Germany's first artillery range

The Water Tower (6) with its viewing platform also provided a view of Germany's first artillery range which opened as in 1864. New guns and cannons were tried and tested here by the artillery units. A French fort built for this purpose in 1885 served as a target. In 1909, military personnel from Berlin tested a 42-cm mortar whose shells penetrated the ground up to a depth of 14 metres. The artillery range was 11,000 hectares in size around 1930. As a result, the villages of Felgentreu, Mehlsdorf and Dorf Zinna were relocated. Czech frontier lines were set up here in 1938 to enable the German army to train in breaching them.

Drilling at the artillery range came to an end in 1992. The Stiftung Naturlandschaften Brandenburg (Brandenburg Natural Landscapes Foundation) is now working on the conversion of the area to civilian use.