Grenadier Kaserne

  

  The picture above shows our buildings during the late 50’s.  Our building is in the foreground.  The matching large building in the background is all that is left. Everything else has been torn down and turned into a civilian housing area.

  This Kaserne was under military control as early as 1927 when the Germany Army confiscated local farm land to build a military facility.  They also took all the land that now encompasses Robinson Barracks.  I was very lucky being stationed here.  Grenadier was a small post.  The aerial shot above is hard to see but basically the Kaserne had very few U.S. Military units. As you entered the front gate there as a mess hall to the immediate right.  The mess hall served the any U.S. Army personnel but was probably assigned to the signal unit next door.

  You will notice four rather large buildings to the left and two large buildings that parallel the road.  I’m not sure what was in the first building on the left.  The second building housed the Signal group mentioned.  The third building is where the 594th, 5th RTMO was located.  In our building we had our outfit which was  most of the first floor and most of the basement. The Stars and Stripes had a very small office in the basement at the far north end.  The entire second floor was used by Civilian hiring.  Made for great people watching during the day when German civilians came to apply for work with the U.S. Army.

  The top floor was occupied by the 66th MI (Military Intelligence).  Walked up to to say hi and no one would come to the barred doors at the top of the stairs.  I think these people arrived and departed by osmosis.  Rarely saw anyone coming of going.

  The last building was used by German Civilian Engineers.  They were in charge of all the maintenance and repairs at Grenadier and Robinson Barracks.  There was a small motor pool (Signal Corps) behind the two buildings on the right of the road. There was also a small repair shop and motor pool behind the fourth (last) building. One of the pluses of having the Germans there is that we had a snack shop in the basement of the fourth building.  It was open from about 6am through normal working hours. Great food when you got tired of the mess hall.

  The picture above shows the Nazi insignia on the front wall at the guard gate/main entrance to Grenadier Kaserne.  Guess they forgot that one!

  The aerial photo above is the Robinson Barracks/Grenadier Kaserne area of Stuttgart Zuffenhausen.  Hard to see all the detail but I was limited to what is currently available and a lot has changed since I was stationed there.