Sennelager - History

History

The name Sennelager literally translates as Camp on the Senne - a name it received in 1851 when the Prussians used the area as a training camp for their cavalry. At the time, the area belonged to what was then the Neuhaus region and was largely unpopulated. This camp was later expanded into a full training facility for the armed forces, most notably during the reign of Wilhelm II.

The word Senne itself derives from the old Low German word sinedi, meaning sand. During the First World War there was a POW camp here which housed merchant seamen, most notably many British trawlermen who had been taken prisoner after their ships were sunk by German raiders in the North Sea, especially in the first days of the war. Many of the fishermen came from Boston, England and Grimsby in Lincolnshire. Many were later transferred to Ruhleben internment camp where many remained for the duration of the war.

During the Third Reich the village was used as a military loading station, and the village's railway station shows signs of this - there are facilities for loading military vehicles onto trains which are still regularly used by the British and German armies. The Catholic order of the Salvatorians, who were based in the still-standing Heilandsfrieden House, was disbanded and driven out of Sennelager by the Nazis in 1941, and were forbidden to settle anywhere in Westphalia or in the Rhineland.

At the end of World War II, the historic military base passed first briefly into the administration of the United States Army, before a more long-term handover to the British who retain control to this day, using the area as a training facility.