SS-Führungsstab B12

Location:

The SS-Führungsstab B12 deployed there activities in a small place called Niedersachenwerfen, not far from Nordhausen, Germany.

History:

Hitler ordered to build a large underground aircraft factory. The total production surface should be 160000m2. This huge surface was to be build in the Kohnstein hill, between Nordhausen and Niedersachsenwerfen.

Concentrationcamp prisoners of the nearby camp Ellrich (or Mittelwerk III) had to hew out materials (Anhydrite) from the Kohnstein hill in order to create the necessary production surface. An average of 1400 prisoners worked on the project. The created space had the codename "Kaolin".

At the of the war about 30000m2 was ready to be used and about half of it was actually used for war production.

Current status:

In spite of the Potsdam agreement that all Nazi build installation should be destroyed, the "Kaolin" spaces were left accessible. In the years after the spaces were (and still) are used for growing mushrooms. The only thing that probably was destroyed, was the passage between the B12 complex and the "Ni 109" complex.

		The entrance to the B12 complex (1993)
		A mine-gallery of the B12 complex (1993)

References:

• Chronik des Lagers Ellrich 1944/45, page 19
• Decknamenverzeichnis deutscher unterirdischer Bauten des Zweiten Weltkrieges, page 159
• Geheimproject Mittelwerk, 95