Crawinkel is small village in Thüringen in the former DDR. It is about 35 kilometers South-west of Erfurt.
A Luftmunitionsanstalt (or Luftmuna) was the single highest storage unit in the hierarchy of Luftwaffe ammunition distribution. Above the Luftmunitionsanstalt was the Lufthauptmunitionsanstalt, after that you go the factories. In a Luftmunitionsanstalt ammunition was not only stored, but filled as well. There were about 9 of there Luftmuna's.
The Luftmuna Crawinkel was build between 1934 en 1935 on a large territory just outside the village. The Luftmuna was near a railroad. The Luftmuna was used for the storage of bombs and Flak ammunition. At the end of 1944, the Luftmuna was abandoned. It was transferred to the Luftmuna's. Oberndorf and Weisswasser.
After the Luftmuna was abanded, it was used as a subcamp for the concentrationcamp Buchenwald. It was officially know as Aussenlager Crawinkel. The prisoners in the camp usually slept in the now empty bunkers, without decent clothing and blankets. The prisoners had to work on a secret buildingproject in the area of Ohrdruf. It is not yet clear what the prisoners had to build. It is likely that the prisoners helped to build Hitler's secret headquarters SIII. There are indication that they worked on an other secret project in that area. This has not (yet) been confirmed.
After the war almost the whole area near Crawinkel-Ohrdruf-Arnstadt was used by the Russians as a military training area. I'm not sure if the area was a restricted area, but is it likely because it was very close to large Russian barracks (Kaserne Ohrdruf). All building are blown up, this is probably done by the Russians. Today you can see the remains of the Luftmuna. A large number of blown up ammunition bunkers can still be found in the woods around Crawinkel.
|
Remains of an ammunition bunker (1996) |
| Back to the: | Home page | Camps Section | War Industry Section | Complexes Section | Museum & Monument Section |