Brzeg Dolny
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| Brzeg Dolny | |||
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  Brzeg Dolny
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| Coordinates: | |||
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| Country |  Poland |
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| Voivodeship | Lower Silesian | ||
| County | Wołów | ||
| Gmina | Brzeg Dolny | ||
| Government | |||
| - Mayor | Aleksander Marek Skorupa | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 17.20 km² (6.6 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| - Total | 12,786 | ||
| - Density | 743.4/km² (1,925.3/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 56-120 | ||
| Car plates | DWL | ||
| Website: http://www.brzegdolny.pl | |||
Brzeg Dolny [ˈbʐɛg ˈdɔlnɨ] (until 1945 German: Dyhernfurth) is a town in Wołów County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship in south-western Poland. It is located 31 kilometres (19 mi) north-west of Wrocław on the Oder River, and is the site of a large chemical complex, PCC Rokita SA. As at 2006 the town has a population of 12,786.
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[edit] History
Brzeg was first mentioned in a 1353 deed as a part of the Duchy of Wrocław, then within the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. In 1663 as Dyhernfurth it received town privileges by Emperor Leopold I of Habsburg. The Prussian minister Karl Georg von Hoym had a palace built here in 1785 according to plans of Carl Gotthard Langhans.
During World War II as part of the Grün 3 program, a plant for the manufacture of the nerve agent tabun was established in Dyhernfurth, producing the nerve agent under the codename Trilon-83. Run by the Anorgana GmbH, a branch of IG Farben, the plant began production in 1942. Large scale manufacturing of the agent resulted in problems with the product's degradation over time and only around 12,500 tons of material were manufactured before the plant was over-run by the advancing Soviet forces. The plant initially produced shells and aerial bombs using a 95:5 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene, designated "Variant A" before switching in the latter half of the war to "Variant B," an 80:20 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene designed to make the mixture disperse more easily.
The Soviets, however, did not capture any tabun at Dyhernfurth. Although they occupied the area of the factory, a German raid was organized by Generalmajor Max Sachsenheimer. The German unit of roughly battalion strength crossed the Oder River early on February 5, 1945, seized the factory, and deployed an anti-tank screen. During the day, the tabun at the factory was pumped into the Oder River while the screening force defeated two small-scale Soviet counter-attacks. In the evening of February 5, the German force pulled back behind the Oder River.[1]
Subsequently, the Soviet government had the plant dismantled and taken back to Russia. Nevertheless Rokita started the production of chemicals again in 1947.
[edit] Twin towns
[edit] Notes
- ^ Duffy, pp. 129-132.
[edit] References
- Duffy, Christopher. "Red Storm on the Reich", New York: Atheneum, 1991. ISBN 0-689-12092-3.
[edit] External links
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