SOURCE S COMMENTS ON SAAR PHOTOGRAPHS ROLL 1

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R001700700002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 2000
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: LIST

Approved For Release 2000/09/01 : CIA-RDP83-00423R00170070000 w ~I I V,% U.
Source's Comments on Saar Photographs
Roll 1
Print No.
0
(20)
1
(20)
2
(20)
3
(20)
4
(20)
5
(20)
6
(20)
7
(19)
8
(19)
9
(19)
This is a ground photograph (the first 14 are ground photographs). I
was standing on a hill looking out over the town of Homburg in extreme
eastern Saar. It is located in the depression connecting the Saar and
Germany. The direction of the photograph is shown on the map.
Also over Homburg looking in a different direction. That direction is
also shown on the map.
Again looking out over Homburg in about the same direction as Print No. 0a
but covering more distance. One can see the tailings of the Brebach Mine
in the extreme distance. These also appear on the map.
Also looks over Homburg but from a slightly different place on the hill
and shows the rather large repair shops of the Saar Railway System.
In a different location in the town of Homburg. This shows the main
administration building of the medical school of the Saar University
which is located in an old hospital in Homburg. The rest of the Saar
University is in the little town of Scheidt near Saarbrucken, but this
is the main building.
Identical. to Print No. 4.
The little town of Kirrberg which is a little area added to the Saar
in 1948. This was the latest territorial addition to the Saar and
was includedin my photographic coverage for this reason.
Shows large size of the mine tailings of the Brebach Mine.
The town of Neunkirchen. One can see the Konig coal mine and beyond
that one can see some of the blast furnaces of the Neunkirchen Iron
Works.
From a different viewpoint showing more of the mine and in the very
great distance the iron works.
10 & 11 (19) A little closer view of the same mine and in the distance the iron
works. Prints 10 and 11 are pictures made with 135 mm telephoto lens.
They are taken from exactly the same viewpoint as the picture in
Print No. 9. One can see a little of the iron works beyond the build-
ings in the foreground showing the mines.
12 I have put in Print No. 12 just to keep the sequence complete but it
is nothing of interest.
13 (24) Photograph of the Hatir Iron Works in St. Ingbert. This is a ground
photograph; we have air pictures of it later on. This is not an iron
ore steel making works. They take steel bars and iron bars and work
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Print No.
14 This print is of no interest. It shows the trucks lined up at the
Saar frontier trying to get into Germany with some of the Saar exports
and might indicate some of the difficulties that exporters have getting
material out.
15, 16, 17 Just put in to keep the sequence complete, I don't think they are of
any interest.
18 (19) The start of the series of helicopter shots, all of which were taken
inside the Saar. No. 18 is overlooking the marshalling yards at Homburg
in the extreme eastern Saar. The picture looks north eastward and one
can see part of the town of Homburg and the marshalling yards where
the trains are made up to go into Germany from the Saar. These yards
are also used for the Homburg Railway Works.
19 (19) Also part of the Homburg area showing an old military installation.
20 (24) Northeastern St. Ingbert, showing one of the new refugee settlements
built with money furnished by Catholic organizations in the Saar (it
won't show on the map).
21 (24) This shot brings us back to the Hatir Iron Works at St. Ingbert. We
are looking right down on it here. One can see the main highway which
runs from Saarbrucken into Germany. Incidentally, the main railway
line is shown on the extreme right of the photograph.
22 (24) A little more distant shot from the same point. The helicopter didn't
move very much between shots 21 and 22. But we are looking over the
whole town of St. Ingbert here and looking into the distance into that
very important depression that we mentioned earlier.
23 (24) Shows the tailings heap of the coal mines just west of St. Ingbert.
24 Just a landscape shot in extreme southeastern Saar showing the rather im-
portant agricultural district there.
25 (29 & 24) This starts the series of pictures in the very highly industrialized
Saar Valley. This is in the extreme southeastern Saar. We are looking
downstream here--that's the Saar in the foreground and the buildup that
starts in the middle distance is the Saarbrucken area.
26 (29 & 24) We are looking right down on the Saar River at the locks. The Saar
is canalized here. You see the locks of Gudingen.
27 (24) View of the Brebach smelter which makes pig iron but does not make
steel or steel products. This is located, incidentally, in the south-
eastern part of Saarbrucken. It is a little suburb that goes by a
different name but it is actually a part of Saarbrucken. One can see
the blast furnaces and other parts of the works there. The Saar River
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Print No.
28 (2-) Another view of the same works giving a little different angle but
not showing as much as 27.
29 (24) A picture of the house occupied by the French Ambassador in the Saar.
It is the most elaborate residence in the whole Saar.
30 (23 & 21l) Taken looking downstream again over the great Saarbrucken urban
development.
31 (23 & 211.) Taken looking northeast over Saarbrucken(which one can see in the
foreground), looking up the highly developed Sulzbachtal. This is one
of the two or three valleys coming into the Saar valley at Saarbrucken.
There is considerable development up each of these valleys since this
is the heart of the coal mining district. The Sulzbachtal leads up
to Neunkirchen and one can see the great marshalling yards placed in
the gap which has been cut by the sulz. This picture is taken looking
toward the northeast.
32 (23) I've just put this in to keep the sequence. It looks down on Saarbrucken
and shows some of the buildings that still show bomb damage.
33 (23) Taken just to the west of 31 and shows the Fischbachtal, which is
another one of the areas around. Saarbrucken, which has been highly
developed (but not so much as the Sulzbachtal). Incidentally, in the
immediate foreground one can see a small lock in the Saar River. Here
the river is still canalized and is up to Volklingen, but this lock is
really not as useful as it ought to be.
34 (24+) This shot takes us back to the Brebach Smelter and gives us the best
view in the series of three pictures of this subject. There is also a
better view of the Iron Works than in either of the two previous pictures.
35 (23) A general view of Saarbrucken. To the extreme left is the municipal
theater and in the distance the picture looks up the Sulzbachtal Valley.
36 (23) Looking up the Sulzbachtal Valley again with Saarbrucken in the fore-
ground.
37 (23) Here we have the best of four pictures that I took of the Burbacher
Smelter. The Burbach or Burbacher (the adjective form) is really owned
by the firm, ARBED. One can see in the foreground the rolling mills
and warehouses. In the right foreground is the Saar River. In the
center of the picture are the blast furnaces and other parts to the
smelter part of the plant.
3 (23) (There are no pictures 1 and 2 on the second roll.) No. 3 is anpth r
~I..~ he main part of Saarbruclienn .
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Print No.
3 contd. It is on one side of the main part of Saarbrucken and the Burbach plant
is on the other but they are all part of the same urban development.
4 (23) Another view of the ARBED plant, possibly better than Print 3 but not
as good as No. 37 on Roll 1.
5 (23) A general view of the whole Saarbrucken area. To the lower left is the
ARBED steel plant which incidentally makes both pig iron and steel.
Right in the center of the picture is a white building that is the new
French Embassy in Saarbrucken. The industrial development area continues
on into the distance.
6 (23) Another shot of the ARBED plant. This is more of a general view.
7 (23)
Shows a recent housing development in the town of Altenkessel, between
Saarbrucken and Volklingen.
8 (23) This begins a series of,Tthe largest and most important of the Saar iron
and steel plants, the Volklingen works. It and the Burbach or ARBED
plant near Saarbrucken are the two largest and most important in the Saar.
In Print No. 8 we see the iron ore and coal storage areas (mostly iron
ore shown), and in the lower left you see the Saar, which is still
canalized, but this is as far as it is navigable. To the left is the
smelter part of the Volklingen steel works. In the extreme upper left
are the tall chimneys of the cement plant, which uses slag from the
smelter. On the right of the picture is the steel-making part of the
plant. This picture shows clearly how the plant is divided very defi-
nitely into two parts. This is the key picture-to the others that follow
in this series.
9 (23) Here I concentrated on the lock unloading docks which had been specially
cut and on the blast furnaces. The steel-making part is over to the
right but I tried to get a very good view of the blast furnaces here.
10 (23) Shows the harbor, the port, river port on the Saar, and on the left
side of the river (the left part of the picture) is the cement plant and
the blast furnaces of the smelter appear in the center.
11 (23) Looking out over the whole works again without the storage area and in
the distance beyond the smoke stack that's pouring out so much smoke
one can see the steel works. I didn't get a very close view of the
steel works in this series but we have a large print of the steel-making
area that will serve the purpose very well.
12 (23) Looks upstream on the Saar. The storage area of the Volklingen steel
mill is to the left. This picture actually looks back over this most
important part of the Saar Valley. The smoking chimney seen left of
the center of the picture is the Luisentahl Electric Plant, one of the
largest in the Saar. This picture clearly shows its location on the
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Print No.
13 &
14
15
(16)
16
(16)
17
(16)
18
(16)
19
(16)
20
(16)
(22) Show the great slag heaps which are part of the Volklingen steel
plant. The slag from the blast furnaces is brought out here and dumped
on the flood plain of the Saar, creating these artificial mountains
which are very prominent in the Saar landscape and can be used as
landmarks.
In this print we see the Duhanel Coal Mine that also has gone by the
name of Ensdorf Mine. It is located right in the Saar Valley.
View of the very heart of Saarlouis. This town, which was built as a
French fortress, is one of the centers of the French claims to the
Saar. The town was very heavily bombed.
This begins a series of three pictures of the third of the Saar iron
and steel works. This is the one at Dillingen. The first picture shows
the blast furnace part of the plant.
The steel making part of the series mention for Print No. 17.
Looks out over both parts of the works described in Prints No. 17 and 18.
This plant is the one that was owned by a great deal of French capital,
incidentally, and was built back in the days the French had their strong
foothold in the Saar, and the French tried to put a great deal of
stress on their interest in this particular mill.
This is of interest topographically. It shows part of the town of
Beckingen, but we see again here how these little valleys come down into
the main Saar valley and how very often they furnish settlement sites
and transportation hubs.
21,22&23 (10) These views were taken where the Saar Valley narrows to almost a canyon.
Note the stripped cultivation on the sides of that rather steep sided
valley. No. 22 gives the best over-all view and shows the Saar River
cutting through the middle of the valley with the flood plain in the
right foreground.
24 & 25 (10) Views of the town of Merzig nestled in the little triangular depres-
sion. Merzig is rather important for its ceramic manufacturers.
26 (10) This print shows the eastern part, or east central part, of the Saar.
Here the erosion has cut rather steep valleys (almost gorges) along
the rivers, particularly along the Saar River.
27,28 & 29 (4 & io) Views of the very picturesque and famous Meander in the Saar. The
river was flowing toward me on the right side of the picture and flowing
away on the left side. On the extreme left of all three of these
pictures is the town of Mettlach.
30 (10) View of the hydroelectric station on the Saar near Mettlach. It is
not a very large one and not a very important one but one of the few in
_ the
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Print No.
31 (10) Shows the Saar River cutting across to the middle of the picture with
the town of Mettlach in the center. Most of the town is centered
around a manufacturing firm which turn out pottery and other ceramic
products.
32 (10) Close-up of the ceramics factory at Mettlach. The company is a large
one and has branches in several parts of Europe.
33, 34 (35 & 36 were not printed)
and 37
Views of landscapes in the northern Saar showing the important agricul-
tural part of the Saar. More of the land is forested north of this
particular area. Print 33 shows a rather prominent hill in the very
center of the picture. This is the Schaunberg (one of the Unbergs),,
which is one of the highest points in the Saar.
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