Examples from throughout this site
Berlin
The
Nazi eagle on the 1936 Olympic bell then and now. From its original position in the Bell tower at the
western end of the Reichs Sportfield planted amid the tiers of the
Maifeld stands could be observed the whole city of Berlin. During the
games, it was used as observation post by administrators and police
officials, doctors and the media was the Olympic Bell. On its surface
were the Olympic Rings with an eagle, the year 1936, the Brandenburg
Gate, the date 1.-16. August and a motto between two swastikas: "I call
the youth of the world" and "11. Olympic Games Berlin" - even though
the Games constituted the 10th (Summer) Olympics, but the Games of the
XI Olympiad. Bells had a
special significance at the time, often placed on war memorials to
commemorate dead soldiers or between 1934 and 1936 found a place on the
bell towers of the three NS Ordensburgen - training centres for future
Nazi Party leadership personnel. In the year of the Olympic Games in
Berlin, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, the Reich Sports Leader and
Commissioner and Chairman of the German Reich Association for Physical
Exercise (DRL) and National Socialist Reich Association for Physical
Exercise (NSRL) since 1933, the Olympic bell served as an "eternal
reminder of the sacrificial death of our heroes" and as an "obligation"
for the living. 
The
Bell Tower was the only part of the Reichssportfeld that was destroyed
in the war. The Third Reich used the tower's structure to store
archives such as films. Soviet troops set its contents on fire, turning
the tower into a makeshift chimney. The structure emerged from the
fire severely damaged and weakened. In 1947 British engineers demolished the tower,
however eventually reconstructed it faithfully in 1962. The Olympic
Bell (which had survived the fire and remained in its place in the
tower) fell 77 metres and cracked and has been unable to sound since
then. In 1956 the bell was rescued, only in order to be used as a
practice target for shooting with anti-tank ammunition. The old bell
survives to this day and serves now as a memorial, featuring an
half-heartedly de-nazified swastika still...
The
Nazi eagle on the 1936 Olympic bell then and now. From its original position in the Bell tower at the
western end of the Reichs Sportfield planted amid the tiers of the
Maifeld stands could be observed the whole city of Berlin. During the
games, it was used as observation post by administrators and police
officials, doctors and the media was the Olympic Bell. On its surface
were the Olympic Rings with an eagle, the year 1936, the Brandenburg
Gate, the date 1.-16. August and a motto between two swastikas: "I call
the youth of the world" and "11. Olympic Games Berlin" - even though
the Games constituted the 10th (Summer) Olympics, but the Games of the
XI Olympiad. Bells had a
special significance at the time, often placed on war memorials to
commemorate dead soldiers or between 1934 and 1936 found a place on the
bell towers of the three NS Ordensburgen - training centres for future
Nazi Party leadership personnel. In the year of the Olympic Games in
Berlin, Hans von Tschammer und Osten, the Reich Sports Leader and
Commissioner and Chairman of the German Reich Association for Physical
Exercise (DRL) and National Socialist Reich Association for Physical
Exercise (NSRL) since 1933, the Olympic bell served as an "eternal
reminder of the sacrificial death of our heroes" and as an "obligation"
for the living. 
The
Bell Tower was the only part of the Reichssportfeld that was destroyed
in the war. The Third Reich used the tower's structure to store
archives such as films. Soviet troops set its contents on fire, turning
the tower into a makeshift chimney. The structure emerged from the
fire severely damaged and weakened. In 1947 British engineers demolished the tower,
however eventually reconstructed it faithfully in 1962. The Olympic
Bell (which had survived the fire and remained in its place in the
tower) fell 77 metres and cracked and has been unable to sound since
then. In 1956 the bell was rescued, only in order to be used as a
practice target for shooting with anti-tank ammunition. The old bell
survives to this day and serves now as a memorial, featuring an
half-heartedly de-nazified swastika still...
The Adler Apotheke on Berliner Str. 91 in the 1920s and with the Nazi-era eagle today
Me standing
outside another chemist's in Zehlendorf in 2020 with a Nazi-era eagle
on the facade. Established 125 years ago on hauptstrasse, today the
street is called Teltower Damm; the roof of the pharmacy building was
damaged in an air raid in 1943.
Through Gleichschaltung,
the Nazis placed the rail network under direct government control on
10 February 1937, adding swastikas to the Hoheitsadler on the railcars.
Here, at the back of the central office of the Deutsche Reichsbahn, is
the stone emblem- a winged wheel- although the swastika relief at the
base has been removed.
The Regionaldirektion Berlin-Brandenburg der Bundesagentur für Arbeit
as it appeared when it served as the administration building for Fritz
Todt's Armaments Ministry and today, where it serves as the state labour
department. The eagle remains unmolested, overlooking the capital
still.
Post office on Knesebeckstraße 95, showing Reichsadler above door
Joseph Wackerle's reichsadler dating 1935 at the Siemens Ehrenmal
The encircled swastikas on the top left panel and the right surmounted by the Nazi eagle have been erased on the door to the Martin Luther Memorial Church
The Reichsadler remains on the front façade of the Amtsgericht in the Berlin suburb of Wedding.
Reichsadler dating from 1935 by Max Esser at Lüdenscheider Weg 2-4 near Haselhorster dam within a children's playground.
The Nazi eagle, shorn of its swastika, still remains at the former Tempelhof aeroport. Amongst the first projects the Nazis undertook
with the
reconstruction of Berlin was the planned renovation of Berlin's Tempelhof International Airport, which
began in 1934. Tempelhof was dramatically redesigned as the gateway to
Europe, and became the forerunner of today's modern airports. Indeed,
the airport halls and the neighbouring buildings are still known as the
largest built entities worldwide, and Tempelhof has been described by
British architect Sir Norman Foster as "the mother of all airports". The
building complex was designed to resemble an eagle in flight with
semicircular hangars forming the bird's spread wings. A mile long hangar
roof was to have been laid in tiers to form a stadium for spectators at
air and ground demonstrations. However, although under construction for
more than ten years, it was never finished because of the war. Tempelhof
was one of Europe's three iconic pre-war airports, the others being
London's now defunct Croydon Airport and the old Paris–Le Bourget
Airport. It acquired a further iconic status as the centre of the Berlin
Airlift of 1948–49.
The Nazi eagle remaining at Fort Hahneberg. After
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, four forts were planned to
protect the Spandau Armaments Center as part of the citadel at Spandau.
In the end only one of them was built, as the development of artillery,
especially the introduction of explosive grenades, made such types of
fortification useless. Fort
Hahneberg was thus completed in 1886 and put to use two years later
serving, among other things, as a barracks and central archive for
military medicine until 1945. In 1903 it served as a training center
for the infantry. During the so-called Buchrucker putsch on
October 1, 1923 when an attempt by the Black Reichswehr to overthrow
the German government after it had ended passive resistance to the
occupation of the Ruhr on September 26, 1923 occurred, the fort and the
Spandau Citadel were briefly occupied by putschists who had to surrender
to regular Reich defence units. From 1924 to 1934 the Flugtechnische Verein Spandau used some structures of the fort in order to build gliders there. 
With
the establishment of the Wehrmacht in 1935, the fort became a training
location again and was expanded. After the war parts of the brick walls
and structures were broken up to make the fort unusable as a military
installation by blowing up the moat defences. The rubble was transported away as building material for the reconstruction of Berlin as residents
were given permission to demolish the Escarpemauer and other components
for material extraction for the repair of destroyed buildings or for the
construction of new houses. Before
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the fort was located at the border
crossing point on Heerstraße and was only been accessible to the public
again since 1990. The Nazi eagle above the entrance has been allowed to remain.
With
the establishment of the Wehrmacht in 1935, the fort became a training
location again and was expanded. After the war parts of the brick walls
and structures were broken up to make the fort unusable as a military
installation by blowing up the moat defences. The rubble was transported away as building material for the reconstruction of Berlin as residents
were given permission to demolish the Escarpemauer and other components
for material extraction for the repair of destroyed buildings or for the
construction of new houses. Before
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the fort was located at the border
crossing point on Heerstraße and was only been accessible to the public
again since 1990. The Nazi eagle above the entrance has been allowed to remain.
BAVARIA
Nuremberg
Located behind the Grandstand on Regensburger Straße,
the station was built in 1936 by Albert Speer for the power supply to
the Party Rally Grounds. It supplied the power for the Party Rally
Grounds and the so-called 'Cathedral of Light.' The energy demands of
lighting and the general running of the grounds was extremely high. The
transformer station could handle the power supply for a major city.You
can still see the faint outline of the Reich eagle which apparently does
not cause concern to Burger King.
Arabella Sheraton Hotel (Fränkischer Hof)
Reichsbahndirektion
The Nazi eagle still adorns the main administrative building for the railway.
Munich
Luftgaukommando, Prinzregentenstraße
(VII Regional HQ of the Luftwaffe)
(VII Regional HQ of the Luftwaffe)
Inside a Nazi eagle still greets visitors, albeit sans swastika.
Outside the door is flanked by two eagles. From
1940, the entire building served as the command post of the Air
District Headquarters, which was engaged in the comprehensive
development of air defence and the live experiments on concentration
camp prisoners.
Here, not only were the air armament and the air war planned and the
air defences coordinated, but later the defusing of unexploded ordnance
was organised. In addition, to improve its defences against the Allies, in the first quarter of 1944 the Luftgau Command
VII planned the construction of two taxiways and alternative roads,
shatterproof aircraft boxes and small hangars. This expansion work was
carried out by various companies under the construction management of
the Organization Todt (OT) which again involved prisoners of war and
forced labourers as workers. Many of these 350 forced labourers had been
deported from Athens followed by six hundred Jewish concentration camp
prisoners from September to November 1944. Another camp surrounded by
barbed wire was probably set up in 1942 for around an hundred Soviet
prisoners of war. This would be swelled further by French prisoners of
war, Belgian civilian workers, Italian Wehrmacht volunteers, a group of
Hungarian soldiers and, from January 1945, around 300 members of the
British army from India who had been captured in North Africa. Today
the former dining area serves as a library. The historic rooms have
been left largely in its original state. Today it houses the Bavarian
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology.
Built between 1935-1936
by the architect German Bestelmayer, this building still displays the
steel helmets, eagles, and, incredibly (and illegally) swastika window
grills today:
Bavarian State Tax Office (Oberfinanzpräsdium)
This building at Sophienstr. 6 was constructed between 1938 to 1942. During
the Nazi era this building administered the expropriation of assets of
political opponents and racial undesirables through public auctions of
furnishings. Regarding the “Arisierung” of Jewish property, the fiscal
authority located here played a key role. After 1945 it was found that
1,589 Munich properties had been confiscated by this office.
Victims of Hitlerism still have to endure this symbol when entering a government building. That this building served a key role in the unrestrained plundering of the Jews during the Nazi period, its continued existence is all the more striking.
This less-offensive Eagle in the courtyard represents the Bavarian Free State.
After the war this building served the American Military Authorities
before hosting the America Haus (until it moved to the former Führerbau in 1948). This is also where the Bavarian State Parliament met from May 1947 until January 1949.
Nazi Party offices Schellingstraße 50
With Schellingsalon and the former Nazi Party Headquarters behind me.
Schellingstraße
50 in 1937 flying the Nazi flag and today where the offices of the Nazi
Party were housed between 1925 and 1931. The Reichsadler
is still above the door.This is where Hitler met Eva Braun for the first time as she worked in Heinrich Hoffmann's studio. They
first met in 1929, when he was 40 and she was 17. According to Hoffmann's daughter, Hitler's opening line was: "May I
invite you to the opera with me, Fräulein Eva? You see, I'm surrounded
by men and I know what a pleasure it is to enjoy female company."
Funk-KaserneEva was the middle of the three daughters of Fritz Braun, a master craftsman from Simbach on the Inn. She was a pretty, empty-headed blonde, with a round face and blue eyes, who worked as a shop girl in Hoffmann's photographer's shop. Hitler met her there, paid her a few casual compliments, gave her flowers, and occasionally invited her to be one of his party on an outing. The initiative was all on Eva's side: she told her friends that Hitler was in love with her and that she would make him marry her.Bullock (394)
Dating from 1936, now used by the police.
Just outside the reichsadler remains, shorn of its swastika (although traces are left).
93 Winzererstr.
Another
surviving building from the Nazi era with its iconography intact (with
the colour still maintained) complete with reichsadler dating from 1936
found by odeon at Axis History Forum.
The Nazi-era eagle and arms of Munich remain on the façade below the astronomical clock of the Deutsches Museum. In
the post-war period, these conflicts were stylised into a confrontation
with National Socialism in general. Those areas in which the Deutsches
Museum had sought to work with the regime were forgotten and repressed.
Following the war the museum had to be closed for repairs and temporary
tenants, such as the College of Technology and the Post Office used
museum space as their own buildings were being reconstructed. The Museum
was also home to the Central Committee of the Liberated Jews,
representing Jewish displaced persons in the American Zone of Germany
after the war.
Of the museum itself, Hitler had remarked June 13, 1943 that
The
eagles that are allowed to continue to adorn the building were
designed by Munich artist Kurt Schmid Ehmen (1901-1968) who had
specialised in reichsadlers and swastikas (such as those found at the
"Ehrenmal" der Feldherrnhalle and Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg
and the Reich Chancellery in Berlin).
Of the museum itself, Hitler had remarked June 13, 1943 that
One of the great attractions of the Deutsches Museum in Munich is the presence of a large number of perfectly constructed working models, which visitors can manipulate themselves. It is not just by chance that so many of the young people of the inland town of Munich have answered the call of the sea.(318) Hitler's Table Talk
Deutsches Museum Kongreßsaal
Cologne
Reichsadler found on the Autobahnbrücke Rodenkirchen
Reichsadler found on the Autobahnbrücke Rodenkirchen
Rodenkirchen is a southern borough of Cologne.
Dortmund
The nazi eagle remains above the entrance to the
former Gestapo headquarters (and way station for those being sent to
concentration camps) which today serves as the site for the exhibition Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Steinwache.
Another reichsadler, this one of the luftwaffe, remains in situ on the façade of the police academy
NS Ordensburg Vogelsang
Eagle on a wall above the Assembly Square
An Höhenmarke at a church in the Weserbergland.
Munster
Nazi eagle actually commandeered to decorate a Munster shopping centre.
At the top of the city's Hauptklinik at 56-58 Esmarchstrasse is a Nazi eagle with the caduceus replacing the swastika.The
relief itself dates from 1937-8 and the warriors on the Tympanonrelief
created by Hermann Kissenkötter are now lacking their weapons.
Düsseldorf (Westphalia)
Polizeipräsidium
The Nazi eagle over the entrance of police headquarters at Jürgensplatz remains, but is covered by a plaque reading "All are equal before the law." Built from 1929 to 1932, this served as headquarters for representatives of the ϟϟ Upper Section West, the 20th SS regiment, the 6th ϟϟ Rider standard and the 4th ϟϟ Lieutenant Colonel.
In June 1933, the ϟϟ-group leader Fritz Weitzel was appointed to President-Polizeiprä. Weitzel was had joined the ϟϟ at the age of 22, and was only 29 years old when he was police chief although he was considered in Nazi circles as incompetent.
From 30 January 1933 to 8th May 1945, 7101 men and 851 women imprisoned as opponents of the Nazis. Many prisoners were handed over to the Gestapo for interrogation.
In June 1933, the ϟϟ-group leader Fritz Weitzel was appointed to President-Polizeiprä. Weitzel was had joined the ϟϟ at the age of 22, and was only 29 years old when he was police chief although he was considered in Nazi circles as incompetent.
From 30 January 1933 to 8th May 1945, 7101 men and 851 women imprisoned as opponents of the Nazis. Many prisoners were handed over to the Gestapo for interrogation.
Schweigen-Rechtenbach (Rhineland-Palatinate)
From a 1940 postcard
The Weintor, built in the autumn of 1936, marks the start of the Weinstrasse
in the south of the Palatinate, less than a mile from the French
border. The swastika in the eagle's talons has been defaced but can
still be made out.
Alzey
Bochum
The
nazi eagle over the entrance to the former air raid shelter at
Boltestraße 38, dated 1941-1942, remains, denuded of its swastika.
Berchtesgaden
The reichsadler still looks over the town. On the right is a tour of Berchtesgaden showing all the main sites described below.
Berchtesgaden is a town in southern Bavaria on the border with Austria.
Although Berchtesgaden itself is nestled in a deep valley, it lent its
name to Adolf Hitler’s retreat, officially known as the Berghof, on the
Obersalzberg, 1,640 feet above the town. Also perched on the
Obersalzberg were chalets occupied by Hermann Göring and Martin Bormann,
among other top-ranking Nazis. To all appearances a large holiday
retreat, the Berghof was often used by Hitler for important conferences,
including that with Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg in
February 1938, compelling him to accept Anschluss, and the meeting with
Britain’s prime minister Neville Chamberlain in September 1938, in which
Hitler presented his demands with regard to Czechoslovakia. A network
of bunkers and air raid shelters existed under the Berghof, and a
private elevator, its shaft cut through solid rock, connected it with
Hitler’s sanctum sanctorum, “Eagle’s Nest,” at the very top of the
mountain. The Berghof proper was destroyed in an Allied air raid in
April 1945, and the building’s ruins were razed in 1952. A stand of
trees was planted on the site. Eagle’s Nest survived the bombing and is
now a teahouse, which may be visited by tourists.
Reichskanzlei Berchtesgaden
Reichsadler still present after 70 years....
Bremen
Nazi eagle remaining on the façade of Allianz-Haus at Sögestraße 59.
Pelzerhaken (Schleswig-Holstein)
This
lighthouse on the Baltic was built in 1843 and stands at 19 metres,
although the eagle itself has remained since its establishment in 1936
Kiel
Kiel
At the east shore of Kiel Bay is the U-boat Memorial at Möltenort to the memory of submariners who lost their lives. The reichsadler is by Fritz Schmoll, responsible for others seen on this site. The photo on the left shows its inauguration in 1938.
Erlangen
This town of 100,000 is located just over ten miles north of Nuremberg. There are two notable examples of reichsadlers still existing:
The Amtsgericht
The Amtsgericht
The reichsadler of the doorway of the Amtsgericht on Sieboltstraße 2
Friedrich-Rückert-Schule
The
entrance to Friedrich-Rückert-Schule at the Ohmplatz with a detail of
the shield (dated 1936) and one of the carvings adorning the side of the
door.
Bergen-Hohne
Hoppenstedter Strasse with reichsadler above the door, still overlooking the entrance
Established
by the Wehrmacht in 1935, at the end of war it was taken over by
British occupation forces and some of its facilities used as a
liberation camp for survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp,
which was located a few miles away.
Hanover (lower Saxony)
On
top of the 18-metre column erected in 1936 by the Hannover town counci
is a 4.5-metre statue of the torchbearer by Hermann Scheuernstuhl for
the official inauguration of the Nordufer des Maschsee, a man-made lake
in the town. Poised on a sphere, the nude figure actually maintains
his Hitler salute whilst holding the Olympic flame carried to the Games
from Olympia for the first time in 1936. The "Victory Column"
glorified the Nazi state on its plinth inscription, from which the
swastika was struck off in 1945.
Marburg
The Eagle remains sans swastika at the Hessian State Archives, but the ceiling maintains them.
Above the door the small bust replaces the one of Hitler's during the Third Reich whilst outside one can find another eagle defaced on the Hausecke der ehemaligen Jägerkaserne in Marburg
Darmstadt
Eagle
above the rear main entry to the Robert-Piloty building, department of
Computer Science, Technical University of Darmstadt.
On the night of September 11 September 12, 1944 eighty per cent of the
city, including many of the university's buildings were destroyed
during a bomb attack. So far to date Darmstadt is the only German city that has given a synagogue to its Jewish community as a gesture of reconciliation.
A reichsadler also remains on the façade of the Psychologiegebäude, here shown then and now
Offenbach am Main
Ulm
A reichsadler still remains above the doorway of an office building, its removed swastika inviting graffiti.
Villingen-Schwenningen
The Friedensschule at Mozartstraße 12 dates from the 1930s and still sports the nazi eagle
The
Burenhaus then and today. After taking power in 1933, the Nazis used
the building as their party headquarters. Given its location at the centre
of the marktplatz, it was ideally suited for parades and national
celebrations and party events. In common parlance, the building soon
became known as the 'Brown House'. Its fuhrer balcony was created and
remains today, the nazi eagle still present in the grill.
Augsburg
Just from the train station down Prinzregentstr. is the Landratsamt (District administration office) with the reichsadler still above the door and state-protected by a mesh screen.
The
left shows a relief on a building at Am Haus Theodor Wiedemann Strasse 35 representing a link between the Roman Empire and
the Third Reich whilst the right shows under the claws of an eagle a
tank and the navy, with above it the air force bombing and the army. The
tank and lightnings are toward the east aligned. If one puts the realm
eagle on a map, heading direction the north, the view is against
France. The line of sight of the NSDAP Reichsadlers was modified to the
right (the east).
Herrsching am Ammersee
Herrsching
am Ammersee on the east shore of the Ammersee southwest of Munich is
usually the starting point of trips to Andechs Abbey. This, one of the
most impressive Nazi eagles remaining in Germany, is found on the façade
of the former Reichsfinanzschule.
Schwäbisch Hall
Rohrbühl Münchberg
This was built in the mid 1930s to honour the war dead of the Great War. The reichsadler has long since been removed.
Straubing
Overlooking the Danube and towards the bridge is this reichsadler, created by Munich sculptor Fritz Schmoll.
Going....
Going.....
Gone!
Although
not in Germany and thus outside the stated scope of this site, it's
nearby in Hagenau, Bergheim bei Salzburg in Austria. The eagle had been
on the footings of the Autobahn bridge next to the bike path and has
now been recently obliterated after 71 years.
