Kazemat (B10), Rossinilaan 52

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

Former military COMMAND BUNKER, nicknamed 'Blaskowitzbunker', built in 1943 on the orders of the German occupier for the staff of the "Wehrmachtsbefehlshaber in den Niederlande", General der Flieger Christiansen, which had been quartered in the northwestern villa district of Hilversum since 1942. He was responsible for the establishment and manning of the Dutch section of the Atlantic Wall, the coastal defence line constructed between North Norway and South France. The bunker is situated on a roughly triangular plot of land between the Doodweg, Rossinilaan and Verdilaan, on the former sports ground of the Jewish S.A. Rudelsheim Foundation housed there, whose residents were deported to concentration camps in 1942. The bunker is of the Sonderkonstruktion type, designed according to specifications from Berlin by the local Bauabteilung in Hilversum, numbered 7503/Sk and 7504/Sk and accommodated 100 to 120 military personnel. From 1952 until the nineteen-nineties of the twentieth century the bunker was in use by the Royal Army (Van Helsdingenkazerne). During this period the bunker was expanded with a small annex to the existing intermediate section, and internally smaller rooms were combined.

Description

Partially underground command bunker of the Sonderkonstruktion type executed in reinforced concrete. The bunker consists of two unequal-sized bunkers coupled together in the longitudinal direction by a narrower, later expanded, intermediate section. The volume shows a bend at the level of this intermediate section. The bunker measures approximately 86 m. by 22 m. in total. The walls and roof of the bunker are 2.5 metres thick. The external walls are bevelled at the top. Apart from the entrances and a few window and grille openings, the bunker walls are entirely closed. On the southwest side there is an obliquely projecting flanking entrance defence covering the four entrances located on the south side. A second extension to this entrance defence houses a bunkerised well for drinking water supply. On the outside of the bunker the imprint of the formwork planks is visible and there are slightly protruding outlet vents of ventilation ducts covered with steel grilles. The bunker was originally camouflaged by, among other things, embankments and vegetation, and this camouflage character is still partially present. On the southeast side of the bunker there are traces of camouflage by means of a mortared brick wall. The red roof tile cladding on the south and east sides of the bunker dates from the time of the Royal Air Force. The internal structure of the bunker has remained intact apart from alterations and additions from the time of the Royal Army. The connecting intermediate section houses several machinery rooms containing high-pressure tanks still present. The western and eastern bunker each have an internal narrow central connecting corridor running lengthwise, onto which rectangular rooms (living spaces) open on the south and north sides. In two places the bunker is sub-basements. On the south side there are the four entrances of the bunker, which are internally connected to the main corridor via gas airlocks, closed with doors. The entrances are furthermore executed with a bevelled angle to prevent the penetration of blast waves and are also still fitted with the original armour plated doors, each consisting of an upper and lower door. In addition to the entrance flanking, each entrance portal also has an internal defence with stepped firing slit and armour plated door. In the interior the technical provisions for air ventilation and water drainage are partially still present, supplemented in the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties of the twentieth century with Dutch elements.

Valuation

The command bunker is of general interest by reason of its cultural-historical and architectural-historical value as a historical-functional component of the Atlantic Wall, and as a central command post situated outside the actual line of the Wehrmachtsbefehlhaber of the Dutch section of the Atlantic Wall. The bunker has typological unique value as one of the largest German-made bunkers in Europe and as a rare surviving headquarters bunker of the Sonderkonstruktion type, and is also a good example of the application of reinforced concrete structures in the final phase of permanent fortress construction. The bunker has been well preserved in its principal form and structure and is still provided with some original technical components such as the original armour plated components and the ventilation system.