Forts and ramps: Military leftovers 

these ramps we have at the Rhine (of course) as well - when I was a child, my grandfather told me "its for the americans to move faster backwards when the russians are coming" xD - some of those ramps are still used today by public ferries

Not to forget: the Leopard 2 can do so called deep water wading up to a depth of 4 meters with a snorkel.

As a young American GI, I was on a 'Bailey Bridge Building Exercise' in Ingolstadt. Have never forgotten how hard we worked to cross the Donau... Ya... I bet there a whole lot of 'Nato Streets' in Germany. I spent 12 fantastic years there as a surveyor. Got to see a whole lot! Excellent Video!

That devil lies in the detail. You make a small village look like a giant historical place. Your commentary brings life into those otherwise boring lifeless walls.

Some parts of the german Autobahn don't have a greenstrip in the middle to seperate the lanes of each direction, but a flat concrete surface with only the guardrails instead... they're built to become emergency airstrips in the "case of defense".

I happen to live like 2km away from one of these sets of ramps, it's literally down the street (which was referred to as NATO street, but only by mouth; officially it's called different). As our neighbor is a small boat repair company, the ramp on our side is used as as a boat slip from time to time. Until the british troops left our town in 2001, the ramps were once or twice a year used by them for exercising and maneuvers. These British tanks (Chieftains, I think) were quite a sight to see when I was little, and standing like 20m away when they drove by felt like an earthquake. Since then the Bundeswehr did the same just once, but only because we are so far off the next military base. I would have liked to see some Leopard 2 live, but I had to attend my apprenticeship back then...

I'm amazed again and again what interesting stories one can discover behind seemingly mundane facts. Kudos!

This is great, I love these mini "destination" videos (this and the one about the autobahn). I'm very much looking forward to the -- triumphant I'm sure -- return of the "full-size" destination videos. They've always been some of my favourite videos on RU-vid, and have been sorely missed during this pandemic, even though I understand perfectly why you aren't making them at the moment :)

I did not learn anything new about the NATO ramps, but the insight on the history of Grosskrotzenburg was very interesting. 👍👍👍

"And remember that river, because it will be a big thing later" You might say it is the Main event ;)

When you go up the river Main you will see absolutely lots of them in every village along the way. Some have been converted to car ferries but most have stayed untouched since the war ended.

I absolutely love those Latin street names! Such a nice idea to get people familiarised with / interested in history!

We have multiple of these at the Kiel-Canal. Also the tunnel underneath the Canal built in my hometown during the 60s had valves in it so it could be flooded to prevent Warsaw Pact troops from using it. Those were apparently removed during the recent renovation works. You can still see where the Pipe Outlets used to be located in the tunnel wall though.

Großkotzenburg? That name is hilarious.

I remember them using one of these ramps near Speyer when they transferred a Russian "Buran" shuttle to the Technical Museum in Speyer in the 2000s.

0:11 I love how you omitted the second 'r' when saying the name of the village...

Einfach bewunderswert, was +rewboss bereits alles ausgegraben hat! - Grüße, Heinz

You could have explored and mentioned the other side, Hanau Groß-Auheim, I often drove around there on my bike as a teen. The Mainufer used to be a beautiful promenade at least during summer, all the way down to the bridge connecting with Hanau Steinheim. You could drive on through the Hanau port until you reached Schloß Philipsruhe in Hanau's west.

How very interesting the things you find, Andrew!

Down in the depths of Swabia we have an old military exercise ground in the hills with a massively reinforced concrete tank track. It's now a curious nature reserve because it can't be used for much else due to unexploded ordinance so you have to stay on the trails, and the track is used to test heavy vehicles like cranes and trucks.

Greetings from großkrotzenburg!

Roman ruins and a museum? I’d love to spend a day here! Not that I’ll have an opportunity do do so for a while. And, at risk of a false cognate, I wonder if the name somehow relates to “Great Crossing Fortress”. Could the Romans have also used the same strategy?

That's really cool! I'm only about 75 miles from this town so I may have to check it out.

This is interesting and entertaining: historical candy 🍬! Thank you!

Aschaffenburg ... that's where another of my favorite RU-vidrs lives (works in Frankfurt for DB, makes lots and lots of train videos *with explanations)* - Laufach comes up often, there :-)

In the near of Wyhl there is also a NATO-Rampe at the Rhein.

Many of them are also preserved for the transportation of oversized loads.

We do have those here on the Rhine, though oddly they are not directly opposite of each other on both shores. Check out Woltershofer Str. and Alsumer Steig in Duisburg. That's not exactly an easy crossing there.

I sometimes run or ride along the other side of the Main. Very suprised to see a video about that place 😅

1:30 ... or very quick executioners.

I wonder how well that'll age in another dozen, or hundred years. "Hopefully abandoning the ramps won't come back on us some day" History has a habit of repeating itself, although not always in the same location, by then we may have floating tanks like star wars so who knows.

this is so cool

I am interested in history (including the Cold War), Germany, and Russia, and I find this to be an interesting video! Didn't know about the NATO-ramps!

I live in Großauheim next to Großkrotzenburg in Großauheim there is another NATO-Rampe for another ponton-bridge the local fire service now uses the ramp to slip in boats for emergencies

Großktotzenburg also has a nice coal power plant ....

Such Ramps are here and there along the Nord Ostseekanal too. Also these false "Gullis" for destroying them with a load if necessary…

bei den Straßen mit den alten römischen Namen wäre ich dafür, die wieder umzubenennen

Thats my neighboring city lmao nice We have/had a couple of bunkers nearby diretcly at the Main nd those ramps are pretty much everywhere here :) Oh u missed out on the Hexeneiche thats a place where ppl got burned for beeing a witch

As a german i am thankful that place has a second r in its name

rewboss randomly looking at osm is very relatable

Ah, NATO: Planing a biketour to Etzweiler trying to avoid big citys, when coming from the north, i found 41366 Leloh what a nice small village after the forest...

Fun fact: the ominous manhole-covers concealing explosives were not the only such trap intended to deny pieces of infrastructure to an invader from the East. Parts of the Autobahn were also mined in a similar fashion (with other parts being designed as emergency-airfields).

Der Moment wenn man mehr über seine Umgebung von einem Engländer lernt als von Freunden und Bekannten 😂

The Tanks do not need bridges. Most NATO Tank are able to "drive" trough the river. And the hidden explosives were mainly at bridges. Also interesting, most canals in west-germany are going north-south, so that they can use as east-west barrier :-)

I am not exactly sure if the ramps with explosive charges relly had the explosive charges in place all the time. Because even in my childhood days when cold war was still a thing, those ramps were not guarded, and leaving military grade explosives in an unguarded place isn't usually the best of ideas. ;-) I would much rather think that they were prepared with cavities in which explosives could be placed easily to destroy the ramps if needed, but since the war fortunately remained cold, the explosives were kept in a much safer place. I have seen similar about what they called "Sprengschacht" (blasting duct) in roads near the former eastern border, which were cavities designed for that purpose. But they were normally empty.

also many bridges had provisions for explosives. especially near the former GDR/FRG border.

Aaaaand the Cold War's back.

Any chance we might get a video on the current substitute traffic going on in Frankfurt on the tram lines 15 and 17? They're operating the old type P high floor trams there on a few slots. If not, I still recommend you go there just for fun. It's a rare opportunity to see those in action. Only caveat: They switched out the old announcement controller for the latest type, and that means the latest announcements are being played, the ones generated via TTS instead of the classic announcements spoken by Ingrid Metz-Neun. The new ones sound awful if you ask most of the enthusiast community. Aside from that, it's all the completely original trams, now over 40 years old.

you should do a history video about the sudatenlamd

I'm surprised they haven't put a ferry there by now.

Großkrotzenburg, not to be confused with Großkotzenburg, which is a whole different thing.

After living 25 years in germany, you can tell us whos dishes are better? German or Uk? I was never been in the UK and i think it never happens but i try to imagine how it could be if i were in the UK and want to ear something "British", the only thing i've eat all the day were fish and chips but whitout fish. What you prefer? German kitchen with Schnitzel, Klöße(no plan how it named in englisch) or UK kitchen with mint dishes.

And now for the real question. What were you researching in the first place, when you stumbled over this?

1:34; when the prison was used in medieval times, until the 18th century, it is no wonder, the prison is so tiny. In medieval times (and some of the early modern age) prisons were mostly used as short time solutions. The people would go there if they were harmfull to others (in the like of drunkenness). While Most of the time penalties were a fine, to replenish the relationship between the person who did a crime and that which was harmed by the crime. Prison penalties were rare would be given to nobles or in some cases city people. (executions were also very rare btw.) (the next part is in german, for Iam unable to translate a few words into english, it is based on my notes from University where I study History) Der kleinräumige lebensstil im mittelalter würde bedeuten, dass die Bevölkerung sich selbst bestrafte, sollte sie einen Verbrecher Hinrichten, zugleich war es einfach nicht Sinnvoll, die Arbeitskraft eines Verbrechers, mit einer Gefängnisstrafe einzuschränken und ihn zugleich versorgen zu müssen. An dieser Stelle kamen dann Wehrgelder, wie sie zum beispiel im Hochmittelalterlichen Sachsenspiegel festgehalten sind zur Stelle.

Your pronunciation is perfect! And I love curious people discovering the most unusual things. Thank you for visiting Hesse ;) And yeah Großkrotzenburg is quite underwhelming and the town's name is even unappealing lol.

Großkotzenburg.....wie kommt man auf so einen Namen!

What an aweful place Great Vomit Castle must be...

I thought those ramps were built to lower boats into the water/raise boats out of the water.

Have you ever been to Langenselbold?

Do the military forces have storage halls somewhere with elements for pontoon bridges to be built quickly?

NATO Street (NATO Strasse) is not labeled on the Google Maps 😶

probley the river bridge the army trained on

Great-vomit-castel...

"open between 14:00 and 17:00 on the second Sunday of each month" is there anything more German than this It is precise it is prescriptive and it is useless if you arrive not on 2nd Sunday of the month

Next chapter: Natodraht.

GroßKrotzenburg? who wants to live there?

I really enjoy your videos, but I think 10 min videos would be a better format.

I assume these could be used with something like the M3 ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z3SCycWcE2E.html )

Has anyone actually ever send a postcard to rewboss? :)

I dare anyone to dive deeper into the meanings of the name Großkotzenburg. Spoiler alert: you'll laugh both your but cheeks off :)=

ganz schön großkotzig dieser ort..

If you want peace prepare for war He who forgets his past...

i can't get over how he says gORs instead of gROs.... ~_~

rewboss randomly looking at osm is very relatable