Misplaced Pages

#933066

103-521: It is situated between the towns Nordhausen in the west, and Sangerhausen in the east. It is bordered by the mountain ranges Harz in the north, and Windleite  [ de ] and Kyffhäuser in the south. The river Helme flows through the Goldene Aue. For a long time, the middle and lower Golden Aue formed a lake, which over time was transformed into an impenetrable swamp area due to silt deposits and natural erosion phenomena. The area

206-517: A barn that was set on fire. Those who were not burned alive were shot by SS, Wehrmacht and men of the Volkssturm . Overall, although no reliable statistics on the number of deaths on these transports exist, estimates put the number of prisoners killed at up to 8,000. As most of the camps of the Mittelbau system were completely evacuated, there were not many prisoners left to be liberated by

309-648: A bombing raid by the Royal Air Force on Peenemünde (" Operation Hydra ") seriously damaged the facilities and ended construction of V-2s there. Other air raids had damaged the other two sites in June and August. As a result, the Nazi leadership accelerated plans to move military construction to areas less threatened by Allied bombers. On 22 August 1943, Adolf Hitler ordered SS leader Heinrich Himmler to use concentration camp workers in future A4/V-2 production. One of

412-495: A factory for the production of rail engines until 1942. Later the region's plants produced truck motors, augers and excavators. Today, engineering is still the most important industrial branch of Nordhausen, although many factories have had to close following the reunification of Germany in 1990. In 2012 there were 35 companies of 20 workers or more were present in the industrial sector, all together employing 4,000 persons and generating an annual turnover of €800 mio, making Nordhausen

515-661: A pace that was kept up until February 1945. On 31 December 1943, construction of the above-ground camp, less than a kilometre from the tunnel B entrance was sufficiently completed for the workers to move in. The underground detainee accommodations ( Schlafstollen or "sleeping tunnels") were dismantled in May 1944. Besides the main camp Dora, housing an average of 15,000 prisoners, the main subcamps were Lager Ellrich (established 2 May 1944, averaging around 8,000 prisoners), Lager Harzungen (1 April 1944, 4,000 prisoners), Lager Rottleberode (13 March 1944, 1,000 prisoners) and

618-481: A small number of foreigners: circa 2.3% are non-Germans by citizenship and overall 4.6% are migrants (according to 2011 EU census ). During recent years, the economic situation of the city improved somewhat: the unemployment rate in Nordhausen district declined from 24% in 2005 to 10% in 2013 with higher rates in the city than in the bordering rural municipalities. Due to the official atheism in former GDR , most of

721-575: A standard price per unit, once production reached 5,000 units, of 50,000 Reichsmark per rocket. Especially for Kammler, this became a prestige project. Only ten days after the raid on Peenemünde, on 28 August 1943, the first 107 concentration camp inmates from Buchenwald arrived with their SS guards at the Kohnstein. The official name of the new subcamp of Buchenwald was Arbeitslager Dora . Another 1,223 Buchenwald prisoners followed on 2 September and workers from Peenemünde came in mid-October. Over

824-452: A total of 17,500 slave labourers, almost 2,900 died at Dora. Another 3,000 who were very ill or dying were sent to Lublin-Majdanek and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Few of them survived. At the end of 1943, the Dora work squads had "the highest death rate in the entire concentration camp system". By late 1943, production had started. On 10 December, Albert Speer and his staff visited

927-520: Is a city in Thuringia , Germany . It is the capital of the Nordhausen district and the urban centre of northern Thuringia and the southern Harz region; its population is 42,000. Nordhausen is located approximately 60 km (37 miles) north of Erfurt , 80 km (50 miles) west of Halle , 85 km (53 miles) south of Braunschweig and 60 km (37 miles) east of Göttingen . Nordhausen

1030-467: Is shrinking with accelerating tendency and the 2011 EU census led to a statistical amendment of –2,000 persons. Suburbanization played only a small role in Nordhausen. It occurred after the reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas were situated within the administrative city borders. The birth deficit was 266 in 2012, this is -6.3 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: -4.5; national average: -2.4). The net migration rate

1133-467: Is situated at the border between the flat and fertile area of Goldene Aue in the south and the foothills of the Harz mountains in the north on a level of approx. 180 m of elevation. The Zorge river crosses the city from northwest to southeast and the bigger Helme river runs in west-eastern direction at the southern border of the municipality. Between them are some quarry ponds of former gravel mining near

SECTION 10

#1732764828934

1236-533: Is the main station, a second one is Nordhausen-Salza on the South Harz line. The narrow-gauge Trans-Harz-Railway is linked with the tramway network in a Tram-train system with many stops within Nordhausen. Nordhausen is located on the Bundesautobahn 38 from Göttingen in the west to Halle and Leipzig in the east, opened in the 2000s. Furthermore, there are two Bundesstraßen connecting Nordhausen:

1339-504: Is the site of the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences ( Fachhochschule Nordhausen ), founded in 1997 after the reunification of Germany. The university has 2,500 students. The Franks colonized the area around Nordhausen about 800, many place names here have a Frankish origin, discernible by the suffix -hausen (like Nordhausen itself, Sundhausen, Windehausen and the later abandoned settlement Stockhausen as well as

1442-653: The Arbeitseinsatz-Dienststelle which coordinated the use of forced labour. Hans Schurz  [ de ] became head of the Politische Abteilung (the local Gestapo office). On 3 and 4 April 1945, Nordhausen was attacked in two waves by several hundred Lancasters and Mosquitos of Nos 1 and 8 Groups of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command. Around 75% of the town was destroyed, the medieval old town

1545-543: The Bundesstraße 4 is a link to Erfurt in the south and to Braunschweig through the Harz mountains in the north and the Bundesstraße 243 connects Nordhausen with Hildesheim in the north-west. The former Bundesstraße 80 was annulled after the opening of the parallel Bundesautobahn 38 and the Bundesstraße 81 as a connection to Magdeburg starts a few kilometres north of the city at B 4. The B 4 (southern branch) and

1648-654: The Habsburg emperors but the other monasteries got closed during the following decades and their heritage came to the city. During the 16th century, Nordhausen succeeded to push back the influence of the Wettins and the Hohnstein counts by buying back their privileges over the city. This marked the peak in pre-modern urban development, followed by some centuries of decline introduced by the Thirty Years' War . In 1551,

1751-664: The Harz mountains, operating by 1899. As the engineering industry developed after 1900, the city saw an economic heyday. Industry developed and expanded during the following decades. In the 1930s the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. It imposed discrimination against Jews, with increasing restrictions and violence such as Kristallnacht in 1938, when businesses and synagogues were destroyed. It deported Jews to concentration and death camps. The Mittelbau-Dora Nazi concentration camp , also known as Dora-Nordhausen or Nordhausen,

1854-594: The Holy Roman Empire . Due to its long-distance trade, Nordhausen was prosperous and influential, with a population of 8,000 around 1500. It was the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt , today's capital, and Mühlhausen , the other free imperial city in the land. Nordhausen was once known for its tobacco industry and is still known for its distilled spirit, Nordhäuser Doppelkorn . Industrialization accompanied railway construction that linked

1957-603: The Napoleonic Wars , Prussian troops occupied Nordhausen on 2 August 1802; the city lost its status as an Imperial Free City during the German Mediatisation . After Prussia's defeat against Napoleon, it became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia created in 1807. Following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte , Nordhausen was included in the Kingdom of Prussia 's Province of Saxony created in 1816. During

2060-532: The Soviet occupation zone , including a new Institute Berlin. On 22 October 1946, under Operation Osoaviakhim , 10–15,000 German scientists, engineers and their families were deported to the Soviet Union, including around 300 from Nordhausen. Transplanted along with their equipment, many of the scientists and their families lived there until the early 1950s. Nordhausen became part of East Germany in 1949. It

2163-593: The V-1 flying bomb . In the summer of 1944, Mittelbau became an independent concentration camp with numerous subcamps of its own. In 1945, most of the surviving inmates were sent on death marches or crammed in trains of box-cars by the SS . On 11 April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners. The inmates at Dora-Mittelbau were treated in a brutal and inhumane manner, working 14-hour days and being denied access to basic hygiene, beds, and adequate rations. Around one in three of

SECTION 20

#1732764828934

2266-625: The Wettins and the local counts (Hohnstein, Stolberg , Schwarzburg , Beichlingen etc.) and joined the Hanseatic League together with them in 1430. Further alliances were concluded with Goslar , Halberstadt , Quedlinburg and Aschersleben to represent urban interests against the landlords. In 1349, during a plague epidemic, some number of Jewish residents were killed by the citizenry with support from Frederick II, Margrave of Meissen . According to legend, they danced on their way to

2369-507: The Windleite mountains between Nordhausen and Sondershausen . Most of the municipal territory is in agricultural use. The forests are located first between the city centre in the south and Rüdigsdorf in the north (with interruptions), second at Kohnstein hill and third in the east around Rodishain and Stempeda . Nordhausen abuts the following municipalities: Ellrich , Harztor , Harzungen , Neustadt , Buchholz and Herrmannsacker in

2472-523: The new town within the valley between the river in the west, the city wall in the east, Hohensteinerstraße in the north and Vor dem Vogel street in the south, the Altendorf suburbium in the north-west around Altendorf and Am Alten Tor street and the Altnordhausen suburbium in the south-east around St. Mary's Church on the hill. Altnordhausen and the new town are completely vanished, the old town

2575-471: The 1860s, as Nordhausen got connected to the railway and the population grew to 26,000 and 33,000 in 1910, which was a smaller growth than in other cities of comparable size during that period of rapid urbanisation in Germany. Until 1940, the population rose to 42,000, but decreased due to the destruction of the city in World War II to 32,000 in 1946. The old level was attained again in the early 1960s and

2678-409: The 8000-capacity Albert-Kuntz-Sportpark. League-wise most of their history they have inculcated between the 5th tier and the 6th , both of which they won twice. Nordhausen is twinned with: Circles est. 1500: Bavarian , Swabian , Upper Rhenish , Lower Rhenish–Westphalian , Franconian , (Lower) Saxon Mittelbau-Dora Mittelbau-Dora (also Dora-Mittelbau and Nordhausen-Dora )

2781-517: The Allies. Only some small subcamps, mostly containing Italian POWs, were not evacuated. The SS also left several hundred sick prisoners at Dora and in the Boelcke-Kaserne . They were freed when US troops (consisting of the 3rd Armored Division , the 104th Infantry Division , and the 9th Infantry Division ) reached Nordhausen on 11 April 1945. There were also around 1,300 dead prisoners at

2884-832: The American space program. The Soviets also hired some of the engineers. Like the rocket engineers, many construction engineers at Mittelwerk were able to continue with their careers. Very few were charged in connection with their role in the Nazi slave labour program. After liberation, the US forces and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) turned Dora and Harzungen camps into accommodations for displaced persons (DPs). In mid-May 1945, there were around 14,000 people living at Dora, several hundred liberated concentration camp inmates and many POWs as well as foreign civilian forced labourers. Repatriation

2987-656: The B 243 shall be enlarged because of their importance as connections to and between Erfurt and Lower Saxony . Furthermore, there are important secondary roads to Heringen in the south-east and to Buchholz in the north-east. The nearest airports are the Erfurt-Weimar Airport , 80 km (50 mi) to the south, the Leipzig/Halle Airport , 120 km (75 mi) to the east and the Hannover Airport , 150 km (93 mi) to

3090-687: The Buchenwald system. With the creation of the Jägerstab (Fighter Staff), led by Speer, as an institution to oversee a boost to fighter plane production and the move of military production underground, facilities for the production of fighter planes for the Junkers company were to be created around Nordhausen – along with the necessary infrastructure. In addition, after the creation of the Geilenbergstab (named after Edmund Geilenberg ), over

3193-625: The Jews were expelled from the city. They were not generally permitted to live there again until 1807. After the war, the Electorate of Brandenburg tried to incorporate the free cities of Nordhausen, Mühlhausen and Goslar , because it already became large territories in the Harz region. The Electorate of Saxony , protecting power of Nordhausen gave hidden support to the Brandenburgs, so that Nordhausen tried to keep its independence through

Goldene Aue - Misplaced Pages Continue

3296-548: The June 1945 Fedden Mission investigation of conditions at Dora, the trial "The United States of America versus Arthur Kurt Andrae et al." trial commenced on 7 August 1947 at the Dachau internment camp against 19 defendants. Otto Förschner was not a defendant in the Dora Trial, since he had already been executed after being convicted in the Dachau camp trial . The court convicted 15 Dora SS guards and Kapos (one of them

3399-527: The Mittelbau camps between August 1943 and March 1945. The precise number of people killed is impossible to determine. The SS files counted around 12,000 dead. In addition, an unknown number of unregistered prisoners died or were murdered in the camps. Around 5,000 sick and dying were sent in early 1944 and in March 1945 to Lublin and Bergen-Belsen. Of those killed, around 350 were hanged (including 200 for sabotage). The rate of executions notably accelerated after

3502-508: The SS construction units III and IV (totaling around 3,000 prisoners, distributed among several small camps along a newly constructed railway line between Nordhausen and Herzberg am Harz . More subcamps were added once Mittelbau was officially independent. By spring 1945, the number of inmates totaled over 40,000 in around 40 camps. From spring/summer 1944, the camp became the centre of a subcamp system of its own. Originally, these still were part of

3605-544: The Soviet Union, Poland or France) died from hunger, thirst, cold and overwork. During the first months, most of the work done was heavy construction and transport. Only in January 1944, when production of the A4/V-2 began, were the first prisoners moved to the new above-ground camp on the south side of the mountain. Many had to sleep in the tunnels until May 1944. In these initial months, from October 1943 to March 1944, out of

3708-605: The Sundhausen and Bielen districts. To the north, the terrain is getting more hilly and part of a karst area south to the Harz mountains. The north-west of the territory is marked by the Kohnstein hill (335 m) and the north-east is the Rüdigsdorf Switzerland , a small area with a beautiful landscape up to 350 m of elevation around Rüdigsdorf district. South of Helme river, the terrain gets also hilly around

3811-557: The approximately 15,000 prisoners from Mittelbau, about half were from the Soviet Union and Poland. Although not in good health, these men were much healthier than most of the prisoners in the Belsen main camp. When the British Army liberated Belsen on 15 April, many of the inmates turned on their former overseers at Mittelbau. About 170 of these " Kapos " were killed that day. Some of the SS personnel who had come from Auschwitz with

3914-462: The area, US specialists began to inspect the rocket works and seized materials, parts and documents. They were later joined by British experts. Eventually the Soviets took over. Apart from Rickhey, Rudolph, and von Braun, several dozen former Mittelwerk engineers and scientists quickly hired on with the US government. They first constructed rocket weapons or jet planes and then mostly went on to join

4017-461: The assembly lines. As a result, new prisoners were brought in from other concentration camps. From March 1944, the others were moved to newly created subcamps in the area around Nordhausen where they continued to be used for digging new tunnels or working at construction sites above ground. By late January, 56 rockets had been produced. By May, monthly output was 400 units. There were still defects, resulting in launch-pad and mid-air explosions. Output

4120-576: The barracks. War correspondents took pictures and made films of the dead and dying prisoners at Dora. Like the documentation of Nazi atrocities at Bergen-Belsen, these were published around the globe and became some of the best-known testimonies of Nazi crimes. Most of those inmates who survived the transports were freed in mid-April at Bergen-Belsen or at other camps. Some, however, remained prisoners until early May and were freed in Mecklenburg or Austria. In total, even conservative estimates put

4223-452: The building under the title Die Blutspur führt nach Bonn ("the blood trail leads to Bonn "), implying a historical continuity between the Nazi concentration camp and the government of West Germany . By contrast with Buchenwald , Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück , the communist government of the GDR never raised Dora to the status of Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte (national memorial). In

Goldene Aue - Misplaced Pages Continue

4326-493: The camp averaged about 5,000. The camp was dissolved in July 1946. After that, the town of Nordhausen had the huts at Dora dismantled and re-erected at other locations in the district as emergency housing for the homeless. Only the camp's crematorium, the fire station and the camp prison remained. Nature reclaimed the area of the camp. The Soviets briefly continued to use parts of the tunnel network for manufacturing rockets. In 1947,

4429-550: The cities to major markets in the mid-19th century. In the late 19th century, narrow-gauge railways were constructed in this region through the Harz mountains. In December 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company ( Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft ) or NWE added a line, with the full network operating by 1899. The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways are maintained today by local authorities and frequented primarily by tourists. In

4532-494: The city came back to the empire and became an Imperial Free City . Nordhausen was granted the privileges of a town around 1200, in 1198 it was first mentioned as a villa and in 1206, there was a mayor, a Vogt and citizens. The municipal law of Nordhausen was similar to that of Mühlhausen, hence the Mühlhausen Book of Law was adopted in the mid-13th century. Today's city wall was established between 1290 and 1330 and cut

4635-539: The city was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombings , resulting in 8,800 casualties (more than 20% of the population). 25 % of the historic inner city survived. Nordhausen suffered the most damage during the war of any city in Thuringia. A week later the United States troops occupied the city, followed weeks later by the Soviet Red Army . The city was within the Soviet zone of occupation , and later

4738-423: The city; up to 6,000 of them were interned at Boelcke Kaserne, working for a Junkers factory. On 24 August 1944, 11 B-17 Flying Fortresses of Mission 568 bombed the airfield at Nordhausen as a target of opportunity. From January 1945, sick and dying prisoners were interned at Boelcke Kaserne. On 3 and 4 April 1945 three-quarters of Nordhausen was destroyed by bombing raids of the Royal Air Force , resulting in

4841-403: The crisis. Since 2000 the economy has been growing again, with the unemployment rate decreasing and Nordhausen has established itself as the urban centre of northern Thuringia. The Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1997, attracting students to the town. The Landesgartenschau (Land's horticultural exhibition) in 2004 was an impetus to further urban development. Nordhausen

4944-518: The death rate rose: Between January and early April 1945, around 6,000 inmates died, around 3,000 of them at the Boelcke -Kaserne (a former Luftwaffe barracks) at Nordhausen, which had been used by the SS after January 1945 as the main Sterbelager (camp for the dying) for the Mittelbau system. Also from January to April 1945, at least 1,700 V-2 and over 6,000 V-1 rockets were built. Along with

5047-525: The deaths of around 8,800 people, including 1,300-1,500 sick prisoners at the Boelcke Kaserne barracks within Nordhausen. On 11 April 1945, United States troops occupied the town, and on 2 July the Red Army of the Soviet Union took over. A Special Mission V-2: US operation was undertaken by Maj. William Bromley, intended to recover V-2 rocket parts and equipment. Maj. James P. Hamill co-ordinated

5150-489: The dissolution of the so-called Zigeuner-Familienlager (Gypsy family camp) at Auschwitz-Birkenau , the SS transported many Roma and Sinti to Mittelbau between April and August 1944. The prisoners were subject to extreme cruelty. As a result, they often suffered injuries, including permanent disability and disfigurement, and death. Severe beatings were routine, as was deliberate starvation, torture and summary executions . In total, around 60,000 prisoners passed through

5253-401: The early 1970s, the local authorities turned the completely overgrown muster ground into an Ehrenplatz der Nationen with a rostrum, flag poles and an eternal fire. In 1988, an attempt was made to access one of the tunnels inside Kohnstein, but it was abandoned due to a lack of funds that same year. After reunification, the memorial was redesigned. A small portion of the original tunnel system

SECTION 50

#1732764828934

5356-483: The early 20th century, this became a centre of the engineering and arms industries. During World War II , the Nazi German government established and operated the nearby KZ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where 60,000 forced labourers had to work in the arms industry. They were prisoners of war and persons from occupied territories. Some 20,000 persons died because of the bad conditions. In April 1945, most of

5459-526: The enemy. These men were subject to debriefing by the Soviet secret service and some of them were imprisoned once more and sent to the Gulag . Once the last forced labourers had left, Dora camp was used from December 1945 by German authorities as a holding camp for Germans expelled from Czechoslovakia . They were then distributed among various municipalities in northern Thuringia. The number of expelled housed in

5562-462: The entrances and some internal parts were blown up in accordance with the Allied agreement to destroy military facilities in Germany. Similar to what happened at Dora, most of the subcamps were soon dismantled and the wood used for heating or new construction. Local authorities decided in 1952 to demolish the Dora camp prison – in the face of protests by former detainees. By the early 1950s, most of

5665-601: The evacuation trains went on to Bergen-Belsen when Mittelbau was itself evacuated. A few of them, notably Franz Hössler , were prosecuted by the British military authorities at the Belsen trial in Lüneburg in September 1945. However, charges at this trial related only to crimes committed either at Auschwitz or at Bergen-Belsen, not at Mittelbau. Hössler was among those found guilty and executed on 13 December 1945. Following

5768-591: The foundation of Mittelwerk GmbH  [ de ] (the name referring to the works' location in Mitteldeutschland ). Its board consisted of Hans Kammler , who was head of Amtsgruppe C at the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA) and two of Speer's armaments managers, Karl Maria Hettlage  [ de ] and Gerhard Degenkolb  [ de ] , the former seconded from Commerzbank . To actually run

5871-550: The industrial core of Thuringia today. Nordhausen is the biggest city in a circuit of 60 km (37 mi), making it an important regional service hub for retail, medicine, education, government and culture (theatre, cinema etc.). A major shopping centre is the Südharz Galerie at Bahnhofstraße, and the Südharz Klinikum is one of the biggest hospitals in Thuringia. Nordhausen has been a railway node since

5974-494: The inmates from Auschwitz arrived several hundred SS guards who joined the staff at Mittelbau, including Richard Baer , who succeeded Otto Förschner as overall Mittelbau commandant on 1 February 1945. Baer replaced most senior personnel with people from Auschwitz. Franz Hössler became commandant of the Häftlinglager Dora . Eduard Wirths became the new Standortarzt . Max Sell  [ de ] became head of

6077-557: The inmates were forced to board box cars. Several trains, each with thousands of prisoners, left the area through 6 April for Bergen-Belsen, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück . Others were forced to walk through the Harz hills towards the northeast. Those unable to keep up with these death marches were summarily shot by the guards. The worst atrocity occurred at Gardelegen, known as the Gardelegen massacre . More than 1,000 prisoners from Mittelbau and Neuengamme subcamps were murdered in

6180-590: The late 19th century. The Halle–Kassel railway was opened in 1866/67, the South Harz Railway in 1869 and the Nordhausen–Erfurt railway also in 1869. In 1897, the narrow-gauge Trans-Harz Railway followed as the last one. Today, there are regional express trains to Halle in the east and Kassel in the west as well as local trains to Halle, Heiligenstadt , Erfurt and Göttingen (via Northeim ), running every one to two hours. Nordhausen station

6283-522: The later GDR period in the east at Leimbacher Straße and in the north around the hospital. The village Salza in the north-west is grown together with Nordhausen since the 20th century. Furthermore, there were churches being destroyed by the 1945 bombings: the old main church St. Nicholas' and the new town's church St. Jacob's as well as the earlier abandoned monasteries of the Augustines, Franciscans and Dominicans. Agriculture plays an important role to

SECTION 60

#1732764828934

6386-417: The mid-19th century, industrialisation started in Nordhausen with production of chewing tobacco, alcoholic beverages, paper and textiles. The breakthrough was reached as Nordhausen got connected to main railways in four directions between 1866 and 1869. In 1882 it became an urban district (until 1950). In the late 19th century, narrow-gauge railways were constructed linking Nordhausen and other cities through

6489-488: The neighbouring cities of Mühlhausen , Sondershausen , Frankenhausen and Sangerhausen ). Nordhausen itself is first mentioned in a 13 May 927 document of King Henry the Fowler . He built a castle here, which is traceable between 910 and 1277 and became a centre of the empire during the 10th century. Gerberga of Saxony , Henry's daughter is supposed to have been born there, as was Henry I, Duke of Bavaria . The first market

6592-528: The next months, many more prisoners were brought to the area in almost daily transports from Buchenwald. By late September, the number of workers had risen to over 3,000, by late October to 6,800 and by Christmas 1943 to more than 10,500. Since there were initially no huts, the prisoners were housed inside the tunnels – in specially designated Schlafstollen with four levels of beds stacked over each other. There were no sanitary facilities except for barrels that served as latrines. Inmates (the majority of them from

6695-500: The north around Stolberger Straße and in the south and west along the railways, the big industrial areas are located. The reconstruction after the World War II was carried out in altered manner, changing the grid and the structure of Nordhausen, which can be clearly seen along the new main streets Rautenstraße and Töpferstraße. Some areas were never built up again, for example those north and south of Kranichstraße and around Georgengasse. Peripheral Plattenbau settlements were built during

6798-500: The north, Südharz and Urbach in the east, Heringen and Kleinfurra in the south and Werther in the west. Except of Südharz, which is part of Mansfeld-Südharz district in Saxony-Anhalt , all the neighbouring municipalities belong to the Nordhausen district in Thuringia. The following villages belong to the Nordhausen municipality: Nordhausen had approx. 8,000 inhabitants during the late Middle Ages around 1500, which

6901-653: The north-west. For cycling, the long-distance Südharzroute trail network offers 10 trails in the region around Nordhausen. The Nordhausen tramway network forms an important part of the public transport system, established in 1900. Furthermore, there are inner-city and regional bus services. Nordhausen has a Fachhochschule (University of Applied Sciences) with 2,500 students that offers Bachelor's and Master's degrees in business administration , public management , and business engineering , among others. Furthermore, there are two Gymnasiums in Nordhausen. The first freely elected mayor after German reunification

7004-405: The number of people who did not survive being sent to Mittelbau-Dora at over 20,000. Thus, around one in three of those confined here did not survive. Transports from Mittelbau arrived at Bergen-Belsen between 8 and 11 April 1945. Several thousand men were housed in the so-called Kasernenlager around 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) north of the main camp, which was already overflowing with prisoners. Of

7107-730: The old town off from Altendorf in the north-west, the new town in the west and Altnordhausen in the south. Nevertheless, the new town was legally incorporated in 1365. Besides the parish churches, many monasteries were founded during the late Middle Ages in Nordhausen (Cistercians in Altnordhausen (Frauenberg, about 1200) and Altendorf (1294), Augustines where the Nordhäuser distillery is today (1312), Franciscans at Georgengasse (1230) and Dominicans at Predigerstraße (1287)). As distinct from Mühlhausen and many other free imperial cities, Nordhausen did not own any territories or villages in

7210-445: The people were exceedingly dissatisfied. Only the Soviet army could defeat the uprising. Within the GDR, Nordhausen was the centre of tobacco and liqueur production. After the German reunification of 1990, Nordhausen was made part of the recreated state of Thuringia . The 1990s brought an economic crisis with high unemployment rates, and many uncompetitive communist-era factories had to close. Nevertheless, local industry revived after

7313-463: The personnel from Auschwitz arrived: in February and March 1945, the SS on some days hanged 30, on one occasion even 50 prisoners. On 1 January 1944, the Mittelwerk delivered its first three rockets, all of which suffered from serious production defects. The SS considered those prisoners who had expanded the tunnels in autumn and winter of 1943/44 as unusable in actual production work, because they were either too weakened or not qualified for work on

7416-458: The plant, Albin Sawatzki  [ de ] , who had earlier been in charge of producing the " Tiger I " tank at Henschel , was appointed. Operational security for the project was overseen by SS-Oberstürmbannfuhrer Helmut Bischoff , a former Gestapo official and a member of Kammler's staff. The initial contract for Mittelwerk was for 12,000 rockets, valued at 750 million Reichsmark for

7519-594: The population is non-religious. 16.2% are members of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany and 4.5% are Catholics (according to 2011 EU census). Nordhausen's cityscape is marked by the near total destruction during the bombings in 1945, extinguishing most of the historic city centre. There were four historic city parts before: the old town within the city wall on a hill east of the Zorge valley,

7622-492: The population peak was reached in 1988 with 48,000. The bad economic situation after the German reunification led to emigration during the 1990s and the population shrunk in that decade. Because of the various incorporations of neighbouring villages, the amount looks smaller than it was. The average change of population within the last years (2009–2012) was approximately -0.35% p. a, whereas the population in bordering rural regions

7725-473: The present day. Approximately 57% of the municipal territory is in agricultural use. Cereals from the region are used in the making of a famous local spirit, the Nordhäuser Korn . Historically, sulfuric acid produced by the distillation of green vitriol (iron(II) sulfate) was known as Nordhausen oil of vitriol. The primary industry of Nordhausen is in the production of heavy machinery. The region had

7828-635: The protection by the Hanovers . After the Brandenburg-Prussians had occupied Nordhausen between 1703 and 1714, the city got protection of Hanover resp. England , which paid 50,000 Talers to the Prussians to leave Nordhausen, which was moreover destroyed by two town fires in 1710 and 1712. Under the protection of Hanover, the economy improved again and the production of tobacco since mid-18th century brought new wealth to Nordhausen. During

7931-583: The pyre. In 1500 it became part of the Lower Saxon Circle , and from around the same year the city began producing fermented grain liquor, which became famous under the name Nordhäuser Doppelkorn . In 1523, a year in which Thomas Müntzer spent some time in the city, the Protestant Reformation came to Nordhausen, which was one of the first cities that adopted the new doctrine. The cathedral chapter stayed catholic, protected by

8034-547: The rail transport of said equipment with the 144th Motor Vehicle Assembly Company, from Nordhausen to Erfurt ( Operation Paperclip ). On 18 July the Soviet administration created the Institute Rabe to develop Soviet rocket technology on the basis of the substantially more sophisticated V-2 rockets . In May 1946 the Institute was subsumed into the new Institute Nordhausen, under an expanded programme of research across

8137-895: The roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Dora-Mittelbau died. Today, the site hosts a memorial and museum. In early summer 1943, mass production of the A4 (later better known as V-2, V standing for Vergeltung or retribution) ballistic rocket started at the Heeresanstalt Peenemünde on the Baltic island of Usedom as well as at the Raxwerke in Wiener Neustadt , Austria and at the Zeppelin works in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance . On 18 August 1943,

8240-586: The sites selected was at the mountain known as Kohnstein, near Nordhausen in Thuringia. Since 1936, the Wirtschaftliche Forschungsgesellschaft (WIFO) (English: Economic Research Company ) had been building a subterranean fuel depot for the Wehrmacht there. By late summer 1943, this was almost finished. To oversee the creation and operation of the new construction facility, Albert Speer , Himmler and Karl Saur agreed on

8343-483: The summer of 1944 more underground construction was requested for the German petroleum industry. Demand for workers for these projects was satisfied with concentration camp prisoners, but also with foreign forced labourers, POWs and drafted Germans. The SS administration separated Mittelbau-Dora from Buchenwald at the end of September 1944 and Dora became the center of it. In effect, the new camp became officially operational on 1 November 1944 with 32,471 prisoners. By

8446-579: The surrounding area. The city's independence was endangered by the ambitions of regional counts, especially by those of Hohnstein County (based in near Ilfeld ), who extorted funds from Nordhausen during the 14th century. On the other hand, the debts of the Hohnstein Counts were gigantic: they owed 86 citizens of Nordhausen 5744 Mark silver in 1370. In 1306, Nordhausen allied with the two other major Thuringian cities Erfurt and Mühlhausen against

8549-463: The territory was known as East Germany . Hundreds of German scientists and their families from Nordhausen were among thousands deported to the Soviet Union after the war to work on advanced rocket and other arms engineering projects. Nordhausen is the birthplace of the mathematician Oswald Teichmüller , known for his groundbreaking work on the Teichmüller spaces – which were named after him. It

8652-514: The time Dora became operational in November 1944, the decline of Mittelbau-Dora was already beginning. With the subcamps overcrowded and the weather turning colder, conditions in all camps deteriorated and the death rate rose significantly. After peaking in March 1944 at 750, this had declined to 100 to 150 per month by the summer. From November it picked up and in December 1944 the official tally

8755-457: The traces of the central Dora camp had disappeared. Whilst the prison was being demolished, some people from Nordhausen began to turn the area around the crematorium into a memorial and cemetery. In 1964, the local district SED created the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Dora and had a sculpture by the artist Jürgen von Woyski erected in front of the crematorium. In 1966, a permanent exhibition opened inside

8858-842: The tunnels, observing the terrible conditions and finding them littered with corpses. Some members of Speer's staff were so shocked that they had to take an extra period of leave. A week later, Speer wrote to Kammler, congratulating him on his success "in transforming the underground installation ... from its raw condition two months ago into a factory, which has no equal in Europe and which is unsurpassed even when measured against American standards. I take this opportunity to express my appreciation for this really unique achievement and to ask you also in future to support Herr Degenkolb in this wonderful way." Inmates came from almost all countries of Europe; many of them had been arrested for political reasons. After May 1944, Jews were also brought to Mittelbau. With

8961-600: Was Barbara Rinke of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who served from 1994 to 2012. She was succeeded by Klaus Zeh of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2012 until his resignation in 2017. Independent Kai Buchmann was elected in the resulting election. The most recent mayoral election was held on 10 September 2023, with a runoff held on 24 September, and the results were as follows: The most recent city council election

9064-399: Was -0.5 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6), but is fluctuating relatively heavy for years. The most important regions of origin of Nordhausen migrants are rural areas of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Like other eastern German cities, Nordhausen has only

9167-440: Was 570, of whom 500 died at Lager Ellrich . At the end of 1944, the SS began to evacuate the inmates of Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen before the advancing Red Army . Many of them were transported to the Mittelbau. Through March 1945, up to 16,000 prisoners arrived, including women and children. Although many died in transit, this raised the number of Jews at Mittelbau. Those who survived were often extremely weak or sick. Once again,

9270-448: Was a Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen in Thuringia , Germany. It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp , supplying slave labour from many Eastern countries occupied by Germany (including evacuated survivors of eastern extermination camps), for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and

9373-479: Was administered as part of Bezirk Erfurt from 1952. The reconstruction of Nordhausen took a long time during the 1950s and 1960s and was carried out in modern architectural style. Town hall, the cathedral and St. Blaise's Church were the only rebuilt historic monuments. The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany found a centre in Nordhausen, because the living conditions within the destroyed city were still bad, and

9476-449: Was destroyed up to 90%, only some buildings around Barfüßerstraße, Domstraße and Bäckerstraße on the western edge remained, whereas Altendorf preserved entirely. So around 25 % of the old town remain. During the 19th and 20th century, the city enlarged to all directions, the worker's districts were built up in the west at Zorge valley and Salza and to the east around Förstemannstraße and Leimbacher Straße. The mansion district developed in

9579-706: Was drained in the Middle Ages by Flemish settlers under the supervision of Walkenried Abbey , and transformed into farmland. Goldene Aue is also the name of two Verwaltungsgemeinschaften ("collective municipalities") in the valley: This Thuringia location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Saxony-Anhalt location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 51°26′42″N 11°02′45″E  /  51.44500°N 11.04583°E  / 51.44500; 11.04583 Nordhausen, Thuringia Nordhausen ( pronounced [ˈnɔʁtˌhaʊ̯zn̩] )

9682-542: Was established in 1943 during World War II after the destruction of Peenemünde , and located on the outskirts of Nordhausen to provide labor for the Mittelwerk V-2 rocket factory in the Kohnstein . Over its period of operation, around 60,000 inmates passed through Dora and its system of subcamps, of whom around 20,000 died from bad working conditions, starvation, and diseases, or were murdered. Around 10,000 forced labourers were deployed in several factories within

9785-430: Was established in the 10th century, as was a chapter of nuns (961). During the 12th century, the old town was semi-planned and established around the new market place and St. Nicholas' Church. Nordhausen was Reichsgut (estate of the German emperor) from the beginning, but in 1158, Frederick Barbarossa donated it to the local chapter of nuns, which was converted to a cathedral chapter by Frederick II in 1220, whereby

9888-469: Was executed), four defendants were acquitted. The trial also addressed the question of liability of the engineers and scientists — former Generaldirektor of Mittelwerk Georg Rickhey was acquitted. Arthur Rudolph (recruited in 1945 under Operation Paperclip and later exiled from the US in 1984) was not even charged. A related trial was also held 1959–1961 in Essen . Immediately after taking control of

9991-491: Was fairly quick for those from Western Europe, but many from Eastern Europe had to wait months before they were able to return home. In early July, Thuringia passed from American to Soviet control. The Red Army now used Dora as a repatriation camp for former Polish and Soviet slave labourers. The Soviet authorities treated their citizens who had been forced to work for the Germans with suspicion, blaming them for collaborating with

10094-549: Was first mentioned in records in the year 927 and became one of the most important cities in central Germany during the later Middle Ages. The city is situated on the Zorge river, a tributary of the Helme within the fertile region of Goldene Aue (golden floodplain) at the southern edge of the Harz mountains. In the early 13th century, it became a free imperial city , so that it was an independent and republican self-ruled member of

10197-620: Was held on 26 May 2024, and the results were as follows: Thüringer HC , a top-flight Bindesliga professional women's handball team, plays at the city's Wiedigsburghalle . The club has its seat in Erfurt and plays also the home matches in the Salza-Halle in Bad Langensalza . The local association football team is Wacker Nordhausen founded in 1905 (re-formed in 1990), four-time state cup champions. They play their games at

10300-411: Was hit particularly hard. Out of 40,000 inhabitants, roughly 8,800 people died, 20,000 lost their homes. Among the dead were also an estimated 1,300-1,500 Mittelbau prisoners, who were confined at the Boelcke-Kaserne at the time. In early April 1945, as US troops were advancing towards the Harz , the SS decided to evacuate most of the Mittelbau camps. In great haste and with considerable brutality,

10403-641: Was reopened and has been accessible to visitors since 1995. Since 2000, the Stiftung Gedenkstätten Buchenwald und Mittelbau-Dora runs the memorial, financed by the Thuringian state and the federal government. The GDR era memorial installations were left intact as a documentation of the way the Communist regime treated the Nazi past. A new permanent exhibition opened in a new museum building in 2006. Some work has also been done at

10506-421: Was still far below the goal of 1,000 units per month. Wernher von Braun visited the Nordhausen plant on 25 January 1944 and again on 6 May 1944, when he met Walter Dornberger , Arthur Rudolph and Albin Sawatzki, discussing the need to enslave another 1,800 skilled French workers. On 8 September 1944, the first V-2 built at Mittelbau was successfully launched at London. That month, production hit 600 units,

10609-402: Was the third-largest number within today's Thuringia, after Erfurt , the current capital and Mühlhausen . The early modern period brought stagnation to the city, so that the population was also 8,000 around 1800. Nordhausen fell back behind the new ducal residence cities like Weimar , Gotha or Altenburg in this ages and lost its former importance. Nevertheless, Industrialization started in

#933066