Zossen (; , ) is a German town in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg, about south of Berlin, and next to the B96 highway. Zossen consists of several smaller municipalities, which were grouped in 2003 to form the city.
Geography
Since the 2003 municipal reform, Zossen consists of the following districts and municipalities:
-
Glienick
-
Horstfelde
-
Schünow
-
Werben
-
Kallinchen
-
Nächst Neuendorf
-
Nunsdorf
-
Schöneiche
| valign="top" |
-
Wünsdorf
-
Funkenmühle
-
Lindenbrück
-
Neuhof
-
Waldstadt
-
Zesch am See
-
Zossen
-
Dabendorf
|
History
Zossen, like many places in Brandenburg, was originally a
Slavic peoples settlement. Its name () may derive from "Sosna", meaning
pine, a tree quite common in the region.
In 1875, Zossen railway station opened on the railway line from Berlin to Dresden and the Prussian military railway to the artillery range at Kummersdorf-Gut in present-day Am Mellensee. Between 1901 and 1904, Zossen adopted the use of various high-speed vehicles, such as electric locomotives and trams, for transportation to and from Berlin-Marienfelde. These vehicles were powered by an alternating current of 15 kV and used a variable frequency. The power was transmitted by three overhead lines arranged one above the other.
Imperial German Army garrison
In 1910, an artillery
proving ground and
garrison of the Imperial German Army were established in the Waldstadt section of the Wünsdorf community, a site that remains in use today. During World War I, it housed several prisoner-of-war camps, including the "
Crescent Camp" (
Halbmondlager), which was designated for
Muslim soldiers who had fought for the
Triple Entente.
Notably, the first
mosque in Germany was erected here.
The mosque's wooden construction, financed by the
Prussian Army, featured a 25-meter high
minaret that was built in just five weeks in July 1915.
The camp operated from 1915 until 1917, serving as a showcase for Germany's war propaganda. It was designed not only to display the supposed humane treatment of prisoners but also to persuade them to join the
Central Powers' cause. Named after the structure, the adjacent Mosque Street (Moscheestraße) has kept its name to this day.
German Reichswehr complex
The military complex in Wünsdorf continued to be used after the end of the First World War in 1918. On 1 October 1924, the first German Armed Forces (
Reichswehr) military sports courses were initiated at the Imperial Gymnastics Gymnasium (
Kaiserliche Turnanstalt) as part of the newly founded popular sports movement (
Volkssportbewegung), which ran nationwide until 1933. In 1934, it was converted into the Army Sports School Wünsdorf, promoting competitive sports in the German
Reichswehr. For the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, German athletes were prepared here, while athletes from other nations were accommodated in the Olympic Village. The first director of the
Reichswehr sports school, from 1919 to 1924, was , a German army officer, instructor, sports author, and advocate of the early
Freikörperkultur (naturism) movement in Germany. Additional barracks, a hospital, and horse stables were later constructed.
Underground military bunkers
From 1939 to 1945, during World War II, Wünsdorf served as the largest and most advanced German army headquarters, housing the Zeppelin signals intelligence (SIGINT)
bunker, as well as the Maybach I and II underground headquarters of the German
Wehrmacht (
OKW) and the Army's Supreme High Command (
OKH).
Soviet occupation and military base
After World War II, the area became the site of a Soviet military base in
East Germany known as the "House of Officers" or "Lenin City", the largest outside
Russia, accommodating up to 75,000 Soviet men, women, and children with daily trains to
Moscow.
[ "The Forbidden City: inside the abandoned Soviet camp of Wünsdorf", The Guardian, Ciarán Fahey, 11 January 2017] Soviet troops remained until their withdrawal following the German reunification in August 1994. Since then, the area has returned to civilian use as the Wünsdorf-Waldstadt
book town and bunker town, founded in 1998.
Although much of it lies abandoned, evidence of Soviet occupation remains visible.
By late 2019, roughly 1,700 apartments had been converted from the old barracks, with another 700 planned for subsequent years.
A 2017 news report indicates that, at its peak, the military base was home to approximately 75,000 Soviet people, with access to stores, schools, and leisure centres. After the base was abandoned, authorities discovered "98,300 rounds of ammunition, 47,000 pieces of ordnance, 29.3 tonnes of munitions and rubbish, including chemicals... houses were full of domestic appliances".[ The Forbidden City: inside the abandoned Soviet camp of Wünsdorf]
While new uses have not been found for the installations and bunkers of the unmodified areas of the military base,[ "This abandoned 'Forbidden City' was once the largest Soviet military base in East Germany". CNN Travel][ "Contact & Getting There". buecherstadt.com]
Timeline
-
1809/1810: Kietz and the vineyards of Zossen are suburbanised
-
1885: Monument to the fallen soldiers of the 1864, 1866, and 1870 wars is erected in Kietz
-
1906: School on Kirchplatz is expanded
-
1910: Military area between Zossen and Wünsdorf is developed
-
1915: First mosque built on German soil in the POW camp
-
1919: Reichswehr military sports school
-
1932: Flyers of the town councillor and deacon regarding the threatening change in the Protestant community and the city Zossen
-
1933: As a result of the National Socialists' rise to power, Socialism and Communism in Zossen are arrested by SS troops and are held in the school on Kirchplatz. Emil Phillip is removed from his post, upon the order of Pastor Eckerts
-
1934: Expansion of the town hall
-
1939: The military zone in Zossen is developed into military headquarters
-
1945: Russian soldiers capture the military headquarters
-
1956: The city park is created
-
1992: The "Alter Krug" Zossen society is founded
-
1994: Formation of the administrative district of Teltow-Fläming from the old districts of Jüterbog, Luckenwalde, and Zossen
-
1996: 450th anniversary of Prince Elector Joachim II's awarding of rights and privileges to Zossen
-
1998: Wünsdorf Book Town declared, the only book town in Germany
Demography
File:Bevölkerungsentwicklung Zossen.pdf|Population since 1875 within the current borders (blue line: population; dotted line: normalized population of Brandenburg; grey background: time of Nazi rule; red background: time of communist rule)
File:Bevölkerungsprognosen Zossen.pdf|Population 2005–2018 (blue lines) and projections to 2030 (dotted lines) from 2005 (yellow line), 2017 (velvet line) and 2020 (green line), including census in 2011
Mayors
-
Hans-Jürgen Lüders (SPD) 1993–2003
-
Michaela Schreiber: 2003-2019
-
Wiebke Schwarzweller: since 2019
Notable people
-
Karl Friedrich August Lehmann (1843–1893), stenographer and inventor of the shorthand system
-
Frieda Kassen (1895–1970), politician (SPD)
-
Walter Budeus (1902–1944), Communist and resistance fighter
-
Roy Präger (born 1971), football player
See also
-
Großer Wünsdorfer See
-
List of Soviet military sites in Germany
External links
