External image unavailable.
Sorauerstraße · 1917
Historical postcard of Forst.
Wikimedia Commons / Zeno · Public Domain.
Source and rights →Lower Lusatia method
Source first, image second
The research follows the multi-layer method used for the Lower Lusatia page: separate searches for photographs, maps, aerial imagery, archives, digital libraries, museum catalogues and local sources, followed by checks of date, place and reuse rights.
open licence
show
Public domain or a clear CC licence.
archive record
prove
Reference, institution and date can be checked.
linked only
point to
Found, but republication rights are unclear.
Foundation synthesis
explain
Organise evidence without inventing historical imagery.
Gallery cutoff: ≤ 1992. Material through 31 December 1992 is included, so the 1992 CIR aerial series identified by G.E.O.S. now belongs in the gallery. The 1993 film and modern ruin photographs remain excluded.
open materials
Forst before DSC - historical images with open rights
Context for the city before the armaments plant; not presented as factory photographs.
External image unavailable.
Berliner Platz · 1919
Forst before DSC was built.
Wikimedia Commons / Zeno · Public Domain.
Source and rights →
External image unavailable.
Blatt Sorau · 1893
Regional map from before the armaments complex.
Wikimedia Commons / Zeno · Public Domain.
Source and rights →new find
Forst from the air, 1929-1931
DDB/Landesarchiv NRW provides several oblique aerial photographs of Forst under CC BY-SA 4.0.
originals held by the project
Documents and images we can show
Genuine source materials supplied to the Foundation, not reconstructions.
Scheuno-Ost camp pass
The original bears the wording Bereitschaftslager Scheuno-Ost über Forst (Lausitz).
Prisoner identity card
An identity card of a Polish Stalag III B prisoner bearing the “Werk Forst” designation.
Allied intelligence report
A page from an intelligence report describing the plant and its equipment.
images identified during research
Four historical photographs directly connected with Scheuno and DSC
The detailed descriptions have been restored. Reproductions are not copied without confirmed republication rights.
ca. 1924
Hydroelectric plant near Scheuno
Republication rights are unclear; the file is not mirrored.
1941
DSC locomotive and Kurt Schmidt
Republication rights are unclear; the file is not mirrored.
1939-45
Arbeitsbuch Henryk Płaskowski
Republication rights are unclear; the file is not mirrored.
wartime
Kurt Meier and Polish forced labourers
Republication rights are unclear; the file is not mirrored.
people and memory
Memories, personal documents and witnesses
Names and testimonies are kept separate and tied to their documentary basis.
photograph · 1941Kurt Schmidt
The engine driver visible in the cab of a diesel locomotive at the DSC works station. A 1993 recording of his recollections has been identified; because no transcript is available, the site does not invent quotations.
photograph · wartimeKurt Meier
A building contractor, second from the left in a photograph of Polish forced labourers unloading pipes near Groß Bademeusel. He must not be confused with Kurt Schmidt.
records and identity papersHenryk Płaskowski and Ruth Heimann
Płaskowski’s Arbeitsbuch documents a forced labourer at DSC. BLHA file 29 LGgef Guben 245 concerns Ruth Heimann, sentenced in 1942 for refusing work at Deutsche Sprengchemie Forst-Scheuno.
Further voices: Scholz records foreign workers’ accounts, including a Belgian worker with camp number 321 living in barrack 450, and five additional witness accounts. Nadja Listopadowa appears in the personal records. Where the project lacks an original or full transcript, no substitute quotation is created.
Scheuno-Ost
Scheuno-Ost: source correction
The earlier statement that Scheuno-Ost was unconfirmed is corrected.
Bundesarchiv
Forst: Frauenlager Scheuno
BArch R 121/5579, 1945.
1945
Bereitschaftslager Scheuno-Ost
Official wording on a Belgian auxiliary worker’s papers according to Scholz.
other names
Heidelager / Lager Scheuno
Their exact relationship remains uncertain.
Further sourced details: The “barracks town” was designed for about 1,000 people; about 540 Polish civilian workers were housed there roughly one year after the war began. A Belgian worker with camp pass no. 321 lived in barrack 450 and received town leave on 1 February 1945.
DSC aerial imagery
Four aerial series identified by G.E.O.S.
G.E.O.S. 1995
RAF
VIII 1944
German reconnaissance
II 1945
USSR
1953
Color Infrared · CIR
1992
Used by G.E.O.S. to analyse the former site.
1940 · Forst
Urban photographs as contextual evidence
Forst Town Archive holds historical photographs and postcards. An official city publication includes an image of Schlossplatz around 1940 by Werner Lanze.
Why does this matter? City photographs are not images of DSC, but they show Forst while the Scheuno complex was being built. This keeps the history of the town distinct from that of the secret armaments plant. Official city source →
1977-1990
Cartography 1977-1990
Late maps are described with publication year and content date kept separate.
1977
GeoGREIF · Forst/Lausitz
TK25 · 1011-34/43 · 1:25 000.
GeoGREIF →
1990
SLUB · Forst-Eulo
M-33-6-C-a; published 1990, content state 1987.
SLUB →
1992
new cutoff
Depictions through 1992; the 1992 CIR series is now included.
1992 · CIR
1992: CIR as the gallery’s final aerial layer
G.E.O.S. identifies 1992 CIR imagery for the former DSC site. LGB confirms Brandenburg’s first complete 1991/1992 survey using simultaneous black-and-white and Color-Infrared imagery at 1:10,000.
According to G.E.O.S., the CIR images show mainly coniferous stands of varying age, numerous vegetation-free areas linked to forestry, and individual buildings visible through vegetation contrast or dark roofs.
For any specific reproduction of the DSC site, the frame number, flight date and reuse rights still have to be established from the original series.
cutoff
Deliberately outside the gallery
1993 · Kurt-Schmidt-Film
outside cutoff
1995 · G.E.O.S.
analytical source, not an in-period image date
modern ruin photographs
modern GIS reconstructions
sources
Sources and further research
-
G.E.O.S. 1995
/historia-regionu/dsc-forst/informacje-techniczne/zrodla/GEOS_Rokita_J_Preuss_1995.pdf - Jürgen Scholz: Der Ausländereinsatz in Forst (Lausitz) 1939-1945
-
Bundesarchiv / DDB: BArch R 121/5579
https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/WG2TVVXP4LJ2437LMQE4QWBKOLAYPSX5 -
DDB / Landesarchiv NRW: Forst aerials 1929-1931
https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ZI6V5IDBGTAP7FMMXQYKK6VSEBKOHAUE -
Wikimedia Commons / Zeno: Forst 1917, 1919
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forst_(Lausitz),_Brandenburg_-_Sorauerstra%C3%9Fe_(Zeno_Ansichtskarten).jpg -
SLUB Dresden: Forst-Eulo 1990 / Stand 1987
https://katalog.slub-dresden.de/id/0-1328000885 -
GeoGREIF: Forst/Lausitz 1977
https://geogreif.uni-greifswald.de/search/?coll_id=115GeoGREIF%2F&map=overview&signatur=1011- -
LGB Brandenburg: Luftbilder 1991/1992, SW + CIR, 1:10 000
https://geobasis-bb.de/lgb/de/geodaten/luftbilder/ -
LfU Brandenburg 1/1992: CIR-Befliegung und Biotopkartierung
https://lfu.brandenburg.de/sixcms/media.php/9/Heft%20N%26L_1_1992.pdf -
NCAP
https://ncap.org.uk/