• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Eckernforde

Eckernförde is located on the Baltic Sea between Kiel and Flensburg in the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein. Eckernförde Bay is and has been the scene of military. operations since the inception of torpedo experiments in. 1913. Before the Great War The U-boat School was established at Eckernforde. Its object was to familiarise the new U-boat crews with the handling of their boats and their armament, and especially to train them in marksmanship. The crews of all newly-commissioned boats were first sent to the U-boat School for a time to obtain practice in the military tasks with which they would be confronted. The Bay of Eckernforde was particularly suitable for diving practice, because of its uniformly great depth. Moreover, in consequence of its remote situation, there was little traffic there, and it was not, like Kiel Harbor, shut in by barriers, the passage of which always entailed a certain loss of time.

In the large basin of Kiel Bay, which lay before the school, practice attacks on a large scale and in war conditions could be carried out. Special convoys were formed which were surrounded by guardships on the English model ; the ships were painted in the manner which in course of time had been adopted by English ships to deceive the marksmen at the periscope. The ships were painted in all sorts of extraordinary colours, so as to deceive the observer, both as to the size and the course of the steamer, and hence to lead to bad aim in shooting.

The founding year of the city Eckernförde is not known. The first use of the name is from the years 1197, 1222 and 1288 in connection with the name "Godescalcus de Ekerenvorde" and "Nicholas de Ekerenvorde" survived. The Danish king had towards the end of the 12 century to protect the north-south direction through the narrow passage between Noor and open bay running trade route build a castle. In a document of 1302 there is Eckernförde no doubt then as a city.

Eckernförde received city rights in around 1288. The first seal dates from the early 14th century and shows the castle at the coast (waves). The squirrel is a canting symbol (Eichhorn, or Ekern in the local dialect), which first appears on the seal in the 15th century. At first the squirrel was shown somewhere on the seal, later it became part of the arms itself. It was said that the area was covered with a forest, so dense that a squirrel could travel to Kiel without touching the ground.

In the 15th und 16. Centuries shift in trading in the wake of the economic boom of the town of Rendsburg in east-west direction, which Eckernförde to the port city with privileged intermediaries. The Kernbau was in built the middle of the 15th Century, and later rebuilt and extended several times. Especially noteworthy is the approximately 210 square meters large, the entire floor engaging citizens hall. It served as a meeting hall for the City Council for the guild and guilds for court hearings and weddings of citizens. The town hall is one of the most remarkable of its kind in Schleswig-Holstein.

In the chequered history the city in the middle of the 18th century was the first economic boom. The family Otte took a prominent place. The family founded Otte brickyards and a Wollfabrik successive earthenware factories in Criseby and Eckernförde (until 1780), whose products gain an international reputation and is still very popular. A mysterious figure of Eckernförder story is the count of Saint Germain, since 1780 together with the Danish town holder, Carl Landgrave of Hesse, the alchemist's tower on Louisenlund experimented. He worked on the development of colors, but the desired durability was unattainable. For this production Landgraf bought the abandoned factories. The recipe for a health tea, which he produced, wais transmitted. The Count of Saint Germain died on 27 Februar 1784 in Eckernförde and was buried in grave No. 1 in the St. Nicolai Church.

In the course of the Schleswig-Holstein survey took place on 5 April 1849. April 1849 a Danish landing attempt before Eckernförde, at the end of the Danish liner "Christian VIII" under unclear circumstances exploded. The debate and the reception of the contemporary scene as a "media event" is reflected in numerous pieces of reference and visual representations.

Eckernförde is the oldest of Bad Nordmark, founded in 1831 in Borby. The development of tourism, now in the city a special role, thus its beginning. The fishing and fish processing industry in 1900 was the dominant economic factor. About a third of around 6,000 inhabitants earned a living from fishing.

Eckernförde garrison is located, the military presence began 1912 with the establishment of the Schießstandes torpedo for the imperial workshop in Friedrichsort. In 1935 applies to the naval installations in Carlsberg. At the end of the war, the torpedo experimental station about 7,000 employees.

The Bundeswehr Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons (WTD 71) belongs to the BWB organization. It is located in Eckernförde (Schleswig-Holstein) and was founded in 1957. The responsibilities of WTD 71 cover the entire range of naval defense technology during all phases of the defense acquisition cycle. Most of its activities focus on the overall system aspects of ships as well as the interdependencies between various components and the system as a whole in a naval environment.