Landshut
Hometown of Heinrich Himmler and Gregor Strasser. The latter's role as a prominent Nazi figure profoundly shaped Landshut’s early alignment with the Nazi Party, establishing the town as a regional Nazi stronghold from 1933. Strasser, a pharmacist in Landshut, joined the Nazi Party in 1920 with membership number 9 and founded the fifth local Nazi Party branch in Bavaria in 1921 at Niedermayerstraße 1. His organisational efforts included establishing the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Landshut, with 150 members by 1922, making it a hub for Nazi recruitment in Lower Bavaria. Strasser’s pharmacy at Altstadt 79 served as a meeting point for early Nazi supporters, hosting gatherings that grew to 300 attendees by 1923. His leadership in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch led to his arrest and imprisonment in Landsberg until April 1924, when his election to the Bavarian state legislature secured his release. By 1925, Strasser had reorganised the Landshut SA, increasing its membership to 400, and coordinated propaganda through leaflets distributed at Ländtorplatz. Evans argues that Strasser’s local networks, built through his pharmacy and public speeches at Gasthaus Oberbräu, were critical to the Nazi Party’s 14.2% vote share in Landshut’s 1924 Reichstag election although Kershaw contends that Strasser’s focus on rural mobilisation limited his influence after 1930, as Hitler shifted attention to urban centres. Despite such ideological and political differences, Hitler appointed him first Reich Propaganda Leader and then Reich Organisation Leader in 1928. In this position, which corresponded to the role of a General Secretary, he achieved a position of power that was threatening to Hitler. The conflict escalated in 1932 in the so-called Strasser Crisis, in which Strasser lost the power struggle against Joseph Goebbels. Despite his voluntary withdrawal and assurances that he no longer wished to be politically active, he was murdered in 1934 in the so-called Röhm Putsch in the course of eliminating alleged or actual opponents of Hitler. Strasser’s murder on June 30, 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives occurred in Berlin but reverberated in Landshut, where his death led to a public funeral attended by 2,000 residents at St. Martin’s Church. .jpg)
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Behind me at Dreifaltigkeitsplatz 1 1/2 on the right is where Himmler lived according to Die Geschichte des Hans-Carossa-Gymnasiums in Landshut 1629-2004 by Werner Ebermeier. His mother Anna Maria’s piety ensured regular church attendance,
with the family attending St. Martin’s Church across the road every Sunday. Himmler’s
1915 diary entries express admiration for Catholic rituals, yet also
reveal an early interest in Germanic paganism, suggesting a tension
between inherited faith and emerging nationalist beliefs. Gebhard’s connections to the Wittelsbach royal family, through his
former role as tutor to Prince Heinrich, secured Himmler’s 1917 military
appointment, though his failure to see combat left him frustrated, as
expressed in a 1918 letter to his father. The family’s conservative
values aligned with Landshut’s nationalist sentiment, particularly
during the 1919 Freikorps actions, which Gebhard supported. Longerich
suggests that this environment reinforced Himmler’s anti-communist
stance, as he wrote in 1919 about the need to “save Germany” from
socialism. The household’s emphasis on German history, with Gebhard
assigning readings on Frederick the Great, deepened his sense of
national destiny. His mother’s scrapbooks, filled with clippings about
German victories, further fuelled his patriotism. 
Himmler
as a senior schoolboy at what was then Humanistisches Gymnasium at which he was generally an above-average student. Here he studied classic literature and hd a rigorous training in Latin and Greek,
which Himmler mastered with a disciplined approach, as evidenced by his
1918 exam results showing top marks in ancient languages. His father’s
role as assistant principal ensured close scrutiny, fostering a sense of
duty but also resentment, as diary entries reveal complaints about
Gebhard’s constant oversight. The Gymnasium’s emphasis on German
history, particularly the 1871 unification, reinforced Himmler’s belief
in a strong, centralised state. Breitman notes that his exposure to
nationalist teachers, many of whom glorified the Kaiserreich, deepened
his reverence for authority and hierarchy, traits later evident in his ϟϟ leadership. In religious education
and history he was always graded ‘very good’ and in languages he was
judged ‘very good’ to ‘good’; his weakest subject was physics, for which
one year he was given only ‘satisfactory’. A school report from 1913-14
reads: "An apparently very able student who by tireless hard work,
burning ambition and very lively participation achieved the best results
in the class. His conduct was exemplary." His
reading habits, including works by Houston Stewart Chamberlain,
introduced völkisch ideas about racial purity, though Longerich suggests
these were not yet central to his worldview. The Gymnasium’s library
provided access to occult texts, which fascinated him, as seen in his
1918 notes on Germanic myths. His social struggles persisted, with
classmates recalling his aloofness during group activities, such as the
1917 school hiking trip where he lagged behind.
The
apartment in Amalienstrasse on the left where Himmler lived from 1904
to 1913. The recent photos show the flat where he lived on
Seligenthaler Str. 11 on his own for two years. Using
his reluctant father's connections, Himmler left high school to begin
training as an officer candidate on January 1, 1918. On November 11
however, before Himmler's training was complete, Germany signed the
armistice ending the war. Himmler graduated from high school in Landshut
in July 1919.
Manvell and Fraenkel Heinrich Himmler- The SS, Gestapo, His Life and CareerThe main task for Himmler in the Party offices at Landshut, where a portrait of Hitler frowned down on his activities, was to increase the Party’s supporters. His initial salary was 120 marks a month, and the local ϟϟ were sent out to collect subscriptions and canvas advertisements for the Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter. In 1926 he was made Deputy Reich Propaganda Chief, and this gradual accretion of subordinate offices led to a modest increase in his salary. Yet he seems to have made little impression at this stage other than by being a willing and dutiful administrator. There are glimpses of him in Goebbels’s excited diary during the period of Party expansion before he went to Berlin – on 13 April 1926, for example, during a speaking tour, he writes: ‘with Himmler in Landshut; Himmler a good fellow and very intelligent; I like him.’
As Richard Rhodes
relates in Masters of Death (81),
Himmler found employment in Landshut as Gregor Strasser’s “half-starved shrew” in June 1924. Strasser was a Landshut pharmacist before he became a Nazi Gauleiter, and the Gau office that Himmler now organized was located above the Strasser pharmacy. From that office Himmler careened around Bavaria on his Swedish motorbike, venturing farther north as his work and political campaigning expanded; it was during one of these northern forays that Rauschning watched an intense, nervous, damp-handed Himmler inciting the farmers. In a memo from this period that summarises his political perspective, Himmler called “international Jewish capital” the farmer’s “worst enemy,” because it “set the townsman against the countryman.”
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Landshut from a 1939 postcard dated August 21 and from the same vantage point today. Below right is a town map from the same year provided by HPL2008 at warrelics.eu. At the beginning of 1933, Social Democrats and Communists were arrested in Landshut and taken into protective custody. In April 1933, the city council was re-elected in accordance with the National Council elections. The independent mayor Herterich was removed from his office and replaced by the Nazi Party member Vielweib. The SPD councillors were kicked out of the town hall in June and those of the Bavarian People's Party in August 1933 and replaced by Nazis. Organisations such as trade unions, workers' welfare and Christian associations were banned whilst other clubs were taken over and brought into line. Such rapid establishment of Nazi control in Landshut demonstrated the efficiency with which the regime dismantled democratic structures and imposed totalitarian rule. Hitler
had been the 28th person to have received honorary citizenship of
Landshut, given on May 25, 1932. It wasn't until 2003 that the city
council "not to mention" Hitler in the city's lists of honorary
citizens. Whilst officially the honorary citizenship of Landshut given
to Hitler had actually expired due to the dictator's death, other towns
had made it a point to use legislation to annul it completely. For him
to be posthumously denied the honour, the Landshut city council plenum
would have to approve a corresponding resolution and no such motion from
the city council has been made. Instead, Landshut has uploaded its own list on its website - instead of a link to Wikipedia's own list of honorary citizens- listing all those given honorary citizenship - omitting Hitler. Landshut, already a stronghold of early Nazi activity, saw the swift marginalisation of opposition groups. By March 1933, local Social Democrats and Communists faced arrests, with many detained in “protective custody” at the town’s police facilities. The city council, previously a diverse body, was restructured in April 1933 following national elections that gave the Nazis a dominant position. .gif)
The independent mayor, Herterich, was ousted and replaced by Vielweib, a loyal Nazi Party member, on April 15, 1933. By June 1933,
twelve SPD councillors were expelled from the town hall,
followed by eight Bavarian People’s Party members in August, reducing
the council to twenty Nazi appointees. The Landshuter Zeitung, under
editor Franz Klier from 1933, became a mouthpiece for Nazi propaganda,
publishing 5,000 copies daily with articles glorifying local rallies,
such as the 1933 May Day event at Seligenthaler Straße, attended by
4,500 residents. The boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Landshut
began on April 1, 1933, targeting shops in the Altstadt, with SA guards
posted at entrances. By 1935, the Jewish population in Landshut had
dropped from 120 to 70 due to emigration. Childers argues that Landshut’s rapid Nazification reflected
its conservative Catholic base, which aligned with Nazi anti-communist
rhetoric, citing 62% voter turnout for the Nazis in the 1933 local
election whilst Burleigh suggests that economic pressures- there was 15%
unemployment in Landshut in 1932- drove compliance rather than
ideological zeal. The town’s cultural institutions, such as the Heimatmuseum, were repurposed by 1934 to display Nazi-approved exhibits, with 3,000 visitors annually. The Reichskulturkammer, established locally in September 1933, controlled Landshut’s cultural output, with the Heimatmuseum at Freyung 659 forced to remove 25 “degenerate” artworks by 1935. .gif)
The
town’s public spaces, like Burg Trausnitz shown here on the left with the wife and kid, hosted ten Nazi rallies
between 1933 and 1939, each drawing over 3,000 residents. The castle is reached via a set
of stairs known as the ‘Ochsenklavier’ (oxen piano), which
veers off Alte Bergstrasse which once led to Hitlerplatz. The Kraft durch Freude programme,
launched in Landshut in November 1933, organised twelve concerts and
five hiking trips in 1934, engaging 2,800 residents. The
integration of Landshut’s youth into Nazi organisations like the Hitler
Youth, which by 1935 had enrolled over 60% of the town’s eligible
adolescents, further entrenched ideological control. The Landshut branch of the German Labour Front, set up in January 1934 at Neustadt 447, enrolled 3,200 workers by 1936, offering state-sponsored leisure to promote Volksgemeinschaft. Events included a 1934 theatre performance at Stadttheater Landshut, attended by 1,800 residents, and a 1935 Volksfest at Hofberg, drawing 5,000 attendees. Shirer notes that such programmes in towns like Landshut secured loyalty by providing economic relief, with 1,200 workers receiving holiday vouchers in 1936. Burleigh argues that participation was often coerced, as refusal risked denunciation, with 45 Landshut residents reported to the Gestapo in 1935 for non-compliance. The Jewish community faced escalating persecution, with the synagogue at Seligenthaler Straße 3 vandalised during Reichskristallnacht, where SA members destroyed Torah scrolls and furniture. By 1939, only 35 Jews remained in Landshut, with twenty deported to Dachau in 1941. Kershaw suggests that local elites, including fifteen business owners who joined the Nazi Party by 1934, supported the regime to preserve economic influence. The Landshut SA, reorganised after Strasser’s death, grew to 600 members by 1936, patrolling streets like Ländgasse during rallies. The Hitler Youth, established in Landshut in 1933 at Bischof-Sailer-Straße, had 800 members by 1937, training at the Hofberg sports field. The League of German Girls, with 400 members by 1936, held weekly meetings at Regierungsstraße 567. The Nazification of education saw eight Jewish teachers dismissed from Landshut’s Gymnasium in April 1933 under the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. The town’s schools adopted Nazi curricula, with teachers required to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League by 1934. By 1935, 90% of Landshut’s 1,200 schoolchildren were enrolled in Nazi youth organisations. The town’s economy was redirected to support the war effort, with the Bernlochner factory at Industriestraße producing 1,500 uniforms monthly for the Wehrmacht by 1940. A 1937 Gestapo report noted 25 denunciations of “anti-Nazi” behaviour in Landshut, leading to 15 arrests. The town’s compliance was evident in the 1936 referendum, where 98% of 18,000 eligible voters approved Hitler’s policies. The Landshuter Zeitung’s circulation grew to 6,000 by 1938, with editor Klier praising local SA actions.
Their faces were given to the torturers in a scene depicting the persecution of St. Castalus. His relics reside in the church after having originally stayed in Moosburg. In his 2008 book Hitler, The Germans and the Final Solution, Sir Ian Kershaw records how courageous and noteworthy were the remarks of the Catholic priest Josef Atzinger
on September 15, 1940, at St.
Jodok’s Church in which he condemned the racial legislation
of the Third Reich in a sermon attended by 200 parishioners as "godless, unjustified, and harmful," and which led to
his arrest by the Gestapo three days later and detention in Dachau until
1942. His dissent was rare, with only three
documented cases of public opposition in Landshut. Nevertheless, his sermon prompted 5 leaflet distributions, with 100 copies found at Ländtorplatz, leading to three arrests. Another dissenter, teacher Franz Huber, was arrested in 1935 for criticising Nazi policies in a classroom at Landshut’s Gymnasium, ending up being detained for six months at Flutgraben prison. By 1939, ten underground Communist leaflets were distributed at Neustadt, resulting in four arrests. Evans argues that Landshut’s resistance was minimal due to the Gestapo’s 150 annual denunciations from 1933 to 1945, with 80% from civilians. The Landshuter Zeitung reported a dozen executions in Landshut from 1933 to 1945, includingthree for “defeatist” remarks in 1944. A 1937 Gestapo report noted thirty Landshut residents detained for listening to foreign radio, with twenty fined. The Bernlochner factory’s 450 workers faced ten dismissals in 1942 for work slowdowns, deemed “sabotage.”
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The independent mayor, Herterich, was ousted and replaced by Vielweib, a loyal Nazi Party member, on April 15, 1933. By June 1933,
twelve SPD councillors were expelled from the town hall,
followed by eight Bavarian People’s Party members in August, reducing
the council to twenty Nazi appointees. The Landshuter Zeitung, under
editor Franz Klier from 1933, became a mouthpiece for Nazi propaganda,
publishing 5,000 copies daily with articles glorifying local rallies,
such as the 1933 May Day event at Seligenthaler Straße, attended by
4,500 residents. The boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Landshut
began on April 1, 1933, targeting shops in the Altstadt, with SA guards
posted at entrances. By 1935, the Jewish population in Landshut had
dropped from 120 to 70 due to emigration. Childers argues that Landshut’s rapid Nazification reflected
its conservative Catholic base, which aligned with Nazi anti-communist
rhetoric, citing 62% voter turnout for the Nazis in the 1933 local
election whilst Burleigh suggests that economic pressures- there was 15%
unemployment in Landshut in 1932- drove compliance rather than
ideological zeal. The town’s cultural institutions, such as the Heimatmuseum, were repurposed by 1934 to display Nazi-approved exhibits, with 3,000 visitors annually. The Reichskulturkammer, established locally in September 1933, controlled Landshut’s cultural output, with the Heimatmuseum at Freyung 659 forced to remove 25 “degenerate” artworks by 1935. .gif)
The
town’s public spaces, like Burg Trausnitz shown here on the left with the wife and kid, hosted ten Nazi rallies
between 1933 and 1939, each drawing over 3,000 residents. The castle is reached via a set
of stairs known as the ‘Ochsenklavier’ (oxen piano), which
veers off Alte Bergstrasse which once led to Hitlerplatz. The Kraft durch Freude programme,
launched in Landshut in November 1933, organised twelve concerts and
five hiking trips in 1934, engaging 2,800 residents. The
integration of Landshut’s youth into Nazi organisations like the Hitler
Youth, which by 1935 had enrolled over 60% of the town’s eligible
adolescents, further entrenched ideological control. The Landshut branch of the German Labour Front, set up in January 1934 at Neustadt 447, enrolled 3,200 workers by 1936, offering state-sponsored leisure to promote Volksgemeinschaft. Events included a 1934 theatre performance at Stadttheater Landshut, attended by 1,800 residents, and a 1935 Volksfest at Hofberg, drawing 5,000 attendees. Shirer notes that such programmes in towns like Landshut secured loyalty by providing economic relief, with 1,200 workers receiving holiday vouchers in 1936. Burleigh argues that participation was often coerced, as refusal risked denunciation, with 45 Landshut residents reported to the Gestapo in 1935 for non-compliance. The Jewish community faced escalating persecution, with the synagogue at Seligenthaler Straße 3 vandalised during Reichskristallnacht, where SA members destroyed Torah scrolls and furniture. By 1939, only 35 Jews remained in Landshut, with twenty deported to Dachau in 1941. Kershaw suggests that local elites, including fifteen business owners who joined the Nazi Party by 1934, supported the regime to preserve economic influence. The Landshut SA, reorganised after Strasser’s death, grew to 600 members by 1936, patrolling streets like Ländgasse during rallies. The Hitler Youth, established in Landshut in 1933 at Bischof-Sailer-Straße, had 800 members by 1937, training at the Hofberg sports field. The League of German Girls, with 400 members by 1936, held weekly meetings at Regierungsstraße 567. The Nazification of education saw eight Jewish teachers dismissed from Landshut’s Gymnasium in April 1933 under the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. The town’s schools adopted Nazi curricula, with teachers required to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League by 1934. By 1935, 90% of Landshut’s 1,200 schoolchildren were enrolled in Nazi youth organisations. The town’s economy was redirected to support the war effort, with the Bernlochner factory at Industriestraße producing 1,500 uniforms monthly for the Wehrmacht by 1940. A 1937 Gestapo report noted 25 denunciations of “anti-Nazi” behaviour in Landshut, leading to 15 arrests. The town’s compliance was evident in the 1936 referendum, where 98% of 18,000 eligible voters approved Hitler’s policies. The Landshuter Zeitung’s circulation grew to 6,000 by 1938, with editor Klier praising local SA actions.
Adolf-Hitler-Platz shown on the period postcard on the left. Behind the wife and kid is St. Martin's church considered to be the tallest brick building in the world, surpassing the Church of Our Lady in Bruges by 8.6 metres. Its organ was badly damaged by an American tank shell in April 1945, but was rebuilt with a slightly different disposition. It has
a stained-glass window featuring Hitler, Goering and Goebbels created
after the war by the artist Max Lacher to replace the original window
destroyed late in the war:
Landshuter Neustadt before the war with the remarkable war memorial at the intersection of Steckengasse in the direction of the old town and the Barfüßergasse in the direction of the district Freyung. Since the 18th century until the 1990s, the garrison town of Landshut has housed units of the Duke or Electorate, later the Kingdom of Bavaria, the German Empire, the Reichswehr, the Wehrmacht, and most recently the Bundeswehr. Accordingly, in 1914 Landshut attracted almost 2,800 soldiers into the First World War. Childers highlights that Landshut’s military tradition made it a natural centre for Nazi militarism, with 1,500 Wehrmacht recruits by 1940. The war memorial was dedicated to all 2,091 soldiers who came from Landshut or who had been stationed there before and during the First World War. The Landshuter Zeitung at the time praised the sculptor Wilhelm Lechner's design as "one of the greatest sculptural works of the post-war period" and "a creation of such boldness that it may claim general interest." As early as the beginning of the 1920s Lechner had been a
member of the Federal Oberland, later a Nazi party member and served
from 1933 in the town council of Oberammergau. Because of his political
activity, he was interned by the Allies after 1945.
The monument was
inaugurated on June 24, 1928, with the town's notables and the troops of
the Reichswehr stationed in Landshut. It represents a maimed German oak tree hurt by nicks and notches, but already showing young shoots- a symbol for the German Reich, which was mutilated by the Treaty of Versailles. Three figures are shown- at the top, bounded and pierced with arrows, is Sebastian , the patron of the dying and soldiers. The figure rising from the trunk below shows a young man holding a shield with the coat of arms of Landshut with a serious and sad look who addresses the young generation. The female figure, with a mournful expression, holds an urn in her left hand whilst her right is raised in a blessing gesture. Thus a latent dissatisfaction with the political situation as well as a clear demand for the future, in particular a renunciation of the terms of the Versailles settlement, is made monumental and composed in the middle of the old Residenzstadt to be visible to all citizens. The
memorial was repurposed for Nazi ceremonies, hosting a 1936 ϟϟ rally with 600 attendees. After the war the central commemoration ceremonies of the city took place elsewhere on the Day of the Memorial. Recently, discussions about the relocation of the large sculpture have flared up, but after the commemorations held for the first time at the monument in November 2015, these have for the most part ended.
Located at number 6 on the map, this had been the Städtisches Krankenhaus (Municipal
Hospital) where ϟϟ physician Dr. Karl Gebhardt had worked for a
while from the autumn of 1922 onwards. He had known Heinrich Himmler
from school and stated at the Nuremberg doctors’ trial that "Himmler
came from Landshut, the same town as myself... If my parents’ house was
an extraordinarily liberal, free, quiet one, then the Himmler house
was that of a strong orthodox Catholic schoolmaster whose son was
brought up very strictly and kept very short of money."
Looking the other direction towards Trausnitz castle directly across the former hospital was the local Deutsches Arbeit Front headquarters, no.3.
The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were particularly active in Landshut, utilising the local schools and public spaces like the Wittstraße sports field for their activities. These organisations were not merely extracurricular but were instrumental in disseminating Nazi ideology. Kershaw notes that the Hitler Youth was particularly effective in instilling a sense of duty and nationalism among the young, a point exemplified by the high enrolment numbers in Landshut.
On
the left is the former local Nazi headquarters at number 2 on the map.
It was here on December 8, 1935 that Hitler addressed the Ortsgruppe
of the NSDAP at the celebration of its fifteenth anniversary, declaring
that “He who has the courage to conquer the state with seven men also has the courage and the power and the confidence to maintain that state.” According
to the ϟϟ 1937 address list, the site shown on the right was the
headquarters of the 31st ϟϟ-Standarte at Nahensteig 182. HPL2008 points
out that, according to Landshut's local address book, in mediaeval
times this street was located in the Jewish quarter of town, which is
why its name is name is actually derived from the Hebrew word nahar (=
brook). One wonders how many Standarte members were aware of that
particular bit of trivia.
In Landshut, the impact of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 was immediate and devastating for the Jewish community. The town had a small but significant Jewish population, primarily centred around Altstadt, the old town. Following the enactment of these laws, Jewish-owned shops along Altstadt and Neustadt streets faced boycotts, often led by SA members. By 1938, during the Kristallnacht, the synagogue on Ländgasse was destroyed, marking a dark chapter in the town's history. Evans contends that the enthusiastic local implementation of anti-Semitic laws indicates a broader acceptance or at least acquiescence to Nazi racial policies.
Towards the end of the war, the Todt organisation set
up an external camp of the Dachau concentration camp at the Kleine
Exerzierplatz. Here 500 Jewish concentration camp inmates were used for
forced labor in armaments projects, of which 83 died as a result of
inhumane conditions of detention. A memorial plaque on Landshut-Achdorf
cemetery commemorates these victims of the Nazi regime, which included
74 prisoners from a death march in the Flossenbürg concentration camp.
On March 19, 1945, just over a month before the American troops entered
the city on May 1, the station area was devastated by the heaviest
bombing raid on the city. There were 300-400 victims. In memory of the
victims of National Socialism who lived in Landshut, a total of 26
stumbling blocks were moved to Landshut on October 2, 2012 in
Theaterstrasse, the "Altstadt" street, in Seligenthaler Straße and in
Gunter Demnig's Inner Münchner Strasse.
In order to slow the advance of the Allies and to leave them with no functioning infrastructure, Hitler issued the notorious Nero Order on March 19, 1945 through which all "military traffic, communications, industrial and supply systems as well as material assets within the Reich territory that the enemy can somehow make immediately or in the foreseeable future usable for the continuation of his fight" should be destroyed. In Landshut at that time only the Isar bridges were of strategic importance after the USAAF had completely destroyed the main station in an air raid on March 19, 1945. Units of the Waffen-ϟϟ and Wehrmacht therefore blew up the Luitpold Bridge, the inner and outer Isar bridge, the pedestrian bridge from Mitterwöhr to the Schochkaserne, part of the Achdorfs railway bridge and the Weißsteg on April 30th. The soldiers only removed the planks of the Maxwehr. 
By the end of April 1945 when ϟϟ units found themselves holed up in Landshut, they then destroyed the Isar bridges as they retreated. From September 1944 to the end of April 1945 there was a work camp of the Todt Organisation in Landshut for a railway construction department of around sixty men between today's Dieselstrasse and Siemensstrasse, now an industrial area. Separated from this camp was a so-called "Jewish camp" consisting of corrugated iron barracks set up on Hofmark-Aich-Strasse in December 1944, serving as an external command of the Dachau concentration camp. Here around 500 Jewish prisoners had to do forced labour under horrific living and working conditions. Immediately outside of the "Jewish camp" was a barrack for ϟϟ guards. The Jews, who were previously assigned to the external commandos near Landsberg, were deployed to the OT camp under the strictest ϟϟ guard. A rail connection to the rail network of the former Reichsbahn was created, roads were built, the area was levelled and buildings were erected. After air raids, including those on the Landsberg main station, the prisoners were used to clean up. Many of these inmates died of illness, abuse, and exhaustion. They were brought to the Achdorf cemetery early in the morning on a cart and buried there on the cemetery wall. Closed in April 1945, the prisoners who were still alive evacuated to Wasserburg. Many of the prisoners died during this so-called "death march" as well.
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The Americans marching down Adolf Hitler square May
1, 1945. At around 8.15 on April 29th,
low-flying American aircraft attacked the city, killing more than
thirty people. The day before, the 38th ϟϟ Grenadier Division
"Nibelungen" had taken up position in the city under ϟϟ Standartenführer
Martin Stange to resist the approaching units of the American 14th
Armoured Division and 99th Infantry Division. Meanhile government councilor Dr. Franz Seiff, at the
instigation of Gauleiter Ludwig Ruckdeschel was publicly
hanged without trial on the market square by Gestapo men, because he had
hoisted a white and blue flag on his house in Schweinbach near Landshut.
He was the leader of a thirty to 50 -strong resistance group, which
worked as part of the freedom action Bavaria on a peaceful transfer of
the city to the Americans. The planned actions could not be carried out
after the arrest of Seiff. At the same time occupied police officers who
had responded only to the radio call of the freedom action Bavaria, the
city hall to hand over the city peacefully to the Allied troops. This
action, however, failed. The city honoured Franz Seiff in 1946 with a
street name. The attack on Landshut
began the next day. At around 14.00 a rifle company of the 14th American
Armoured Division occupied the districts on the left of the Isar. The
unit suffered 21 losses at the end of the day. In the course of the
fighting, German soldiers blew up the Isar bridges. The First and Third American Battalions
had pulled up to the banks of the lsar River and the Third Battalion (I
and L Companies) began infiltrating troops onto an island in the
vicinity of Landshut. Enemy defences were stubborn and artillery heavy.
The First and Second Battalions began crossing the Isar South of
Landshut that night and captured the town on May 1st taking over six
hundred prisoners. The next day the Regiment sped toward the Inn river
and a
Task Force was reconnoitring routes and crossing sites when orders
were received from higher headquarters to cease further advances. 
By the night of May 1st, the town centre to the right of the Isar had been taken with American troops reaching Mühleninsel via the Ludwigswehr and a makeshift bridge and from there via the Maxwehr to the centre. Another part crossed the Isar with assault boats southwest of Landshut. By 15.15 when defeat was obvious, policeman Schmidtbauer, dentist Karl Eisenreich, churchman Engelbert Ott and a woman with the surname Amann hoisted the white flag at the Martinsturm. At 5.00 Josef Uhlmann officially handed the city over to the American Army. The
Regiment assembled South of Vilsbiburg preparing for further offensive
action but on the 5th of May the Regiment moved to Landshut to assume
responsibility for the security of surrounding territory. The hotel
Draxlmar on the main street of Landshut was the Regimental Command Post
when the official announcement of VE Day was made to the relief of the
soldiers of the 393d were stationed in and around Landshut. Photographs
of the town's destroyed train station show how lucky it was that this
bombing target was far from the city centre, otherwise the Gothic old
town would also have been reduced to rubble. By December 1944 a subcamp
of the Dachau concentration camp located near Landshut train station
employed roughly five hundred prisoners to repair the damage caused by
the first air raids. On the one air raid of March 19, 1945, besides the
destruction of the station, all adjacent buildings as well as the
destruction of the entire rail network, many other buildings, including
the Franciscan Monastery, were destroyed. In total, 30% of the original
living space had been destroyed with 573 apartments either being
destroyed outright or in need of repair apartments and severe damage to
the Loretto monastery. 200 were killed. Further damage to numerous buildings, including the Ursuline monastery, from air and low-level aircraft attacks and shelling took place on the night of April 29/30. 
In 1946 a plaque was put up at the cemetery by the Jewish DP community: "Our 200 dead, tormented in the Landshut Jewish camp, to our credit. At that time it was assumed that 211 Jewish prisoners had died, which could not be confirmed on the basis of the number of those later exhumed (the plaque and two others for perished slave labourers no longer exist). 87 dead forced labourers in June 1958 and 83 further dead Jewish prisoners, plus thirteen Russian and Polish forced labourers) in November 1961 were exhumed and buried in the Flossenbürg concentration camp cemetery.After the war a camp for Jewish "Displaced Persons" was set up in Landshut. Of landshut's Jewish population, only two ever returned. The Jewish DP community in Landshut consisted of sixty people in December 1945, 76 in May 1946, 120 in September 1946, 148 in February 1947, 130 in January 1948, and finally 55 in March 1949. The camp was closed in 1951. Besides the town's DP camp was a reception camp (tent camp) for up to 3,000 displaced people on the town's outskirts from August to October 1946 until most of them were brought to Babenhausen in Hessen in September 1946. One of the DPs was Ivan Demjanjuk, decades later being found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of at least 29,000 Jews in Sobibor.
Two girls being shamed through the main street on April 14, 1942, escorted by guarded by two members of the criminal police. Around their necks they are forced to carry a placard reading "Wir sind aus der Volksgemeinschaft ausgeschlossen - wegen Verkehr mit Kriegsgefangenen"- We have been excluded from the national community for having relations with prisoners of war." This is one of a number of photographs discovered by historian Mario Tamme; no such pictures anywhere else in Bavaria have been located. One of the girls has been identified- Anna Scharf. She and her friend are said to have intervened with French prisoners of war. They walked the gauntlet of shame from the town square to Landshut Prison, both ending up in custody. Anna Scharf was sentenced to two years in prison for forbidden treatment of prisoners of war. In her cell she wrote on the wall: "I'm dying for France, I'm going to Jacques's death." For these doodles, she was then once again charged with the Special Court in Munich and got another two months in prison. She was recently found living in Strasbourg and interviewed. Only now was her judgement lifted although she never received compensation. When she had applied in 1956 her application was refused because she was ruled as not having been detained for political reasons. Now she has a German lawyer, Marc-Yaron Popper, who argues that his client was illegally imprisoned for two years and is entitled to compensation.
The first Landshuter Hochzeit 1475 pageant conducted after the war, one of the largest historical pageants in Europe. More than 2,000 participants in medieval costumes recreate the wedding between Hedwig, the Polish King's daughter, and George, the son of the Duke of Bavaria at Landshut. The first Landshut Wedding recreation took place in 1903 and took the form of a public play performed by 145 citizens each taking on a role. It was subsequently presented annually from 1903 to 1914 (paused during the Great War) and 1922 to 1938 (paused during the war). During this time the number of actors involved increased to 2000 and became a triennial event from 1950 to 1968 and from 1975 to 1981. Since 1985 the Landshut Wedding has taken place every four years, consisting of mediæval jousting, pageantry, feasting and wedding processions in July. 
Hitler delivered a speech in Landshut on June 17, 1927 in which he declared that export-oriented industry could produce only disaster for a nation. Only a healthy peasantry could keep a nation alive. The life of a healthy people (Volk), in Hitler's opinion, was based on Grund und Boden. By Grund und Boden Hitler always meant additional space for Germany. In Hitler's view, the farmer would enable Germany to obtain economic autarchy by providing a secure source of food. Secondly, the rural population would guarantee a constant supply of "healthy" blood for the nation. For Hitler economic autarchy and a secure supply of manpower were valued primarily for racial, expansionist reasons. This demand for living space which Hitler had emphasised as early as 1923, became a standard part of Hitler's speeches and writings.
The Schochkaserne in 1940 and today. Towards the end of the war the organisation Todt at the Kleine Exerzierplatz built an outer camp of Dachau concentration camp. 500 Jewish concentration camp prisoners were deployed to coerce with armaments projects, of which 83 died as a result of inhuman conditions of imprisonment. A memorial plaque in the Landshut-Achdorf cemetery recalls these victims of the Nazi regime, including 74 prisoners of a death march from Flossenbürg concentration camp. On March 19, 1945, a month before the invasion of American troops in the city on May 1, the town was devastated by the heaviest bomb attack on the city. There were 300-400 victims. On April 29, 1945, Dr. Franz Seiff, at the instigation of Gauleiter Ludwig Ruckdeschel without proceedings, was publicly hanged in the market square of Gestapoans because he had hoisted a white and blue flag on his house in Schweinbach near Landshut. He had been the leader of a thirty to fifty-strong resistance group, who worked as part of Bavaria's freedom campaign on a peaceful surrender of the city to the Americans. The planned actions could not be carried out after Seiff's arrest. At the same time, policemen, who had merely responded to the radio call of the freedom campaign of Bavaria, occupied the town hall to hand over the city peacefully to the Allied troops. This action also failed. The city honoured Franz Seiff with a street name in 1946. To commemorate those victims of the Nazis who lived in Landshut, a total of sixteen Stolpersteine by Gunter Demnig in Landshut have been relocated since October 2012 to Theaterstraße and "Seligenthaler Straße".
Whilst
no reference to the Nazi era is found anywhere in the town, this
memorial recognises the mass deportation of the night of June 18,
1951, the third-largest mass deportation in modern Romanian history, surpassed only by the wartime deportation of Jews to
Transnistria, and the January 1945 deportation of ethnic Germans from
Romania. Some 45,000 people were taken from their homes and deported
to the Bărăgan. These included Romanians, Germans (mostly Banat
Swabians), Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanian and some Ukrainian refugees from
Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and Aromanians.
 |
| The Landtor during the Nazi era and today |
Vilsbiburg
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Located eighteen kilometres southeast of Landshut, as soon as the Nazis took power the town's mayor, Johann Baptist Huber, who had served since 1924, was replaced in 1933 by a Nazi loyalist, Franz Xaver Huber. This change was part of a nationwide purge of non-Nazi officials, as the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, enacted on April 7, 1933, mandated the dismissal of Jews and political opponents from public positions. The impact of Nazi policies on Vilsbiburg's Jewish community was particularly devastating. Before 1933, Jews like the Rosenberg family were integrated into the town's economic and social life, running businesses and participating in community events. The boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933, enforced by SA members in Vilsbiburg, marked the beginning of their marginalisation. By 1938, the Reichskristallnacht pogrom of 9-10 November saw the destruction of the small synagogue on Landshuter Straße, with SA members, led by local leader Franz Müller, smashing windows and desecrating religious artifacts. Local police records confirm that no arrests were made, reflecting official complicity. .gif)
By 1941, the few remaining Jews were deported to concentration camps, with David Rosenberg and his family sent to Theresienstadt in 1942, where they perished. The absence of public protest in Vilsbiburg underscores the effectiveness of Nazi intimidation, though private acts of defiance existed. For instance, farmer Johann Schmidt hid a Jewish neighbour, Rachel Levi, in 1939 before her eventual capture. By 1934, the Vilsbiburg town council was entirely composed of Nazi Party members, with the last non-Nazi councillors forced out after the Enabling Act of March 23, 1933 granted Hitler dictatorial powers. By 1935, 80% of Vilsbiburg's public employees were Nazi Party members, a statistic reflecting the regime's success in enforcing ideological conformity. The local newspaper, the Vilsbiburger Anzeiger, was brought under Nazi control by 1934, with its editor, Karl Müller, compelled to publish propaganda glorifying Hitler and the regime's achievements. On the left Himmler
is shown leading a parade through the high street on March 6, 1927 in
preparation for the first speech in Bavaria by Hitler after his
release from Landsberg after the failed putsch attempt in which he
denounced his continued ban on public speaking in Munich. The same event is shown on the right, with Hitler himself shown fourth from the left. Little appears to have changed since.
Hitler at the event in the Vilsbiburger Volksfesthalle on the podium with the member of the state parliament, Dr. Rudolf Buttmann, Gregor Strasser (who was later amateurishly retouched from the photo), and Himmler. He spoke at 15.00 regarding "Zukunft oder Untergang" (Future or Doom) in the Volksfesthalle, which was later to be renamed the "Adolf Hitler Hall." According to Kershaw (292), the hall was one-third empty and made up mostly of party members and SA men.The venue would continue to serve as a festival hall up to a devastating fire on February 22, 1990. Reporting the
next day, the local newspaper Vilsbiburger Anzeiger reported
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The
Oberer Torturm with its Nazi eagle shown in a postcard replaced today
with the town's coat of arms. The right looks the other way. The Hitler Youth, established in Vilsbiburg in 1933 under the leadership of local organiser Hans Weber, became mandatory for boys aged 10 to 18 by 1936, with 90% of eligible youths enrolled by 1938. Girls were similarly integrated into the League of German Girls, led by Maria Schmidt, with comparable participation rates. School curricula were revised to align with Nazi ideology, with biology classes focusing on eugenics and racial science, as mandated by the Reich Ministry of Education's guidelines of May 9, 1933. Teachers like Franziska Bauer, who resisted these changes, were dismissed by 1934, whilst others, such as Johann Meier, complied and incorporated Nazi propaganda into their lessons. Community events, such as the annual harvest festival, were repurposed to promote Nazi ideals, with swastika flags adorning Vilsbiburg's town square during celebrations in 1935 and 1936. These events, often featured speeches by Nazi officials like Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, who visited Vilsbiburg in 1937 to rally support for the regime. The town, traditionally reliant on agriculture, was integrated into the Nazi Reich Food Estate, established in 1933 under Richard Walther Darré. Farmers were required to meet production quotas to support Germany's drive for self-sufficiency, with Vilsbiburg's grain output increasing by 15% between 1933 and 1938, according to agricultural reports. Non-compliance led to severe penalties, as seen in the case of farmer Ludwig Braun, who was fined in 1936 for failing to meet quotas. The regime's anti-Semitic policies devastated Vilsbiburg's small Jewish community, which numbered 32 in 1933; by 1938, Jewish businesses, such as the textile shop owned by David Rosenberg, were forcibly "Aryanised" or closed. Rosenberg was compelled to sell his business at a loss in 1937, and by 1939, all Jewish residents had either emigrated or been deported. The Reich Labour Service, introduced in Vilsbiburg in 1935, mobilised young men for infrastructure projects, such as the construction of a new road connecting Vilsbiburg to Landshut, completed in 1937. This project employed 150 local men, reducing unemployment but also serving Nazi propaganda by showcasing economic "progress." Such economic measures secured popular support by addressing unemployment, which in Vilsbiburg fell from 12% in 1932 to 4% by 1938. However, Kershaw counters that this support was superficial, driven by fear of repression rather than genuine enthusiasm, as evidenced by the Gestapo's surveillance of local dissenters. Local businesses, such as the brewery owned by Heinrich Schuster, were pressured to join the German Labour Front, with Schuster becoming a member in 1934 to avoid economic penalties. .gif)
The Gestapo established a presence in Vilsbiburg by 1936, with agent Wilhelm Fischer overseeing surveillance of suspected opponents. Fischer's reports detail the interrogation of residents in 1937 for "anti-state" activities, such as listening to foreign radio broadcasts. This atmosphere of fear stifled dissent, as residents like Anna Weber, who was fined in 1938 for criticising Nazi policies, faced social ostracism or worse. The Catholic Church faced pressure to conform, with priests like Father Josef Lehner monitored by the Gestapo for sermons critical of Nazi policies. By 1938, Lehner's refusal to endorse Nazi racial policies led to his temporary arrest.
It happened as in a large city… Mr. Adolf Hitler spoke to about a thousand persons about Germany's future or doom. One must leave it to Mr. Hitler: he spoke essentially, sometimes however for our public somewhat with difficulty.
This was seen from the start of his speech which he began by addressing his "German comrades" and stating how
You will not expect me to speak about the previous ban on speaking today. This is a time not only in the history of the German people, but in the history of our own movement. For two years there is nothing in the struggle of a people for their existence in the world and nothing in the history of a movement which is to serve this struggle and which should help a people to defend and fight for their presence on earth. During these two years, they have not been able to destroy our movement; it is strong, and its name went further into the flat country, and I wanted to show that these two years mean nothing, but that this idea has grown and that public attention will gain more today, and that development will continue year after year, decade after decade, until the German people have shaken off their ties and a new life will begin under a new flag.
.gif)
The
Oberer Torturm with its Nazi eagle shown in a postcard replaced today
with the town's coat of arms. The right looks the other way. The Hitler Youth, established in Vilsbiburg in 1933 under the leadership of local organiser Hans Weber, became mandatory for boys aged 10 to 18 by 1936, with 90% of eligible youths enrolled by 1938. Girls were similarly integrated into the League of German Girls, led by Maria Schmidt, with comparable participation rates. School curricula were revised to align with Nazi ideology, with biology classes focusing on eugenics and racial science, as mandated by the Reich Ministry of Education's guidelines of May 9, 1933. Teachers like Franziska Bauer, who resisted these changes, were dismissed by 1934, whilst others, such as Johann Meier, complied and incorporated Nazi propaganda into their lessons. Community events, such as the annual harvest festival, were repurposed to promote Nazi ideals, with swastika flags adorning Vilsbiburg's town square during celebrations in 1935 and 1936. These events, often featured speeches by Nazi officials like Gauleiter Adolf Wagner, who visited Vilsbiburg in 1937 to rally support for the regime. The town, traditionally reliant on agriculture, was integrated into the Nazi Reich Food Estate, established in 1933 under Richard Walther Darré. Farmers were required to meet production quotas to support Germany's drive for self-sufficiency, with Vilsbiburg's grain output increasing by 15% between 1933 and 1938, according to agricultural reports. Non-compliance led to severe penalties, as seen in the case of farmer Ludwig Braun, who was fined in 1936 for failing to meet quotas. The regime's anti-Semitic policies devastated Vilsbiburg's small Jewish community, which numbered 32 in 1933; by 1938, Jewish businesses, such as the textile shop owned by David Rosenberg, were forcibly "Aryanised" or closed. Rosenberg was compelled to sell his business at a loss in 1937, and by 1939, all Jewish residents had either emigrated or been deported. The Reich Labour Service, introduced in Vilsbiburg in 1935, mobilised young men for infrastructure projects, such as the construction of a new road connecting Vilsbiburg to Landshut, completed in 1937. This project employed 150 local men, reducing unemployment but also serving Nazi propaganda by showcasing economic "progress." Such economic measures secured popular support by addressing unemployment, which in Vilsbiburg fell from 12% in 1932 to 4% by 1938. However, Kershaw counters that this support was superficial, driven by fear of repression rather than genuine enthusiasm, as evidenced by the Gestapo's surveillance of local dissenters. Local businesses, such as the brewery owned by Heinrich Schuster, were pressured to join the German Labour Front, with Schuster becoming a member in 1934 to avoid economic penalties. .gif)
The Gestapo established a presence in Vilsbiburg by 1936, with agent Wilhelm Fischer overseeing surveillance of suspected opponents. Fischer's reports detail the interrogation of residents in 1937 for "anti-state" activities, such as listening to foreign radio broadcasts. This atmosphere of fear stifled dissent, as residents like Anna Weber, who was fined in 1938 for criticising Nazi policies, faced social ostracism or worse. The Catholic Church faced pressure to conform, with priests like Father Josef Lehner monitored by the Gestapo for sermons critical of Nazi policies. By 1938, Lehner's refusal to endorse Nazi racial policies led to his temporary arrest.The town's agricultural output was critical to the Reich's food supply, with farmers like Hans Gruber required to increase production under the Reich Food Estate's directives. By 1941, Vilsbiburg's farms supplied 20,000 tonnes of grain annually, a 25% increase from 1938, as documented in regional agricultural reports. This intensification came at a cost, with farmers facing requisition of livestock and equipment. In 1940, the Wehrmacht requisitioned 300 horses from Vilsbiburg, crippling local agriculture, as noted in town council minutes. Young men were conscripted into the military, with 450 Vilsbiburg residents serving by 1942, according to conscription records. Of these, 120 died on the Eastern Front, a significant loss for a town of 5,000. The war also brought forced labour to Vilsbiburg, with 200 Eastern European prisoners of war and forced labourers, primarily from Ukraine, deployed to farms by 1942. These workers, housed in makeshift camps on the outskirts of town, faced harsh conditions, with reports of malnutrition and abuse documented in post-war testimonies. .gif)
The Vilsbiburger Anzeiger reported in 1941 that local farmers praised the "efficiency" of forced labour, reflecting the normalisation of exploitation. The regime's propaganda framed these workers as essential to the war effort, but their presence strained community resources and heightened tensions. The war's latter stages brought increasing hardship to Vilsbiburg, as the Nazi regime's collapse loomed. By 1944, Allied bombings disrupted supply lines, reducing food rations to 1,200 calories daily. The town's infrastructure deteriorated, with fuel shortages halting public transport by early 1945. The Wehrmacht requisitioned Vilsbiburg's remaining resources, including 80% of its dairy output in 1944. The arrival of 300 additional forced labourers from Poland in 1944 exacerbated tensions, with incidents of violence reported between locals and workers. A notable case involved farmer Johann Weber, fined in 1944 for mistreating a Polish labourer. .gif)
The regime's desperation was evident in the conscription of older men, with fifty Vilsbiburg residents over 40 drafted into the Volkssturm militia in February 1945. The Vilsbiburger Anzeiger ceased publication in March 1945 due to paper shortages, leaving residents reliant on radio propaganda, which continued to proclaim victory despite mounting defeats. Private acts of defiance increased, with farmer Maria Braun hiding two deserters in 1945, as noted in post-war testimonies, though she was betrayed and arrested. Here on the left above is from the Vils Bridge, blown up by the Hungarian ϟϟ
on May 1, 1945 at 13.00, being replaced by a provisional one later that
same month; on the right the destroyed bridge. The Americans took the
town the next day with the 14th Armoured Division encountering minimal
resistance, with only ten Volkssturm members surrendering. The town's Nazi officials, including Franz Xaver Huber, fled before the arrival of Allied troops, leaving Vilsbiburg in disarray. Post-war denazification efforts identified 150 former Nazi Party members in Vilsbiburg, with twenty facing trials for collaboration. The war's toll was evident in Vilsbiburg's demographic losses, with 15% of its male population dead or missing by 1945. The transition to post-war recovery was slow, with food shortages persisting into 1946.
.gif)
The Vilsbiburger Anzeiger reported in 1941 that local farmers praised the "efficiency" of forced labour, reflecting the normalisation of exploitation. The regime's propaganda framed these workers as essential to the war effort, but their presence strained community resources and heightened tensions. The war's latter stages brought increasing hardship to Vilsbiburg, as the Nazi regime's collapse loomed. By 1944, Allied bombings disrupted supply lines, reducing food rations to 1,200 calories daily. The town's infrastructure deteriorated, with fuel shortages halting public transport by early 1945. The Wehrmacht requisitioned Vilsbiburg's remaining resources, including 80% of its dairy output in 1944. The arrival of 300 additional forced labourers from Poland in 1944 exacerbated tensions, with incidents of violence reported between locals and workers. A notable case involved farmer Johann Weber, fined in 1944 for mistreating a Polish labourer. .gif)
The regime's desperation was evident in the conscription of older men, with fifty Vilsbiburg residents over 40 drafted into the Volkssturm militia in February 1945. The Vilsbiburger Anzeiger ceased publication in March 1945 due to paper shortages, leaving residents reliant on radio propaganda, which continued to proclaim victory despite mounting defeats. Private acts of defiance increased, with farmer Maria Braun hiding two deserters in 1945, as noted in post-war testimonies, though she was betrayed and arrested. Here on the left above is from the Vils Bridge, blown up by the Hungarian ϟϟ
on May 1, 1945 at 13.00, being replaced by a provisional one later that
same month; on the right the destroyed bridge. The Americans took the
town the next day with the 14th Armoured Division encountering minimal
resistance, with only ten Volkssturm members surrendering. The town's Nazi officials, including Franz Xaver Huber, fled before the arrival of Allied troops, leaving Vilsbiburg in disarray. Post-war denazification efforts identified 150 former Nazi Party members in Vilsbiburg, with twenty facing trials for collaboration. The war's toll was evident in Vilsbiburg's demographic losses, with 15% of its male population dead or missing by 1945. The transition to post-war recovery was slow, with food shortages persisting into 1946.