Mittelwerk
Encyclopedia
Central Works was a World War II
factory that used Mittelbau-Dora
forced labor in 2 main tunnels (1.6 km each) in the Kohnstein
. The underground facility produced V-2 rockets, V-1 flying bomb
s, and other Nazi weapons.
, for 12,000 A-4 missiles at 40,000 Reichsmarks each. Mittelwerk GmbH also headed sites for V-2 rocket development and testing at Schlier (Project Zement) and Lehesten
. Beginning in May 1944, Georg Rickhey
was the Mittelwerk general manager, Albin Sawatzki was the Mittelwerk technical director over both Arthur Rudolph
's Technical Division (with deputy Karl Seidenstuecker) and Hans Lindenberg's 50 engineers of the quality control group located at Ilfeld
. Other Mittelwerk/Ilfield engineers included Magnus von Braun
in turbopump production, Guenther Haukohl who supervised V-2 production after helping design the assembly line, Eric Ball (assembly line), Hans Fridrich, Hans Palaoro and Rudolph Schlidt. The facility had a communications staff under Captain Dr Kühle, an Administrative Division run by Börner under Mittelwerk board member Otto Karl Bersch, and a Prisoner Labor Supply office (Brozsat). Hannelore Bannasch was Sawatzki's secretary.
ordered the North Works (Nordwerke) to use cross-tunnels 1-20 for a Junkers jet and piston engine factory, leaving cross-tunnels 21-46 for Mittelwerk GmbH. During February-April 1945, the Nordhausen plant built Taifun
antiaircraft missiles and Heinkel He 162
jet fighters and put into operation a liquid oxygen
plant. The plant was the Eber project and used equipment evacuated from the Watten bunker and elsewhere to build Heylandt liquid oxygen generators (the 15 generators were nearly complete when the site was captured.) The Mittelwerk also contained equipment for producing jet fuel, and in an emergency 1944 decentralization program, the Geilenberg Special Staff started the 'Cuckoo' project underground oil plant to be "carved out of the Himmelsburg" North of the Mittelwerk. V-1 flying bomb
assembly began during October/November 1944 in the South end of tunnel A. At the end of January 1945, 51 V-1s were shipped from a dispersed Fieseler
factory in Upper Bavaria (code name
Cham
) to the Nordhausen plant for completion. After a second V-1 factory at Burg was closed, the Mittelwerk Werk II in February 1945 was the only factory producing V-1 flying bombs, and a total of 2,275 V-1s were built by Werk II from September 1944 until April 1945.
that had been used in the Pacific theatre to deeply penetrate buried strongpoints and scourge them with intense heat. Instead, the nearby city of Nordhausen was attacked
with conventional bombs by two RAF Bomber Command
night bombings on 2/3 & 3/4 April, the Mittelbau-Dora
forced labor was evacuated on 4 April, and scientists evacuated to the Alpenfestung (Alpine Fortress). Contrary to Hitler's order "Demolitions on Reich Territory"
which ordered the destruction of any infrastructure that might be of use to the Allies the Nordhausen plant was evacuated without damage.
and 104th Infantry Divisions reached the city of Nordhausen on 11 April 1945 and discovered the dead and sick of the Boelcke Kaserne
barracks. Compared to the V-2 rocket casualties (2,541 killed, 5,923 injured), an estimated 20,000 Mittelbau-Dora
forced laborers died: 9000 died from exhaustion and collapse, 350 were hanged (including 200 for sabotage), and the remainder died from disease or starvation (or were shot).
On 22 May 1945, US Army Special Mission V-2 shipped the first trainload of rocket parts for use in projects such as Operation Sandy
, Operation Blossom
and, at the White Sands Proving Grounds, the Hermes project
.
The Nordhausen
area was to become part of the Soviet zone of occupation
, and Soviet Army officers arrived to tour the Nordhausen plant on 26 May 1945. In June 1945, the US Army left the Nordhausen plant as required by JCS Directive 1067/14, with parts, machine tools, and documents (including blueprints for the projected A-9/A-10 intercontinental missile) left for the Soviets. The Red Army
occupied the Mittelwerk on 5 July 1945 and demolished both of the entrances of the tunnel system in the summer of 1948.
The 1947 Andrae Trial convicted concentration camp kapos
, while 3 scientists of the V-2 rocket program were implicated (2 after the trial) and exonerated of Nazi war crimes at the Mittelwerk. On 19 May 1947, the former head of the Mittelwerk facility, Georg Rickhey
, was extradited to Germany from Wright Field
in the U.S. and acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Andrae trial. Arthur Rudolph
was neither tried nor charged with any war crime, but decades later was deported from the US, and then exonerated by a German investigation and granted German citizenship. Wernher von Braun
, the Technical Director of a separate facility at Peenemünde, visited the Mittelwerk on 25 January 1944, and a 1991 author alleged he witnessed
Mittelwerk and Buchenwald war crimes.
. Willi Kramer
, a German archaeologist and scientist who dived in the tunnel system in 1992 and 1998, estimated that 70 tons of material was stolen. Access through these entrances was not secured until 2004, when the mine went into insolvency.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
factory that used Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
forced labor in 2 main tunnels (1.6 km each) in the Kohnstein
Kohnstein
The Kohnstein is a mountain, 2 kilometres southwest of the village of Niedersachswerfen and 3 kilometres northwest of the center of the city of Nordhausen...
. The underground facility produced V-2 rockets, V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
s, and other Nazi weapons.
Mittelwerk GmbH
On 19 October 1943, the government Central Works Ltd company was issued War Contract No. 0011-5565/43 by General Emil Leeb, head of the Army Weapons OfficeGeneral of the Artillery (Germany)
General of the artillery may mean:#a rank of general in the Imperial Army, Reichswehr or Wehrmacht - the second-highest regular rank below Generaloberst. Cavalry officers of equivalent rank were called general of the cavalry, and infantry officers of equivalent rank general of the infantry...
, for 12,000 A-4 missiles at 40,000 Reichsmarks each. Mittelwerk GmbH also headed sites for V-2 rocket development and testing at Schlier (Project Zement) and Lehesten
Lehesten
Lehesten is a town in the Thuringian Forest, 20 km southeast of Saalfeld.-WWII V-2 facility:After an August 1944 explosion at the Redl-Zipf V-2 liquid oxygen plant at Schlier stopped production, the third V-2 liquid oxygen plant was built at a slate quarry at Lehesten at the...
. Beginning in May 1944, Georg Rickhey
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II...
was the Mittelwerk general manager, Albin Sawatzki was the Mittelwerk technical director over both Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph was a German rocket engineer and member of the Nazi party who played a key role in the development of the V-2 rocket. After World War II he was brought to the United States, subsequently becoming a pioneer of the United States space program. He worked for the U.S...
's Technical Division (with deputy Karl Seidenstuecker) and Hans Lindenberg's 50 engineers of the quality control group located at Ilfeld
Ilfeld
Ilfeld is a municipality in the district of Nordhausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the south foot of the Harz, at the entrance to the Bährethal, north from Nordhausen by the railway to Wernigerode.-Establishments in 1911:...
. Other Mittelwerk/Ilfield engineers included Magnus von Braun
Magnus von Braun
Magnus "Mac" Freiherr von Braun was a German chemical engineer, Luftwaffe aviator, and rocket scientist at Peenemünde, the Mittelwerk, and after emigrating to the United States via Operation Paperclip, at Fort Bliss...
in turbopump production, Guenther Haukohl who supervised V-2 production after helping design the assembly line, Eric Ball (assembly line), Hans Fridrich, Hans Palaoro and Rudolph Schlidt. The facility had a communications staff under Captain Dr Kühle, an Administrative Division run by Börner under Mittelwerk board member Otto Karl Bersch, and a Prisoner Labor Supply office (Brozsat). Hannelore Bannasch was Sawatzki's secretary.
Other projects
In July 1944, Hans KammlerHans Kammler
General Dr Ing. Hans Friedrich Karl Franz Kammler was a civil engineer and high-ranking officer of the SS. He oversaw SS construction projects, and towards the end of World War II was put in charge of the V-2 missile programme.He is most commonly referred to as Heinz Kammler or Hans...
ordered the North Works (Nordwerke) to use cross-tunnels 1-20 for a Junkers jet and piston engine factory, leaving cross-tunnels 21-46 for Mittelwerk GmbH. During February-April 1945, the Nordhausen plant built Taifun
Taifun (rocket)
Taifun was a German World War II anti-aircraft unguided rocket system. Waves of Taifuns were to be launched en masse into US B-17 Flying Fortress formations hoping for a direct hit...
antiaircraft missiles and Heinkel He 162
Heinkel He 162
The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Designed and built quickly, and made primarily of wood as metals were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft, the He 162 was nevertheless the fastest of...
jet fighters and put into operation a liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen — abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries — is one of the physical forms of elemental oxygen.-Physical properties:...
plant. The plant was the Eber project and used equipment evacuated from the Watten bunker and elsewhere to build Heylandt liquid oxygen generators (the 15 generators were nearly complete when the site was captured.) The Mittelwerk also contained equipment for producing jet fuel, and in an emergency 1944 decentralization program, the Geilenberg Special Staff started the 'Cuckoo' project underground oil plant to be "carved out of the Himmelsburg" North of the Mittelwerk. V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
assembly began during October/November 1944 in the South end of tunnel A. At the end of January 1945, 51 V-1s were shipped from a dispersed Fieseler
Fieseler
The Gerhard Fieseler Werke was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 40s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.-History:...
factory in Upper Bavaria (code name
Code name
A code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
Cham
Cham, Germany
Cham is the capital of the district of Cham in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria in Germany.-Location:Cham lies within the Cham-Further lowland, which is bordered on the south by the Bavarian Forest and on the north by the Oberpfälzer Wald...
) to the Nordhausen plant for completion. After a second V-1 factory at Burg was closed, the Mittelwerk Werk II in February 1945 was the only factory producing V-1 flying bombs, and a total of 2,275 V-1s were built by Werk II from September 1944 until April 1945.
Evacuation
In late February 1945, the Allied Chiefs of Staff discussed a proposed attack on the Nordhausen plant with a highly flammable petroleum-soap mixtureNapalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
that had been used in the Pacific theatre to deeply penetrate buried strongpoints and scourge them with intense heat. Instead, the nearby city of Nordhausen was attacked
Area bombing directive
The Area Bombing Directive was a directive from the wartime British Government's Air Ministry to the Royal Air Force which ordered RAF bombers to attack the German industrial workforce and the morale of the German populace through bombing German cities and their civilian inhabitants.- Background...
with conventional bombs by two RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command
RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...
night bombings on 2/3 & 3/4 April, the Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
forced labor was evacuated on 4 April, and scientists evacuated to the Alpenfestung (Alpine Fortress). Contrary to Hitler's order "Demolitions on Reich Territory"
Nero Decree
The Nero Decree was issued by Adolf Hitler on March 19, 1945 ordering the destruction of German infrastructure to prevent their use by Allied forces as they penetrated deep within Germany...
which ordered the destruction of any infrastructure that might be of use to the Allies the Nordhausen plant was evacuated without damage.
Aftermath
Having been warned to "expect something a little unusual in the Nordhausen area", and after previously entering the Nordhausen plant from the North through the Junkers Nordwerke, U.S. 3rd Armored DivisionU.S. 3rd Armored Division
The 3rd Armored Division was an armored division of the United States Army. Nickamed the Third Herd, the division was first activated in 1941, and was active in the European Theater of World War II. The division was stationed in West Germany for much of the Cold War, and participated in the...
and 104th Infantry Divisions reached the city of Nordhausen on 11 April 1945 and discovered the dead and sick of the Boelcke Kaserne
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
barracks. Compared to the V-2 rocket casualties (2,541 killed, 5,923 injured), an estimated 20,000 Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora
Mittelbau-Dora was a Nazi Germany labour camp that provided workers for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein, situated near Nordhausen, Germany....
forced laborers died: 9000 died from exhaustion and collapse, 350 were hanged (including 200 for sabotage), and the remainder died from disease or starvation (or were shot).
Special Mission V-2
USS Midway
USS Midway may refer to:, which was the Oritani and then the Tyree before being chartered as a general auxiliary in 1942, renamed to Panay in 1943, and returned to her owner in 1946...
, Operation Blossom
Blossom (disambiguation)
Blossom can refer to:* Blossom, the flowers of stone fruit trees and of some other small plants* Blossom , a functional for polynomials* Blossom , a subgraph in which removing any vertex leaves a graph with a perfect matching...
and, at the White Sands Proving Grounds, the Hermes project
Hermes project
The Hermes project was an United States Army Ordnance Corps rocket program ....
.
The Nordhausen
Nordhausen
Nordhausen is a town at the southern edge of the Harz Mountains, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Nordhausen...
area was to become part of the Soviet zone of occupation
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
, and Soviet Army officers arrived to tour the Nordhausen plant on 26 May 1945. In June 1945, the US Army left the Nordhausen plant as required by JCS Directive 1067/14, with parts, machine tools, and documents (including blueprints for the projected A-9/A-10 intercontinental missile) left for the Soviets. The Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
occupied the Mittelwerk on 5 July 1945 and demolished both of the entrances of the tunnel system in the summer of 1948.
Andrae Trial
Kapo (concentration camp)
A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.- Etymology :The origin of "kapo"...
, while 3 scientists of the V-2 rocket program were implicated (2 after the trial) and exonerated of Nazi war crimes at the Mittelwerk. On 19 May 1947, the former head of the Mittelwerk facility, Georg Rickhey
Georg Rickhey
Georg Johannes Rickhey was a German engineer and the general director of Mittelwerk GmbH in Dora-Mittelbau.Rickhey, a doctor of engineering, joined the Nazi Party in October 1931 as member number 664,050...
, was extradited to Germany from Wright Field
Wright Field
Wright Field was an airfield of the United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces near Riverside, Ohio. From 1927 to 1947 it was the research and development center for the Air Corps, and during World War II a flight test center....
in the U.S. and acquitted of war crimes at the 1947 Andrae trial. Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph was a German rocket engineer and member of the Nazi party who played a key role in the development of the V-2 rocket. After World War II he was brought to the United States, subsequently becoming a pioneer of the United States space program. He worked for the U.S...
was neither tried nor charged with any war crime, but decades later was deported from the US, and then exonerated by a German investigation and granted German citizenship. Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
, the Technical Director of a separate facility at Peenemünde, visited the Mittelwerk on 25 January 1944, and a 1991 author alleged he witnessed
Guilt by Association
Guilt by Association can refer to:* Association fallacy - sometimes called "guilt by association".* Guilt by Association Vol. 1 - album by Engine Room Recordings.* Guilt by Association Vol. 2 - album by Engine Room Recordings....
Mittelwerk and Buchenwald war crimes.
Ruins
After a new entrance tunnel had been dug to former rail Tunnel A in 1995, 710 meters of the tunnel system were opened for visitors. Large parts of the system are flooded by ground water, while other parts have collapsed. After the reunification of Germany the tunnels were frequently looted by treasure seekers who gained access via the private mine in the north of the KohnsteinKohnstein
The Kohnstein is a mountain, 2 kilometres southwest of the village of Niedersachswerfen and 3 kilometres northwest of the center of the city of Nordhausen...
. Willi Kramer
Kramer
-People:*Kramer , a musician and record producer.Fictional* Cosmo Kramer, a character from the American sitcom Seinfeld, usually referred to as just "Kramer".For other people, real or fictional, with the last name of "Kramer", see Kramer...
, a German archaeologist and scientist who dived in the tunnel system in 1992 and 1998, estimated that 70 tons of material was stolen. Access through these entrances was not secured until 2004, when the mine went into insolvency.