Zehrensdorf (Zossen)

Coordinates: 52 ° 10 ′ 10 ″  N , 13 ° 30 ′ 40 ″  E

Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery

Zehrensdorf is a modern urban devastation on the district of Wünsdorf , a district of the city of Zossen in the Teltow-Fläming district ( Brandenburg ). The village was cleared in 1909/10 when the Wünsdorf military training area was set up. After the First World War , the place was repopulated from 1921, only to be finally cleared in 1935. To the northwest of the old village center is the Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery , a cemetery for Indian prisoners of war soldiers from the First World War, which was restored in 2005.

Geographical location

The former location or location is located on a dam moraine 73 m above sea level running in a southerly direction. The surrounding "mountains" are over 100 m high, the Streitackerberge 108 m, Spitzer Berg 105 m and the Eichberg 100 m. Today, the district is predominantly covered with light pine forest and wasteland and heather in between. To the east of the former location, a small, artificial lake has formed in a clay quarry.

history

Zehrensdorf was first mentioned in a document in 1541. According to Schlimpert, the name is a Slavic-German mixed name which is to be interpreted as "village of a Čirn-. The personal name is derived from an ancient Slavonic form * čьrnъ = black. The interpretation as Zährensdorf = village of tears, from tears, tears comes from folk etymology.

Population development from 1583 to 1925 (according to the historical local dictionary)

year	Residents
1583	approx. 60–75 (12 farmers, 3 farmers )
1734	110
1772	133
1801	127
1817	118
1840	129
1858	161
1895	272
1925	185 + 65 (Rappaport) + 66 (Weinberg settlement) + 60 (brickyard)

According to the Schmettauschen map of 1767/87, Zehrensdorf was a street village, on the Urmes table sheet from 1841 the original structure, a round or dead end village closed to the east, can still be seen. However, by this time the original structure had already changed; the streets of Zossen and Wünsdorf met in front of the town to the west and led right through the town to Töpchin . This road was also an important link from Zossen to Teupitz. To the east of the village, a path branched off to Egsdorf to the southeast (and from there on to Teupitz) and another path to Motzen to the northeast.

According to the inheritance register of the Zossen office from 1583, Zehrensdorf had 16 hooves that were tended by 12 farmers. The hooves each had 35 acres and 31 square rods , which is roughly 14.9 hectares. One hoof was slightly smaller. The Lehnschulze, a Lehnmann and another farmer each had two hooves, two farmers each had 1½ hooves and seven farmers each had one hoof. In the village there were also three cottages with little land and meadow ownership. In 1624 a shepherd is also mentioned. The Thirty Years' War also devastated Zehrensdorf. In 1652 there were only eight farmers and two cottagers in the village. A farm belonged to the chamberlain J. Gehren, who had it run by a Meier. In 1655 the village also had fishing rights in the Großer Möggelinsee . It was not until 1711 that the level before the Thirty Years' War was reached again with 12 farmers, three kossas and one shepherd. The jug is mentioned for the first time in 1745; two family houses were built outside the village. In 1755, in addition to farmers, Kossaers and Hiten, two Büdner and three residents had settled in the village, including a tailor who was also the schoolmaster and a night watchman. The pitcher was operated by one of the Büdners. In 1771 15 gables were counted in the village, in 1801 20 fireplaces (= households). By 1801 a windmill had been built and a brick factory was set up east of the village. In 1812 a new cemetery was created about 500 m northwest of the village on the road from Zehrensdorf to Zossen. Before that, the dead from the village were buried in the Kietz cemetery in Zossen. In 1840 the place had grown to 26 houses. In 1860 the number of buildings is given as a public building, 29 residential buildings and 50 farm buildings, including a brick factory. In 1883 Zehrensdorf was a comparatively wealthy village, the livestock is given as 43 horses, 172 cattle, 14 sheep, 95 pigs and 9 goats. Honey was obtained from 35 beehives. In 1900 the place had grown to 41 houses. The livestock had increased to 69 horses, 177 cattle, 13 sheep, 155 pigs and 34 goats. The district covered 1150 ha.

Around 1800 a brick factory was built on the road from Zehrensdorf to Töpchin and almost 3 km east of the town center in the Zehrensdorf district, but close to the Töpchin boundary. In the Urmes table sheet of 1841 it is incorrectly listed as Töpchiner brickworks. At the end of the 19th century, a second brick factory was built at the eastern end of the village.

Since 1909 a military training area for the III. Army corps and the guard corps were created and the residents' properties were forcibly bought up. However, for the conditions at the time, they were compensated lavishly. According to Spatz, compensation was paid between 1200 and 1600 Reichsmarks per hectare. The residents of Zehrensdorf, who had become relatively wealthy as a result of the purchase, settled primarily in the vicinity. The land transfers were completed by October 1, 1910 and the village was evacuated by April 1, 1911. On February 16, 1912, the Zehrensdorf estate district owned by the Reich was formed from the village and its district by cabinet order. The former manor district "Haus Zossen", parts of the Wünsdorf district, parts of the Schöneicher and Töpchiner district and parts of the Kummersdorfer forest were connected to this; a total of 3183 hectares with 1516 inhabitants was created. The western border of this manor district ran roughly along today's B 96, i.e. H. Most of the military facilities, administrative buildings and civil buildings of the Wünsdorf military complex were located on the area of ​​the Zehrensdorf estate. Nevertheless, before the First World War, the name Schießplatz Wünsdorf and military training area Zossen became popular in official documents. In the 1930s, the area was then usually referred to as the Zossen military training area or Wünsdorf military training area. The name Wünsdorf was also used for the headquarters of the High Command of the Group of the Soviet Armed Forces in Germany (GSSD), the name Zehrensdorf was completely forgotten.

During the First World War, the so-called half-moon camp for Muslim prisoners was set up in the Zehrensdorf estate . About 30,000 prisoners of war were interned here, hundreds died in this prison camp. They were buried in the former village cemetery of Zehrensdorf, 500 m northwest of the old town center on the road to Zossen. A mosque was built for the prisoners in 1915, which is still reminiscent of the Moscheestrasse, a side street to Wünsdorfer Hauptallee.

After the referendums in what was then West Prussia and its annexation to Poland, many German families moved to the German Reich and had to be housed. An expert opinion in 1920 determined that there were 38 houses, of which only 10 were used by the military. The rest could be obtained immediately. In 1921 the repopulation of the village began with 28 families from formerly Prussian areas who had fallen to Poland. The houses and stables were repaired, the fallow fields, meadows and gardens restored. The school was refurbished and classes resumed. An inn with an attached bakery and a shop was reopened. The Zehrensdorf estate, owned by the Reich, was dissolved again on December 27, 1927, and the Gerlachshof Vorwerk was incorporated. In 1928 the manor district was converted into the municipality of Zehrensdorf. The exclaves at the Großer and Kleiner Möggelinsee , which originally belonged to the Zehrensdorf district , were added to the Jachzenbrück community (now Lindenbrück ). In 1929, the oak forestry department belonging to the Kummersdorf manor district, north of the town center, was incorporated. In 1932, the Zehrensdorf community included the Forsthaus Eiche, Vorwerk Gerlachshof, Rappaport brickworks, Schützenhaus, Weinberge settlement, old village Zehrensdorf, Zossen main camp with work command of the military training area, Gundlach settlement, Zossen forest lodge, barracks training battalion and military gymnasium. The district of this new municipality of Zehrensdorf was almost 2000 hectares larger than the district of the original municipality of Zehrensdorf before its dissolution.

The brickworks had also been bought by the military treasury, but they continued to produce. They supplied some of the bricks for the administration buildings and barracks of the Wünsdorf military training area and for the residential buildings of the civilian employees. In 1935, the brickworks (Georg Rappaport & Co.) on the eastern edge of the town ceased production. The second brick factory also seems to have been producing until the early 1930s.

In 1936 the community of Zehrensdorf was dissolved again and converted to the manor district of the "German Reich, Wehrmacht Treasury". The so-called Mühlenlager (an area enclosed by Försterweg in the west, Schwarzer Weg in the north and An den Eichen in the south, including the Zossen forestry department) as well as the former Gerlachshof works were incorporated into the town of Zossen, so that the new military-fiscal estate district with 3117 ha was initially a little smaller than the former manor district before the First World War. The roads from Wünsdorf and Zossen to Zehrensdorf and from there to Töpchin were closed. House fighting was practiced in the empty buildings; presumably they were also targets for live ammunition. During the Second World War , street-house fighting allegedly from the front was filmed in the ruins for the newsreels.

The military base in Wünsdorf was subsequently expanded. In 1939 the headquarters of the Army High Command was moved to the newly built bunker facilities on the site. At the end of April 1945 the area was captured by the advancing Soviet troops. The military area became the seat of the military command of the Soviet Marshal Zhukov . In March 1953 the area between the railway line and the B 96 was cleared; this already belonged to the Wünsdorf district. Around 800 residents were resettled, the F 96 (later B 96 ) was closed. The area was surrounded by a wall and became a closed military town, in which up to 100,000 people are said to have lived at peak times; the military town of Wünsdorf had an average of around 30 to 40,000 inhabitants. After the Soviet armed forces withdrew from Germany in August 1994, further military use was initially considered, but abandoned for cost reasons.

The Brandenburg State Development Company founded a subsidiary, the Waldstadt Wünsdorf / Zehrensdorf development company, to develop the site. In this designation, the name of the old village appears again for the first time, on whose boundary the military town lay for the most part, admittedly on its boundary, which was greatly enlarged even before the First World War, at the expense of Wünsdorf and Zossen. The site of the former military base was free of parishes and so the parish of Waldstadt was founded on February 16, 1996 as part of the fourth law on parish structure in the state of Brandenburg . The old name Zehrensdorf was dropped, presumably because the name Waldstadt was hoped for better marketing. On September 27, 1998, Waldstadt was incorporated into the official municipality of Wünsdorf and became its district. In the course of the municipal reform in 2003 in Brandenburg, the fourth law for the state-wide municipal area reform concerning the districts Havelland, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Teltow-Fläming (4th GemGebRefGBbg) of March 24, 2003, the communities Glienick , Kallinchen , next Neuendorf , Nunsdorf , Schöneiche , Wünsdorf and the (core) city of Zossen merged to form the new city of Zossen. Wünsdorf became part of the new town of Zossen, Waldstadt became part of the municipality.

supporting documents

literature

• Lieselott Enders and Margot Beck: Historical local dictionary for Brandenburg. Part IV. Teltow. 395 p., Hermann Böhlaus successor Weimar, 1976.
• Th. Ernst: The end of a Brandenburg village. Teltower Heimatkalender, 7: 67–73, 1910.
• Gerhard Schlimpert : Brandenburg name book part 3 The place names of the Teltow. 368 p., Hermann Böhlaus successor, Weimar 1972.
• Wilhelm Spatz: The Teltow. Part T. 3., History of the localities in the Teltow district. 384 pp., Berlin, Rohde, 1912.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Schlimpert (1972: p. 210)
2. ^ W. Heinelt: Zehrensdorf - The fate of a village. Home calendar for the Zossen district, 1961: pp. 143–149, Zossen 1961.
3. ↑ Enders and Beck (1976: p. 367/8)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Gerhard Kaiser (with the help of Bernd Herrmann and with photographs by Christian Thiel and Detlev Steinberg): From the restricted area to the forest town: the history of the secret command centers in Wünsdorf and the surrounding area. 4th, updated and exp. Aufl., 223 S., Berlin, 2007 ISBN 978-3-86153-434-1 Online at Google Books
5. ↑ Fourth law on the state-wide municipal area reform concerning the districts Havelland, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Teltow-Fläming (4th GemGebRefGBbg) of March 24, 2003
6. ↑ Main statutes of the city of Zossen from March 4, 2009 PDF ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Homepage of the city of Zossen