Information required

My name is Barrie Hughes, from Napier in New Zealand. My father was a member of the CCG from 1946 until ?. The rest of our family ( my mother, brother and self) moved to Germany in '46. Initally we lived in Lemgo and then Bad Honnef. I remember going to school at an Army base in Herford. (down the autobahn in a VW Beetle.)
Anyway I am going to both Lemgo and to Bad Honnef in a few weeks time to revisit, (it's my bucket trip) but I'm really finding it difficult to find any info on the CCG, so can anyone give me a lead on where I can find some historical info

Hi Barrie and welcome

http://www.webwanderers.org/2006/03/control_commission_germany_oct.html

Hope this helps a bit
Regards
Steve

Barrie

Welcome

Steve and I are involved in a joint project to research and record various aspects of the British (and Commonwealth) presence in North West Germany in the immediate post war period that interest us.

You are correct in thinking that there is relatively little concise and accurate information available on the role of the CCG.

At the end of WW2 the victorious Allies were determined that never again would Germany have the opportunity to become a military or naval power in Europe. Similarly a new democratic Federal system of Government would have to be created to replace the Nazi Dictatorship.

The British Army led on military matters but some twenty thousand British civilians (many former servicemen and women) were recruited by the British Foreign Office to form the basis of the new system of Government in what was known as the British Element of Control Commission Germany. Even at local (Parish Council) level the British either appointed their own personnel or imposed a strict level of control whilst the process known as "deNazification" was carried out.

Economic and industrial intelligence was an important task with the British endeavoring to obtain details of German industrial assets and expertise in order to modernise the British (and Commonwealth) equivalent infrastructure.

Another important responsibility was the resettlement of the many millions of ethnic Germans and other refugees who had either fled west from the advancing Soviet Forces or been ejected from their homelands which were no longer considered part of the future Germany (eg the Baltic States or parts of Poland)

There are indications on various websites that the large CCG HQ in Lemgo had some responsibility for this policy including recruiting individuals with particular shortage skills such as nursing to work in the UK (many others were to subsequently emigrate to the USA and other Commonwealth countries)

If you tap in Control Commission Germany Lemgo into your computer search facility you should find some outline details.

I have no details of a CCG presence in Bad Honnef but there are two possibilities.

Firstly Bad Honnef was on the borders of the British and French Zones of Occupation and in the early days movement of all German personnel, including civilians, was very strictly controlled. It is possible that your father was employed as Customs officer involved in the control of transport by road, rail and barge up and down the Rhine Valley.

Alternatively he might have lived in Bad Honnef but worked in nearby Bonn which was evolving as the new Federal Capital of West Germany

Hope these thoughts are helpful, good luck in your quest and enjoy your trip to Europe

Barrie,
Have a great trip on this your nostalgic dream. 1946 is certainly going back a bit. I can only go back to 1952 at Herford,and even then things looked bleak in BAOR although some of the infostructure had been rebuilt by then compared to old Blighty of the same period (Marshall Plan money I suppose). I remember a lot of new houses around the Herford area and do remember the presence of a lot of CCG personnel and their families in and around the area.
Jimsigs1

Reasons to be cheerful ..........

1. It's MINDEN DAY ! Roses issued at first parade, transport to Minden
leaves Regt. Square at 1000 hrs ( I wish !)

2. It's Yorkshire Day ! Nowt surprisin' ! It's silin' dahn ag-e-an out theer !

3. It's Lammas Day ! Give thanks for the heavy rain. If it wasn't so wet,
we'd be grafting outside, cutting sheaves of grass.

David, you forgot to mention that it is also Army Day in China!

Shelldrake wrote:

David, you forgot to mention that it is also Army Day in China!

Oh great !
Does that mean we'll be seeing more clips of goose-stepping, mini-skirted lovelies ?

Think we've exhausted our "Stock" on that one, Brum. How about these Russian girls on shovel patrol?


www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMEvYSmMce4

Ye old cold war just heated up..If they had sent that lot at us there wouldn`t have bin a lot of resistance

Not for me !
Fortunately there are links to what I like watching.
(Make the Brigade of Guards look like shambling oafs).

Guys,
You can read the title of this thread. Give Barrie a chance and don't go off on a tangent. Lets keep this thread going with info about Barrie's search and info on CCG.

Thanks.

Barrie Hughes wrote:

My name is Barrie Hughes, from Napier in New Zealand. My father was a member of the CCG from 1946 until ?. The rest of our family ( my mother, brother and self) moved to Germany in '46. Initally we lived in Lemgo and then Bad Honnef. I remember going to school at an Army base in Herford. (down the autobahn in a VW Beetle.)
Anyway I am going to both Lemgo and to Bad Honnef in a few weeks time to revisit, (it's my bucket trip) but I'm really finding it difficult to find any info on the CCG, so can anyone give me a lead on where I can find some historical info

Hi and welcome barrie
If you get a chance would you please take some pics of the flats in Voglesang just down the road fram the barracks on the left we lived in the very end block #1/6 have a good trip hopefully you can put some pictures on the site I've not been back there for 36yrs be nice to see how much its changed

By sheer coincidence I recently met a man whose family history supports my earlier posting.

At the very end of WW2 his mother in law, whose family lived in the area of Memel on the then borders of East Prussia and Lithuania, fled west in front of the advancing Soviet Forces. The young woman was initially placed in the Goslar area. A trained nurse, she volunteered to move to the UK and Coventry area in particular where she subsequently married a young Englishman.