On July 10, 1968, at 9:17 pm Pforzheim, a tornado with hurricane blasts of more than 300 kilometers per hour was unloaded. He had the strength F4 on the Fujita scale. The tornado had its origins the previous evening in Lorraine. It was about 130 kilometers from the Lorraine Saartal to the Enzkreis of Baden-Württemberg. He traveled in France a 60 kilometer long and in Germany a 35 kilometer long line of devastation.
In Germany, a total of 3328 buildings were damaged in the Baden region, and 1007 buildings in Wurttemberg. The tornado caused serious damage in Neubärental, where 70 of 115 buildings suffered serious damage.
Pforzheim was the largest city on the way of the tornadoes, so that there came to most building damages. In the night at 01:50 the then Lord Mayor triggered disaster alarm, which was valid for more than two weeks.
The tornado destroyed sections of the Pforzheimer Kleinbahn from Pforzheim to Ittersbach as well as the overhead line of the trolley between Kupferhammer and Dillenstein. The total damage to buildings and vehicles in Pforzheim was estimated to be more than 100 million marks. More than 2,400 buildings were damaged. He demanded two dead in Ottenhausen and in the urban area more than 200 people were injured in part. There was considerable damage within a 500 meter wide track - extending from the Upper Enz Valley - especially in the districts of Buildings and vehicles. In the weeks after this, another 130 died during the clearing work, a roofer died.
The following day, the Pforzheim newspaper reported: "Many of the old trees in the Pforzheim town garden had been overthrown - a picture of the horror which was further underscored by the devastation of the Reuchlinhaus, where most of the large glass walls were smashed. The city library was thrown over by the hurricane and severely damaged. [...] Dozens of cars were strewn over each other in the front porches, were shattered by overturned trees or pushed together at the roadside. The overhead of the O buses hung above the ground, roofs were completely covered. Only a few apartments have window frames, balcony or blinds. [...] The forest settlement on the Buckenberg is largely robbed of its ornament. The fir trees were partly bent like matches and rushed with thunderous crashes and between the Settlement houses."
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Hardy Eberle, was then 8 years old and can still remember the Tornadonacht. He lived in the Badenwerk at that time, his father Peter was there as an electrician and had to move out to eliminate the damage with.