Secret Wehrmacht HQ
Around the turn of the century the urge for military training areas gets greater. In 1907 the Prussian Minister of War identifies a perfect ground at Zossen/Wünsdorf. Instead of purchasing the area correctly the speculation door and gate get wide open.. And quite a few people make a killing at the exchequer. Emperor Wilhelm II did not care. He wanted the armament. Already for the turn of the year 1905/1906 he writes unequivocally to his "loyal friend", the German Chancellor Fürst von Bülow: “The socialists shoot first, decapitate and render harmless, if necessary by bloodbath and then war to the exterior".
.In time for the beginning of the war in 1914 Wünsdorf was ready for use. One of the first achievements was the development of the steel helmet on proposal of the surgeon, Professor Dr. August Bier. In addition Wünsdorf was transformed into a gigantic war POW camp, among others for Muslim prisoners. Especially for them a wooden mosque was built, the first of their kind in Germany. It was pulled down in 1926.
After the World War I the Reichswehr took the area and started with the development faithfully according to the Versaille Treaty. This "faithfulness" did not last for a long time. A secret cooperation with the red army started in the middle of the twenties. Aim of this cooperation was the development of the panzer, the tank weapon. As of 1925 commanders and staff officers were exchanged to manoeuvres and courses. Russians were already regular students at the Berlin war academy in 1926. At the end of 1929 six prototypes of three of German companies, Daimler-Benz, Krupp and Rheinmetall appeared in the Russian training area at Kama. Amongst those who were trained at Kama were the later general field marshals and panzer generals Walter Model, Theo Kretschmer and Walter Hoth. In 1933 when this secret cooperation was ended the tanks returned to Wünsdorf. The rest of the vehicles as well as the radio equipment remained in Russia.
At November 1, 1933 the first tank unit was raised in Wünsdorf. For camouflage reasons it was called "Kraftfahrlehrkommando Zossen" (driving teaching command Zossen). Later it was renamed officially into panzer regiment 5. This tank regiment should fight later as the first armoured unit under Rommel in North Africa. Besides that the infantry training went on. House to house fighting was now on the agenda and buildings were needed for it. They were found in Zehrensdorf on the edge of Wünsdorf. The expropriation and evacuation of the population was a formality.
Between 1933 and 1935 more than 150 military buildings were set up in Wünsdorf. In October 1935 Wünsdorf was opened and the Anti-Tank Unit 39, the Panzer Regiment 5, as well as the Heereskraftfahrschule (army driving school) moved in. In the same year it was was decided to build new headquarters for the Wehrmacht. New ground had to be acquired and was found between Zossen and Zesch, which belonged to Prince Friedrich zu Solms-Baruth. He fought tooth and nail however, had to sell nevertheless. The work on three bunker complexes began right away: Maybach I, Maybach II and Zeppelin.
The construction took place in an idyllic piece of woodland divided by the Zeppelinstrasse. Maybach I and II were executed as two congruent installations. An enormous ring-likely underground corridor connected 12 bunkers (A 1-12). Each of them was 36 m long, 16 m wide and nine m deep. The underground part consisted of two basements with a ceiling strength of 1 m of reinforced concrete. The part above ground was built in country-style. The roofs were made out of 40 cm concrete and covered with roofing tiles for camouflage reasons. The outer walls were provided with painted windows, doors and ornamentations. Altogether, more than 4 000 workrooms were at the disposal of 3 034 staff officers and technical staff in Maybach I and II. In between Maybach I and II the gigantic communication bunker Zeppelin was located.
Zeppelin, alias Office 500, was the most efficient intelligence centre of the Wehrmacht. The Führungsnachrichtenregiment 6 (command intelligence regiment 6) with 2 050 men - with 700 female assistants - could get in touch reach with any occupied point in Europe. Zeppelin had a network-independent energy supply and an efficient transmitting installation whose mast was driven hydraulically. Various facilities made this Zeppelin unique: Amplifier office, automatic exchange office, long-distance and local exchange with 40 switchboards, telegraph switching exchange, amplifier, carrier frequency and alternating current telegraphy installations, engine- rooms, diesel plants as well as various service departments. The work did not turn out too pleasant in this bunker. Because of the extreme development of the heat caused by the electronic equipment the female assistants had to work in room temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
The end of the war came relatively unspectacularly. The area was of no importance for Konjew. The unmistakable target was Berlin and the erection of a confinement ring around the capital of the Reich. German observers reported enemy movement direction Zossen on April. General Chief of Staff General Hans Krebs set out a 250 men strong reconnaissance unit under Lieutenant Kränkel against the Russians. This was his last reserve. On April 21, 40 men of that unit were still alive. At 13.45 Krebs and his officers desert Maybach II in the direction of the Berlin, the rest of the general staff retreats to Potsdam.
Maybach I and II as well as Zeppelin were overrun by the Red Army, April 23. At this time some technicians hiding in Zeppelin were waiting for the Russians. They drew the Russians attention to the fact that a valuable trophy which should not be destroyed was available. Little later, the dismantling of the installations was started and then transported to the Soviet Union. It was rather certain that only few parts reached their destination undamaged.
Within the years of the Cold War the Red Army used Wünsdorf intensively. During the uprising in 1953 all orders came from Wünsdorf and Karlshorst. Up to the fall of the wall on November 9th, 1989 the place was the centre of Soviet military power. On September 12th, 1990, a contract was signed between the Federal Government of Germany and Moscow which regulated the withdrawal of the defence forces and a "homecoming in dignity". A single payment to the USSR in the amount of 12 billion DM and an interest-free loan for the amount of 3 billion DM was the price. Later, both sums even still were increased. The last armed forces train then left Wünsdorf in the direction of the Moscow on September 8th, 1994.