MEMORY OF BARRACKS: World War II German ‘Little Berlins’ and post-war urbanization in Northern Finnish towns

Abstract

Some 220,000 German soldiers were stationed and fought in northern Finland during World War II. These troops required huge amounts of supplies that were provided by supply encampments in several locations, including the towns of Oulu and Tornio. In this paper the authors consider how the memory of these German-built sites has shaped post-war urban heritage. They review and challenge the authorized history of the post-war urbanization of the northern towns.

Keywords:

• Little Berlins
• memory
• northern Finland
• urbanization
• Waffen-SS

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Vesa-Pekka Herva, Eero Jarva, Tiina Kuokkanen, Sami Lakomäki, Risto Nurmi, Kirsti Paavola, Michel Rak, Annemari Tranberg, Pavel Vareka and Petri Vuojala for their comments and discussion on earlier drafts of this article. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments. Thanks to Karl Sandman for permission to publish the photograph of the Waffen-SS monument. This article is based on Timo Ylimaunu’s paper ‘A Vanishing Unpleasant Heritage: World War II German Encampments in the Town of Oulu, Northern Finland’, presented at the 2011 Society for Historical Archaeology conference. The article is one of the results of the ‘Towns, Borders and Material Culture’ research project funded by the Academy of Finland and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. Professor Paul R. Mullins’ and Dr James Symonds’ travels to Oulu were funded by the Research Council of University of Oulu. Paul Mullins’ research was supported by an IUPUI Arts and Humanities Internal Grant and a Fulbright Scholar grant.

Notes

1. 1 See, for example, Satokangas, Oulun vuosisadat; Teerijoki, Tornion historia.

2. 2 See, for example, Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Korpi, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina toisen maailmansodan aikana’; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja; Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’; Vahtola, Oulu Varuskuntakaupunkina.

3. 3 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja.

4. 4 See, for example, De Cunzo and Ernstein, ‘Landscapes’; Herva and Nurmi, ‘Beyond Consumption’; Herva and Ylimaunu, ‘Folk Beliefs’; Hicks and Horning, ‘Historical Archaeology and Buildings’; Jones, Memory and Material Culture; Kallio-Seppä et al., ‘Rajan ja tilan muutokset Pohjois-Suomessa vuoden 1809 jälkeen’; Leone, ‘A Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’; Leone and Hurry, ‘Seeing’; Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’; Mullins and Jones, ‘Archaeologies of Race’; Symonds, ‘Stooping to Pick Up Stones’; Theune, ‘Archaeology and Remembrance’; Ylimaunu, Aittakylästä kaupungiksi. See also Ladd, Ghost of Berlin.

5. 5 Blades, ‘European Military Sites’, 43.

6. 6 Schofield and Johnson, ‘Archaeology’, 110.

7. 7 See for example, Blades, ‘European Military Sites’; Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’; Schofield and Johnson, ‘Archaeology’; Theune, ‘Archaeology and Remembrance’.

8. 8 Holtorf and Williams, ‘Landscapes and Memories’, 238.

9. 9 Shackel and Paulus, ‘Remembering an Industrial Landscape’, 53.

10. 10 Cf. Orser, ‘Twenty-First-Century Historical Archaeology’, 131; also Ladd, Ghosts of Berlin, 2; Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’.

11. 11 See, for example, Hall, ‘Social Archaeology’; Delle, ‘A Tale of Two Tunnels’; Moshenska, ‘Charred Churches’; Orser, ‘Twenty-First-Century Historical Archaeology’, 131.

12. 12 Delle, ‘A Tale of Two Tunnels’, 64–5.

13. 13 Junila, Kotirintaman aseveljeyttä, 29.

14. 14 Hall, ‘Social Archaeology’, 52; Mullins and Jones, ‘Archaeologies of Race’, 34.

15. 15 See, for example, Burström and Gelderblom, ‘Dealing with Difficult Heritage’; Ladd, Ghosts of Berlin; Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’.

16. 16 Bauer, Toinen maailmansota, 62–7, 136; Turlola, ‘Kansainvälinen kehitys Euroopassa ja Suomessa 1930-luvulla’.

17. 17 See, for example, Häikiö, ‘Jatkosodan ulkopolitiikka’; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 9; Vahtola, Suomen historia, 360–72.

18. 18 See, for example, Häikiö, ‘Jatkosodan ulkopolitiikka’; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, 161–2.

19. 19 See, for example, Turtola, ‘Katkera rauha ja Suomen ulkopoliittinen asema sodan jälkeen’; Häikiö, ‘Jatkosodan ulkopolitiikka’.

20. 20 See, for example, Häikiö, ‘Jatkosodan ulkopolitiikka’; Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Korpi, ‘Saksan Norjan-armeijan operaatiot Pohjois-Suomen rintamalla 1941’; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 9–15; Turtola, ‘Katkera rauha ja Suomen ulkopoliittinen asema sodan jälkeen’; Turtola, ‘Kauttakulkuliikenne Pohjolassa 1941–44’; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, 164–72.

21. 21 See, for example, Elfvengren, ‘Lapin sota ja sen tuhot’; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu 1944; Uola, Vallankumouksellisia, vakoilijoita ja aseveljiä; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, 407–21.

22. 22 Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Korpi, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina toisen maailmansodan aikana’, 108; Korpi, ‘Saksan Norjan-armeijan operaatiot Pohjois-Suomen rintamalla 1941’; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, passim.

23. 23 Cf. Junila, Kotirintaman aseveljeyttä; Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina.

24. 24 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 91–102; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 46; Uola, Vallankumouksellisia, vakoilijoita ja aseveljiä; Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’, 82.

25. 25 See, for example, Niskala, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina’, 314; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina, 22–3; compare Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’, 84.

26. 26 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, passim.

27. 27 See for example, Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja; Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’.

28. 28 Junila, Kotirintaman aseveljeyttä, 91–4; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina, 28–33, 44–54; Uola, Vallankumouksellisia, vakoilijoita ja aseveljiä.

29. 29 Korpi, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina toisen maailmansodan aikana’, 118–19; Korpi, ‘Saksan Norjan-armeijan operaatiot Pohjois-Suomen rintamalla’; Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 11, 90, 99, 136–9; Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’, 82.

30. 30 Niskala, Toppilan maankäytön historiaa, 21–3; Roudasmaa, Oulun varuskunnan historia, 181–2.

31. 31 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja; Niskala, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina – rakennusten tyylit ja historiat’, 314–15; Roudasmaa, Oulun varuskunnan historia, 183–4.

32. 32 Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 47; Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’.

33. 33 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 24–6; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 15; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, 222–32, 255–9.

34. 34 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, passim; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina; Niskala, Toppilan maankäytön historiaa, 30, 46; Niskala, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina – rakennusten tyylit ja historiat’, 314, 317.

35. 35 Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’, 110.

36. 36 Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’, 111.

37. 37 Ladd, Ghosts of Berlin, 140–1; see also Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’, 107–10.

38. 38 Niskala, ‘Oulu varuskuntakaupunkina – rakennusten tyylit ja historiat’, 318; Roudasmaa, Oulun varuskunnan historia, 201–3.

39. 39 Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’.

40. 40 The City of Oulu. The Urban and Environmental Services. Taka-Tuiran asemakaavan kaavaselitys (city planning), 64.6. 12 March 1949; Manninen, Oulun kaupungin historia, 60; Meurman and Ervi, Oulun yleiskaava.

41. 41 The City Archives of Oulu. Cb:1, Oulu City government agenda 8 May 1944.

42. 42 The City Archives of Oulu. Ca: 27, Oulu City government minutes 12 February 1945.

43. 43 Teerijoki, Tornion historia, 195, 240.

44. 44 The City of Oulu. The Urban and Environmental Services. Taka-Tuiran asemakaavan kaavaselitys (city planning), 64.6. 12 March 1949; Meurman and Ervi, Oulun yleiskaava; Teerijoki, Tornion historia, 188.

45. 45 Teerijoki, Tornion historia, 186.

46. 46 Wahl, ‘AVL in Tornio’.

47. 47 Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 403.

48. 48 Hautala, Oulun kaupungin historia, 8; Niskala, Toppilan maankäytön historiaa, 18.

49. 49 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 136–8.

50. 50 Niskala, Toppilan maankäytön historiaa, 41–3.

51. 51 Niskala, Toppilan maankäytön historiaa, 22–3.

52. 52 Elfvengren, ‘Lapin sota ja sen tuhot’, 1148–9.

53. 53 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 19.

54. 54 Connerton, How Modernity Forgets, 136.

55. 55 Koskela and Pietiläinen, ‘Saksalaiset Oulussa 1942–44’.

56. 56 The building has been marked as a protected building in the general plan of Oulu. It cannot be torn down without a permit.

57. 57 Heikkilä and Tolonen, Kaijonrannan sotilasarkeologinen koetutkimus.

58. 58 Cf. Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 15.

59. 59 Jokipii, Panttipataljoona.

60. 60 Korpi, Rintama ilman juoksuhautoja, 24–6; Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 15; Ziemke, Saksalaisten sotatoimet Pohjolassa, 229.

61. 61 Cf. Jones, Memory and Material Culture, 55 with citations.

62. 62 Cf. Holtorf and Williams, ‘Landscapes and Memories’, 244.

63. 63 Junila, Kotirintaman aseveljeyttä, 311–13; Junila, ‘Rinta rinnan’; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina.

64. 64 Kulju, Tornion maihinnousu, 47; Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina, 36.

65. 65 Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina, 25.

66. 66 Sutela, Kemissä, Peräpohjolassa ja Lapissa sotavuosina, 66.

67. 67 Cf. Orser, ‘Twenty-First-Century Historical Archaeology’, 124–5.

68. 68 Kallio-Seppä, et al., ‘Rajan ja tilan muutokset Pohjois-Suomessa vuoden 1809 jälkeen’.

69. 69 Meinander, Suomi 1944, 309.

70. 70 See for example, Lucas, An Archaeology of Colonial Identity; Mrozowski, The Archaeology of Class, 137–8.

71. 71 Cf. Yentsch, A Chesapeake Family and their Slaves, 20; Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 193–4, 236; Leone, ‘A Historical Archaeology of Capitalism’; Leone, The Archaeology of Liberty; Leone and Hurry, ‘Seeing: The Power of Town Planning in the Chesapeake’; Ylimaunu, Aittakylästä kaupungiksi; Foucault, Tarkkailla ja rangaista.

72. 72 See for example, Ladd, Ghosts of Berlin, 135, 139; Leone, ‘Interpreting Ideology’; Leone, Critical Historical Archaeology; Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’, 112; Matthews, et al., ‘The Political Economy of Archaeological Cultures’.

73. 73 Junila, Kotirintaman aseveljeyttä, 198–9.

74. 74 Blades, ‘European Military Sites as Ideological Landscapes’, 52.

75. 75 Burström and Gelderblom, ‘Dealing with Difficult Heritage’; Theune, ‘Archaeology and Remembrance’; see also Karjalainen, Sota-ajan kulttuuriperintö Rovaniemen metsisssä.

76. 76 Ladd, Ghosts of Berlin, 133.

77. 77 Macdonald, ‘Words in Stone?’.

78. 78 Ibid., 112–16.

79. 79 Ibid., 122–3.

80. 80 Seitsonen and Herva, ‘Forgotten in the Wilderness’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Timo Ylimaunu

Timo Ylimaunu is a university lecturer in historical archaeology. He directed the ‘Town, Border and Material Culture’ project, funded by the Finnish Academy and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. He is an International Associate at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He is the author of Aittakylästä kaupungiksi (2007) and has published articles in the Scandinavian Journal of History and Anthropological Archaeology.

Paul R. Mullins

Paul R. Mullins is President of the Society for Historical Archaeology (2012–2013), Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University, and a docent in American historical archaeology in the University of Oulu. He is the author of The Archaeology of Consumer Culture (2011) and Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture (1999). His research has appeared in journals including Historical Archaeology, International Journal of Historical Archaeology and Annual Review of Anthropology. Address: Department of Anthropology, 413B Cavanaugh Hall, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA.

James Symonds

James Symonds teaches archaeology and history at the University of York and is a docent of Historical Archaeology at the University of Oulu. He is the co-editor of the edited books Industrial Archaeology: Future Directions (2005), Interpreting the Early Modern World (2011) and Historical Archaeologies of Cognition (2013), and has published several articles in journals including Historical Archaeology and the International Journal of Historical Archaeology. Address: University of York, Department of Archaeology, The King’s Manor, York Y01 7EP, UK.

Titta Kallio-Seppä

Titta Kallio-Seppä is a doctoral student in the Finnish Doctoral Program in Archaeology, funded by the Finnish Academy. She specializes in urban archaeology and dendrochronology. She is a co-editor of the books Iin vanhan Haminan kirkko ja hautausmaa (2011) and Historiaa kaupungin alla (2005). Address: Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, P.O. Box 1000, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland.

Hilkka Heikkilä

Hilkka Heikkilä is an independent archaeologist. She specializes in botanical analysis on archaeological sites. Address: Koskitie 15 as 5, 90500 Oulu, Finland.

Markku Kuorilehto

Markku Kuorilehto is a historian and doctoral student in archaeology. He specializes in the medieval and early-modern history and place-name studies. Address: The University of Oulu Teacher Training School, Faculty of Education, P.O. Box 2000, 90014 University of Oulu, Finland.

Siiri Tolonen

Siiri Tolonen is an archaeologist who works at Metsähallitus. Address: Metsähallitus, P.O. Box 81, 90100 Oulu, Finland.