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.
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Sebaldushof ammunition factory
Contents:
1. Paper mill and restaurant 1805 to 1926
2. Munitions factory 1927 to 1944
5. The LPG is rebuilding - from 1958
1. Paper mill 1805 to 1926
In 1805 a paper mill was built on Gut Sebaldushof on the outskirts of Treuenbrietzen by the miller Johann Ludwig Sebald. In addition, he set up a park and garden, on the edge of which a villa was built in 1834, which is still there today. After the paper production was relocated to a newly built mill on the outskirts, the pulp mill remained in the Sebaldushof, which processed rags for the paper production. Around 1900 the "Park-Restaurant an den Heerwegen" was set up in the villa, a popular excursion destination for Treuenbrietzen residents. The park was a well-known trademark of the city because of its beauty. After the First World War, the economic problems of the paper mill about 2 km away worsened, which of course also had an impact on the Sebaldushof. After several changes of ownership, the armaments company Kopp & Co mbH Berlin finally took over the property in 1927. First of all, the company apartments were cleared.
2. Munitions factory 1927 to 1944
As a camouflage, the factory was called "Metallwarenfabrik Treuenbrietzen GmbH". Concealed ammunition production began in 1924 in the rented premises of Gehre Dampfmesser GmbH at Leipziger Strasse 109a. Production was carried out with machines from the Spandau army workshops, which had been withdrawn from the control commission of the victorious powers after the First World War. "Swedish hunting ammunition" was officially produced. The excitement was great when an Allied control commission announced itself in 1925, all machines that could attract attention were moved into the basement and walled in. The trial shooting initially took place at the location. A shooting range was later built about 1 km north of Rietz in the forest. Above all, the skilled workers who were dismissed from the Altes Lager ammunition plant after the war were employed. After the completion of the modern production halls built on the foundations of the old paper mill, the move took place. In the following years, the expansion into a modern ammunition factory was continued. For this purpose, land was bought by the municipality. In 1931/32 the great economic crisis came from which the Sebaldushof was not spared, even short-time work had to be introduced. When the Nazis came to power, the plant began to flourish.
To delimit the Selterhof plants (Plant S), also near Treuenbrietzen and Röderhof near Belzig, which were co-managed from the Sebaldushof, the Sebaldushof was named Plant A. In Plant A, cartridges for rifles and 2 cm flak were given produced.
Arbeitsbedingungen Anfang der 30iger Jahre:
Jedem Werksangehörigen wurde 1931 ein Jahresurlaub von drei bis sechs Tagen gewährt und jeder erhielt eine Weihnachtsgratifikation. Ledige erhielten 15 RM und Verheiratete 20 RM. Die Arbeitszeit begann im Sommerhalbjahr um 6 Uhr und endete um 15 Uhr, Samstag um 12 Uhr. Im Winterhalbjahr verschoben sich die Zeiten auf eine Stunde Später. Pausen gab es 15 Minuten Frühstück und ein halbe Stunde Mittagspause. Umkleideräume und Duschen befanden sich im Dachgeschoß. Die Kontrolle der Arbeitszeit erfolgte durch Stempeluhren. Ab 1933 musste in 2 Schichten gearbeitet werden.
In 1938 further expansion of the plant began. Numerous new buildings were erected, the exact list of which describes the dimensions of the factory: House 3 (annealing and zinc works), Hall S (strip department and garage), Hall K (cone department), Hall G (follower house with basement, ventilation) , Hall L. (material store), building A (toilet building), building T (transformer), building V (test stand also air raid shelter), hall F (finishing shop), building Fs (sieve house), building FH (manual magazine), building FP (rehearsal house ), Hall PL (blank cartridge workshop), magazines M1 and M2 (powder and primer magazines). A relaxation room has even been created for the female employees. Unfortunately there are no historical photos of the buildings.
The plant now had an area of 19,200 square meters and an enclosed space of 96,000 cubic meters. About 2,000 employees, including forced laborers, are said to have worked there. To attract workers, the Kurmärkische Kleinsiedlungs GmbH Berlin built the "Berliner Siedlung" with semi-detached houses on the outskirts of Treuenbrietzen in 1936. Since the workforce in the area was no longer sufficient, unemployed people from annexed Austria and the Sudetenland were recruited from 1938 onwards, and after the start of the war also from Holland and Belgium. From 1942 forced laborers came from Poland and the Soviet Union. At the end of the war, Soviet and Italian prisoners of war were also used. Starting in 1942, the Reich Ministry of Armaments and Ammunition built twelve residential, two commercial and three toilet barracks from the Reich's own stocks in front of the factory entrance on B2, which were only left to the company for the war time and were to be available to the Ministry again afterwards. The hygienic facilities in the barracks are said to have been sufficient.
Zum Kriegsende sind auch sowjetische und italienische Kriegsgefangene eingesetzt worden. Für sie errichtete das Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition ab 1942 vor dem Werkseingang an der B2 zwölf Wohn-, zwei Wirtschafts- und drei Abortbaracken aus reichseigenen Beständen, die dem Unternehmen nur für die Kriegszeit überlassen wurde und danach dem Ministerium wieder zur Verfügung stehen sollten. Die hygienischen Einrichtungen in den Baracken sollen ausreichend gewesen sein. Es haben ca. 2.500 Beschäftigte, ohne Kriegsgefangene und Zwangsarbeiter im Sebaldushof gearbeitet. Im Juni 1943 waren 295 männliche und 710 weibliche ausländische Arbeitskräfte beschäftigt.
There was also a sports field and a swimming pool on the company's premises. The swimming pool was used for a few years after the war and is still there today.
Contemporary witnesses reported that the food was tasty, but not enough. After work there was an exit, which mainly served to procure food, by begging or exchanging handicrafts and handicrafts. Distinctions were made between western workers (French, Dutch) and eastern workers (Poles and Russians). The Polish workers had to mark themselves with a "P" at the exit. The western workers had more rights and were treated better. The relationship between local workers and slave labor was good. Many Treuenbrietzen residents took larger parcels of sandwiches with them to work and distributed them to their work colleagues, even though this was strictly forbidden. Because of this, some were spared in the later looting.
The ammunition factories in Treuenbrietzen were well known to the Allies, but the locations remained undiscovered because of the good camouflage.
The "normal" forced laborers and foreign workers were able to move freely in the city and even go to Berlin on their days off. Numerous Italian military internees were among the forced laborers. They were held prisoner in a neighboring camp together with prisoners from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and guarded by factory security. In 1944 Kopp's corporate headquarters with 78 employees were relocated from Berlin to Sebaldushof.
3. The events of April 1945
On April 21, 1945, the 51st Guards Armored Regiment, which belonged to the 1st Ukrainian Front, occupied the city. When a Soviet patrol arrived on April 21st. There was a shooting with the guards of the forced labor camp in which Lieutenant Schartschinski was killed, for whom a memorial was erected on the site during GDR times. The camp commandant and the superintendent were shot immediately. The camp was liberated. The forced laborers then roamed the city, pillaging. On the night of April 23rd, soldiers of the 12th Army of the Wehrmacht, reinforced by members of the Reich Labor Service and Hitler Youth from the Gauschwarm Berlin, captured large parts of Treuenbrietzen and held the city until evening. On that day, the forced laborers who had already been freed were brought back to the camp by German soldiers. On the same day, members of the Wehrmacht or the Waffen SS drove 131 Italian military internees into a forest near the village of Nichel, which is near Treuenbrietzen. All but four survivors were shot in a gravel pit. The details have not yet been clarified. The camp was liberated again on the evening of April 23rd.
After that, the Soviets urged the residents of Treuenbrietz to evacuate the city. The civilians were brought out of the city in a north-easterly direction (Jahnstrasse). According to contemporary witness reports , the men were separated from the women and children at the edge of the forest. The men were taken into the forest and shot. It has not been conclusively proven whether the shooting was a spontaneous killing of excess or a deliberate punitive action. There is widespread disagreement among local historians about the number of victims. According to estimates, up to 1,000 people died in the city of 7,000 people. Probably are in number also contain deaths from fighting.
4. Dismantling after the war
In the factory halls, all machines and usable materials were dismantled by the occupying forces and brought to the Soviet Union. For this purpose, up to 300 German workers were forcibly committed by the authorities on Soviet orders, whoever did not appear after being asked to do so was "brought in". To transport the machines away, 1,280 tracks were laid to the Brachwitz block, which were later dismantled. An eyewitness reported a dispute between Italian military personnel and Soviet officers over Italian loot machines that they wanted to bring back to Italy. Next, all the factory buildings were blown up. Werner Nichelmann from Nichel reported that he was obliged to work with other apprentices from the agricultural machinery company P. Richter in Plant A to dig blast holes on the foundations of the factory halls. Many neighbors from his village also had to work there. The blasting was completed by the summer of 1947. The old villa and an administration building in which four refugee families were housed were spared. They had to move out in 1948 and make room for a children's home.
The forced labor camp initially served as refugee accommodation. From 1946 the building of the forced labor camp was demolished by the construction company Karabas on behalf of the provincial administration and the material was sold. The properties of plants A and S passed into the possession of the state of Brandenburg in 1949.
5. The LPG is rebuilding - from 1958
From 1958 to 1960 the stables of the "calf combine" of the Treuenbrietzener LPG were built on part of the factory premises, which now served as a source of building materials. The concrete fragments were used to build the foundations, the recovered bricks were used to build the stable buildings. In the first year, 300 calves were raised with young cattle using “Soviet methods”. In 1960 the following message was announced: “The LPG Calf Combine in Treuenbrietzen raises 600 calves every year from the fourth day of life to gestation in a specially set up combine. The calves are kept in open stalls and outdoors. Modern stables, which were developed by the cooperative members themselves, are under construction and should be completed by the 10th anniversary of our republic. By 1965, 2,000 calves are to be reared each year. Not only the LPG construction brigade is working on the construction of the new open calf barn. Employees of state institutions help in the national structure, which makes the construction cheaper by two thirds of the planned costs. Despite the drought, the cooperative farmers of Treuenbrietzen had no fodder worries, as they constantly artificially irrigated their pastures. " The following propaganda report was published for the first photo with the 3 women: “The cattle keeper Christa Hartwig, who was brought to the VI by the colleagues of the youth collective of the LPG“ Frohe Zukunft ”in Treuenbrietzen, Jüterbog district. German farmers' congress in Rostock, reports on her return about her experiences and impressions that she was able to collect during the congress. She tells the apprentices Gertrud Wache and Helga Geppert about the contributions to the discussion that dealt with the keeping of cattle in open stalls. “After the LPG was closed in 1990, the stables were used by a sheep farm, but some also fell into disrepair.
In addition to a beautiful park area, the site had also been home to a nursery with a tree nursery since the beginning of the 19th century, which the city leased to various users until 1957. In 1958 the calf combine became the legal entity for the garden and used it as a pasture for cattle. The park is barely recognizable. Here are a few impressions from 2021:
In 1958, a home for apprentices was set up in the buildings previously used as a children's home for future cattle breeders. The children's home moved into the former hotel "Leipziger Hof" in Leipzigerstrasse. 202 (at the roundabout). That had previously belonged to the SA chief von Treuenbrietzen who was expropriated in 1945. In the 1970s the dormitory moved to Leipziger Straße 10 at the current Netto parking lot. After the fall of the Wall, apartments were set up in both buildings. In the 1990s, the villa and the administration building on Sebaldushof were sold by the Treuhandanstalt to former tenants.
In 1983 a memorial "Forced Labor Camp Sebaldushof" was created on the former camp site. A few years ago, students from the Treuenbrietzener Gymnasium exposed the floor plans of some barracks and marked them. Memorial plaques were set up and a small circular path was laid out. During an excavation as part of a student summer camp in 2019, around 1000 Adrema matrices were found on which the personal data of many plant employees were found and foreign workers are stamped. Otherwise, the factory and the forced labor camp are now overgrown with forest. There are only a few blasted concrete chunks here and there.
