Heeres-Munitionsanstalt (Muna)

In a forest in Brandenburg are the remains of a German ammunition factory, construction of which began in 1890. Initially as a secondary depot to the Berlin-Spandau artillery depot and from 1896 as an independent artillery depot. Sidings were laid. From 1917 many extensions were built. The neighboring firing range, but also the front, had to be supplied with ammunition. At the beginning of the twenties there was an ammunition dismantling facility for Berlin-Burger Eisenwerke AG. At the beginning of the thirties, the first storage bunkers and the construction of a filling station, the rest of which can still be seen today. It was legendary as a "chemical factory". It was an army-owned manufacturing facility. In the mid-30s the area was divided. The western part became the Heeres-Munitionsanstalt and the eastern part the Heeres-Nebenzeugamt  assigned.

Until 1935 she was also responsible for the camouflaged air armament. For example, aircraft bombs up to a weight of 5 centners were filled with explosives in the new floor filling system. From 1935 the Luftwaffe had its own production facilities and the filling plant only worked for the army.

In 1938 the filling plant was significantly enlarged. Two more production districts were created. The entire complex consisted of seven welfare and administration buildings, fourteen warehouses, four workshop buildings, three locomotive sheds and boiler houses, a pump house with deep wells and three fire extinguishing equipment sheds with hose towers. Several air raid shelters were added during the war.

In the first, older production district, heavy-caliber grenades (15 and 21 cm grenades) were filled with explosives by hand. In the two new districts, the explosive filling of the grenade was largely mechanized and partially automated. In the first years of the war, the production range of the new districts comprised the filling of 10.5 cm grenades  for the light field howitzer, as well as bullets in caliber 7.5 cm.

The daily production per district was around 20,000 pieces for shells for the tank cannon with a caliber of 7.5 cm and 10 - 12,000 pieces for 10.5 cm shells, which happened in shifts of 10 hours each. The remaining four hours were technically necessary as a machine break. A temporary shift operation of 3 x 8 hours "around the clock" had to be given up due to overheating of the machines. Overall, the filling system was able to fill up to 1250 tons of explosives or explosive mixtures in grenades per month.

Around 2,000 people were employed in the entire munitions plant in peacetime. During the war, the number rose to around 4,000. From 1939, Germans were required to work in the filling plant. From 1940 foreign workers and prisoners of war were added.

Although the intelligence services of the western allies were fully informed about the location and capacity of the filling plant, the production facility was never attacked from the air. It was not until the US Air Force destroyed a railway junction on April 18, 1945 that production could not be removed. Until April 19, one day before the Red Army marched in, the ammunition plant and the filling station were in full swing. Right up until the end, the employees were called on to work extra shifts and overtime to supply the front with ammunition. Only on April 20, when the news that the first armored spearheads were in the vicinity, did work stop.

The GSSD used the area as an artillery ammunition depot. In the 1970s, it was expanded to include accommodation buildings and vehicle halls. On December 2nd, 1991 the site was handed over to the German administration. In 1996 a locomotive museum was set up here. Since the level crossing over the main road was demolished, after a few months it was also over for the museum, which moved to Bavaria. A wind farm has been under construction on the site since 2009.

The two imposing buildings with the filling towers for the grenades with four floors, two staircases and an elevator, as well as the attached workshop, are particularly interesting. In one hall there are even two German ovens for preheating the shell funnel. You can also visit loading ramps and track fragments, as well as some ammunition and crew bunkers. The function of the big yellow clinker building did not reveal itself to me, perhaps the hose house for the fire brigade was here.

Source: Wehrmacht Lexicon

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Here are the pictures of the former melting and casting building for the artillery shells with the two ovens still preserved, the production hall, the laboratory and the sanitary room: