DESCRIPTION OF AND SECURITY MEASURES AT THE PIRNA (SONNENSTEIN) INSTALLATION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-01030R000100340008-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2013
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: February 5, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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tti1iaotA-35
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
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CONFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY East Germany
SUBJECT
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
Description of and Security Measures
at the Pirna (Sonnenstein) Installation
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REPORT
DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES
REQUIREMENT
REFERENCES
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5 February 1954
12 50X1-HUM
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
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STATE
#x
ARMY
fix
NAVY
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AIR
FBI
All
ORR E4 x
Not*: Washington Distribution indicated By "X"; Field Distribution By "#".)
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C?ONFIDENTIAL
COUNTRY 'East Germany
REPORT
DATE DISTR. a 5 OliS3
SUBJECT : Description of and Security Measures NO. OF PAGES 11
at the Pirna (Sonnenstein) Installation
PLACE
NO. OF ENCUS.
ACQUIRED
.
(LISTED BELOW)
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DATE
SUPPLEMENT TO
ACQUIRED
REPORT NO.
DATE OF INFORMATION a
TH1S IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
INTRODUCTION '
,
1. The installation is situated Outside Pirna proper on heights
along the Bad dohandatter Stress?. These heights are known aa
,
Sonneristein. This area was formerly used an a sanitarium for the
mentally:ill. After the war-it was used as a reception nap for
refugee:Ls. ,(from the Sudetenland). Next, t was used 'as quarters for
the ,Vopos. It was finally taken over bi the Building Admit/Oration
(Gehaeude.verwaltung).' There was also A :Materials Office (NAterialamt
in this area
when the aircraft minietri took over this area, it re-
tained these two titles as cover namee.
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2.
On 16 June 1952, ohly a few of the buildings at Pirna were in use.
Most of the buildings were either empty or being reconstructed.
thie time Rouse 15 had not .yet been equipped as the central
At
as described in Point 15, below fees page 52.
in Rouse
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only
more.
engineers
been there
.
. me. Gradually, untile
en September,
.or .
and more people 'arrived'. Among these were mechanics, fitters,
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office
help, draftemen,.engineers,
etc. At the end of Septem-
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ber,
and
moved from 11459 15 :to
House 14 (Point 14 below).
into the 'present central
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ouse was rebuilt at thin -time
archi*de.
The initial work at Pirna was concerned with reworking some
.SevietAepign draiinge of two devices. These were 'ostensibly
.for Use as attraction in fairs, tui..the general feelinewae.
that they were some type of pilot training device. The draw-
ings were very poorlycdone.(boih.in? drawing and design) and'the
Germans, had tore-do them. The next work was the reconstruction
of the old Hirth-500 sport plane engine. This work was stopped
in October' or November of 1952 when hundreds of Soviet drawings.
arrived at Pirna. These were to be the basis for the East Ger-
man production of a sport and a turbo-jet plane. This work in
turn ceased when all aircraft production was halted following
.the June 17 uprisings in East Germany. In July 1953
all the drawings were being assekbled,
packed for shipment (supposedly back to the USSR).
GENERAL PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE INSTALLATION
- .
4. 'Almost all of the buildinge were made Of stone and brick and
had gabled slate roofs. They Were all constructed in the same
blOck.style. Each house had a fire alarm in the corridor by
the entrance. /his was a "break glass, push button" type,
which I was connected to the Pirna fire alarm system.
There were fire extinguishers in swill houses The installa-
tion had a telephone exchange, 1
There was a public addreed system with an outlet
checked and
in each house; it was controlled from House 24 (Point 24).
All power lines and telephone cables were underground. All
the buildings/*ithin the surrounding wall were heated from
the hot water heating plant located in the boiler house
(point 25)t
AREA DESCRIPTION
5.
pagans./
Point _1
1 ..
Point 2.2
a sketch of the area at Sonnenstein [see
indicated the following points..
Guest Honed (House 1).
This building,Waa. three stories high (10 meters),
20..meters:longi Smote:a .Wide. and covered with
vines. Ityae used as a fleet house for visiting
Germane and:SOviete; 25r50 .German and 7-41 Soviet
section leaders were also billeted here.
EleOttiO Shims
Thie building *as 20 meter long, 10 meters wide
and 10 meters high. The workshops were not coop!
pietely equipped) although it was planned. that '
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they later would be. There was a battery charger and
basic equipment'for electric motor repair (Soldering
irons, files,, etc.), but nothing elaborate-c? -
Point ?j. Materials Testing Institute
This was a two-story building (12 meters high, 20.
meters Long and 10 meters wide). It had a com-
pletely equipped chemical laborator 6 There was
also a physical laboratory which was ready
to be equipped... since the Bonnenstein
installation did not provide too much work for this
institute, it was to be subordinated to the Technical
College of Dresden (Teohnische Hochsohule Dresden).
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Point 4 Workshop
This building was 15 meters long i 8 meten3Wide and
10 meters high0 it";was a metal-working 50X1-HUM
shop, since all such work around the installation
was carried on from this place.
Point. 5 Kitchen and Dining Room (House 5)
This was a one-story, horseshoe-shaped building,
which housed the kitchen, iflitohen officedining
root, a dootWs Offite, a dentist's officers?nurse's
office, and a cultural room. The doctor and the
dentist (both from Pinta) visited the installation,
regularly, the dining room, which had 50X1-HUM
a segregated section for the intelligentsia. A work-
man could eat a meal for 65 pfennigs, while the
intelligentsia could eat (a better meal) for 1.20 DM.
Point 6 Main Storeroom (House 6)
?
?
This building was 15 meters long, 8 meters wide and
12 meters high. All materials which arrived at. the
.installation were unpacked here. The Materials,
upon being unpacked, were sent to their respective
destinations or stored here. Packing material was
also stored at this place.
Point 7 Carpentry Shop (Rouse 7)
This two-story building was 15 meters long, 8 meters
wide and 12 meters high. It oontaineds carpentry
shop and some offices.
Rouse 8
This /louse,' 15 30 8 k 12 meters had several Wiles
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Garages
This was a one-story series of garages (15 in all).
The row was 100 meters long, 5 meters wide and 4
meters. high. At the end of the garages, there was
an office, a parts room, a day room for the drivers,
and a workshop. At the other end of the garages
? (they were arranged in a row, one after the other) ?
was the automobile wash room.
Point. 10 House 10
This building was 15 meters long, 8 meters wide and
12 meters high. It contained the Norms Section and
theeeklistbaSection and several rooms which were used
to give the apprentices lessons. This building
contained only office space. The' Norms Section was
called upon for copies of the DIN (Deutsche Industrie
Norman) norms, which were at that time incomplete.
This section had to recopy, reproduce and often
recalculate some of the information for the DIN norms.
Poi il Material Procurement ,(Rouse 11)
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This was a single-story, H-shaped building, 20
peters long, 6 meters wide (10 meters in the center
action), and 6 meters high. Several of the rooms
hid no corners, these being rounded. (These rooms
hid probably been special rooms for mentally ill
people.) This building contained the offices of
the Material Procurement Section and rooms ri,ith draft-
ing equipmentv
Point 1j Technical Directorate
The technical directorate was housed in this la-shaped
building which was 12 meters long, 8 meters wide
and 5 meters high. .Atop the foot of the L, there
was a second story which housed the technical directorate
staff. In the main body of the building there were
people who were translating and transcribing the Oat
and Goat Norms (Soviet Standard Norms) into German.
.Poiit,13 Blueprint and Photo Shoo (House 13)
This two-story building was 10 meters long, 6 meters
wide and 8 meters high. It contained a complete
photographic laboratory.
Point 14 House 14,
House 14 was 80 meters long, 8 meters wide and 12
meters high (two stories). The design work on
the Hirth-500 was done here until the Soviet data
arrived. The only work done in this building after
this was the translation of the data into German.
The only type of drawings translated were the drawings
of the turbo-jet engine.
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Point 15 Central Archives (Hrouse 15)
The central :archives building was 60 meters long,
8 meters wide, and 10 meters high (21 stories)*
It was surrounded by &stone wall and all, windows
were barred. All the classified materials Were
kept in this buildingjee paragraph.8, page giro
Point 16 Office Building
This building was 80 meters long, 10 meters wide
and 12 meters high.. It contained offices where the
translations and reworking of the Soviet drawings of
the tools which were to be used in the construction
of the turbojet engine were done.
Points 17 Wooden Shacks
and 18
These two wooden shacks (6 x 3 x 5 meters) housed
the tools and some building materials which were
used by the construction workers.
?Point 19 Brick House
A small (10 x 4 x 5 meters) brick house which was
used at first as a washroom for the construction
workers. 'there was a small 50X1-HUM
cemetery around this building. It was leveled over
a short while later, all headstones and other traoes
? identifying it as a 'cemetery being removed. The
house was not used at all later, and it remained
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.Brick-House
Thie builiing was;,6 meters long, 4 meters wide and
5 meters high. and had 'formerly been a mortuary.
A Inflame and a boiler were also still there.
(People in Pirna said that bodies had been cremated
there during the war.) This building was .prepared
(concrete foundations in the floor, new partitions,
etc.) as a test stand for the Hirth engine, but
when'these'plans were discontinued, the building was
left as it was.
Paint 21 Church
A large and pretty stone church (Catholic) which is
nnw nwpd aka storeroom for office furniture.
Point .22 Brick Building
A small brick building (6 x 4 x 4 meters) which was
used as a checkroom. Briefcases, packages, etc.
were not allowed to be carried into the building. A
woman was employed to maintain this checkroom.
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Point 23
Point 25
Point 26
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Boiler House
A new boiler was 'recently installed htire. It was
coal driven and provided hot water heat for all
the buildings at Sonnenstein. ]
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Administnation Building'
The administration building was 17 meters long? 8
meters wide and 20 meters high (four stories) and
contained the personnel debartment for Sonnenstein,
social welfare offices, finance department, and
.-the office supplies storeroom. There was also a 50X1-HUM
teletype machine located in thie building
The teletype belonged.50X1-HUM
served through the Pirna
points 21,
28429,30.
57,38 and
39 ?
to the DDE net
and. was
post office.
Bicycle Shack
This was a small wooden shack for motorcycles and
bicycles.
Main Guard Shack and Grocery Store
A wooden shack 12 meters long, 4 meters wide and 3
meters (and 6 meters) high. It forms part of the
wall which surrounds the area.and is next to Entrance
A. The portion of the shack next to Entrance A was
used as a dayroom for the guards and was occupied
24. hours a day. /n the center of thirellack, there
was a visitor's check-in-point. In the portion of
the shack opposite the guard's dayroom, there was a
small grocery store. Above the grocery store, the
guards had another room,
Living Quarters
These were all one and two family brick houses which
housed the workers from the installation." These
houses .were owned by the Sonnenstein installation.
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Point 31 Hall
This was a newly built concrete and brick hail (3 x
20 x 3 meters). 50X1-HUM
it was a gbrkshop of some kind.
Point 32. Hall ?
This was a newly built concrete and Idriok hall
18 x 120,x 7 meters). ,It was the hal.14nfwnich
a iurlio-jet and a,sport plane .tho,pkOss'were
rought there for depionsrationhpnrpOtssse g:Latgr
the hall was partitioned into two parts for some
reason
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Point 33 Hall
This was a newly built concrete and brick hall
( 6 x 60 x 7 meters) which was to be a machine
shop. It was almost empty, although several lathes
were already there.
Point 34 Small Parts Storeroom
This was a small (3 x 10 x 3 meters) wooden shack
which was used as a small partsatoreroom (scre*s,
nuts, bolts, etc.). There was also an office which
issued these parts.
Point 35 Guard Nouse
This was a small brick building ( 5 x 6 x 4 meters),
used by the guards of Entrance B.as a dayroom during
their tours of duty and was occupied 24 hours a day.
There were no accommodations for-sleeping there.
Personal items (see Point 22) were also checked at
this point.
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Point 36 Storeroom
This building was the same as Point 35 above and had
a common roof with Point 35, thus providing a covered
driveway between the two structuree. It was a store-
room for photographic materials which were needed by
the Blueprint and Photo Shop (Point 13)....
Points 40 Watch Towers
and 41
These are the only two watch towers
except for the two towers on the wall around Rouse 15
5he paragraph 8, page 8_2% They were made of wood
and were five meters above the ground.
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Point 42 Brick Wall
This wall (shown with a double line on the sketch)
was three meters high and made of brick. Along the
top of the wall were iron rode, pointed outwards,
from which a triple strand of barbed-wire was strung.
The wall surrounded the entire installation with the
exception of an iron grill fence which ran between
points 14 and 24. A sharply declining slope ran
down behind the iron fence. This slope was illuminated
from time to time by searchlights (in irregular sweeps).
SECCEITT'VEASURE$
Physioal Security
the inflallation was surrounded by a brick wall (iloint 42) and an
iron grill fence (running between Points 14 and 24). The watch. .
lowers (Pointe 40 and 41) were built inside the wall and-were accessi-
ble by wooden_ ladders. Every 50 meters along the wall, there were
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poles with lamps mounted en them. The lamps had shades which
directed the light along their corresponding lengths of Wall.
The buildings inside the walls also had lights mounted:on them,
so that there were no dark places inside the enclosure:
7. The plant had three entrances, A, B skid C. A was the main
entrance. The building next to this entrance (Point 26) was
the main guard shack. Entrance A was open 24 hours a day.
Entrance B was a secondary entrance. It was closed during the
nights, but could be opened by the guard there on demand.
Although people did not normally pass through this entrance
during the night, it was guarded'(Point 35) day and night.
'Entrance C was open during the day and was used only by the
construction workers. During the night it was closed. At
entrances A and B there was a small box with a lever. Each
person leaving through these entrances had to pull this lever.
Every fifth or sixth time, a glass partition would light up.
It had the word "check" written on it. When this happened,
the person who had pulled the lever had to go inside the
corresponding guard shack for a check. The person was then 50X1-HUM
checked to see if he was carrying anything suspicious (metal,
tools, papers, etc), the reason not allowed 50X1-HUM
to use Entrance C was because there were no such providions
for spot checks at this entrance.
8. House 15 (Point 15) vas surroundea by a limestone wall. Atop the
wall, there was highly electrified barbed-wire. Thereawere watch
towers on diagonal corners of the wall'and each tower had a
searchlight. This wall was illuminated in the same manner as
the exterior wall. Surrounding the wall was a strip of sand
(21,-3 meters wide). This strip was raked every day so that if
anyone trespassel, his footsteps could be easily seen.: There
was only one entrance through the wall. This entrance had two
sections, one for vehicles and one for personnel. In the court,
between the wall and House 15, there was a small stone house
which housed the guards (10-12 men) and three dogs. All windows
of House 15 were barred with iron bars (10 cm, in diameter).
There were no windows in the cellar, only small lightshafts which
were also barred. All heavy safes were in the cellar, All the
rooms, as well as the safes, had to be sealed. Nothing could
be taken from the building without written permission. Coats and
other garments had to be checked at the cloakroom which was
located near the entrance. All scrap paper had to be given to
the guards for burning (in all the houses).
Guards
9. The entire installation was guarded by uniformed Vopos. They
patrolled the area and occupied the towers which were placed along
the walls. Each of the towers was always occupied by at least
one guard, several guards patrolled outside the
walls. Each entrance had at least two guards. Within the walls,
there were many guards (at least 8) walking posts. During work-
ing hours, each house had one guard by its entrance whose duty
it was to check passes. After left the area in the
evenings, dogs patrolled with the guards. the guards
had twelve- to fourteen-hour shifts, during which time they would
have one post for two hours, another for two hours, then two hours
standby, etc. the time spent on one post
never exceeded two hours.
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10. The area around House 15 was more strictly guarded. There were
two guards who walked posts (separately) around the sand strip
which ran outside the wall (of House 15). The two towers on
the wall were also each occupied by one guard. Inside the
entrance, another guard was stationed (in addition to the one
before the entrance). The door was opened by an electric lock
activated by the guard inside the entrance. Still another guard
was stationed inside the entrance whose duty it was to see that
all exbess clothing was checked. On each floor, at the entrance
to that floor, a guard was stationed0 Thirin thea cavaninom
guards circulated within the building
11. Each house had a doorman (usually a woman) whose task it was to
register all persons who entered or left the building. He (or
she) also issued the keys for the various rooms, as the people
assigned to those rooms arrived. In the mornings, the doorman
reported to the main guard shack (Point 26) where he checked.
out a box containing the above-mentioned keys. These boxes
were locked in safes provided for that purpose in the main guard
shack. In the evenings, the doorman had to wait until the last
person had returned his TOOM key and the "lock-up" man (see
? paragraph 12 below) had secured all the rooms before he in turn
could check his box of keys back into the main guard shack.
12. Each house had a "lock-up" man whose duty it was to see that
all the rooms in his building were secured each night. These
men were 100 per cent SED Party men and were appecially chosen
for this job. During the working day, when any drawings were
needed from the central archives (House 15), the engineer
concerned filed his request with this person. The "lock-up"
man then went to House 15 and checked out the requested item.
The material was either sealed in a briefcase, or carried in the
open by the "lock-up" Man in the company of one or two Vopos.
In the evenings after all the workers had gone, the "lock-up"
man would try all the doors to see if they were locked. If
they were, he would seal them. The seal was a continuous
length of atring which was pressed into two plates, one on the
door itself, the other on the door jamb. The sealing material
was then pressed over the string
and a seal pressed onto the sealing material. Upon reporting
for Work the next morning, the person assigned to a room had
to first check this seal before breaking it and unlocking his
door. If the seal had been disturbed, the person had to notify
the "look-up" man immediately and wait for his disposition. On
two occasions, the seal had been tampered with. Both
times, however, thelock-up" man gave
permission to open
passes' ?
13; In'erder tb enter the installation, a plant identification was
needtd. It was a small (8 x 5 ca.) cardboard card with the
itarer's photograph and several signatures. It was folded
'tirtioally in half and was blue-green in color. The pass was
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valid for one month and had to be renewed _each month. There
.iere-spaces on the back Of the pass for,;theee extensions, .In
order to enter the single buildings within the compound, a -
small:, dark red card (same size as the Plant card) was necessary.
This also had the bearer's photograph and was valid only when
presented with the plant.identificatioh... The numbers of the
buildings to which sodas was permitted were dtaiped on the back
of this card,
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?Pi3.4e 11
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AREA bEt RI Peri? N OF Pt PNA (SONNENSTE I 14)
coon DENT 1AL
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