hey there guys
This time i got the honnor of inviting you guys on a trip to a site thats imo is a "must go see it" but that decision ill leave up to you guys to make in the end of this thread. Some years ago i got intrested in some of the 20 Führerhaubtquatiere hitler made during his timeperiod as " baumeister" in the 3 reich. Some are well known as the F-Bunker in Berlin, wolfschanze, felsennest etc. ill guess you guys know them all and they are all well known in history, i have studdied them all through time but this give me a varm feeling of dokumented history that imo has to be told here on WAF and try give a picture ind the importance of this very large complex.
Last time we where in the western side of the defenceline lets this time concentrate the intrest in the southern part of Berlin not on the last official but one of the main factors of the outer defenclines and maintain of all the meny defenclines made.
Lets start our journey in time by going aprox 50 km ( 27 miles ) south of Berlin city to the little village of Wünsdorf , my first impression was a little village whit arround 6000 citizens nice and calm and proberly where everybody knows everybody but whit a felling of been welcome to the little city, however it has acording to history not always been that way.
Wünsdorfs military site began long before the days of the Nazi barracks - in imperial times. In 1910 here first military buildings were constructed. This included the so-called "Halfmoon Camp", which was built at the beginning of World War I as a camp for prisoners of war, Muslim Arabs, Indians and Africans from the British and French armies. There at that time about 30,000 prisoners of war were interned. The military camp refers as " stammlager" for the Reichswehr. further back in history just arround 1871 the emperial troops established 2 test firing ranges with lenghts of 7 and 12 km just south -west of Wünsdorf in kummersdorf forrest so the military history go way back in time and as i read history the whole area of Wünsdorf, Zossen and kummersdorf was chosen by the Emperor of practical and strategic reasons. I 1875 a railway refered as the " Generalstabsbahn" was established whit direct link to Berlin and the weapon industrie could very easy go testing new models, and during 1 ww names like one of the large railway gun "dicke Bertha" ( named after Bertha krupp ) turns up wich is a very large terror weapon at that time and was tested here, well its was imo build to demoralice the enemy troops more then being a effective and acurate artellerie weapon. Some of the very first rocket test firing was made here too for arround 1 year. well the whole area was in evolution, just east from Wünsdorf a large inf. traning space was established wich included several of the nearby villages and by 1914, the 60,000-acre area had become Europe’s largest military base, dotted with handsome buildings, some of which survive to this day. Lets make a slight time jump to hitler got in power, the area was taking a whole new turn and being prepered for war, the decision was made that the Ober Kommando der Wehrmacht was to be established in this area, The decision to begin work at Zossen - Wünsdorf as an underground military communications centre codenamed "Zeppelin" was taken in August 1936 by the Reichspostamt whit call signal "Amt 500" . Construction took from 1937 until just before the outbreak of war and arround 1938 aprox 2000 workers was " updating " this area. The construction of 12 massive bunkers ( siedlungshäuser ) at same time for the OKW, these was massive whit a lenght of 36,20 meters and 16,39 high along whit 2 underground floors at 9 meters deep. Most were operational by August 1939 in time for the German attack on Poland. Radio facilities were also added. Substantial battery backups guaranteed continued operation even with loss of the electric power grid due to air attack. The Allies never discovered the existence of these backups until after the war and bomb damage was largely superficial, indicating that the backups had not been targets. Maybach I was occupied by the Army General Staff on 26.8.1939 and it was from Zossen that the orders were issued, and retracted, for the attack on Poland scheduled for that day. The OKW command centre was transferred to Zossen from Bendlerstrasse in Berlin on 29.3.1943. along whit 3 companies of Nachtrichtenabteilung 40.
MAYBACH II was completed during the war as a Fuehrer-HQ: it consisted of 23 more buildings similar to those at MAYBACH I, seven of which were allocated for Hitler and his entourage. Hitler never occupied MAYBACH II mainly because he felt uncomfortable at being surrounded by Army personnel and the facility was not completed which he later in the last days did rage about and called the working companies for " swindelbauten" when he had his moments. The other buildings were occupied by Army Transport. Other branches joined later in the evacuation process from Berlin.
So bascily we are talking of the planning and execution of the orders in the campaing against Polen, france, Denmark and Holland was from this place so the whole area was the most important place in the functional side of the 3 reich. lets get a view over the complexes
Maybach I and Maybach II
a1 (1).JPG
a1 (2).JPG
This time i got the honnor of inviting you guys on a trip to a site thats imo is a "must go see it" but that decision ill leave up to you guys to make in the end of this thread. Some years ago i got intrested in some of the 20 Führerhaubtquatiere hitler made during his timeperiod as " baumeister" in the 3 reich. Some are well known as the F-Bunker in Berlin, wolfschanze, felsennest etc. ill guess you guys know them all and they are all well known in history, i have studdied them all through time but this give me a varm feeling of dokumented history that imo has to be told here on WAF and try give a picture ind the importance of this very large complex.
Last time we where in the western side of the defenceline lets this time concentrate the intrest in the southern part of Berlin not on the last official but one of the main factors of the outer defenclines and maintain of all the meny defenclines made.
Lets start our journey in time by going aprox 50 km ( 27 miles ) south of Berlin city to the little village of Wünsdorf , my first impression was a little village whit arround 6000 citizens nice and calm and proberly where everybody knows everybody but whit a felling of been welcome to the little city, however it has acording to history not always been that way.
Wünsdorfs military site began long before the days of the Nazi barracks - in imperial times. In 1910 here first military buildings were constructed. This included the so-called "Halfmoon Camp", which was built at the beginning of World War I as a camp for prisoners of war, Muslim Arabs, Indians and Africans from the British and French armies. There at that time about 30,000 prisoners of war were interned. The military camp refers as " stammlager" for the Reichswehr. further back in history just arround 1871 the emperial troops established 2 test firing ranges with lenghts of 7 and 12 km just south -west of Wünsdorf in kummersdorf forrest so the military history go way back in time and as i read history the whole area of Wünsdorf, Zossen and kummersdorf was chosen by the Emperor of practical and strategic reasons. I 1875 a railway refered as the " Generalstabsbahn" was established whit direct link to Berlin and the weapon industrie could very easy go testing new models, and during 1 ww names like one of the large railway gun "dicke Bertha" ( named after Bertha krupp ) turns up wich is a very large terror weapon at that time and was tested here, well its was imo build to demoralice the enemy troops more then being a effective and acurate artellerie weapon. Some of the very first rocket test firing was made here too for arround 1 year. well the whole area was in evolution, just east from Wünsdorf a large inf. traning space was established wich included several of the nearby villages and by 1914, the 60,000-acre area had become Europe’s largest military base, dotted with handsome buildings, some of which survive to this day. Lets make a slight time jump to hitler got in power, the area was taking a whole new turn and being prepered for war, the decision was made that the Ober Kommando der Wehrmacht was to be established in this area, The decision to begin work at Zossen - Wünsdorf as an underground military communications centre codenamed "Zeppelin" was taken in August 1936 by the Reichspostamt whit call signal "Amt 500" . Construction took from 1937 until just before the outbreak of war and arround 1938 aprox 2000 workers was " updating " this area. The construction of 12 massive bunkers ( siedlungshäuser ) at same time for the OKW, these was massive whit a lenght of 36,20 meters and 16,39 high along whit 2 underground floors at 9 meters deep. Most were operational by August 1939 in time for the German attack on Poland. Radio facilities were also added. Substantial battery backups guaranteed continued operation even with loss of the electric power grid due to air attack. The Allies never discovered the existence of these backups until after the war and bomb damage was largely superficial, indicating that the backups had not been targets. Maybach I was occupied by the Army General Staff on 26.8.1939 and it was from Zossen that the orders were issued, and retracted, for the attack on Poland scheduled for that day. The OKW command centre was transferred to Zossen from Bendlerstrasse in Berlin on 29.3.1943. along whit 3 companies of Nachtrichtenabteilung 40.
MAYBACH II was completed during the war as a Fuehrer-HQ: it consisted of 23 more buildings similar to those at MAYBACH I, seven of which were allocated for Hitler and his entourage. Hitler never occupied MAYBACH II mainly because he felt uncomfortable at being surrounded by Army personnel and the facility was not completed which he later in the last days did rage about and called the working companies for " swindelbauten" when he had his moments. The other buildings were occupied by Army Transport. Other branches joined later in the evacuation process from Berlin.
So bascily we are talking of the planning and execution of the orders in the campaing against Polen, france, Denmark and Holland was from this place so the whole area was the most important place in the functional side of the 3 reich. lets get a view over the complexes
Maybach I and Maybach II
a1 (1).JPG
a1 (2).JPG
bec the tour is on german and most of the visitors are german themselfe or scandinavian tourist, for me its not a problem i do both and hopefully in future some kind of translation might be a option, well remember to take some water and even if its a warm summer then i recoment some close bec the temperture in these bunkers never raise more then 10 dg year round so if you not use to the cold then you got a problem.
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