Sankt Georgen an der Gusen

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Sankt Georgen an der Gusen
Coat of arms Location
Coat of arms of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen
Map of Austria, position of Sankt Georgen an der Gusen highlighted
Administration
Country Flag of Austria Austria
State Upper Austria
District Perg
Mayor Rudolf Honeder (SPÖ)
Basic statistics
Area 7 km² (2.7 sq mi)
Elevation 262 m  (860 ft)
Population 3,533  (15/05/2001)
 - Density 505 /km² (1,307 /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Licence plate PE
Postal code 4222
Area code 07237
Website www.st-georgen-gusen.at

Coordinates: 48°16′18″N 14°26′54″E / 48.27167, 14.44833

Sankt Georgen an der Gusen (lit. Saint George's Town on the Gusen River) is a small market town in Upper Austria, Austria, between the municipalities of Luftenberg and Langenstein. As of 2001, the town had 3,533 inhabitants.

During the World War II the town was selected to be the DEST-business administration center for exploiting the slave labour in the quarries and later the industries of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system. In early 1944 the town became the site of Gusen 2 - the most brutal sub-camp of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system. In roughly 40.000 m² of tunnels and caverns dug beneath St. Georgen for the Messerschmitt company a huge and most modern underground assembly plant for Messerschmitt Me 262 fuselages was operated until May 1945 under the code-name B8 Bergkristall - Esche II.[1] In some trials of the Nuremberg Military Tribunal the relatively unknown term St. Georgen granite works was used to prevent the use of locations like Mauthausen or Gusen.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rudolf A. Haunschmied, Jan-Ruth Mills, Siegi Witzany-Durda: St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen - Concentration Camp Mauthausen Reconsidered. BoD, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-7610-5