Schleswig-Holstein
Friedrichsruh
Bismark's mausoleum at Friedrichsruh castle May 1, 1924 and today. When the property was transferred to Otto von Bismarck after the victory over France and the founding of the German empire in 1871, he had the new building rebuilt into a castle inhabited by the Bismarck family, using the existing buildings. The property was destroyed on April 29, 1945, at the end of the war by the Royal Air Force due to ultimately false claims that Heinrich Himmler was staying there, although the house was clearly marked with a red cross sign on the roof; by 945 the camp of the Swedish rescue operation White Buses , which was headed by the Vice President of the Swedish Red Cross Folke Bernadotte and both before and after the war brought Danish and Norwegian prisoners of war over Sweden home, was located in Friedrichsruh. Not far from the mausoleum, a memorial was erected for the fallen marines of the battleship Bismarck sunk by the Royal Navy on May 27, 1941. The 2.40 metre-high boulder carries an iron cross, provided with the oak-wreathed family crest of the house of Bismarck, which was also the ship's crest. On the anchor in front of it is on a plate the text "2371 men remained with her ship at sea".
Hitler
visiting the site below. On February 13 1939 Hitler left Berlin for
Friedrichsruh where he placed a wreath at Bismarck’s grave. This
deferential act evidently was to prepare him spiritually for the
festivities at that day's launching in Hamburg of The Bismarck. The following communiqué was released regarding Hitler’s visit:
While journeying to Hamburg, the Führer stopped on Monday at Friedrichsruh, where he placed a laurel wreath at the tomb of Prince Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of the Old Reich. Thereafter, the Führer was the guest of Prince von Bismarck and his wife,202 at the Friedrichsruh Castle. On both arrival and departure, the population of Friedrichsruh and the surrounding countryside enthusiastically acclaimed the Führer, whom they had observed in deeply moved silence in the solemn act of placing the wreath at the grave.
How revealing is Baron von Weizsäcker’s private note on the Führer’s fireside remarks after an intimate meal at the Bismarck shrine at Friedrichsruh on that day, February 13: For those of us who know that the rest of Czecho-Slovakia will be dealt its death blow in approximately four weeks’ time, it was interesting to hear the Führer declare that he himself used to prefer surprise tactics but has now gone off them as he has exhausted their possibilities. The Führer sketched out the September crisis of last year thus: ‘I owe my triumph to my unflinching stand, which left the other side with a whiff of war if I felt it necessary.’
Irving (156) Hitler's War
Kiel (Schleswig) Kiel was the site of the sailors' mutiny which sparked the German Revolution in late 1918. Just before the end of World War I, the German fleet stationed at Kiel was ordered to be sent out on a last great battle with the Royal Navy. The sailors, who thought of this as a suicide mission which would have no effect on the outcome of the war, decided they had nothing to lose and refused to leave the safety of the port. The sailors' actions and the lack of response of the government to them, fuelled by an increasingly critical view of the Kaiser, sparked a revolution which caused the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the Weimar Republic.
The town hall and theatre on Adolf-Hitler-Platz and today, rathausplatz.
In Kiel (as in the rest of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein), anti-Republican forces were growing up towards the end of the Weimar Republic and above all the National Socialists. Kiel was the main town of the NS-Gaus Schleswig-Holstein. Especially after the Machtergreifung on January 30, 1933, the Nazis began their persecution of perceived enemies with vigour. The most affected were Jewish citizens as well as Communist and Social Democratic workers' leaders and people who had publicly supported the existence of the Weimar Republic were persecuted. After the town hall was illegally occupied by national socialists on March 11 1933, the well-known republican lawyer Wilhelm Spiegel was murdered in his house by several national socialists (men in SA and ϟϟ uniforms). The subsequent investigations served as a pretext to quickly destroy the mighty SPD SPD and to bring many Social Democrats and Communists into the concentration camp. In the boycott of Jewish affairs on April 1, the lawyer Friedrich Schumm was murdered on April 1, 1933 in a cell of the police prison in Gartenstraße by a pack of SA and ϟϟ men. Schumm had been beaten in the morning of the day around 11.00 during the Nazi boycott against Jews' business in the furniture shop of his father Georg Schumm in the Kehdenstraße by several ϟϟ and SA men standing there, who wanted to prevent him from doing the business of his
Father.
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| Horst-Wessel-Park is now called Werftpark |
The war memorial, dating 1879
The Laboe Naval Memorial is a 236 foot tower topped by an observation deck standing a total of 279 feet above sea level. A hall of remembrance and World War II-era German submarine U-995, the world's only remaining Type VII U-boat and which houses a technical museum, both sit near the foot of the monument. The tower was designed by architect Gustav August Munzer, who stated that the form was not meant to represent anything specific but was to inspire positive feelings in those who look at it although it has been described as either representing the stem of a Viking ship or the conning tower of a submarine.
It was completed by the Nazis in 1936 after Hitler had observed the naval manoeuvres in Kiel and watched a parade from the light battleship Grille before inspecting the German shipyards. At a ceremony commemorating the dead of the Great War on the twentieth anniversary of the Battle of Skagerrak (May 31, 1916), Hitler attended the dedication of the memorial and laid a wreath honouring the navy’s dead. In fact, Hitler did not like the U-boat monument in Laboe at all; in one conversation he called it “an unrivalled essay in kitsch and bad taste, as it stands there with its inverted bow.”
Doramus (1310) The Complete Hitler
In 1954 it was rededicated as a memorial for the sailors of all nationalities who were lost at sea and at the same time a memorial for peaceful sailing in open seas.
Located on the east shore of Kiel Bay, the U-boat Memorial at Möltenort is to the memory of submariners who lost their lives. The reichsadler is by Fritz Schmoll, responsible for others seen on this site. The swastika can be seen to have been replaced by a nondescript device. After suffering structural damage, it was rebuilt in 1938. It consists of a 15.3-metre-high pillar, at the top of which sits a 4.8-metre-high eagle (designed by Fritz Schmoll). Extensive rust penetration was discovered in the internal steel supporting structure of the eagle in 2000, rendering renovation work necessary. Since 12 July 2001, the original eagle with its galvanised, copper-coated iron skin has been replaced by a recast bronze version similar to it (designed by the firm Noack from Berlin). The eagle was removed again in March 2012 for necessary reinforcement work after the detection of signs of fatigue in the supporting structure. The planned date of its return – initially scheduled to be six weeks later – was subjected to repeated delays thereafter; eventually, on April 25, 2013, the eagle was able to reassume its position.The U-Boot war badge is affixed to the pillar; until 1945 its position had been occupied by a swastika. This was made unrecognizable by the filling-in of the spaces between its arms – even today, however, it can still be made out behind the badge. In an arched gallery area, the names of fallen German U-Boat men of the German Imperial Navy and the Kriegsmarine, along with those of soldiers who died serving in the German Navy, are displayed on 115 bronze plaques.
Adolf-Hitler-Schanze with the memorial U-Boots Ehrenmal during its inauguration in 1938.
Located on the east shore of Kiel Bay, the U-boat Memorial at Möltenort is to the memory of submariners who lost their lives. The reichsadler is by Fritz Schmoll, responsible for others seen on this site. The swastika can be seen to have been replaced by a nondescript device. After suffering structural damage, it was rebuilt in 1938. It consists of a 15.3-metre-high pillar, at the top of which sits a 4.8-metre-high eagle (designed by Fritz Schmoll). Extensive rust penetration was discovered in the internal steel supporting structure of the eagle in 2000, rendering renovation work necessary. Since 12 July 2001, the original eagle with its galvanised, copper-coated iron skin has been replaced by a recast bronze version similar to it (designed by the firm Noack from Berlin). The eagle was removed again in March 2012 for necessary reinforcement work after the detection of signs of fatigue in the supporting structure. The planned date of its return – initially scheduled to be six weeks later – was subjected to repeated delays thereafter; eventually, on April 25, 2013, the eagle was able to reassume its position.The U-Boot war badge is affixed to the pillar; until 1945 its position had been occupied by a swastika. This was made unrecognizable by the filling-in of the spaces between its arms – even today, however, it can still be made out behind the badge. In an arched gallery area, the names of fallen German U-Boat men of the German Imperial Navy and the Kriegsmarine, along with those of soldiers who died serving in the German Navy, are displayed on 115 bronze plaques.
When
Kiel became the venue for the Olympic sailing contests in 1936, the
authorities and the Nazi regime tried to keep their anti-Semitic
measures as well as in the rest of the Reich in secret in order not to
undermine the world's publicity against Germany. Then the anti-Jewish
measures continued. Jewish entrepreneurs were robbed of their business
in a variety of ways, a process called the Nazis' Aryanisation.
Jews were disadvantaged in every way in public life. During the
Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938 Nazi units of SA and ϟϟ destroyed
the large Kiel synagogue at the Schrevenpark. Later, Jewish private
property was robbed. The persecution of the Jews finally culminated in
their assassination. Many of the more than 600 Jewish citizens in Kiel
in 1933 were victims of the deportation of Jews from Germany and later
in the extermination camps. Only a few managed to escape to exile, after
being robbed by the German authorities that they were destitute of
exile.
During
the war Kiel remained one of the major naval bases and shipbuilding
centres of the German Reich. There was also a slave labour camp for the
local industry when in
June 1944 the workplace of Nordmark was established mainly for the
purpose of accommodating Soviet and Polish forced labourers. In 1945,
more than 600 people were killed.
The ruins of the Nikolaikirche and today
The Flandernbunker in 1944 and today
The Dietrichsdorfer fire station also in 1944 and its present incarnation
During the war, Kiel remained one of the major naval bases and
shipbuilding centres of the German Reich. There was also a slave labour
camp for the local industry. Because of its status as a naval port and
as production site for submarines, Kiel was heavily bombed by the Allies
during World War II. The bombing destroyed more than 80% of the
remaining old town, 72% of the central residential areas, and 83% of the
industrial areas. During the RAF bombing of 23/24 July 1944, Luftwaffe
fighters tried to intercept the spoof (i.e. decoy) force instead of the
main force attacking Kiel, and there was no water for three days; trains
and buses did not run for eight days and there was no gas available for
cooking for three weeks. There were several bombing raids of the port
area during the period 20 February – 20 April 1945 which successfully
eliminated many U-Boats, and the few large warships (cruisers Hipper,
Scheer, and Koln) still afloat at that time. Although the town was
beyond the stop-line set for the western Allies in the German surrender
at Lüneburg Heath, it and its port, its scientists, and the canal were
seized by a British T-Force led by Major Tony Hibbert on May 5, 1945.
This forestalled capture of the town by the Soviets, whom the Allies
expected to advance from Germany to Denmark in violation of the Yalta
agreement. Just like other heavily bombed German cities, the city was
rebuilt after the war only to now arrive at the stage where a fascist mob of 30 migrants chased three teenage girls, aged 15, 16 and 17,
through the Sophienhof mall in Kiel, using their smartphones to film
them. They later confronted police officers who they 'insulted' and
'threatened' before being released "due to lack of grounds for detention."
The Scharnhorst passing under the Rendsburger Hochbrücke bridge which crosses the Kiel Canal at Rendsburg. The bridge was opened on October 1, 1913. In order to defend the high bridge from possible hostile attacks during the Second World War, the Wehrmacht occupied it with soldiers and installed anti-aircraft guns on the southern pylon and an anti-aircraft headlamp on the northern pylon. The Scharnhorst herself was Germany's lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, the Gneisenau. Completed at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine eleven inch C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six fifteen inch SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out. During her first operation in November 1939, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement. During operations off Norway in April–June 1940, the two ships engaged HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent through which Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history. Eventually during the Battle of the North Cape on December 26, 1943, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Of a crew of 1,968, only 36 were rescued.
Kellenhusen
Quickborn (Schleswig-Holstein)
Hitler Youth marching through the town
Plön
Schloss Plön when it served as a Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt and today. Schloss Plön, one of the largest castles in Schleswig-Holstein and the only one preserved in the region. The former residence of the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Plön it was built in the 17th century during the Thirty Years War and experienced a variable history, in which the castle also served as a cadet school and boarding school. After the First World War military schools were forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles, and from 1920 the castle served as a state educational institution (Stabila). From 1933, Plön Castle and the area around it were used as National Educational Institutions (NPEA), like the former cadet establishments in Potsdam and Köslin, for an "elitschule" for the Nazi elite. The Napola in Plön was the first of its kind with its opening on May 1, 1933 and was named after the SA leader Ernst Röhm. After his assassination in 1934, it was renamed NPEA Plön. The school was headed by the former police officer Hermann Brunk, who then held the rank of SA leader. On April 23, 1945, the British took it. In 1945, Karl Doenitz stayed for a few days in Plön, where he held a brief command post here. Before the flight to Flensburg the castle was on May 2, 1945 for one day administrative seat for parts of the government Donitz. The castle survived both world wars without war-induced destruction. After that, British occupying forces in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, together with the VIII British Armed Forces under General Evelyn Barker, made their headquarters in the castle.
Ahlefeld Bistensee
Flensburg (Schleswig)
The Naval Academy Mürwik (Marineschule Mürwik) in 1941 and today- the main training establishment for all German Navy officers which
replaced the German Imperial Naval Academy in Kiel. It is located at
Mürwik which is a part of Germany's most northern city, Flensburg. Built
on a small hill directly by the coast, it overlooks the Flensburg
Fjord. The main building of the academy is known for its beautiful
architecture and location, and is often named the "Red Castle". It had been
established at this site by the order of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910. Its
unique gothic architecture with the dominating red bricks was meant to
imitate the castle Ordensburg Marienburg, founded in 1274. In 1920
Sherwood Foresters were in Flensburg-Mürwik at the Naval Academy Mürwik
to supervise the elections to the Schleswig plebiscites. In the final
days of War 1945, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz assumed the office of
President (Reichspräsident) of Germany. Adolf Hitler himself had named
him his successor before committing suicide at Berlin. Dönitz moved to
the Naval Academy at Mürwik established in the
sportschool the Flensburg government. Soon after the final surrender to
the Allies, they were unseated and arrested by the victorious British
troops. This made Flensburg capital of Germany for nearly twenty days.
The portal of the school during the Nazi era and today, unchanged apart from the flags; even the Nazi eagle is allowed to remain over the entrance
The Kanzlergebäude and church adorned with swastikas and today. The two banners behind the swastika appear to be the wolfsangel with a crown-topped sword replacing the cross-bar, the same logo used by the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist organisation founded in 1974 by Richard Girnt Butler whose 'shield' is shown top-right.
In
Lübeck, the abandoned Salzspeicher here served as Nosferatu's new
Wisborg house, shown in both the opening and, here, in the closing shot.
Under the Nazis, one of these buildings was used as a Hitler Youth
center. Nowadays, the structures are used by clothing shops, and it
seems like they have been there since the Second World War.Elsewhere,
the one of the churchyard of the Aegidienkirche served as Hutter's, and
down the Depenau a procession of coffin bearers bore coffins of supposed
plague victims. Many scenes of Lübeck appear in the hunt for Knock, who
ordered Hutter in the Yard of Füchting to meet Count Orlok. Further
exterior shots followed in Lauenburg, Rostock and on Sylt.
During the war, Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force bombing including the attack of March 28, 1942 which created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre. This raid destroyed three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor.
The rathaus and marktplatz during the Third Reich and today
Leck
Kellenhusen
The Vier Linden sporting the Nazi flag and today
Quickborn (Schleswig-Holstein)
The Red Front marching down Kieler Straße...
... by 1933 the swastika will be flying beside Schmidts Gasthoffurther down the road. The Nazis on march on the right.
The Nazis grew rapidly in Quickborn after 1928 against the background of dramatic unemployment. It particularly won over artisans, farmers and local dignitaries so that in the Reichstag election, the Nazis reached five percent in Quickborn in May 1928 and already 62 percent in July 1932.
The Nazis grew rapidly in Quickborn after 1928 against the background of dramatic unemployment. It particularly won over artisans, farmers and local dignitaries so that in the Reichstag election, the Nazis reached five percent in Quickborn in May 1928 and already 62 percent in July 1932.
Adolf-Hitler-Straße then and now
The Nationalsozialistischen Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK)
The Thingplatz then and now, which was a kind of multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Germany during the 1930s. A Thingplatz or Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor amphitheatre built for such performances. About 400 were planned, but only about 40 were built between 1933 and 1939.
Plön
Ahlefeld Bistensee
The Gasthaus Baumgarten flying the Nazi flag and today
Flensburg (Schleswig)
Three battalions of British troops commanded by Brigadier Churcher surrounded the government’s HQ in the Mürwik Barracks and finally stormed it brandishing sten guns and grenades. The leading minister’s cabinet meeting had just begun. ‘Hände hoch! Ausziehen!’ (Hands up! Strip!) The participants and their secretaries were put against a wall and strip- searched: Dönitz, Jodl and the rest. Schwerin von Krosigk allegedly found a Tommy tugging at his trousers saying, ‘Bitte – please?’, although it is hard to believe that they had any problem communicating with the former Rhodes Scholar.
MacDonogh (71) After the Reich
Bad Arnis (Schleswig-Holstein)
The Schifferhaus then and now. At a population of roughly three hundred and a total area of 0.45 km2, Arnis is the smallest town in Germany both by population and by area.Directly at the end of the Second World War, the city absorbed a large number of refugees mainly from East Prussia, especially from Samland. In the years up to the end of the 1940s almost every room in the small houses was inhabited by a complete family. Among the refugees were several fisherman families, some of whom stayed in Arnis.
Bad Segeberg (Schleswig-Holstein)
The
Kalkberg Stadium (German: Kalkbergstadion) is an open-air theatre built
in a former quarry on the Segeberger Kalkberg, a rocky outcropping in
the centre of Bad Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It was built as
a Thingplatz under the Third Reich and since 1952 has been the site of
the annual Bad Segeberg Karl May Festival. After the Nazis came to
power, the quarry here was converted into an amphitheatre to be used for
mass meetings and multimedia theatrical performances as part of the
Thingspiel movement. The theatre was designed by Fritz Schaller of
Berlin, and was constructed mostly by the Reich Labour Service beginning
on 29 May 1934. The work entailed sealing salt-mining shafts and
cavities and bringing in 1,200 tonnes of granite from Silesia as
building material, since the anhydrite core of the hill itself is
water-soluble. The theatre was dedicated on 10 October 1937 by Joseph
Goebbels as the Feierstätte der Nordmark or Nordmark-Feierstätte
(Northern March Ceremonial Site); in his speech he expressed the wish it
would be a "political church of National Socialism". A performance of
Henrik Herse's Die Schlacht der weißen Schiffe took place there, probably in 1938, but after that there were no further performances until the end of the war.
Lübeck (Schleswig Holstein)
The Kanzlergebäude and church adorned with swastikas and today. The two banners behind the swastika appear to be the wolfsangel with a crown-topped sword replacing the cross-bar, the same logo used by the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist organisation founded in 1974 by Richard Girnt Butler whose 'shield' is shown top-right.
Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force bombing during the war. The attack of March 28, 1942 created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre, destroying three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor.
Germany operated a prisoner-of-war camp for officers, Oflag X-C, near
the city from 1940 until April 1945. The British Second Army entered
Lübeck on May 2, 1945 and occupied it without resistance. On May 3,
1945, one of the biggest disasters in naval history occurred in the Bay
of Lübeck when RAF bombers sank three ships: the SS Cap Arcona, the SS
Deutschland, and the SS Thielbek – which, unknown to them, were packed
with concentration-camp inmates. About 7,000 people died.
During the war, Lübeck became the first German city to suffer substantial Royal Air Force bombing including the attack of March 28, 1942 which created a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre. This raid destroyed three of the main churches and large parts of the built-up area; the bells of St Marienkircke plunged to the stone floor.
The rathaus and marktplatz during the Third Reich and today
Leck
The Nordmarkschule in Nordfriesland, now called the Nordsee Akademie
Neustadt in Holstein
The marktplatz with the Hotel Deutsches Haus bedecked in swastikas and today. During the Second World War a subcamp, Number 1049 Neustadt in
Holstein/Schleswig-Holstein, of the Neuengamme concentration camp was
located in the town. In front of Neustadt on May 3, 1945 the former passenger ship Cap Arcona and the smaller Thielbek were sunk with Allied aircraft concentration camp prisoners, one of the three most serious catastrophes of seafaring in history. The inhabitants of the city played an inglorious role in this context: prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk, which had been transported by the ϟϟ with cargo trucks across the Baltic Sea, were originally also to be shipped to Cap Arcona, but were refused because of the overfilling of the ship. In view of the military situation and the inexorable advance of the victorious British, the ϟϟ guards left the trucks. The ships drifted to the shore, where the prisoners made a search for food in the Neustadt area on the morning of the 3rd of May. In the so-called "collective action", the Neustadt citizens, members of the Kriegsmarine as well as a unit of resistance and the Volkssturm drove the prisoners together and shot almost 300 of them, including women and children. The rest were taken to the ship of Athens, which lay at the marina, where some of them fell victim to air raids. The British commander of the city, after noticing the massacre of Neustadt, gave free rein to the plundering of the captains of Cap Arcona, Athens and other ships.
Heide (Schleswig)
Heide (Schleswig)
The water tower sporting a swastika and today. Heide was an early supporter of the Nazis. At the Reichstag election in 1928, the NSDAP in Heide reached 12.6 percent- nationwide it had only been 2.6%. According to the so-called "Blood Night of Woehrden" by the Nazis, the Heider Ortsgruppe of the NSDAP registered a strong membership growth. In the municipal elections in 1929, the NSDAP came to 14.0 per cent. In the Reichstag election in 1930, 33.3 percent of the voters in Heide voted for the Nazis, and the Reichstag election in July 1932 50.8 percent. Despite the absolute majority for the NSDAP in the municipal elections in 1933 with 57.7 per cent, the German-National Mayor Hermann Hadenfeldt remained in office for the time being. In 1937, however, Hadenfeldt gave up his office prematurely and Karl Herwig was appointed mayor. After the war the British appointed August Vehr as mayor. During the operation of Gomorrah, on the afternoon of July 25, 1943, the US bombers of the 381st bomb group threw off their bombs during their return to the North Sea via Heide.
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
Neumünster
Scholtz-Kaserne
Grömitz (Schleswig)
The Kurpalast Strandhalle flying the swastika and today
Kappeln/Schlei (Schleswig-Holstein)
Kellenhusen an der Ostsee (Schleswig)
Adolf Hitler Koog
On the beach during the Third Reich and today
Horst
The swastika-adorned Sparkasse in 1934 and today
Adolf Hitler Koog
In 1935, the Nazis reclaimed land from the North Sea to obtain Lebensraum
for Aryan families. The centerpiece of this new community on Adolf
Hitler Koog, now Dieksanderkoog located 62 miles from Hamburg, was a grand hall. Here
the concept of Volksgemeinshaft that lived up to Nazi ideals of racial
purity and loyal to NSDAP ideology was to be realised. Settlers had to
produce documentary evidence that proved their Aryan ancestry dating
back to 1800 before being personally examined and hand-picked by senior
local officials. Hitler himself was present when the project was
completed.
Official
groundbreaking to Neulandhalle on the “Adolf Hitler Koog” on 29 August
1935. Hitler, The Gauleiter Hinrich Lohse and other NS-Hoheitsträger lay
the foundation-stone during the official inauguration.
The
outside of the building sported two monumental figures, one armed with a
rifle and the other holding a shovel, staring into the distance. The
originals were removed after the war, but replicas will be put back in
their original place when the new museum scheduled to take over the site
opens.
The frescoes by Otto Thämer remain intact
Mecklenburg
Rostock
The
hauptbahnhof during the Third Reich and today. The station was first
opened in 1886 by the Deutsch-Nordischer Lloyd, operating a combined
railway/ferry line to Nykøbing Falster in Denmark. In 1894, the station
was renamed to Central-Bahnhof and finally to Rostock Hauptbahnhof at
the turn of the 20th century. The station saw further expansion in 1913
and 1922, but was heavily damaged in the war.
Wismar
Count Orlok from the classic film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens carting his coffin through Wismar's Wassertor and how it appears today. Wismar (renamed "Wisborg") was the setting of the 1922 silent film. This German Expressionist horror film, directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok, was partly shot in Wismar. Filming began in July 1921, with exterior shots in Wismar. A take from the Marienkirche's tower over Wismar marketplace with the Wasserkunst Wismar served as the establishing shot for the Wisborg scene. Other locations were the southside of Nikolaikirche, Heiligen-Geist-Kirche Yard and the harbour. Wismar was also the setting of Werner Herzog's 1979 remake Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht and Shadow of the Vampire, which depicts the filming of the 1922 silent film. During the war Wismar was heavily damaged by Allied air raids. At the end of the war in Europe, as the line of contact between Soviet and other Allied armies formed, Wismar was captured by the British 6th Airborne Division's 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion on May 2, 1945 which prevented further Soviet advance into north Germany and Denmark. On May 7, 1945 Field Marshal Montgomery and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky met in Wismar. On July 1, 1945, due to the occupation zone agreements of the Yalta Conference making Wismar a part of the Soviet Zone of Germany, the British troops departed and Soviet troops took over. The town's St. George's Church managed to escape major damage during most of the war, but was heavily damaged by "Blockbuster bombs" dropped by the Royal Air Force on April 14, 1945, three weeks before the end of the war. After German reunification, reconstruction costing some 40 million euros was completed in 2010. Meanwhile the eighty metre high tower church of the Marienkirche is the only remainder of the original Brick Gothic edifice, built in the first half of the 13th century but which suffered heavy damage during the war, and was partially razed in 1960 by the East German government.
Neustrelit
The Steintor on Adolf Hitler Platz. Anklam was practically destroyed by several bombing raids
of the U.S. Air Force in 1943 and 1944 and in the last days of the Second World War, when the advancing Soviets burned and levelled most of the town and raping its women.
After Prussia and its Pomeranian province were dissolved and most of
Pomerania was allocated to Poland under the terms of the Potsdam
Conference, Anklam became part of the East German state of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Rostock
Wismar
Count Orlok from the classic film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens carting his coffin through Wismar's Wassertor and how it appears today. Wismar (renamed "Wisborg") was the setting of the 1922 silent film. This German Expressionist horror film, directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok, was partly shot in Wismar. Filming began in July 1921, with exterior shots in Wismar. A take from the Marienkirche's tower over Wismar marketplace with the Wasserkunst Wismar served as the establishing shot for the Wisborg scene. Other locations were the southside of Nikolaikirche, Heiligen-Geist-Kirche Yard and the harbour. Wismar was also the setting of Werner Herzog's 1979 remake Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht and Shadow of the Vampire, which depicts the filming of the 1922 silent film. During the war Wismar was heavily damaged by Allied air raids. At the end of the war in Europe, as the line of contact between Soviet and other Allied armies formed, Wismar was captured by the British 6th Airborne Division's 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion on May 2, 1945 which prevented further Soviet advance into north Germany and Denmark. On May 7, 1945 Field Marshal Montgomery and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky met in Wismar. On July 1, 1945, due to the occupation zone agreements of the Yalta Conference making Wismar a part of the Soviet Zone of Germany, the British troops departed and Soviet troops took over. The town's St. George's Church managed to escape major damage during most of the war, but was heavily damaged by "Blockbuster bombs" dropped by the Royal Air Force on April 14, 1945, three weeks before the end of the war. After German reunification, reconstruction costing some 40 million euros was completed in 2010. Meanwhile the eighty metre high tower church of the Marienkirche is the only remainder of the original Brick Gothic edifice, built in the first half of the 13th century but which suffered heavy damage during the war, and was partially razed in 1960 by the East German government.
Horst Wessel Platz (now marktplatz) from Nazi-era postcards and today with the church unchanged
Zingst
The Ferienerholungsheim Zingsthof in 1939 and today. Two years earlier Zingst became a Wehrmacht location and KdF bath. In the same year drove seven special trains 3,538 KdF vacationers to Zingst. The Second World War however brought the bathing business completely to a standstill. During the war a prisoner of war camp,whose inmates had to do forced labour for the Ernst Heinkel Aircraft Works of Barth.
Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
The
eleven stolperstein in town were apparently targeted by neo-Nazis who
removed them on the 74th anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9 2012.
As of today a makeshift sign marks where they were taken.
SA Platz, now renamed Platz der Freiheit
The
marketplace then and now. The city survived World War II without much
destruction, even though it housed a large army garrison. During the war
it was a site of camp for prisoners of Nazi Germany called Stalag II-C.
In April 1945, Oberst Rudolf Petershagen surrendered the city to the
Red Army without a fight.
The church and town hall
Anklam
Rügen
The island of Rügen is much mythologised in the German national
imagination. Frequented in the late 19th and early 20th century by the
country’s good and great, including Bismarck, Thomas Mann and Einstein,
its chalk coastline was also immortalised by Romantic artist Caspar
David Friedrich in 1818. It was here that the sea resort of Prora was created, designed to house 20,000 holidaymakers.
Designed by Clemens Klotz, the buildings complex extend
over a length of 4.5 km and are roughly 150 m from the long flat sandy
beach. All rooms were planned to overlook the sea. Each room of 5 by
2.5 metres (16'5" x 8'3") was to have two beds, an armoire
(wardrobe) and a sink. There were communal toilets and showers.
Hitler's plans for Prora were much more ambitious as seen in this model. He wanted a
gigantic sea resort, the "most mighty and large one to ever have
existed". At the same time, Hitler wanted it to be convertible
into a military hospital in case of war. During the few years that
Prora was under construction, all major construction companies of the
Reich and nearly 9,000 workers were involved in this project. With the
onset of World War II in 1939 construction on Prora stopped, and the
construction workers transferred to the V-Weapons plant at Peenemünde.
The eight housing blocks, the theatre and cinema stayed as empty
shells, and the swimming pools and festival hall never materialised.
The Nazis' touristic policy,
which prioritized unknown and less busy destinations, was primarily motivated by a desire to keep KdF participants away from places frequented by wealthier private tourists. Even the massive KdF resort complex, Prora, on the island of Rügen, represented another way to steer KdF tourism away from the top German resorts.63 Thus, rather than force upper-class tourists and exclusive resorts to adhere to the oft-proclaimed principles of Nazi egalitarian- ism, the Nazi regime did all it could to avoid damage to the commercial tourism industry and minimize the potential problems that arose when the two groups of tourists came into contact. In sum, then, bourgeois touristic consumption was to continue ‘as normal’, with as few intrusions as possible.Semmens (112) Seeing Hitler’s Germany
During the Allied bombing campaign, many people from Hamburg took
refuge in one of the housing blocks, and later refugees from the east
of Germany were housed there. By the end of the war, these buildings
served to house female auxiliary personnel for the Luftwaffe.
In 1945 the Soviet Army took control of the region, and established a base at Prora. After the formation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) part of it was used as an army holiday centre. The sturdy but derelict shell of the complex remains as a tourist curiosity. After German reunification, the National People's Army of GDR left the region, and it stood uninhabited until new plans were put in place. The buildings suffered heavy vandalism during this period.
Nowadays, it is still a question what to do with the huge buildings complex, partly hosting some interesting museums. There are plans to turn it into a modern tourist resort but also some skepticism from the locals, who feel that there are already too many tourists in the region, and voices who say that the town's past made it an inappropriate location for tourists.
In 1945 the Soviet Army took control of the region, and established a base at Prora. After the formation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) part of it was used as an army holiday centre. The sturdy but derelict shell of the complex remains as a tourist curiosity. After German reunification, the National People's Army of GDR left the region, and it stood uninhabited until new plans were put in place. The buildings suffered heavy vandalism during this period.
Nowadays, it is still a question what to do with the huge buildings complex, partly hosting some interesting museums. There are plans to turn it into a modern tourist resort but also some skepticism from the locals, who feel that there are already too many tourists in the region, and voices who say that the town's past made it an inappropriate location for tourists.
Konzert Platz at Rügen's Ostseebad Binz then and now.
The Königsstuhl then and now
The Königsstuhl then and now
Schwerin
Adolf
Hitler Kaserne and today. On May 2, 1945, Schwerin was taken by American
troops. It was handed over to the British on June 1 1945, and one month
later was in turn handed over to the Soviet forces, as the British and
American forces pulled back from the line of contact to the
predesignated occupation zones. A retrospective on Arno Breker opened in Schwerin on July 22, 2006 which courted controversy because of claims of it being an attempt to rehabilitate the artist described as Hitler's favourite sculptor.
The schloß. After the war it was used by the East German regime as a college for kindergarten teachers from 1952 to 1981. Hitler spoke in Schwerin at the funeral of Wilhelm Gustloff on February 12, 1936. Gustloff had been the founder of the Swiss NSDAP/AO (the Nazi Party organisation for German citizens abroad) at Davos. He remained its leader from 1932 until he was assassinated in 1936 by David Frankfurter, a Croatian Jewish student incensed by Gustloff's antisemitic activism. Gustloff's state funeral in his birthplace of Schwerin was attended by Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann and Joachim von Ribbentrop as thousands of Hitler Youth members lined the route. His coffin, transported on a special train from Davos to Schwerin, made stops in Stuttgart, Würzburg, Erfurt, Halle, Magdeburg and Wittenberg. Gustloff's widow, mother and brother attended the funeral and received personal condolences from Hitler. Ernst Wilhelm Bohle was the first at Gustloff's  |
The Aussichtsturm Kaninchenwerder flying swastika and now |
funeral to recite a few lines in his honour. Gustloff was proclaimed a Blutzeuge of the Nazi cause and his murder became part of the propaganda that served as pretext for the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. His wife Hedwig, who had been Hitler's secretary, received from Hitler personally a monthly "honourary pay" of four hundred Reichsmarks, the equivalent of some $13,000 today. Unlike the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan in Paris in 1938, Gustloff's death was not immediately politicized to incite Kristallnacht. Hitler did not want to risk any domestic bouts of anti-Semitism to cause Germany to lose the recently awarded right to host the 1936 Summer Olympics, since his anti-Semitic policies had already led to calls to relocate the games.
As an aside, the German cruise ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff was named for Gustloff by the Nazi regime. The ship was sunk by a Soviet submarine in January 1945 in the Baltic Sea while carrying mostly civilian refugees from the advancing Red Army. More than 9,000 lives were lost, the greatest death toll from the sinking of a single vessel in human history. The disaster remains relatively unknown.
Kellinghusen
The Luisenberger Turm flying the Nazi flag and today. On the right the SA marching down Lindenstrasse
Haffkrug
The beach with the swastika overlooking the strand and today
Güstrow
Adolf-Hitler-Strasse, now Eisenbahnstraße. Hitler spoke in the town June 2, 1932 during his presidential campaign.
The Reichsbahnamt
Hitler on the pier, and as it appears today
The Hotel Stadt Hamburg with swasika flag behind in a 1940s postcard and today, unchanged
 | |
| The main square hasn't changed much |
By
April 1938 the Jewish community numbered 44 members; on
Reichskristallnacht of November 1938 fourteen Jews were arrested; on
July 10, 1942 more were arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Elderly
Jewish women were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp were
they died. Only a few Jews from Güstrow managed to emigrate to
Shanghai, Australia, the USA, Chile and British Palestine. The Jewish
cemetery was set afire and destroyed in 1938. Fifty years later a
wrought-iron fence and memorial stone were set up in remembrance. A sign
in the pavement of the sidewalk in front of the former synagogue
commemorates the November pogroms of 1938:
"28.09.1829 Güstrow synagogue inaugurated 11/09/1938 Destruction"
During
the war several hundred men and women from the countries occupied
by Germany were forced into labour for the armament factories of the
city and housed, among other places, here in Güstrower Castle shown then
and today. During the
Soviet occupation the secret police (NKVD) kept a prison here on the
Schlossberg where several Güstrower citizens were interrogated and
probably executed.
In May 1946, several members of the volunteer fire department from the
ages of 15 to 23 were
arrested, years after the claim of belonging to the supposed
"werewolf" resistance movement. They were later taken to the Soviet
Special Camp No.. 7
in Sachsenhausen, where several of them died.
Heiligendamm
The
‘white town on the sea’ is Germany’s oldest seaside resort, founded in
1793 by Mecklenburg duke Friedrich Franz I and fashionable throughout
the 19th century as the playground of nobility. Since 2003 it was reborn
with the opening of the exclusive Kempinski Grand Hotel Heiligendamm
which accommodated American President George W Bush on a state visit and
hosted a G8 summit in 2007 having hosted Hitler a few
decades earlier.
In Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm there was no large arms industry, but there is evidence that the Müller-Werke and the Streusloff company employed slave labour between Rostock and Wismar. It can be assumed that the chemical works at Walkmüller also produced wood for the war economy and it is certain that metal processing was produced for the war.
Hitler on the pier, and as it appears today
In
Irving describes a number of occasions where Hitler and Goebbels
vacationed here, once with Leni Riefenstahl to whom the latter's wife
told her privately that she had only married Dr Goebbels so as to be near to Hitler. What of Leni’s politics? ‘She is the only one of all the stars,’ wrote Goebbels that summer, ‘who understands us.’Her name often cropped up in the diary, and in mid August she spent the night at Heiligendamm with the Goebbels’ again. (313)
Hitler and Goebbels with the latter's children in 1935. Another instance Irving relates is when
Goebbels and Hitler drove up to Heiligendamm. ‘Putzi’ Hanfstaengl, who had just returned from America, found them there. ‘Hitler,’ he wrote years afterwards, ‘had a flushed, evil look, as though gorged on the blood of his victims.’ It was not a pleasant vacation. The crowds gawped and cheered them wherever they went, and they had to break off their stay. (349)
Sylt
The Hotel Stadt Hamburg with swasika flag behind in a 1940s postcard and today, unchanged
Demmin (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
 |
| The Luisentor on Adolf Hitler Straße and today |
During
the Weimar Republic Demmin was a stronghold of the nationalistic
organisations DNVP and the Stahlhelm. Even before 1933 there were
boycotts of Jewish businesses, which drove away most of the Jews and the
synagogue was sold in June 1938 at a furniture company, which is why it
survived as a building today. On 11 November 1938 thousands gathered in
the square in anti-Semitic demonstration after the Reichskristallnacht
pogrom had already taken place. In the last free national elections to
the Reichstag on 5 March 1933 the Nazis won 53.7 percent of votes in
Demmin, well above the national average. During the war, Poles,
Russians, as well as POWs from France and Belgium were used as forced
labour in the town. German troops destroyed the bridges over the Peene
while retreating from Demmin during World War II. This way, the advance
of the Soviet Red Army was slowed down when they arrived in Demmin on 30
April 1945. During that night and the following morning, Demmin was
handed over to the Red Army largely without fighting, similar to other
cities like Greifswald. Rapes, pillage and executions committed by Red
Army soldiers triggered a mass suicide of hundreds of people and nearly
all of the Old Town was burned down.
On
May 1, 1945, hundreds of people committed mass suicide during a mass
panic that was provoked by atrocities committed by soldiers of the
Soviet Red Army, who had sacked the town the day before. Although death
toll estimates vary, it is acknowledged to be the largest mass suicide
ever recorded in Germany. The suicide was part of a mass suicide wave
amongst the population of Nazi Germany. Nazi officials, the police, the
Wehrmacht and a number of citizens had left the town before the arrival
of the Red Army, whilst thousands of refugees from the East had also
taken refuge in Demmin. Three Soviet negotiators were shot prior to the
Soviet advance into Demmin and Hitler Youth, amongst others, fired on
Soviet soldiers once inside the town. The retreating Wehrmacht had blown
up the bridges over the Peene and Tollense rivers, which enclosed the
town to the north, west and south, thus blocking the Red Army's advance
and trapping the remaining civilians. The Soviet units looted and burned
down the town, and committed rapes and executions. Numerous
inhabitants and refugees then committed suicide, with many families
committing suicide together. Methods of suicides included drowning in
the rivers, hanging, wrist-cutting, and use of firearms. Most bodies
were buried in mass graves, and after the war, discussion of the mass
suicide was tabooed by the East German Communist government.
Neustrelitz (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
The town church on Horst Wessel Platz then and now. Here Neustrelitz was one of the cities in today's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern witnessed the 1933 book burnings which took place. On January 1 1934 Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin were combined to a single Mecklenburg state, resulting in Neustrelitz losing function of the state capital. The tasks of former state authorities were relocated to Schwerin and the main archive of the former state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was converted to Schwerin. From 1935 Neustrelitz was the garrison town for the former infantry regiment Döberitz (later Infantry Regiment 48). New barracks were built at the end of the road and coupled with a new Penzliner Offizierskasino on the grounds of the castle. The Domjüch Medicinal and nursing home was involved in the T4 action which saw the murder of "useless eaters." For the victims, there is still no sign of remembrance, nor for any of the forced labourers and prisoners of war based here during the war. In Fürstensee (now a district of Neustrelitz) there was an air ammunition factory which employed both domestic workers and prisoners of the concentration camp Ravensbrück.
There is this memorial stone commemorating the former Altstrelitzer synagogue. From the start of the Third Reich there were about 50 Jewish citizens. Soon several shops sported signs declaring "Jews are not permitted" or "Germans- do not buy from Jews". On the weekends marching columns of the SA would shout in chorus "Germany awake, Jews out." In the early hours of November 10, 1938 - during Reichskristallnacht- the Altstrelitzer synagogue was set on fire. According to witness and local historian Klaus Giese, the truth leaked out about the arson. Three youthful Nazi fanatics had admitted their involvement with support from the SA to create the impression of popular indignation'. In the morning the next day the Gestapo were arrested eleven Jewish women and eight men, taken to the Altstrelitzer prison and put into "protective custody." By November 12, 1942 the last two dozen Jewish residents - including urban refugees -. were collected and taken via rail transport to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. After further deportation 85.85% died (36,848 deaths). The ruins of Altstrelitzer synagogue were finally demolished with only the Jewish cemetery remaining. The writer Helmut Sakowski described how "[t]hroughout Mecklenburg little more than five Jews survived the Holocaust. They are unable to maintain all the cemeteries."
Neustrelitz (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
The town church on Horst Wessel Platz then and now. Here Neustrelitz was one of the cities in today's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern witnessed the 1933 book burnings which took place. On January 1 1934 Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin were combined to a single Mecklenburg state, resulting in Neustrelitz losing function of the state capital. The tasks of former state authorities were relocated to Schwerin and the main archive of the former state of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was converted to Schwerin. From 1935 Neustrelitz was the garrison town for the former infantry regiment Döberitz (later Infantry Regiment 48). New barracks were built at the end of the road and coupled with a new Penzliner Offizierskasino on the grounds of the castle. The Domjüch Medicinal and nursing home was involved in the T4 action which saw the murder of "useless eaters." For the victims, there is still no sign of remembrance, nor for any of the forced labourers and prisoners of war based here during the war. In Fürstensee (now a district of Neustrelitz) there was an air ammunition factory which employed both domestic workers and prisoners of the concentration camp Ravensbrück.
There is this memorial stone commemorating the former Altstrelitzer synagogue. From the start of the Third Reich there were about 50 Jewish citizens. Soon several shops sported signs declaring "Jews are not permitted" or "Germans- do not buy from Jews". On the weekends marching columns of the SA would shout in chorus "Germany awake, Jews out." In the early hours of November 10, 1938 - during Reichskristallnacht- the Altstrelitzer synagogue was set on fire. According to witness and local historian Klaus Giese, the truth leaked out about the arson. Three youthful Nazi fanatics had admitted their involvement with support from the SA to create the impression of popular indignation'. In the morning the next day the Gestapo were arrested eleven Jewish women and eight men, taken to the Altstrelitzer prison and put into "protective custody." By November 12, 1942 the last two dozen Jewish residents - including urban refugees -. were collected and taken via rail transport to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. After further deportation 85.85% died (36,848 deaths). The ruins of Altstrelitzer synagogue were finally demolished with only the Jewish cemetery remaining. The writer Helmut Sakowski described how "[t]hroughout Mecklenburg little more than five Jews survived the Holocaust. They are unable to maintain all the cemeteries."
cNordseebad Dangast
At
the entrance of Dangast this anti-Semitic sign was erected, reading
„Juden sind hier nicht erwünscht“ (Jews are not wanted here) In the
background is the village inn. Today the seaside town instead boasts a large penis on the beach.
Ahlbeck Heringsdorf (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
The promenade with same clock but different set of flags
The sea bridge with kurhaus then and now
Kühlungsborn (Mecklenburg- Pomerania)
Swastikas at the ostseebad Brunshaupten, now merged with Kühlungsborn from April 1, 1938 with the merger two other municipalities of Fulgen and Arendsee. On the
town coat of arms dating from the Nazi era, three flying seagulls on a blue background
represent these former municipalities.
Schloß Ludwigslust
Originally built as an hunting lodge before being rebuilt as a luxurious retreat from the ducal capital, Schwerin, the palace became for a time the centre of government. It was the "joy" of Prince Christian Ludwig, the son of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, hence the name Ludwigslust.
Schloß Ludwigslust
Americans ran across the transit camp at Woebbelin near the grand- ducal palace of Ludwigslust. Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Russians and western Europeans had all ended up there after being moved out of their original camps. No one had fed them and there were cases of cannibalism. The soldiers can hardly have helped them much by giving them sweets, but the thought was there. The American commander pursued the usual policy of making the townsfolk responsible. All inhabitants of Ludwigslust over ten had to come and view the dead. Photographs show trenches filled with corpses stretching far and wide before the gates of the Schloss.
MacDonogh (89) After the Reich
