property became the property of the State of Saxony . There was no transfer back to the pulp mills. A memo from 1951 from the Pirna city archive shows that the German People's Police became the new owner. The Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) later took over the site. In 1953, the Soviet Army gave it the Ponton Bridge Park (SPB), but without base vehicles. The only three-axle IFA G5 truck produced in the former GDR came as a suitable vehicle . This type was subjected to countless tests on the waterfront in Pirna and finally built in the years 1954 to 1955 by the VEB IFA vehicle builders in the VEB vehicle plant "Ernst Grube" Werdau as a specially developed NVA pontoon transporter G5 with an open driver's cab.

With the establishment of the National People's Army (NVA) in 1956, it took over the property and had it fenced in again and heavily guarded. The Pirna Pioneer Battalion 7 was subordinated to the 7th Panzer Division . The constant modernization of the NVA enabled the use of bascule bridges ( TMM-3M1 ) and pontoon bridges (PMP) on KrAZ-255 from the 1960s . Tank transfer ferries, type GSP 55 , were also used for testing. Bridge-laying tanks ( MT-55 ) were not used in Pirna.

Pirna. Water place in 1967. Laying down of the heavy mechanized bridge TMM / TMM-3

At various times, performance comparisons and competitions in bridge building were also held with the armed forces of the Soviet Army. These were later relocated to Pirna-Rottwerndorf opposite the pioneer barracks. Only the exercises with the bascule bridges were rehearsed in competition. In the mid-1960s, a concrete road was built on Wasserplatz on the right bank of the river, leading to today's Pratzschwitzer Strasse. In addition to training in engineering, the area was also used for technical repair, maintenance and conversion work on the military technology. When units returned from military exercises by rail, the vehicles and other technology were first cleaned and repaired on the waterfront. Occasionally, units of other branches of service were housed on the waterfront.

Use after 1990

With the demobilization of the NVA after the political change in 1990, the property office and Deutsche Bahn became the new owners of the waterfront area. Efforts were made to develop it into a business park . Today various small businesses have settled here; Boat and canoe rental, a wooden boat building company, carpentry and a rest stop. Part of it belongs to the water police with its own dock on the Elbe. The Dresden Waterways and Shipping Office is located in the front building of the area . The Elbe floods in 2002 and 2013 caused considerable damage to the old structure. During an inspection in August 2018, no major commercial activities could be observed.