Watter barracks

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The later Watter barracks around 1920

The Watter barracks was an artillery barracks in the north Hessian town of Fritzlar . It existed from 1890 until it was demolished in 1974. In 1935 the previously unnamed military facility was named after Oskar von Watter .

Surname

Until 1935 the barracks were only referred to as artillery barracks. After its expansion in the course of the armament of the Wehrmacht , it was named after the retired Lieutenant General Oskar von Watter (1861-1939), who in the spring of 1920, as commander of military district VI in Münster , had bloodily suppressed the so-called Ruhr uprising of the miners. He had been an honorary citizen of the city of Fritzlar since 1908 , because he had been stationed in Fritzlar from 1907 to 1909 as a department commander of the riding department in the 1st Kurhessische Feldartillerie-Regiment No. 11 and at that time had successfully campaigned for the construction of an army provisions office in Fritzlar . His honorary citizenship was revoked at the end of the 1980s and the then "General-von-Watter-Strasse" was renamed "Am Hospital".

Building history

The main building of the artillery barracks was built around 1890 for the cavalry division of Field Artillery Regiment No. 11 stationed in the city . Until the barracks were built, the soldiers were mostly housed in private quarters, some of them in the wedding house , a large half-timbered building from the 16th century. The new barracks was located on Kasseler Strasse immediately north of the city, but outside the urban area that was then built on. It was a mighty red brick building, three-story, initially with two wings. The longer main wing, running along the street, had three double-windowed axes to the right and left of the slightly protruding, seven-axis central projection with the barracks gate. A double window axis was located on both sides of the entrance gate with the guard and the single windows above. The building was later expanded to about twice its size by dividing the main wing along the street at the northern end by another risalite and then building a segment of about the same length with again three double-windowed axes. A north wing corresponding to the southern side wing and angled at right angles was added to this new part. The existing southern wing was at the same time extended a little further to the east. Even before 1933, the top floor of the two projections of the main wing, which previously a simple brick gable was pitched roof had, by an additional half-timbered upper floor with a hipped roof topped up.

After the extensions, the building along Kasseler Strasse was 62 m long and 12 m wide. The north wing facing away from the city was 47 m long and 15 m wide, the shorter south wing 37 m long and 12 m wide. The north and south wings each ended in a massive timber-framed log house with a square floor plan and a hipped roof. These two final buildings were built during the Nazi era and stylistically corresponded to the two central parts on the western front of the barracks.

The inner courtyard between the three wings of this team building was 33 mx 25 m and went seamlessly into an even larger parade courtyard. On its south and east sides there were extensive stables for the horses, and in the further area to the east behind there was a complex of further stables, riding arenas , a parade hall, halls for the guns, etc.

During the Nazi era, the area was again considerably expanded as part of the large barracks construction program of the Wehrmacht , with two large two-story crew quarters and numerous vehicle halls being built to the east. In between, extensive maintenance, parking and drill areas were created. The total extension of the facility at the beginning of the Second World War was almost 600 m from northwest to southeast, around 200 m at its widest point in north-south direction. It stretched between today's streets Kasseler Straße, Am Stiegel, Oberer Schulweg, Artilleriestraße and Am Hospital.

Stationed troops

During the time of the Reichswehr, the 11th mounted (Prussian) battery of the 5th Artillery Regiment was stationed in the barracks from January 1921 . At the beginning of the armament of the Wehrmacht , the battery for the IV. Division of Artillery Regiment 9 (AR 9) was increased. This regiment was formed in 1934 as the Fulda Artillery Regiment and renamed Artillery Regiment 9 in 1935. With the rapid build-up of the Wehrmacht and the associated realignments, regroupings and relocations, the names of the drawn artillery units stationed in the barracks changed several times. So the IV./AR 9 became the I./AR 65 (Artillery Regiment 65) in October 1935. In 1936 the department was renamed I./AR 72, and at the same time a new I./AR 65 was set up in Fritzlar from parts of the previous I./AR 65 and levies from AR 16, which also had three heavy batteries. In October 1937, this department was relocated to Mühlhausen / Thuringia , but gave parts to the I./AR 45, which was newly formed in Fritzlar at the same time and which again consisted of three heavy batteries. During the mobilization in August 1939, the I./AR 45 switched as a heavy division to the AR 9 of the 9th Infantry Division .

During this entire time there was also a riding and driving department, which served to train horses and staff. An Army College for Administration and Economics, which also existed in Fritzlar, from 1936 Army College for Administration, was located 500 m further northwest on Hellenweg at the Heeresverpflegungsamt (HVA), which the local population usually calls the "Provision Office".

During the war years, various replacement troops were stationed in the Watter barracks: the Artillery Replacement Department 45, the Heavy Artillery Replacement Department 45, the Artillery Replacement Department 309 and the Heavy Artillery Replacement Department 309.

Towards the end of the war, the so-called "Kampfgruppe Fritzlar" formed around March 20, 1945, which on March 30 and 31 under Major General Erwin Kaschner offered unsuccessful resistance against the advancing US troops in front of Fritzlar and then at Werkel , had its headquarters in the barracks. After several days of fighting in the Edertal with the participation of the Fritzlar artillery, Fritzlar was captured and occupied by the Americans on Easter Sunday , April 1, 1945.

Post-war use

DP camp

After the end of the Second World War, the Watter barracks, like the former Fritzlar Air Base, were used by UNRRA and, from 1947, by its successor organization IRO as a DP camp for so-called Displaced Persons (DPs). The first DP camp set up on the air base existed until at least April 1946 and at that time was occupied by around 150 people. The DP camp on the barracks site was probably opened in the spring of 1946 and existed until 1949. On April 2, 1946, there were 1,439 DPs in the old barracks, almost all of them former slave laborers . Initially there were no Jews among them. The number of inmates briefly rose to 1979, but then fell again to 1,481 by April 15.

The first Jewish camp residents, who were concentration camp survivors and homeless, are only documented on June 1, 1946. On February 8, 1947, 1,050 of the 1,069 inmates belonged to this group of people. Until it was closed, the camp was almost invariably occupied by Jewish DPs who were waiting to leave Germany. The total occupancy between March 1947 and March 1948 was between 995 and 918 and decreased only slowly. Only in April 1948 did it fall below 900 and at the end of November 1948 it was still 825. After that, the camp gradually emptied and in 1949 it was closed. The dates of the closure are different: February 1949 and August 4, 1949.

Residential and commercial area

The extensive barracks area was then made available for civilian purposes. In the old team building on Kasseler Straße, apartments were set up for refugees and displaced persons , and in some cases also small businesses such as B. a small lamp factory. The municipal elementary school moved into a large team block built during the Nazi era on today's street “Am Hospital” ; the associated large parade ground became the playground. A former parade hall has been converted into a sports hall. In many of the former stables and other outbuildings, storage rooms have been set up for feed, food and beverage dealers or small craft businesses. The disaster control central workshop Fritzlar of the THW was also housed in the workshops of the former barracks, as was the accommodation of the THW local association until 2002. In 1953, the Heliowatt radio factory set up a production facility in a second team block behind the current school as well as in the elongated former motor vehicle halls behind it, where radios were manufactured. A riding arena and part of the horse stables were rented from the local riding and driving club and were used for training horses, young riders and vaulting , especially in the winter months . Finally, in the 1950s, the Carl Althoff tent circus , then the Busch circus, used parts of the stables and a former riding hall as winter quarters.

End of use

In 1974, the old team building on Kasselerstraße was demolished to make room for a reinforced concrete structure - controversial in terms of urban development - which houses a supermarket on the ground floor and the town hall on the upper floor.

One of the old riding arenas, which had temporarily served as a circus winter quarters in the 1950s, was converted into a drinks market. In the team block, which housed the elementary school until 1962, is now the state education authority for the Schwalm-Eder district and the Waldeck-Frankenberg district . The team block to the north behind it was converted into a doctor and pharmacy house in 2011/12. Otherwise there are only two former commandant houses from the time of use by the Wehrmacht. The former stables and vehicle halls and the other drill and riding arenas were all demolished from around 1990 and replaced a few years ago by new construction of two shopping centers.

Coordinates: 51 ° 8 ′ 4.2 ″  N , 9 ° 16 ′ 30 ″  E

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Karl Burchart, Clemens Lohmann, Martin Opfer: Fritzlar: A tour through the city in old photographs. Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen, 1988, ISBN 3-925277-15-3 , pp. 56-57
  2. Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Jewish fellow citizens in Fritzlar 1933-1949. BoD, Norderstedt, 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4417-7 , p. 98.
  3. Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Jewish fellow citizens in Fritzlar 1933-1949. BoD, Norderstedt, 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4417-7 , p. 101.
  4. ^ Four Jewish Dp Camps in US Zone of Germany to Close During March, JDC Reports
  5. Paul Gerhard Lohmann: Jewish fellow citizens in Fritzlar 1933-1949. BoD, Norderstedt, 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4417-7 , p. 98.

literature

  • Karl Burchart, Clemens Lohmann, Martin Opfer: Fritzlar: A tour through the city in old photographs. Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen, 1988, ISBN 3-925277-15-3
  • Paulgerhard Lohmann: Jewish fellow citizens in Fritzlar 1933–1949. BoD, Norderstedt, 2006, ISBN 3-8334-4417-7