Code Name Friedland - The Explosives and Ammunitions Factory

This was the largest "Lost Place" I have visited until now.
Construction began in 1936. In the secret position plan of the "Reichsamt für Wirtschaftsaufbau" (The Reich's Agency for Economic Development), the facility was recorded at the beginning of 1939 under the code name "Friedland" as one of 87 existing production facilities for explosives, combat agents and ammunition.
The facility was walled with barbed wire. It was an area of about 580 acres with 399 buildings. Next to a factory railway with a length of 17 kilometres they had an extensive road network on the premises.

Three brown coal power stations with an electrical power output of 4.400, 3.000 and 1.200 kilowatt hours were built to ensure the elctric supply.
These were supplied from a high-rise bunker which in turn was directly connected to a nearby coal mine via cable lift.
The generated electricity was transformed and distributed in 20 transformer stations.
In addition, there were emergency generators for the main production buildings.

There is an enormous water demand for the production of explosives. To secure that, five deep wells were drilled, a cooling lake and two elevated tanks were built and two pump stations were constructed.
The facility had one drinking water network and two industrial water networks.
Five seperate sewer networks conveyed the raw acidic sewage directly into a nearby river until 1941 a neutralization plant was completed.

For the production and recycling of the chemicals needed for the production, a denitration and concentration plant for sulfuric acid was built, as well as an acid cleavage plant for the production of Oleum (highly concentrated sulfuric acid).

This is enough information for now, more will follow, but here are some pictures for you.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Remnants of the Cold War - Nuclear Weapons Depot (Part 2)

Since the visit to the Special Ammunitions Site (SAS) was not planned at all, the drive there was a little adventure.
I knew where the site was, but I had no idea how to get there and what condition the roads - if any - were in. The last nuclear weapons depot was also situated in a very rural area and the anti-tank barriers were still there and we had to walk pretty far, so I reckoned it would be the same here. But there were no tank traps, just a couple of very muddy off-limits farm roads.
As it turned out, there would have been a road directly to the main gate, as the facility is partly used by civilian institutions such as the local forestry office - but with the chance of getting caught...

Anyway, here's the rest of the pictures.

Part 1 | Part 2

Remnants of the Cold War - Nuclear Weapons Depot

It was a rainy Saturday and the shopping trip with my wife and my mother-in-law was surprisingly short, so the three of us went for a spontaneous tour to a former U.S. Special Ammunitions Site (SAS).
I knew about this location but I didn't think that we would find the time. But we did!
In these depots, of which there are a lot in Germany, maintained and guarded by the U.S. Army, nuclear warheads were stored for use with German carrier systems within the scope of the so-called "nuclear sharing" in case of a nuclear war.
The layout of these depots was always the same (check out my visit to a different depot here): There was an inner ring, guarded by soldiers from the U.S. Army unit responsible for the depot, and an outer ring that was guarded by soldiers from the host nation - in this case Germany.
In this particular depot, the nucelar ammunition for the 2nd Panzergrenadierdivision (Armored Infantry Division) was stored, more specific warheads for the tactical short-range missile "Honest John", artillery grenades 203mm (8 inches) for the M110 howitzer and artillery grenades 155mm for the M109 howitzer.
The depot was active from 1962 until 1992.

Part 1 | Part 2

No Milk Today - The Dairy Company (Part 4)

During the 1930s, the son of the owner, who had learned the trade in Mecklenburg, imported the "Siberian Butter" and introduced it to this part of Germany. It was the ideal fat for bakeries and pastry shops.
The founder died in 1941, and both his sons were drafted for the war in 1939 and 1943.
After the war, the sons ran the business, but the mother was firmly in control until 1968, when she turned 80.
In 1952, almost the entire dairy company was torn down and rebuilt.
During the 1970s and later years, the company's downfall began with the death of small corner shops, which lead to a collapse of the profits of the dairy wholsale business.
The company itself was too small to keep up with the ever-expanding market of large businesses, supermarkets and discount stores.
In 2004, the company filed for bankruptcy and production stopped in 2005.
There are plans to build apartments or a supermarket on the premises, but no final decision has been made.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

No Milk Today - The Dairy Company (Part 3)

As I've mentioned in my first post about this dairy company, it was originally founded in 1909 as a wholesale store for milk and butter.
After World War I, at the height of the inflation in 1922, the owner purchased an old paint factory that had been built in 1915, and cooperated with a trucking company that had exclusive rights to collect milk in the surrounding areas, which he brought to the "new" factory.
In the beginning, business was improvised in the old rooms of the paint factory, and in 1932, the factory was modernized for the first time.
The company got a new name and a new boiler house with a big quadrangular chimney.

In the next post, I will continue telling the story, but for now, I'll leave you with the next load of pictures.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4