Draft:Dominic V. Spinelli

Dominic Vito Spinelli (* July 23, 1923 in Hamilton, Ohio, USA; † April 14, 1945 near Willsbach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany) was a private in a US Army medical unit who died in Germany shortly before the end of the Second World War while attempting to rescue wounded comrades. As a posthumous tribute, the Mannheim US barracks Spinelli Barracks were named after him in 1948. After the withdrawal of the US Army, the name was adopted as part of the conversion, so that today a park, a residential area and a square in Mannheim bear the name Spinelli. As part of the 2023 Federal Garden Show in Mannheim, a new rose variety was christened the “Spinelli Rose”.

Life
Dominic Spinelli grew up with a brother and a sister in Hamilton, Ohio. His Italian-American family had roots in Bari, southern Italy, among other places. Spinelli attended the University of Dayton, Ohio, USA, before joining the US Army in December 1943. As a Private First Class, he was deployed in the 100th US Infantry Division as an operations technician in the medical section. On April 14, 1945, the 21-year-old was killed in action near the Württemberg community of Willsbach in the Heilbronn district. On April 14, 1945, the 21-year-old was killed by Wehrmacht snipers near the Württemberg community of Willsbach in the Heilbronn district while trying to rescue four wounded comrades from the firing line. He was subsequently awarded the Purple Heart and Silver Star “for exceptional bravery and fearlessness in action against the enemy.” Three years later, the US Army named the former pioneer barracks in Mannheim-Feudenheim Spinelli Barracks. Dominic Spinelli was buried in his home town of Hamilton.

Posthumous tribute 1962
In 1962, a memorial stone with the text “In memoriam Dominic Spinelli - 1923 to 1945” was unveiled as part of a commemorative event on the grounds of Spinelli Barracks. Beneath it, the words of Dante were written in Italian, English and German: “In his will is our peace.” Guests of honor from politics and the American and German military, Spinelli's parents, his sister and family members from Bremen and the Apulian port city of Bari were present, as local German newspaper Mannheimer Morgen reported.

Before their withdrawal and the handover of the area in January 2014, the US Army removed the memorial plaque and stored it at the Kaiserslautern base. On August 1, 2023, the memorial plaque was replaced by the city of Mannheim after it was not possible to recover the original from the US Army.

Spinelli Barracks
After the end of World War II, the US armed forces used a former German engineer barracks, which had been built in 1938 on a 40-hectare site near Mannheim-Feudenheim, as a logistics depot. From May 31, 1945 to 2014, this depot was one of the most important of the US forces in Europe and played a central role in US army supplies. On November 5, 1945, 800 US soldiers were quartered in the barracks, which was named Spinelli Barracks in 1948 in honour of Private Dominic Spinelli, who was killed in action. Until the US forces withdrew from Mannheim, the barracks housed warehouses, vehicle parking areas, workshops and a tank washing facility.

The other US barracks in Mannheim were also generally named after ordinary US soldiers who, like Dominic Spinelli, had fallen in the Second World War and had been decorated for special services: Pvt. Cecil Taylor (Taylor Barracks), Pvt. George Sullivan (Sullivan Barracks), Pvt. Robert Funari (Funari Barracks) and NCO Samuel J. Turley (Turley Barracks). Their names were also adopted after the withdrawal of the US Army and used as part of the conversion for the newly created residential areas or as street names. The Coleman Barracks, named after Lieutenant Colonel Wilson D. Coleman, are still used by the US armed forces.

Spinelli Park and Federal Garden Show "BUGA" 2023
The withdrawal of the US Army from Mannheim freed up nine barracks with a total area of 510 hectares. As part of the conversion, one of two exhibition areas for the Federal Garden Show "BUGA" 2023, which took place there from April 14 to October 8, 2023, was created on the Spinelli Barracks site. After BUGA 23, the Spinelli site became public park for the city of Mannheim.

Spinelli Quarter
A new residential district called Spinelli Quarter is being built on the northern site of the former Spinelli Barracks. 1,800 residential units for up to 4,500 residents will be created, 70 percent of which will be apartment buildings and 30 percent single-family homes.

The aim of the city of Mannheim is to offer a wide range of housing types for all population groups in Mannheim society, including communal, social or inclusive housing. Housing associations and cooperatives, property developers, private builders, communal housing projects and building cooperatives are realizing individual construction projects on the site. The municipal development company MWSP is entrusted with the development and marketing of the residential area. The conversion project group is responsible for the framework planning and urban development and is in charge of developing the public facilities. These include a new elementary school, a daycare center, a social center as well as sports areas, Caritas facilities and a neighborhood center with a supermarket.

Spinelli Square and new memorial plaque
In 2020, the municipal council decided to name a square near the main entrance to the garden show “Spinelli-Platz” as part of the BUGA 2023.

On August 1, 2023, the Lord Mayor of Mannheim, Peter Kurz, unveiled a plaque at Spinelliplatz commemorating Dominic Spinelli. The mesing plaque bears the words “In Memoriam Dominic Spinelli - 1923 to 1945” and below it the words of Dante “In his will is our peace” in Italian, English and German. It is a replica of the plaque that was placed on a boulder from the Odenwald in 1962 when Spinelli was posthumously honored there. Flower pots with the “Spinelli Rose” were displayed on both sides of the boulder.

Spinelli Rose
On July 10, 2023, a new rose variety was christened “Spinelli” as part of the Mannheim Federal Horticultural Show 2023. The godparents were the Lord Mayor of Mannheim, Dr. Peter Kurz, and his wife Daniela Franz. The rose is a yellow shrub rose with dark green, glossy foliage. Michael Schnellbach, Managing Director of the Federal Garden Show, emphasized at the ceremony that Dominic Spinelli's name will now also live on as a rose.