Waves are currently running high in bamberg and schweinfurt over the imminent withdrawal of the u.S. Army. 7500 u.S. Soldiers are still stationed there, wildflecken once housed 8000 soldiers, until 1994 came what bamberg and schweinfurt still have to face: the final capture of the star-spangled banner. Heinz leitsch from modlos can sympathize with the 600 or so civilian employees who are worried about losing their jobs in schweinfurt alone: he experienced the same thing in mannheim nine months ago.
"We are still trying to solve the problems by withdrawal", says wildflecken mayor alfred schrenk (SPD). The conditions, however, were completely different: there were more than twice as many soldiers stationed in wildflecken as there are inhabitants in the community. Wildflecken was one of the first U.S. Bases to be notified for closure after the end of the cold war, in 1993. Only bremerhaven had been abandoned before, schrenk recalls.
"There were no concepts for conversion back then", the community was left to its own devices, according to schrenk. On the other hand, there have been one-off measures to mitigate the loss. The most important was that the federal army took over the former u.S. Barracks and training area in 1995. On the other hand, the clothing center sud at arnsberg was built for a two-digit million sum.
"Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, schrenk looks back on decades of working with u.S. Forces outside the city. It was a stroke of luck for the local economy, but the security situation in the town was very bad. Schrenk wavers between for and against, but says clearly: "if the news came that the americans wanted to come back to wildflecken, we would take them."
The memories of U.S. Troops are much fresher for heinz leitsch. On 31. May 2011 the lights went out for him at work in mannheim. Until 2005, he was a self-employed construction technician. "I was fed up with construction," he says, he reports on the downturn in 2004. Because he has always been "weak for all things american" he initially moved to the U.S. Housing office in schweinfurt. "The most important tool was the command of the english language, the rest will be learned."
A foretaste of the possibilities was already given by the return of the bad kissingen housing area. "I did a rough part of the evacuation of the last american families from daley village at that time. It was spooky when the houses in the cordoned-off area became emptier and emptier."
In mid-2005, leitsch moved to a permanent position in mannheim, but hoped to return: "a hope that was dashed at the latest with the closure of the u.S. Site in wurzburg: many wurzburgers were offered positions in schweinfurt. And in some cases, positions were even filled twice, just to avoid having to lay people off."
In mannheim the modloser worked in the contracts department of the u.S. Housing office. "Unfortunately, the extra income compared to the schweinfurt job went to the cost of the apartment in mannheim and the commute to modlos on the weekends. But that didn’t matter to me at all. What mattered to me was that I had a job and could take care of my family," says, says leitsch.
"You have the feeling of working in another country, even if you are only separated from the rest of germany by a fence", describes the modloser the work with the US army. This already starts with the security check by armed soldiers. And: cars, office furniture and even pens in the barracks are "made in USA".
Leitsch worked in the "benjamin franklin village" with over 2000 housing units. "The site had roughly the same population as bad bruckenau", heinz leitsch reports. This included three schools, kindergarten with preschool, shopping center, hotel, hospital, sports facilities and much more.
The then 41-year-old continued his education and became head of the contracts department and housing engineering technician in 2009 was responsible for all construction and maintenance work, invitations to tender and complaints. "The organizational structure of the U.S. Military services is strictly hierarchical," says leitsch, reports leitsch. German employees can only rise to certain positions in this hierarchy; everything else is reserved for US burghers. "Even when there were twenty german employees and only one american in a conference, english was the only language spoken. The working environment was also exclusively american."
Leitsch remembers the day-to-day work very well: "our american departments were all overstaffed by german standards. Therefore, one could certainly take one’s time with the completion of one’s tasks." The shock was all the greater when the approximately 700 civilian employees were informed in the fall of 2010 that the site was to be closed down on december 31, 2010. May 2011 was announced. "The fear of relegation to the social nothingness was going around", leitsch sums up the mood. Since his superior found a job in grafenwohr, leitsch was responsible for the multi-million dollar maintenance budget as technical director for a short time after march 2011. His main task: to prepare all the buildings, including a small village with detached and semi-detached houses for senior officers, for handover to the superior office in heidelberg and to the federal real estate agency.
"There was so much to organize that it was hard to think about. Only when on 31. May 2011 the flag of the site was rolled down in front of our eyes, i really realized that my american adventure was now probably over," he says, says leitsch.
Although the modloser had offers from grafenwohr and stuttgart. But for family reasons a move was out of the question and he did not want to commute again. "At the beginning I thought I would get used to a weekend marriage and the constant back and forth, but it doesn’t work in the long run", he explains the return to rhon clearly. The notice was not given until 30. September 2011 effective. "Time enough to look around on the regional job market." Today, heinz leitsch at the beck car dealership in wildflecken is in charge of importing vehicles from the united states, among other things.
