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A short history:

Heidwinkel.png

Our information, as well as this photograph (before 1946) on the history of the Heidwinkel come from discussions with neighbors and the exchange with Manfred Tegge (https://www.relikte.com/grasleben). Consequently  the content of this page does not claim to be complete. However, if you have more  information about Heidwnkel, Grasleben, we look forward to hearing from you.

  • The house at Heidwinkel 6 was built by the Nazis together with the entire Heidwinkel area in the mid-1930s. Previously there was only the shaft of the salt mine with the associated building. Salt and potash have been mined here since the 1910s.

  • The Nazis built the Heidwinkel army ammunition facility here. Various grenades were made by prisoners of war. Chambers were knocked out of the walls in the salt dome as storage and production rooms. On the surface there were workshops, a loading station, production halls and a gas station. The homes of the responsible Nazis and their families still stand at the western end of the street.

  • At the other end of the street are the barracks, in which up to 250 prisoners of war were held at the same time. Most of them came from Poland and the Ukraine, and many were deported here after the Warsaw Uprising. They were forced to manufacture the ammunition with which Germany fought its war. In Grasleben there was an external detail of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

  • House number 6 was the administration of the institution. It had a protective bunker and a cell in the basement.

  • There are indications that the Heidwinkel was covered with camouflage nets, so the Allies found out late where the ammunition facility was located.

  • At the end of the war, stolen art and cultural assets were stored in the underground rooms, as were documents from the Reich Insurance Institution and the Dresden Bank. Also parts of the Bremen State Archives.

  • On April 12, 1945, US troops took over the area.

  • Shortly thereafter, the Heidwinkel was administered by the British and liberated from weapons-grade material.

  • After 1945 there were various uses. During the division of Germany there were holiday apartments in house number 6. The Helmstedt area was a popular vacation spot for travelers from the GDR.

  • Before the owner sold it, bands used house number 6 in Heidwinkel as rehearsal and studio rooms until the end of 2020.

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