page_title: Weingut I
section_title: Capture and demolition
hierarchical_section_title: Weingut I / War's end and afterward / Capture and demolition
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der einzige überbleibende Bogen vom Weingut I, ein 1944 begonnenes Projekt zur Errichtung eines halbunterirdischen Rüstungsbunkers im oberbayerischen Landkreis Mühldorf. Die Anlage wurde nur zum Teil fertiggestellt und nie ihrem geplanten Zweck zugeführt. English: The single remaining arch of Weingut I, a partially underground bunker factory begun in 1944 and abandoned at the end of WWII. The ruins are located in the Upper Bavarian district of Mühldorf.
context_page_description: In 1944 the Third Reich began work on the construction of a partially underground bunker factory codenamed Weingut I in the forest known as the Mühldorfer Hart, slightly to the west of Mühldorf am Inn in Upper Bavaria. Plans for the bunker called for a massive reinforced concrete barrel vault composed of 12 arch sections under which Messerschmitt Me 262 jet engines would be manufactured in a nine-storey factory.
  Upon completion these were to be sent to a similar installation in the area of Landsberg am Lech, where the final assembly of the aircraft was to take place. This network of underground factories was intended to ensure the production of the Me 262 at a time when the Allies had already gained control of the German airspace.
  Despite it being increasingly clear to the organizers of the project that it would never be finished in time to make a difference in the war, the construction of Weingut I was approved on a 6-month time-line. Of a total of 10,000 workers who worked on the project, 8,500 were forced laborers and inmates of the Mühldorf concentration camp network. Of these more than 3,000 died of overwork, underfeeding, and SS brutality.
context_section_description: When the 47th tank battalion of the 14th Armored Division reached Mühldorf in the early days of May 1945, the construction area and all related facilities were placed under US military administration. The company was allowed to dismantle and remove its construction equipment, and the Reichsbahn took up the tracks that led to the complex. Next the army decided to use the grounds as a bomb test site in order to determine the effectiveness of the bunker:
  It is recommended that the U.S. Army avail itself of the opportunity to test the resistance of this type of construction by actually subjecting one of the arches to a full scale bombing… Test bombing is recommended because: (1) This type of construction might be adopted for war-time industrial installations in the United States or its possessions, and; (2) this uncompleted building with little or no future utility provides a rare opportunity to conduct a full-scale bombing test.
  — US Joint Intelligence, 
  This proposal was accepted and in the summer of 1947 the command for the demolition was issued. 125 tonnes of TNT were used for the demolition, which destroyed six of the seven completed arches and damaged the seventh.
caption: The last remaining arch of the Weingut I is one of seven that were completed out of a planned twelve. Here it is seen from the east, looking out over the overgrown remains of several other arches
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