Barker Barracks


Barker Barracks was a military installation in Paderborn, Germany.

Description

Barker Barracks was located in the east of Paderborn, about two kilometres from the city centre. The barracks was bordered by Driburger Straße to the south, the Berliner Ring to the west, Piepenturmweg to the north-west and a rail line to Paderborn railway station to the north-east.
The installation was a typical example of Nazi-era barracks built in the 1930s. The buildings were often three-storey with a high ground floor and two higher floors. The farm buildings were two-storey with higher storey heights for kitchen and dining room use. Separate from these areas there was a technical or a functional area. Here, buildings were built that were specifically needed by the accommodated units, such as halls for motorized vehicles, guns and workshops. In addition, there was a staff building and an officers' mess.
The barracks, with approximately 54 hectares of land, were divided from south to north into three building zones. In the south was the first building zone with ten symmetrical crew quarters in north-south orientation and two buildings in east-west orientation in which the guard and offices were housed. In the second building zone there were also twenty symmetrically arranged buildings, which, like the crew quarters, were set up in north-south orientation. The third building zone in the north consisted of workshops of various sizes as well as maintenance halls, a church and a fuel depot. The crew quarters as well as the guard and the offices formed the main entrance of Barker Barracks.

History

Third Reich use

Under Wehrmacht control, from the 1930s, the barracks was home to "training and replacement tank battalion 500". The majority of crews for the Tiger tank, to crew the independent German heavy tank battalions, were trained here.

British use

For use by the British Army, the barracks was re-named after General Sir Evelyn Barker. Until 1962, Barker Barracks had been home to only a single British unit. British units stationed in Barker Barracks were: