1. Die Steinmühle
Die Steinmühle wurde 1303 als Getreidemühle von den Zisterziensermönchen aus dem Kloster Zinn erbaut und von diesen betrieben. Bis 1766 wurde die Mühle als Getreidemühle genutzt, bis der damalige Mühlenmeister eine Genehmigung zur Anlegung einer Schneidemühle (Sägewerk) erhielt.
1845 wurde sie wieder abgerissen und danach als Ölmühle wiederaufgebaut. Ende 19. Jahrhunderts wurde auf Dampfkraft erweitert und die Mühle zur Strohpapierstoff-Fabrik umgebaut. Sie wurde auch weiter als Dampfmühle genutzt. 1918 firmiert die Mühle als „G. Thiele Steinmühle“. Inhaber war Emil Gericke, der Schwiegersohn von G.Thiele. 1934 wurde die Dampfmaschine durch einen Motor ersetzt und die Mühle vergrößert.
Bunker Kossa - command bunker of the Warsaw Treaty armies
Until 1945:
On the B2 in the Dübener Heide I saw a sign pointing to the Kossa bunker for years. With a couple of friends, I set out to visit the bunker in April 2018. The approach road already told us that there is more like a GDR bunker, because from Söllichau it was at pre-war level. As early as 1935, building materials, workers and supplies for the construction of the explosives factory in Moschwig, code name "Beech Project", were transported. In this remote forest area, the "Westsächsisch-Anhaltinische Sprengstoff AG" (WASAG) found enough space to set up an ammunition factory and produce explosives. Another important explosives plant for the armaments industry of the Third Reich was to be built on an area of around 440 hectares. The total cost was around 44 million Reichsmarks and the production of explosives began as early as 1937. Smokeless gunpowder was produced with solvents, as well as the production and filling of castable explosives in grenades with various uses as fragmentation grenades, HE grenades and tank grenades.
1945 to 1990:
In 1945 the armaments factory was blown up by resolutions of the Potsdam Agreement. From the mid-1950s, the National People's Army began using the site. In the “Beech” area, a pioneering and chemical workshop with equipment stores and several administrative buildings are being built. Almost 400 members of the army and civilian workers worked there. From 1976 to 1979 extensive construction work was carried out within a sectioned piece in the property. They did not simply serve to expand what already existed, but rather one of the best-kept military secrets of the GDR was created there. Namely a protected command post in the context of the planning of defensive acts of the Warsaw Treaty.
After 1990:
The facility is now a private museum . Guided tours and discovery tours are offered. We booked the discovery tour. We were given a map and were able to move freely around the site. Accessible were:
- The museum bunker with an overview of the site and the structure of the bunker structures, as well as special exhibitions
to the NVA and the forced labor camp in WW2
- The computer bunker and the field hospital
- The technical bunker, which served as a control center for water, air and heating.
During the guided tours, the large news bunker is also visited, in which vehicles are also housed. Old military equipment is also distributed on the site.
