American Forces residential area in Bremerhaven

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Apartment blocks for American soldier families in the Großer Blink (1954)

The residential quarters of the American Armed Forces in Bremerhaven were built after the Second World War in the 1950s in various districts of the northern German port city and were used to accommodate families of American soldiers. The number of United States Army (US Army) soldiers stationed in Bremerhaven during the Cold War and later was always related to the political threat situation. The regular number was 4,000, in times of crisis 5,000 to 6,000 men. In 1994 the US Army left Bremerhaven after 48 years.

background

Except for the color, authentic block of flats in Geestemünde (2019)
Floor plan of two apartments on one floor

Towards the end of the Second World War, the 51st (Highland) Division of the British Army occupied the city ​​of Wesermünde , to which Bremerhaven had belonged since 1939, on May 7, 1945, one day before the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht . On May 12, she celebrated the Victory Parade at the Leher Tor . The US Army did the same in the same location eight days later, on May 20, 1945. At the same time, it took over the city from the British. On June 12, 1945 was the international port area in Bremerhaven again for the waterway opened and served from now on as supply port ( "Port of Embarkation") for the US occupation forces in Germany.

On April 28, 1946, a troop transport ship of the US Army brought the first around 380 family members of US soldiers to Bremerhaven, from where they were largely transported by train to various destinations in the American occupation zone in southeast Germany and to Greater Berlin . In December 1949 around 17,600 families with a total of around 38,600 relatives of US soldiers were already living in Germany, around 37,200 of them in permanent quarters, around 2,400 in temporary quarters and around 600 in transitional quarters.

By agreement of the British and US occupation authorities in 1947, the urban and rural areas of Bremen and the Wesermünde district, including Bremerhaven, were declared "an administrative area to be designated as a country". In addition, Wesermünde was renamed Bremerhaven in the same year.

In the 1950s, three large housing areas were built in Bremerhaven for the families of the American soldiers stationed in the port city. The houses in these "Little Americas" were built according to a uniform construction plan and cut in the American style. The apartments did not have a vestibule, so that you did not enter a hall, but the large living room . Fly screens and the lack of curtains were characteristic . Banned in American wooden houses because of the risk of fire, curtains and drapes were frowned upon in German stone buildings too. In the blocks there were two apartments on one floor for each entrance. The apartments had built-in wardrobes. The furnishings were changed every time the resident left the place. In Weddewarden there was a furniture store, where the furniture was outdated or replaced. The new residents could also choose furniture. American food had to be bought in the commissary at Leher Tor. From Bremerhaven main station school buses in NATO olive drove through the entire city, especially to Lehe and Weddewarden.

Geestemünde

The first complex with 6 buildings and 84 apartments was built in 1952 between Friedrich-Ebert-Straße , Nürnberger Straße and Dürerstraße. The undeveloped area had previously been used for allotment gardens .

Blink

Former apartment blocks for US soldiers in Blink (2019)
US hospital, formerly naval hospital (1937)

The blinker between Wurster Strasse and Langener Landstrasse was the largest and most historic residential area in Bremerhaven. The Kleine Blink runs through the eastern development parallel to the Langener Landstrasse. The Große Blink goes further north from Wurster Straße and runs at right angles to Twischlehe. In 1954 68 buildings with 509 apartments were laid out here. Before the war, the Wehrmacht laid a foundation with a hospital and officers' apartments. When apartments for the US armed forces were to be built there in the post-war period in Germany and the gardens there were to be cleared, there was considerable tension because bombed-out Bremerhaven residents and refugees from the eastern regions of the German Empire lived in gazebos . The housing shortage in the bombed city had not yet been resolved. There were violent clashes between the police and local residents, which were also supported by shipyard workers. After the Adenauer II cabinet and the American federal government under Dwight D. Eisenhower had dealt with the problem, an amicable agreement was reached in the "Blink Affair". Perhaps this was due to the occasional red flags (without rune marks); because the protests were even discussed in New Germany . The little church was at the entrance to the little blinker. Today it is a synagogue . Attached to the complex was a branch of the high school that was built by the Department of Defense Dependents Schools as part of the rebuilding program . The actual high school was housed in town house 4 (now the social welfare office). Also in the immediate vicinity, on Dr.-Franz-Mertens-Straße, was the US Hospital , the former naval hospital of the Navy .

Engenmoor

Engenmoor (2019)

The residential area Im Engenmoor was built relatively late in 1956/57. The 14 blocks with 198 apartments were located between the train to Bremerhaven-Lehe station and what would become Stresemannstraße . The land belonged to the Reformed Church . Here the allotment gardeners cleared the area without much resistance. The buildings were later given clinker bricks and (south-facing) balconies .

Officers' apartments

As the British had done before, the Americans had claimed entire streets for officers' families. They were located in areas with elevated buildings that had been spared as much as possible from the air raids on Wesermünde , for example in the Friesenstrasse / Pestalozzi-Strasse area. In principle, Germans had no access to these off limits areas . Newly built double or single houses were located on the edge of the Speckenbütteler Park . Private villas were confiscated in Geestemünde, for example in today's Walter-Delius-Straße and on the east side of Frühlingstraße, where an officers' club was set up. Other residential areas were spread all over the city, including on Wurster Strasse (houses had also been confiscated there), which connected the staging area in Weddewarden with the residential areas in Lehe-Nord.

hotel

Former Dependents Hotel, corner of Steinstrasse

From 1926 onwards, large blocks of flats were built in several construction phases on the east side of Kaiserstrasse (until 1945). The later hotel building in front of the Roter Sand barracks was not completed due to the global economic crisis . A square was actually planned ; However, only the wing in Steinstrasse / “Bürger” and half a wing in Kantstrasse were completed. The Americans confiscated the block between Kantstrasse and Steinstrasse and half the block between Steinstrasse and Hardenbergstrasse. Initially, female US soldiers were housed there. In 1946 the building became a hotel that housed US soldiers coming from the United States or returning from Europe with their families. The German residents had to move out and look for another place to stay. The stone road was cordoned off with a chain link fence, and the gate was guarded by two soldiers. The Army bus stopped at the corner. At the gable of the northern block was DEPENDENTS HOTEL . In the middle of the block between Steinstrasse and Hardenbergstrasse, a gate leads to the courtyard, which was then separated in the middle by a fence. This block was returned to the previous residents around 1955.

Church services

US Church in Bürgerpark (1949–1957)

Services for Jews, Catholics and Protestants - in this order - were held in the churches in the Bürgerpark and on the Kleiner Blink as well as in the chapels of the naval barracks , the staging area at the Weddewarden airfield and in the Leher Hospital. The Christian Science came into the Theodor-Storm-school together in Lehe. There is also a small church behind the naval hospital.

school

American school

The American elementary school, built in 1958, is next to the church at Kleiner Blink. After the Americans left for a while, the American School opened on April 11, 1994 as a German elementary school with 30 children. It was almost named after Rita Hayworth . After 25 years, 230 students in ten class families are now studying at the bound all-day school .

See also

literature

  • Horst-Eberhard Friedrichs: Bremerhaven and the Americans: Stationing of the US Army 1945–1993 - a picture documentation . Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Verlag für neue Wissenschaft, Bremerhaven 2008, ISBN 978-3-86509-783-5 .
  • Rüdiger Ritter: Suburb of New York? The Americans in Bremerhaven. Results of a study at the Museum of the 1950s in Bremerhaven . Wirtschaftsverlag NW, Verlag für neue Wissenschaft, Bremerhaven 2010, ISBN 978-3-86509-929-7 , chap. Housing Areas or "Little Americas" , p. 88 .
  • Wolfgang Schmidt: "Bremerhaven needs the STÄWOG". The municipal housing company - service for the city . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8378-1037-0 , chap. 4: Purchase of the Engenmoor and Blink residential complexes after the withdrawal of the US Army by the STAWÖG , p. 117-120 .

Web links

Commons : Residential area of ​​the American Armed Forces in Bremerhaven  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Marco Butzkus: The Americans in Bremerhaven: Part 1 - The origin (the beginning). In: bremerhaven.de. March 30, 2012, accessed on May 7, 2019 (cited source: H.-E. Friedrichs: Bremerhaven und die Amerika . NW-Verlag 2008).
  2. ↑ Additionally verified by a message from the Bremerhaven City Archives , subject area 2, Uwe Jürgensen.
  3. ^ Lee Kruger: Logistics Matters and the US Army in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 . Springer International Publishing, Cham 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-81759-0 , pp. 113-115 (English).
  4. ^ Lee Kruger: Logistics Matters and the US Army in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949 . Springer International Publishing, Cham 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-81759-0 , chap. The first families arrive in Germany, April 1946 , p. 162-163 (English).
  5. ↑ a b c d In a year there is half-time of the withdrawal. In: Nordsee-Zeitung of April 10, 1992.
  6. ↑ Marco Butzkus: The Americans in Bremerhaven: Part 6 - The buildings. In: bremerhaven.de. May 4, 2012, Retrieved May 10, 2019 .
  7. ↑ H.-E. Friedrichs: Bremerhaven and the Americans . NW-Verlag 2008.
  8. ↑ Nordsee-Zeitung of May 11, 2019