Welfen barracks (Landsberg am Lech)

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GermanyFlag of Germany (state) .svg Welfen barracks
Barracks entrance

Barracks entrance
country Germany
local community Landsberg am Lech
Coordinates : 48 ° 4 '  N , 10 ° 50'  E Coordinates: 48 ° 4 '3 "  N , 10 ° 49' 30"  E
Opened 1944
Stationed troops
see offices at the location
Welfen barracks (Bavaria)
Welfen barracks

Location of the Welfen barracks in Bavaria

The Welfen-Kaserne is a barracks of the Bundeswehr in Landsberg am Lech in the state of Bavaria . In the barracks there is an underground facility (UTA) that had to be built by concentration camp inmates at the end of the Second World War . Today it houses the repair center 13 and parts of the Bundeswehr service center in Landsberg am Lech.

Underground plant

Construction and use during World War II

Due to the increase in air raids in 1943, during which many armaments factories and manufacturing facilities were destroyed by Allied bombers, Adolf Hitler ordered on April 21, 1944, six underground, bomb-proof aircraft factories to be built in the Reich. The bunkers should all be over 400 meters long, 86 meters wide at their base and 26 meters high at the top. After completion, the production of Messerschmitt Me 262 , Focke-Wulf Ta 152 and Dornier Do 335 aircraft was to begin in these factories . At the Landsberg am Lech site , three of these gigantic bunkers with the code names "Diana II", "Weingut II" and "Walnuss II" were to be built. Another bunker was to be built at each of the locations in Mühldorf am Inn (code name “ Weingut I ”), in Bedburg west of Cologne (code name unknown) and near Prague (code name unknown). The supervision of the project was the responsibility of a construction management (OBL) with the code name "Ringeltaube". The entire construction project was supervised and carried out by the Todt organization .

As early as April 1944, construction companies relocated their construction machines from France ( Atlantic Wall ) to Landsberg am Lech. In May, the clearing work began on the "Weingut II" construction site. Shortly thereafter, other construction sites followed. In September 1944 construction at the Bedburg construction site was stopped, and in January 1945 the construction of "Walnuss II". At the end of the war, "Weingut I" and "Weingut II" were 70% complete. The first segment of "Diana II" was under construction. So far, no reliable information is available about the aircraft factory in Prague. Today only "Weingut II" and a small part of "Weingut I" exist. The "Weingut II" bunker is located in the area of ​​the Welfen barracks and contains a second bunker inside that is still in use.

From June 1944 to April 1945 a total of around 23,000 prisoners were deported to Landsberg as slave labor. They were housed in ten subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp around Landsberg and Kaufering under inhumane conditions (an eleventh camp was not used). The hard work and the inhumane conditions, such as insufficient or missing food, illness and cold, caused large numbers of victims among the concentration camp prisoners. Over 6,300 forced laborers did not survive (6334 deaths are documented). In addition, around 2,700 prisoners were selected as unable to work and deported to other concentration camps - above all to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen .

End of the war and takeover by the US Army and German Armed Forces

At the end of the war, 226 meters of the outer shell of the "Weingut II" facility had been concreted and the interior work had already progressed for the first 70 meters. The American army “disposed of” the surplus bombs that were delivered from England by means of controlled detonation in the bunker systems. The bunker survived this disposal without major wounds. First the US Army used the bunker as an ammunition depot. In 1960 the facility was taken over by the German Armed Forces and from 1960 to 1966 the Air Force expanded it in its current form. A bunker was created in a bunker, so to speak. The aim was initially to accommodate the Matador weapon system .

However, the Matador weapon system was not purchased (on the other hand Pershing rockets, which were not stored here) and thus the facility was used as a storage and repair facility from 1964, so that nuclear warheads were never stored in the underground facility. The current Welfen barracks was only rebuilt in the 1970s. Before that, the soldiers were transported there daily from neighboring barracks (Lagerlechfeld, Landsberg, Penzing, etc.). The bunker is still used today for the maintenance of avionic assemblies. Until 2005 there was also a material depot in the underground facility in the Welfen barracks and until the beginning of 2007 the programming center of the air force for airborne weapon systems (ProgrZ Lw flg WaSys).

Todays use

Today, the underground facility is mainly used by the maintenance center 13 (formerly the avionics system center). All other units stationed in the Welfen barracks are mainly in buildings outside the bunker. As part of the realignment of the Bundeswehr , the avionics system center was dissolved with effect from March 31, 2014 and the new maintenance center 13 was set up at the site on the following day.

Offices on site

The Welfen barracks houses the following units:

  • Repair center 13
  • Landsberg Federal Fire Brigade
  • other small offices

Parts of the Bundeswehr service center in Landsberg am Lech are also stationed at the site . However, the headquarters are not in the Welfen barracks, but on the premises of the Landsberg Air Base . With the cessation of flight operations at the air base, the service center is to move completely to the Welfen barracks.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from A. Hitler to A. Speer (April 21, 1944), Bundesarchiv Koblenz, R 3/1576, p. 131: "I commission the head of the OT headquarters, Ministerialdirektor Dorsch, while maintaining his other functions within your area of ​​responsibility the execution of the six hunter's constructions ordered by me. "
  2. ↑ a b c Michael Siebert, Gerhard Roletscheck: Welfen barracks in Landsberg am Lech - military history collection "Remembrance of Weingut II" . 5th edition. Repair center 13, 2017.
  3. ↑ Fritz-Walter Odinius: "PROJECT RINGELTAUBE - Basics for a lecture design on the history of the underground facility in the Welfen barracks" at www.survivors-landsberg.com; viewed on May 13, 2009 (PDF; 99 kB)
  4. ↑ Consolidation of the Eurofighter system support center and the ProgZ FlgWaSys
  5. ↑ Stephan Knobloch: "Air Force Operations Logistics - Reorientation to the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow" from European Security 10/2008; viewed on May 13, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.europaeische-sicherheit.de

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