Discover history: Turnstraße
5 MARCH 1945
On the night of 5 to 6 March 1945, the Allied air forces carried out their biggest raids on Chemnitz. The war had long since returned to the country from which it had started in September 1939. From 12 May 1944 to 11 April 1945, units of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces flew a total of twelve air raids on the then industrial metropolis and its suburbs. This involved 2,880 heavy four-engine bombers, which dropped over 7,700 tonnes of explosives and incendiary devices.
At least 3,715 people died in the former city area, 2,105 of them that night alone. As a result of the bombing, almost a century's worth of building work was destroyed in the city. 3326 buildings were totally destroyed or severely damaged. Only 38,000 flats (out of 110,000) remained undamaged. Over 100,000 homeless people left the city from then on, mostly to the nearby Erzgebirge mountains.
The Turnstraße
The residential and commercial building at Turnstraße 39 was also hit that night. Two residents in the immediate neighbourhood lost their lives. A 14-year-old boy who had sought refuge in the Pfortensteg bunker died there.
Max Küttler (†1950), a textile manufacturer from Turnstraße 39, noted a few days after the night of the bombing: "Chemnitz is a dead city. The night attack, which was horrific, from 9 pm to 11 pm, brought disaster. Our large residential building with our beautiful flat was completely burnt down and destroyed." He wrote how he and a few neighbours tried to put out the fire. "There was no chance of taking a breather, because glowing pieces of beam fell into the cellars between the protective boxes standing in front of the cellar windows, which were filled with sand and ash. [...] The flying sparks were terrible and a terrible storm drove burning pieces of wood from blinds, roofing felt etc. onto the lower roofs. [...] The day began to grey. There was no light. The smoke from the burning city didn't let the sun through."
The front building was badly destroyed, only the side and outbuildings in the courtyard suffered less extensive damage. The front building was finally "demolished" in 1953/54.
Children in the war
In Chemnitz alone, over 675 children fell victim to the air raids. The first bombing victim was the infant of a family in Rabenstein, who had already been killed on 12 May 1944. The deaths of 43 residents of the municipal children's home at Bernsdorfer Straße 120 were particularly tragic. 41 children and young people lost their lives on 2 and 5 March 1945. Twelve children from the Gablenz school also fell victim to the bombing.
The children who survived suffered a trauma that stayed with them for the rest of their lives. Stephan Tanneberger experienced the air raid as an almost 10-year-old child in Turnstraße and, together with his mother and 14-year-old brother, was one of the helpers who tried to put out the fires: "At the beginning of 1945, the major cities in Saxony were bombed. The railway stations and industrial plants in particular were targets of the bombing raids. The alarm was sounded over the radio. First the siren went off twice a week, then three times a week and finally every evening. The radio said: "Approaching enemy units". For us, that meant going down to the cellar every time. We had already packed our suitcases to take with us into the cellar. We sat there and waited. We heard bombs hitting. Most of the time they were far away. But on 5 March it was different.
We had already realised in the days before that the bombing was approaching. First we heard a whistle and then the bomb hit, followed by a crash. There was great excitement in the cellar. "They've got us now," we were told. Our neighbour Max Küttler said: "They're bombing the Südbahnhof!" Our house was right next to it. We were lying on the floor and it was constantly crashing. We were all praying. Then the news came: "The house has been hit." And it's on fire. At first we tried to put it out, but there wasn't enough water. After an hour and a half, we gave up and tried to save a few things from the house.
We went into the house, which was already on fire. Mum was of course terrified that something would happen to us children. But we wanted to help. I held my teddy bear tightly in my arms. My brother carried our beautiful red sofa down from the second floor on his own. I was not even 10 years old when I carried the chairs out. Mum collected the china and cooking pots. We were able to shop the things in our neighbour's business premises for the time being. But then came the shock for me: I must have lost my teddy bear while clearing out. I cried bitterly. The teddy bear was my one and only. Fortunately, I found it again in the snow. The whole big house then burnt down. Wooden beams broke through and the house gradually collapsed."