Johnson Barracks (english)

Die Karte wird geladen …

After the war the U.S. Army also occupied the Panzerkaserne near Weikershof. It was named Johnson Barracks in 1949.

History

Speichergebäude der Johnson Barracks aus der Ferne, 1965

Initially, a pioneer unit of the 4th US Armored Division – the 24th Engineer Battalion – was stationed here. From 1971 onward, the 1st US Armored Division took over the duties and locations of the 4th AD, and the 16th Engineer Battalion moved to Johnson Barracks. The site also housed the Quartermaster's office and other administrative offices of the division. In the 1960s, heavy M109 self-propelled howitzers were also stationed here. During exercises, they would roar out from Johnson Barracks in convoy across the Fürth South intersection and (unthinkable today) conduct their "small" maneuvers very close to the buildings in Altenberg. The noise from machine guns and cannons, and the dust were immense. On one occasion, a stray shell (fortunately a training shell without an explosive component) flew into Altenberg and hit a roof. This, along with numerous reports of complaints from local residents, was covered extensively in the Fürther Nachrichten. After crossing the Rednitz bridge towards Altenberg, at the first left entrance to the Hainberg area, a red flag was prominently displayed at the start of these actions, indicating that the entire area was off-limits to private individuals due to the risk to life.

On August 15, 1973, a drunken 19-year-old private hijacked one of the armored personnel carriers stationed at Johnson Barracks and sped through Fürth. He ran over a military police vehicle. His rampage only ended when he got stuck in a field.

1992 the 16th Engineer Battalion left Fürth; it was relocated to Bamberg.

After 42 hectares of the 52-hectare barracks site were transferred to the city of Fürth, an investor tore down all the buildings to make way for the Gewerbepark Süd. More than 100 companies have since established themselves there. During construction work in January 2008, large quantities of ammunition left behind by US troops were discovered.

The namesake: Elden H. Johnson

The barracks were named after Private Elden H. Johnson. He was born in 1921 in Bivalue, New Jersey, and served in the 15th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Division. He served with this regiment on the Italian front. On June 3, 1944, he and his unit were ambushed. He drew fire from three tanks, three machine guns, and several enemy soldiers, allowing his twelve comrades to escape. Firing from the hip with his assault rifle, he advanced upright toward the German position, which was only about 20 meters away. From a distance of only about five meters, he disabled one of the machine guns. He changed his magazine and fired on other soldiers, killing or wounding four more before being hit by a burst of machine-gun fire. He sank to his knees and, while kneeling, fired another burst, killing another enemy before Johnson himself died. His comrades were by then safe. For this unprecedented act of bravery and the sacrifice of his life, Private Elden H. Johnson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on May 16, 1945. As a further honor, the barracks in Fürth were named after him in 1949.

US-military prison

In 1971, a new US military prison was planned at Johnson Barracks, as the old one at William O. Darby Kaserne no longer met requirements. The prison in Fürth was one of only two prisons for the entire Federal Republic of Germany.

The site for the prison was chosen at the far end of the barracks grounds, bordering the Main-Donau-Kanal. It was enclosed by a double fence and equipped with four wooden watchtowers with enclosed platforms and roof-mounted spotlights. The site was easily visible from the elevated path along the canal. The building was designed in a cruciform shape, with a two-story main structure running east-west and two single-story wings along what is now Futuriastraße. It was completed in 1976. The new and modern power plant, with its exposed tank and tall chimney, stood approximately 50 meters outside the prison fence to the north, next to the entrance and guardhouse at the prison gate (visible in the aerial photograph under "Pictures"). The prison building contained approximately 100 cells, as well as several large common rooms used only during the day. These common rooms were completely open and had floor-to-ceiling bars, giving the guards along the continuous corridor a full view. The toilet facilities for these common rooms consisted of approximately 10 toilets each, completely open without any partitions, and located directly adjacent to the guard corridor, which was separated by a floor-to-ceiling grille.

The prison was used for lesser cases with sentences of up to six months. Military personnel serving longer sentences were flown to the United States. Today, nothing remains to remind one of the military past of this part of the site. The westernmost part of the prison was located at what is now Futuriastraße 2, and the transverse building lay between Futuriastraße and the Main-Donau-Kanal and has since been replaced by new buildings or used for storage.

Further uses

In 1950, a large US laundry facility was built on the grounds of the former Panzerkaserne. It boasted 150 machines and employed 400 people working in three shifts, providing fresh laundry for 40,000 American soldiers. In the following years, the former German Wehrmacht depot on Schwabacher Straße was transformed into the "Quartermaster Field Maintenance Branch," a massive repair facility and storage depot for the entire Nuremberg-Fürth district of the U.S. Army. This area encompassed military units as far afield as Regensburg, Straubing, Bayreuth, Grafenwöhr, and Ansbach. German workers in various repair departments and supply facilities, such as a coffee warehouse and scrap metal and waste processing plant, also managed enormous quantities of accumulated materials, some of which were unusable, beyond repair, or simply unprofitable. These materials were then offered to German companies for disposal.

Eyewitness accounts

Regarding construction work at the military prison:
"Access to the construction site was very strictly regulated; every employee received a photo ID which was checked at the entrance gate of Johnson Barracks, as they were on military base. Some employees didn't receive one, and it was then a matter of speculation whether this was due to their recent relocation as ethnic Germans from the former USSR, or whether they were perhaps still on the MP's files from a previous encounter with GIs at the Gelber Löwe or Kristallpalast." "Many components of this building came directly from the USA, which caused more than a few head-shaking moments among the tradesmen (I witnessed this myself during visits to the construction site). Almost all the technical equipment, apart from the building materials, was sourced from the US, even though it was surprising that the electrical system here was 220 volts instead of the 110 volts used in the US. Besides the cell doors, windows, and bars, the very large partition grilles made of special steel, impervious to sawing and grinding, arrived fully welded from the US via Bremerhaven to Fürth. These were for the floor-to-ceiling partition between the guards' corridor and the enormous common rooms and were certainly over 6 meters long. At least the high transport costs were less of an issue, since the entire facility was paid for from the US defense budget." "The very strict hygienic conditions for the water pipes were also somewhat unusual, because every completed system had to be filled with chlorine according to a very specific, prescribed schedule, and after the contact and waiting period, flushed several times to remove even the last possible contaminants, such as oil residue from thread cutting or sealant that might have gotten inside the pipes. This procedure was also mandatory in U.S. Army housing blocks like the Kalbsiedlung for new construction and renovations." ^[1]

Literature

Sternenbanner und Kleeblatt, Bernd Jesussek, 1996
10 Jahre Konversion: Der Fürther Weg, Stadt Fürth, 2005
»Little America«. Militär und Kasernen von 1945 - 1995. In: Auf in den Süden! Geschichte der Fürther Südstadt, 2017, Sandberg Verlag, ISBN 978-930699-94-0, S. 78 - 99
Überraschende Jahrhundertaufgabe. Konversion! Die Südstadt verändert ihr Gesicht. In: Auf in den Süden! Geschichte der Fürther Südstadt, 2017, Sandberg Verlag, ISBN 978-930699-94-0, S. 100 - 117
Bernd Jesussek: Die Amerikaner in Fürth 1945 - 1995, Ausstellungskatalog, 2018, 59 S.