4-day trip to Thuringia
Thuringia is not only a beautiful country with a great historical heritage, the domain of such poets, thinkers and musicians like Bach, Schiller und Goethe, but also a country with a dark past. In the years 1944 and 1945 Gauleiter (gau leader) and General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labour (Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz) Fritz Sauckel, initiated the construction of a huge underground facility for jet production in Kahla. SS General Kammler was in charge of the A 4/V 2 building program at the Mittelwerk in Nordhausen. This trip deals with these and other underground manufacturing issues as well as slave labour.| Day 1 |
We travel with the Coach of Excellence from Cologne to the idyllic city of Merkers in Thuringia. Here we will investigate the “treasure room” in the former potash mine where Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton found incredible amounts of gold, foreign curreny, Reichsmark and artefacts that Nazi leaders and SS had stolen from all over Europe. We then carry on to the Hotel Mecure in Erfurt –Altstadt (old town). Dinner at the hotel. |
| Day 2 |
Today is dedicated to the great underground works in Kahla and Jonastal/Ohrdruf. First we will visit the Walpersberg in Kahla, the former production plant for Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. Clou of this installation was the take-off strip on top of the mountain. We continue via Rudolstadt to Stadtilm where Kurt Diebner and his team worked on a nuclear explosive device in spring of 1945. We carry on and pass the old ciyt of Bach, Arnstadt, to the Jonas Valley. Here we will do an excursion of the former S-III construction site. We then drive by Wachsen Castle back to Erfurt. |
| Day 3 |
This day is dedicated to the slave labour and concentration camp inmates that had to build these tunnels under inhuman circumstances. We will travel to Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps in Germany. Buchenwald was established on the Ettersberg (the Etter Mountain) near Weimar in July 1937. The prisoners were used as slave labour in local armament factories. Although not technically an extermination camp, summary executions of Soviet prisoners of war took place at Buchenwald, and many inmates died during medical experiments, or fell victim to arbitrary acts perpetrated by the SS guards. After the liberation, between 1945 and 1950 the camp was administered by the Soviet Union and served as a Special Camp No. 2 of the NKVD. We then carry on to Weimar and return to Erfurt. |
| Day 4 |
Today we travel to Nordhausen. The Konstein Mountain was the scene of Germany´s most advanced hitec production of weapons such as the A4/V-2, the Heinkel He 162 jet and the technically advanced turbo engines. Here we will exercise a 5-hour investigation which will not leave a single question unanswered. After the day at the Kohnstein, we will return to Cologne. |