Grossmittel

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  jg910 (guest)

  This area was a major arms / ordnance manufacturing center in WW1 and WW2, beginning with the “Raketendörfl” (Rocketville) in 1815 where tha Austro-Hungarian army experimented with missiles. In 1890, the Army built a gunpowder factory in Blumau while Dynamit-Nobel established an explosives plant in Neurisshof. At the outbreak of WW1, some 15000 people worked there in seven separate plants. This was the monarchy’s largest manufacturing complex for explosives. With several arms 7 war related plants in the area, such as the Wöllersdorf ammunitions factory where some 40000 people worked during the war, the area around Wiener Neustadt was the center of the Austro-Hungarian war effort. As an aside, other war related manufacturing plants around Wr. Neustadt included the Austro Daimler factory where all kinds of heavy equipment such as tanks and all-terrain vehicles were built, with Ferdinand Porsche overseeing operations; AD also built aircraft engines for the Österreichische Flugzeug-Fabrik AG (ÖFFAG) that was situated virtually across the road, not far from the Wr. Neustadt airfield. A major manufacturer of locomotives was also nearby. But they were not located on the land in question. After Austria’s defeat and the end of WW1 in late 1918, the new Austria was obliged to end all explosives / ordnance production under the terms of the peace treaty. This was later loosened to meet the needs of the newly established Bundesheer, the Austrian Republic’s self defense force. Only a small portion of the buildings were in use but the government kept most of the complex in running order in the hopes of luring in private investors; this never happened. In March 1938, Austria was occupied by Germany, and the Third Reich officials immediately reactivated the Blumau explosives plant, as well as most of the other manufacturing plants of military interest. With the outbreak of WW2, the facility went back to its full production capacity. The Austro Daimler factory as well as the locomotive plant had collapsed during the world economic crisis of the early 1930s; they were turned into the Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke (WNF) that accounted for every third Messerschmidt fighter to take to the sky (and hit the ground shortly thereafter). Components for the V2 missile were also produced. The Wöllersdorf complex was also reactivated and turned into the “Luftpark”, the supply center for the Luftwaffe. The Wiener Neustadt airfield was built into a Luftwaffe base, with several outlying fields. All this activity attracted the attention of the Allied bomber command, and as of 1943 Wiener Neustadt and the neighbouring communities became targets for heavy air raids. After the end of WW2, the Red Army took over the Blumau explosives factory and stayed there for another 10 years during which time the entire complex, or what the war had left standing, was destroyed. Among other installations, the Wehrmacht built an army camp on the premises which was taken over by the Austrian Bundesheer and renamed the Jansakaserne, after pre-war General Alfred Jansa. Today the Panzergrenadierbatallion 35 resides there; the Heeresmunitionsanstalt (army ordnance establishment) noisily conducts ammunitions and ordnance testing, as well as the destruction of ordnance – such as bombs and grenades from WW2; these war souvenirs are still unearthed throughout Austria in the process of construction work, some 60 years after the end of hostilities. And the area continues to be in military use, as Garnisonsübungsplatz (garrison training ground) – or if you like acronyms, “Güpl”. There is still a lot of ordnance buried in the ground, shrapnel and even live shells can be found in the shrub work. Virtually all buildings are gone; the landscape is scattered with remainders of concrete structures, and it does look rather eerie. A public road bisects the area, there is some agricultural use, and footpaths are open to the public at certain times; otherwise the usual restrictions (no trespassing, no photography, etc.) apply. This is not the only military facility in the area, some parts of this former arms manufacturing complex are still not safe for the general public, others are too convenient for the military to relinquish them.

  17 years ago | reply | hide comment