German schools evacuated after WWI chemical weapon find
September 16, 2019
Two schools near Berlin had to be cleared after toxins were found on a nearby building site. Further investigation revealed the substances were in fact irritant gases from World War I.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Pörschmann
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Two schools in the German state of Brandenburg were evacuated on Monday as a precaution following the discovery of several vials of a toxic pharyngeal irritant dating back to World War I.
The chemical vials were found by a worker whose unit was excavating a site close to Leonardo Da Vinci Comprehensive School and a neighboring elementary school in Postdam, near Berlin.
Older students were allowed leave school unaccompanied, while minor pupils needed to wait for a parent to pick them up.
The quantities of toxins were so small that it posed no danger for the students, according to a Postdam city council spokeswoman, Juliane Güldner.
Several workers suffered respiratory irritations, though. The chemical was often used to test the strength of gas masks.
The explosive ordnance disposal service secured and removed the vials, which will be analyzed.
Residential complex
Construction projects in Germany typically require scans for hidden bombs before excavation works start.
The Postdam site, comprising several fields, had been used by the military until the 1990s.
Some fields had already been routinely searched for munitions and several others were being prepared for a housing development project when the discovery was made, local daily Märkische Allgemeine reported.
Unexploded ordnance in Germany - a legacy of the Allied Forces
Over 50,000 people were evacuated from the northern city of Hanover in May 2017, so that bombs from World War II could be defused. Even 72 years after the war ended, unexploded bombs are still found across the country.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/U.S. Strategic Air Forces
What is unexploded ordnance?
Unexploded ordnance (UXO or sometimes also abbreviated to UO), unexploded bombs (UXBs), or explosive remnants of war (ERW) are explosive weapons such as bombs, shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines and cluster munitions that did not explode when they were deployed. Unexploded ordnance still poses the risk of detonation, even decades after they were used or discarded.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Grundmann
Why does Germany have a bomb problem?
Between 1940 and 1945, US and British forces dropped 2.7 million tons of bombs on Europe. Half of those bombs targeted Germany. Experts estimate that close to a quarter of a million bombs did not explode due to technical faults. Thousands of these bombs are still hidden underground, sometimes a few meters down and sometimes just below the surface.
Image: picture-alliance/Everett Collection
How big is the issue?
The industrial Ruhr area and the Lower Rhine region were heavily bombed, as were the cities of Dresden, Hamburg and Hanover. So this is where most of the unexploded ordnance is found. Bombs are usually unearthed during construction work or are discovered during the examination of historical aerial images. Experts say it could still take decades to clear all of the remaining unexploded ordnance.
Image: Reuters/H. Hanschke
What happens when an unexploded bomb is found?
When confronted with the discovery of an UXO, UO or a UXB, bomb disposal experts have to decide whether to defuse it or to carry out a controlled explosion. Many have lost their lives on the job. German authorities are under pressure to remove unexploded ordnance from populated areas. Experts argue that the bombs are becoming more dangerous as time goes by due to material fatigue.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Puchner
How many bomb disposal experts have died?
Eleven bomb technicians have been killed in Germany since 2000, including three who died in a single explosion while trying to defuse a 1,000-pound bomb on the site of a popular flea market in Göttingen in 2010.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/U. Zucchi
Which was the biggest evacuation?
A 1.8-ton bomb dropped by Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) was found in the city center of Augsburg on December 20, 2016. The find prompted a large-scale bomb disposal operation and consequently the evacuation of over 54,000 people on December 25. To date, this remains the biggest evacuation for the removal of World War II unexploded ordnance in Germany.
Image: Markus Siefer
What’s the latest?
Authorities conducted another big bomb disposal operation in May 2017, with 50,000 residents in the northwestern city of Hanover forced to evacuate their homes. Thirteen unexploded ordnances from the 1940s were removed. Hanover was a frequent target of Allied bombing in the latter years of the war. On October 9, 1943, some 261,000 bombs were dropped on the city.
Image: Getty Images/A. Koerner
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Almost routine
Precautionary evacuations occur fairly frequently across Germany.
In 2015, a 250-kilogram bomb was defused in Hanover during a nighttime operation that required the evacuation of 31,000 residents. That device had lain undetected for 70 years under school grounds.
Germany's largest bomb disposal took place in 2011 in Koblenz, where 45,000 people had to be evacuated while devices found on the riverbed during a drought were defused.
In Potsdam in 2014, a 250-kilogram device was defused after forcing a brief evacuation of the Brandenburg state parliament. The bomb originated from a British raid on the city on April 14, 1945.
In 2011, about 45,000 people had to be evacuated when a wartime bomb was found in the western city of Koblenz.
