Feel free to leave a comment or question about the research, the website, or anything else. You can also reach me at ammon [at] nazitunnels [dot] org
Feel free to leave a comment or question about the research, the website, or anything else. You can also reach me at ammon [at] nazitunnels [dot] org
You have already done a great work!
Frankly it is amazing. To see the maps of underground structures without the veil of mystery, mysticism and mystification countless other works and sites usually fall into. It’s great, no question about it.
Meanwhile I have two questions I would be grateful if you could answer them:
1. For several years I have a very special interest on a certain person – Hans Kammler. Yes, that same omnipresent Dr. Ing. that answered for the mass construction of tunnels and a lot of other bloody mess. Apart of all that UFO/saucer/Bell trash, I think that many would agree that there some mystery remains around him, specially on the way he disappeared from History. So I would like to ask you one peculiar question – what is the last official dated document you have seen from this person?
2. Are these all the documented tunnels? While they sound big (Zement, Bergkristall, Quarz, who didn’t hear them), they seem a fraction of what really existed. I’ll give two examples.
Due to the specifics on how some of Kammler subordinates “evacuated”, I see that there are underground tunnels which do not have a reference on your site. Particularly I do not see a small but important tunnel system at Oberammergau. This tunnel was related to Messerschmidt and probably played a role in the development of Me P.1101. This airplane was unfinished at the end of the war, however it player a key role on the development of the first fighter jets after WWII.
Meanwhile, it seems that your work lacks several miserably small but important tunnels. Quite some time ago I read about one such tunnel in a place east of Oberammergau. It seemed to be just a piece of mountain road, hastily used as a small factory or repair shop. But it seems it carried quite a gruesome story on how concentration camp inmates where used in places like that. Frankly I lost its exact location, but I this is not the only “mini-tunnel” I have heard of. There are others, some even on railroads, but most of the time they can only be identified by what nazis left behind.
Hi Yergon,
Thank you for the note. I hope to keep this site very scholarly, meaning not much speculation and a healthy dose of original documents.
I have noticed a lot of mysticism surrounding Hans Kammler and his seemingly strange disappearance. All of the documents I have seen from him are found on this site so far (http://nazitunnels.org/archive/collections/show/1). All of them are going to be well before April 1945. I have a research trip this summer, so I will keep my eyes open for anything about Kammler.
These are definitely NOT all of the tunnels. There were literally hundreds of tunnels planned, although not all of them completed, or even begun. At one point Hitler developed a plan to move all of Germany underground. I hope to eventually develop a catalog and map of all of the tunnel systems that were planned and built.
Thanks again for the comment. If you happen to know about any resources for the A2 tunnel at Porta Westfalica, I would appreciate the tip.
As far as I know the last Kammler order was the destruction of some unknown V1 oder Vl Site (it’s not clear what the subject of destruction is) from the end of April 1945. The document can be found in the Bundesarchiv, I am not sure, but I guess it’s in Record Group NS 19.
Regarding you post about the tunnels in Oberammergau, I lived there from 68-71 and was in the tunnels several times. It was rumored that they ran from Oberammergau to Murnau but due to fallen debris you could not tell from Oberammergau although they was a tunnel that was in Murnau which I have never been in. The rumors said they made Messerschmidt planes or parts within the tunnels. There was cement like roads inside the tunnel in Oberammergau for I have personally walked on them. There were all kind of areas withing the tunnels that we had no idea what they were. Square pits in various places and something I could not explain. We were not suppose to be in there of course but you know how curious you are at age 15 and 16. They had been block roughly with wire which had long been tore down and was easily to get into. I still have a scar to this day where I was entering the cave and I had my flashlight pointing toward the ground that the tunnel dropped quickly so the roof of the cave was at face level and I smashed my forehead right into it. It was interesting to live in the town and go to school in Garmisch and stay in the dorms in Munich when you went to HS which at the time started in the 10th grade.
l was there from 1962 – 64, army brat, we had been in the caves many times, had to drop down a small opening the auto wrecking lot. I was 12, greatest tume of my kid life…
I had the same experiences as you did in the tunnels near Oberammergau. My father was stationed at the Army base there in 58-59. I attended 8 th grade there but 9th grade was in Munich American HS were I lived in a dorm from Sunday night to Friday after class when a bus took us back home to Oberammergau for the weekend.
I do not know how old this information is or if it is still being researched. I have actually been in the cave off of the NATO base in Oberammergau back in 1970 and have a small map if I can find it
Hey, Ammon! It’s crazy that I found your site. It wasn’t up when was in Germany in 2012. Which was sad, because I would have loved to have this information.
I was a missionary living in Loehne (near Minden) and running a discipleship training school for four months. I – as many young Americans do – am quite intrigued by WWII/Nazi history.
I also had a question. On your Map page there are small map-looking icons on the left. I can’t seem to click on them and make them bigger. I was wondering if you could email me the ones from Porta and Nurnberg.
Thanks for your time, Ammon! And for the great site.
Brian
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the comment. I need to update that Map page. It’s not very functional, yet. They should link to the archive information. If you do a search for the place in the archive (http://nazitunnels.org/archive/) there is a very high resolution copy of the image there (thanks to the Goudsmit Collection at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
Hi Ammon,
quite an amazing project. As far as I know you have many fans in Germany, because the presented documents are quite valuable for interested people in Germany.
However, I am keen about your workflow in document handling, maybe you can answer or write about it a little bit more in detail.
I guess you digitize the documents and use OCR in the first round. After that, do you isolate the metadata manually ?
In the widest sense I am running a similar project in the field of nuclear research activities in Germany and the USA.
We are talking about 40.000 document pages to handle within the first phase.
Unfortunately OCR recognition does not work really good in my case. The only way to continue is the transcript by hand to get a ASCII version of the document.
After that the information is stored in some kind of black box names semantic database with, in later project stages, the possibility to conduct some different kind of highly sophisticated forensic data analysis.
Are you walking in the same direction ?
Curious to hear from you.
Best wishes from Germany.
Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for posting the comment. I should do a full blog post on the process… someday.
Right now I am focusing on just writing the dissertation. I was hoping the archive and the website and all that is included here would be counted as part of the dissertation, but I was getting too much negative pushback from the department and committee. I also need to get the dissertation finished as fast as possible, so I’m just focusing on a traditional written dissertation, instead of fighting the fight to get the definition of a dissertation rethought.
Anyhow, ranting aside. I have just been OCR’ing the documents that I can. Most of the documents in the repository now are not very OCR’able, so I’ve been transcribing as needed. One of the goals I had originally, was to develop a workflow for transcribing using Scripto (http://scripto.org/) and getting German language classes at local universities to participate in transcribing. But apparently that’s not historical research, so I dropped it for now. I would still love to set up a site where people can upload documents and have them transcribed by anybody interested (crowed-sourced transcription and translation). But that probably won’t happen until the dissertation is done.
I have quite a few more documents that need to go up in the repository, and I’ll get those up before the dissertation is done, especially because I want to have a link to the document on the site in the footnote of the dissertation. (I’ll also be putting the text of the dissertation on this site as it gets more fleshed out.)
Hope that helps some.
Good luck on your project. I’d be interested to learn more about it.
Ammon
Dear Ammon,
I was put in touch with you via David McKenzie. David and I work together at Ford’s Theatre. I’m writing a play on commission about Daimler Benz’s subterranean airplane engine factory, Genshagen. I have a book they (Daimler) sent me, which is their own research about their camps/factories. I’d be willing to share it if you do not have it yet. There’s a lot of information about Operation Goldfisch, which you probably already know about.
What I’m personally missing is images of the Genshagen camp, itself. The book Daimler sent has a lot of images of other subterranean factories (especially entrances), but none of Genshagen once it was moved underground. I’d be so grateful for any information you have about that location.
Thank you!
Best,
Jennie
hello my name is manuel and i live in porta westfalica hausberge. I find their site very interesting and wanted to ask them if they have found in their search for the plant b1b.please forgive the translation it is from google my english is shit. friendly greetings from porta westfalica. I would be happy to receive an answer regarding the b1b
Re doctor Hans kammler re can you tell me if any of his service records survive at all the case is that it is very funny how jutta Anne kammler and the children can not even be found unless a name change my part is that it becomes hard to think who we are what happened was very dark days but this is to do with Hans work books have been written but family members know the truth I think tunnel 1 level 7 shaft closed may help try their no name ss
I don’t know of any surviving records for Hans Kammler.
Howdy friend, I’ve been trying to find information about the way the nazi built there tunnels in soft soil did they use a pick and shovel and how did they pour their concete or was it brick and information would be appreciated
Hi David,
I’m not too clear on the exact methods for building. It greatly depended upon the site. For Porta Westfalica, it was already a sandstone quarry, so it was mostly material removal. In Porta Westfalica they used concrete to create different levels and used brick to create the large holding tanks for the refined oil. Most of the digging in Porta Westfalica was done with explosives. The inmates would set the explosives (and sometimes make it out before the went off), then break up the larger rocks and put them in mining carts to be taken out.
Hope that helps!
Ammon
Just to ask if there is any data on a SS tunnela complex around Innsbruck Austria.
The Innsbruck type A bomb was supposed to be mounted there, about 1943.
Thanks
Hi.
Im hoping you could help. I am planning a trip to Germany and would love to visit these tunnels. Do you know of any tours that can be recommended? thank you for your help in advance.
Hello,
I am a young history and geography teacher coming from the Alsace region, in France. I am working on a publication and also on a documentary about the town of Markirch during WWII. In spring 1944, a kommando from KL-Natzweiler worked in the tunnel with almost 2000 prisonners (Projekt A9). I found many interesting documents on your website, your work is really amazing too. The question is : do you have any other documents concerning the Markirch A9 projekt ? Do you have any advice about archives that could have this kind of informations ?
Thank you very much,
Best Regards,
Pierre.
Hello,
I am a French teacher of history of geography. I come from Alsace and I am working on a publication about the Markircher tunnel, projekt A-9. Is it possible to send you a private message to ask you some questions about your incredible work ?
Thank you again.
Pierre.
Interested in these things.