Augsburg

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J. PEIPER
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Augsburg

#1

Post by J. PEIPER » 27 Jun 2005, 20:42

I was in the us military from 86-90. I spent my first 2 years( the best of my service) in Augsburg, Germany. I was stationed at reese kasserne under the 1/36th FA. Can somebody here tell me what this base was in nazi Germany?? I was told that it was an old /SS/ officer barracks and that there was a secret tunnel system under the base. Anybody having access to this info, and willing to enlighten me would be greatly appreciated.

Larry D.
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#2

Post by Larry D. » 27 Jun 2005, 23:58

Reese closed in 1994 and the Augsburg city administration has taken it over and is handling it as a "project" in the sense of trying to find the best use for the 300 hectare (c. 750 acres) of property and buildings, which right now are being used for theater, concerts and a very active night club.

http://www2.augsburg.de/index.php?id=1128

According to Tessin, Verbände und Truppen....., Band 16/Teil 2 (Wehrkreise VII - XIII), Augsburg was a big, big garrison town for the Heer (Army) and the Luftwaffe, but there was very little SS there. The only SS unit there that appears to have been there for most of the wartime years was SS-Gren.-u.Ers.Btl. 14. There is no mention of an SS school being located there. Reese being the huge Kaserne that it was, it would seen that there would have been a lot of different units stationed there.

You might want to try a Google search. There were a lots of hits when I keyed in "Augsburg Reese-Kaserne", far too many to go through for this reply.

--Larry
Spinelli Kaserne
Mannheim-Feudenheim
1957-58


Macca1001
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#3

Post by Macca1001 » 28 Jun 2005, 01:35

Living near Augsburg, I'm trying to give some ad hoc information about Reese-Kaserne and returning in the next 1,5 days with some more details, if I can find them.

Larry D. and Tessin are right, Augsburg was a big, traditional garrison city since several decades. Reese-Kaserne dates back to an old "Großer Exerzierplatz" which is a large open military exercising place, not necessarily for cavalry, as I thought first.
During WW2 Reese-Kaserne was not one, but three barracks -Sommekaserne,Arraskaserne and Panzerjägerkaserne! Somme- and Arraskaserne seem to be former artillery barracks .Additionally 2 buildings of the Heeresverpflegungshauptamt Südbayern and a officers' casion existed on or near the location of Reese-Kaserne. I'm trying to get some more detailed information about the units in those barracks, maybe me father or grandfather know more about the hidden secrets, if there are some...

Of course Larry D. is right about the contemporary use of former Reese-Kaserne: gyms, cultural center, night clubs (and a very good one btw...) and so on...
Last edited by Macca1001 on 28 Jun 2005, 17:21, edited 1 time in total.

Larry D.
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#4

Post by Larry D. » 28 Jun 2005, 13:52

Macca1001 -

Excellent information! I'm interested too, so I will look forward to any additional details you are able to discover.

--Larry

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#5

Post by Macca1001 » 28 Jun 2005, 17:49

Okay...some clarifications: the buildings of the Heeresverpflegungshauptamt are located were the US Army had the quarter masters and the PX(sp?)..the heart of Centerville, so to speak! ;-)
Additionally I'm not sure, if the Wehrmacht casino wasn't at the same locations as the US officers casino, maybe, maybe not. It is rather difficult to depict, as everyone here uses the american terms for those complexes and thus the former origin is a little bit blurry...
Generally speaking, the three main US barracks in Augsburg (Reese, Sheridan and FLAK) are all placed on former Wehrmacht Kasernen. As FLAK was a Anti-Aircraft barrack since 1936 and Sheridan "united" a former infantry barrack with a Kaserne for communications units of the Luftwaffe, I assume that some of the units located in the ancestors of Reese were the Artillerie-Regiment 27, Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 27(later Panzerjäger-Abteilung 27) and probably parts of Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 99 (especially 14.(Panzerjäger) Kompanie). The first two belonged to 27.Infanteriedivision which was set up in Augsburg and was later transformed into 17.Panzerdivision, whereas -now it gets a little sticky- the Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment 99 was partially formed in Augsburg from parts of the former Reichswehr IR 19 which also seems to be the basical unit for the Wehrmacht IR 40 belonging to 27.ID. So, parts of IR 19 (Reichswehr) were located in Augsburg and used to build parts of both units. II.Btl. of GJR 99 and its Pz.Jg.Kompanie was later moved to Füssen.
IR 40 stayed in Augsburg till the war as far as I know, but was likely stationed in the Infanterie Kaserne.
That's it for the moment, sorry if it's a little bit confusing, but as I pointed out, there is a) few common information and b) hard to depict what is what.

Larry D.
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#6

Post by Larry D. » 28 Jun 2005, 18:05

That's probably as good as can be done, Macca1001, and you did a good job. What is really interesting is the absence of any mention of an "old SS officers' barracks" and an underground tunnel system. I think there may have been some cellars and tunnels, but it looks like the "old SS officers' barracks" is just a myth. If Mr. J.P. from Oklahoma City contacts the USAREUR historical office in Heidelberg, I'll bet there are short, monograph histories for all three Kasernen (Reese, Sheridan and Flak) that give at least some information on what Wehrmacht units were there during World War II. I have seen these little histories pop up here and there on obscure web sites for Kasernen in Würzburg, Hanau, Wiesbaden, Giessen and other places, so the odds are that they exist for Augsburg, too.

Macca1001
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#7

Post by Macca1001 » 28 Jun 2005, 18:33

Well, there was some kind of SS-Ersatz-Btl. (No. 14 if I remember correctly...) in Augsburg for some time, but no further SS-units are mentioned, as far as my sources go. I'll check what I may find about this special fact...I'm curious now.

As far as the tunnel system goes: it may very well be, that there was a tunnel system of some extent to interconnect those three barracks or part of them, but I don't think that it was something important or mysterios. No holy grail or nazi treasure I'm afraid...

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J. PEIPER
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#8

Post by J. PEIPER » 28 Jun 2005, 23:50

Thank you Larry and Macca, and please let us know if anything else is forthcoming. As far as the tunnel system, I didn't mean to insenuate anything of holy grail status, just secret. I do remember the px and quartermaster buildings being larger than all the others. They were also centrally located, but separate from the 3 kasernes, Reese, Flak, and Sheridan. Also to clarify what I meant by "it was an old /SS/ officer barracks" was: the bldg. I lived in was an old /SS/ Officer Living Quarters, not the whole base. I am just curious what units lived there and what their function was in the war. No major purpose for this info other than this town has a special place in my heart, & coincidentally, my hobby is researching the Third Reich.

landy
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Re: Augsburg

#9

Post by landy » 09 May 2008, 11:49

Better late than never.

I was also assigned in Augsburg, but in the mid 70s. I was in the MP Corps, first assigned with the Army Security Agency at Flak Kaserne and later with the Augsburg Provost Marshal's Office based at Reese Barracks.

Flak Kaserne had it's own MP unit and MP station due to the MI/ASA operations there. The MP station was just inside the west gate, off of Neusässer Str. The rumor/legend/myth (who knows for sure) was that the building had been part of the SS barracks/detachment for Augsburg and that the Gestapo operated out of the building. (Would make sense since the Gestapo came under the administration of the SS and there were detention cells in the basement.)

The SS piece seemed believable to me since there was a large wooden beam over the Desk Sergeant's front counter with the inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work will make you free) carved in it with a swastika (with curved ends of the arms so that the emblem was sort of circular rather than a squarish shape standing on one corner) at either end of the inscription. Those words were significant with the SS and concentration camps. They were found on many such locations. In fact, it is my understanding that the first or an early usage of the saying was at Dachau (the concentration camp located just outside of Augsburg) where it adorned the front gate.

The other thing that made it believable that the building had something to do with the SS was the fact that Dachau was just outside the city and some of the administrative offices for that facility were in Augsburg, including the contracting and distribution points for the slave labor that came out of Dachau. There were also several subcamps of Dachau in and around Augsburg. Forced labor from Dachau was employed at some of the Messerschmitt factories in Augsburg. One of the subcamps was in the Pfersee district of Augsburg which, coincidentally, is where Sheridan Kaserne is/was located. One of the other Augsburg area subcamps was at Gablingen, on the north side of Augsburg, where Field Station Augsburg (ASA/MI facility) and Gablingen Kaserne are/were located.

I know that the building had some function having to do with police-like authority because, as I mentioned earlier, in the basement, beneath the Desk Sergeant's and MP Operations Section's work areas, were several old stone holding cells. (We didn't use them. They were decrepit and we had a more modern version up on the working floor above.) There was also a passage in the basement that was blocked by a very sturdy, locked door. We were told that the area was condemned as unsafe and that the passage led to a tunnel system that was rumored to extend to Reese Barracks.

Hope this information finds you and is helpful...or at least interesting and informative.

Delta Tank
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Re: Augsburg

#10

Post by Delta Tank » 05 Jun 2008, 20:13

To all,

I too was stationed in Augsburg, but for the life of me I can not remember the name of the Kaserne! I was there from 1982 to 1983 and I was in the 3d Bn. 63d Armor, 2d Brigade, 3d Infantry Division. The whole battalion was moved north to Kitzingen in the fall of 1983 or so. Sheridan Kaserne maybe?

Mike

solobozo
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Re: Augsburg/Gablingen Kaserne

#11

Post by solobozo » 09 Jul 2008, 18:53

I was stationed at Gablingen Kaserne with the USAEURA Avn. S/S Det. in 68-69.I remember the floor in front of the Quartermasters door in the basement of our barracks was painted grey,but it was worn to where you could see a swastica painted earlier and also parts of a hammer&cycle. The woman who ran the laundry that you got to through the hole in back fence said she did laundry for the Germans,Russians and the U,S Can anyone shed more light on when the Russians were there? Also what is that sundial looking thing in the middle of the Kaserne now? You can see it on Google Earth. P.S. The laundry woman said we were the best.

paw grump
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Re: Augsburg

#12

Post by paw grump » 20 Oct 2009, 17:54

I was stationed at Flak in the early 70's as an MP wit the 502nd ASA. bout the tunnels. S2 wanted this checked out by us so we went thru all the buildings and found (rr?)tracks running thru all of them . We also found shafts that ran from the basements to the attics that had rails in them as well . we were told by the Germans that took care of the boilers that during the war these tunnels were used to move materials in and out. Also to move wounded and dead personnel in and out of town from the railyards as not to demoralize the civilians Some of these tunnels still had demo wire in them and you could see where the charges once were. I hope this helps some.

Myky18
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Re: Augsburg

#13

Post by Myky18 » 03 Dec 2009, 19:53

My family spent a bit of time in Camp Gablingen/Augsburg between 1949-1950 and I was an infant during that time. I cannot locate information of Polish D.P.s who were placed there. I see nothing but military data. Can anyone lead me in the right direction?

Sidecar1969
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Re: Augsburg

#14

Post by Sidecar1969 » 13 Dec 2009, 17:04

I was stationed at Sheridan Kaserne 1961 – 1965 D co1st bn 34th inf 24th Div apo112
I also knottiest ss panting in our barracks and Signal core , aunty aircraft battery I do believe that all three Kasernes wore linked and maybe still are together by tunnels Check out these sites.
1. Concentration Camp Listing
Cyber encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture that covers ... Augsburg (Messerschmitt) * Augsburg-Haunstetten. Augsburg-Pfersee (Messerschmitt
Augsburg-Haunstetten
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Larry D.
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Re: Augsburg

#15

Post by Larry D. » 13 Dec 2009, 18:55

Thanks for your post, Sidecar. If it isn't too much, may we ask you for the exact URLs for those sites? Otherwise, those interested will have to trawl their way through a number of related sites produced by Google, and that tends to make folks give up and forget about it. Thanks! :)

Wiedersehen,

Larry D.
HQ & HQ Co./19th Ordnance Bn.
Mannheim-Feudenheim
1958-59

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