Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Ordensburg Sonthofen

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Status
  
Complete

Location
  
Sonthofen, Oberallgäu

Opened
  
1934

Owner
  
Bundeswehr

Type
  
Military Barracks

Completed
  
1934

Phone
  
+49 8321 2786230

Architectural style
  
Nazi architecture

Ordensburg Sonthofen

Former names
  
NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen

Address
  
Hofener Str. 16, 87527 Sonthofen, Germany

Similar
  
Ordensburg Krössinsee, Ordensburg Vogelsang, Heimathaus, Deutsches Stadion, Gebirgsjägermuseum in der Grüntenkaserne

The Ordensburg Sonthofen is one of the NS-Ordensburgen built during the Third Reich in Sonthofen (Oberallgäu). Currently it belongs to the Bundeswehr and is named Generaloberst-Beck-Kaserne.

Contents

History

The complex was built in 1934 as NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen by the German Labour Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF in short) for the NSDAP.

Three NS-Ordensburgen existed:

  • Ordensburg Krössinsee, Pomerania
  • Ordensburg Sonthofen, Allgäu
  • Ordensburg Vogelsang, Eifel
  • A fourth one was planned at the historic Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork, in East Prussia (currently Poland).

    It was designed by architect Hermann Giesler as a school for the education of elite Nazi military and party echelons. The internationally known actor Hardy Krüger attended this school. In the last year of the war it was used as sickbay.

    Commander of the Ordensburg was, from 1936 to 1941, Robert Bauer, an Old Fighter of the Nazi party and member of the Reichstag since 1933.

    After the war French troops first took over the Castle. Later the US Army located the training center for the US-Constabulary force there.

    In 1956 the Castle was acquired by the Bundeswehr and was named after the member of resistance and former chief of the general staff of the army Colonel General Ludwig Beck.

    Current use

    The Generaloberst-Beck-Kaserne hosted schools of the Bundeswehr (Military Police (Feldjäger) and Staff Service). In 2009 the Bundeswehr transferred these schools to the Emmich-Cambrai-Kaserne in Hannover. Two other bases were then closed and their personnel moved to Sonthofen.

    Today the facility is protected as a historic site.

    Literature

  • Hartmut Happel: Die Allgäuer Ordensburg in Sonthofen. Eberl, Immenstadt 1996, ISBN 3-920269-01-2
  • Gerhard Klein: Die NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen 1934 bis 1945. In: Paul Ciupke u. Franz-Josef Jelich (Hrsg.): Weltanschauliche Erziehung in Ordensburgen des Nationalsozialismus. Zur Geschichte und Zukunft der Ordensburg Vogelsang Geschichte und Erwachsenenbildung, Bd. 20. Essen 2006. S. 65 - 84
  • References

    Ordensburg Sonthofen Wikipedia