Artillerie-Kaserne Kempten, Military barracks in Kempten, Germany.
The Artillerie-Kaserne Kempten is a former barracks complex of 18 buildings erected in 1937, later expanded to 20 building parts. It housed the I. Abteilung of Artillerie-Regiment 27, not a division, and from 1970 to 1993 Gebirgsartilleriebataillon 81. Since 2016 the grounds have been used by the Bundespolizeiinspektion Kempten.
Built in 1937 for the Wehrmacht, the barracks housed the I. Abteilung of Artillerie-Regiment 27, part of the 27th Infantry Division, under Oberstleutnant Walter Wißmath; a 3rd battery joined in 1938. After the war the buildings served as emergency shelters. From 1970 to April 1993 it was home to Gebirgsartilleriebataillon 81, then to Gebirgssanitätsregiment 42 "Allgäu" until the end of 2015; the site closed in 2016 and is now used by the Bundespolizeiinspektion Kempten.
The name Scharnhorst-Kaserne, after the Prussian reformer, never caught on; soldiers and locals kept calling the site after its first occupant, the I. Abteilung of Artillerie-Regiment 27. That unit moved in during 1937 with a staff and two batteries, and a third battery followed in 1938. The compound is now used by the Bundespolizeiinspektion Kempten.
The site is closed to the public: since 2016 the former barracks has been used by the Bundespolizeiinspektion Kempten, so the grounds cannot be visited. The compound lies at the eastern edge of Kempten; a former rail siding linked it to Kempten East station. The buildings are best viewed from the surrounding public streets.
The site is now used by the Kempten inspection of the German Federal Police, not open to tourists. Its railway siding linked the grounds to Kempten East station, and the army depot built north of it in 1939–1941 was largely destroyed by wartime bombing.
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