As with England, the first written account of this area and its people was by its conqueror, Julius Caesar who had subdued the territories west of the Rhine that were occupied by the Eburones and across from Cologne east of the Rhine the Ubii and other Germanic tribes such as the Cugerni who were later settled on the west side of the Rhine in the Roman province of Germania Inferior. Kenneth Wellesley (91-92) describes this region during the year of the four emperors, describing the opportunities its destruction during the Second World War provided for archæologists:
At Cologne, the capital city of the Lower Rhine District, the saturation bombing of the 1939–45 war opened up the possibility of excavation. It was carefully conducted for many years. We now know the site and shape of the governor’s palace by the Rhine, and public spirited ingenuity has seen to it that the visitor can still, despite rebuilding, study something of the impressive remains in a large crypt beneath the Town Hall. Already in 69 a walled city with its municipality, Cologne, the colony of the people of Agrippina, had a permanent bridge over the Rhine, serving to connect it with many Transrhenane Germans and funnel the trade flow in both directions. No legion guarded it; but slightly further on, atBonn, just before the hills begin, lay the third station holding another single legion. A little before Koblenz a humble stream trickles into the latter from the west, flowing from a well-defined side valley penetrating the wooded hills; its name, the Vinxtbach, suggests that this was the frontier between Lower and Upper Germany, and inscriptions found north and south of the tributary make the supposition certain. At Mainz, where the inflowing Main forms a broad highway to and from the east, the double legionary fort was the main military site of the Upper District, of which the remaining legion lay now far to the south at Windisch in the Aargau. ... On the waters of the Rhine the ships of the German fleet gave further protection, and forwarded a useful riverborne supply of commodities and munitions.
The current German state of Rhine-Westphalia was created by the British when, after the war, they were tasked with ruling the largest and most populous of the four zones that Germany found itself divided into. The British military administration established it in 1946 from the Prussian provinces of Westphalia and the northern part of Rhine Province (North Rhine), and the Free State of Lippe. Giles MacDonogh summarises how great the task was that the British faced; my family didn't experience rationing growing up in England during the war; it did after:
The British needed to take stock of their zone. They had the largely empty farmlands of Schleswig-Holstein, the industrial and farming areas of Lower Saxony, and the industrialised but also highly cultural region of the Rhine and the Ruhr. The area had been very badly damaged by bombing. Cologne was 66 per cent destroyed, and Düsseldorf a staggering 93 per cent. Aachen was described as a ‘fantastic, stinking heap of ruins’. The British reordered their domain, creating Rhineland-Westphalia by amalgamating two Länder.Bad Godesberg
(255) After the Reich
This is the site where, in 1938, Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler over the Sudetenland crisis at the Rheinhotel Dreesen in Bad Godesberg. Bad Godesberg was the first major German city to be transferred to Allied forces control without a battle in 1945.
The Rheinhotel Dreesen on the Rhine River at Bad Godesberg in Bonn was the site of a convention of SA and ϟϟ leaders on August 19 1933 in which Hitler
delivered a two-and-a-half-hour address, commenting, among other things,
on the relationship between the SA and the Reichswehr. Eventually the hotel would be the site of Hitler's planning for the purge of the SA and its leader Ernst Röhm in June 1934.
The hotel also played host to meetings between Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 21-23 September 1938, regarding Hitler's proposed annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia; before he flew to Bad Godesberg, Chamberlain aptly remarked that he was setting out "to do battle with an evil beast." As Kershaw relates,
Neville Chamberlain and Joachim von Ribbentrop leaving the Hotel Petersberg, on September 25, 1938.
The Rheinhotel Dreesen on the Rhine River at Bad Godesberg in Bonn was the site of a convention of SA and ϟϟ leaders on August 19 1933 in which Hitler
delivered a two-and-a-half-hour address, commenting, among other things,
on the relationship between the SA and the Reichswehr. Eventually the hotel would be the site of Hitler's planning for the purge of the SA and its leader Ernst Röhm in June 1934.It was from this hotel, run by Herr Dreesen, an early Nazi crony of Hitler, that the Fuehrer had set out on the night of June 29-30, 1934, to kill Roehm and carry out the Blood Purge. The Nazi leader had often sought out the hotel as a place of refuge where he could collect his thoughts and resolve his hesitations.
Shirer (nb.349) Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich
The hotel also played host to meetings between Hitler and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 21-23 September 1938, regarding Hitler's proposed annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia; before he flew to Bad Godesberg, Chamberlain aptly remarked that he was setting out "to do battle with an evil beast." As Kershaw relates, It was almost eleven o’clock when Chamberlain returned to the Hotel Dreesen. The drama of the late-night meeting was enhanced by the presence of advisers on both sides, fully aware of the peace of Europe hanging by a thread, as Schmidt began to translate Hitler’s memorandum. It demanded the complete withdrawal of the Czech army from the territory drawn on a map, to be ceded to Germany by 28 September. Hitler had spoken to Goebbels on 21 September of demands for eight days for Czech withdrawal and German occupation. He was now, late on the evening of 23 September, demanding the beginning of withdrawal in little over two days and completion in four. Chamberlain raised his hands in despair. ‘That’s an ultimatum,’ he protested. ‘With great disappointment and deep regret I must register, Herr Reich Chancellor,’ he remarked, ‘that you have not supported in the slightest my efforts to maintain peace.’
At this tense point, news arrived that Beneš had announced the general mobilisation of the Czech armed forces. For some moments no one spoke. War now seemed inevitable. Then Hitler, in little more than a whisper, told Chamberlain that despite this provocation he would hold to his word and undertake nothing against Czechoslovakia – at least as long as the British Prime Minister remained on German soil. As a special concession, he would agree to 1 October as the date for Czech withdrawal from the Sudeten territory. It was the date he had set weeks earlier as the moment for the attack on Czechoslovakia. He altered the date by hand in the memorandum, adding that the borders would look very different if he were to proceed with force against Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain agreed to take the revised memorandum to the Czechs. After the drama, the meeting ended in relative harmony. Chamberlain flew back, disappointed but not despairing, next morning to London to report to his cabinet.
Despite his misgivings about the growing opposition to his policies at home, Mr. Chamberlain appeared to be in excellent spirits when he arrived at Godesberg and drove through streets decorated not only with the swastika but with the Union Jack to his headquarters at the Petershof, a castlelike hotel on the summit of the Petersberg, high above the opposite (right) bank of the Rhine. He had come to fulfill everything that Hitler had demanded at Berchtesgaden, and even more. There remained only the details to work out and for this purpose he had brought along, in addition to Sir Horace Wilson and William Strang (the latter a Foreign Office expert on Eastern Europe), the head of the drafting and legal department of the Foreign Office, Sir William Malkin. Late in the afternoon the Prime Minister crossed the Rhine by ferry to the Hotel Dreesen where Hitler awaited him. For once, at the start at least, Chamberlain did all the talking. For what must have been more than an hour, judging by Dr. Schmidt’s lengthy notes of the meeting, the Prime Minister, after explaining that following ”laborious negotiations” he had won over not only the British and French cabinets but the Czech government to accept the Fuehrer’s demands, proceeded to outline in great detail the means by which they could be implemented. Accepting Runciman’s advice, he was now prepared to see the Sudetenland turned over to Germany without a plebiscite. As to the mixed areas, their future could be determined by a commission of three members, a German, a Czech and one neutral. Furthermore, Czechoslovakia’s mutual-assistance treaties with France and Russia, which were so distasteful to the Fuehrer, would be replaced by an international guarantee against an unprovoked attack on Czechoslovakia, which in the future ”would have to be completely neutral.”
Shirer (349)
Another gasthaus- the Zur Lindenwirtin- with the Godesburg tower in the background, now with a different flag
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| Bonner Münster on June 6, 1941 and today |
Following the war, Bonn was in the British zone of occupation, and in 1949 became the de facto capital of the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany (the de jure capital of the Federal Republic throughout the years of the Cold War division of Germany was always Berlin). Nevertheless, Berlin's previous history as united Germany's capital was strongly connected with Imperial Germany, the Weimar Republic and more ominously with Nazi Germany. It was felt that a new peacefully united Germany should not be governed from a city connected to such overtones of war. Additionally, Bonn was closer to Brussels, headquarters of the EU. The heated debate that resulted was settled by the Bundestag only on June 20, 1991. By a vote of 338–320, the Bundestag voted to move the seat of government to Berlin. The vote broke largely along regional lines, with legislators from the south and west favouring Bonn and legislators from the north and east voting for Berlin. It also broke along generational lines as well; older legislators with memories of Berlin's past glory favoured Berlin, while younger legislators favoured Bonn. Ultimately, the votes of the 'Ossi' legislators tipped the balance in favour of Berlin.
Solemn hoisting of the swastika flag at Bonner Universität in February, 1933 and the site today
Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse 20 and during the war. Beethoven’s ‘Heroica’ symphony was played on February 3, 1943 during the official declaration that the battle of Stalingrad- the same piece played during Hitler's speech on Heroes’ Day in 1933. The year before Hitler declared at Berlin's Sportpalast on February 15, 1942 to 9,883 officer candidates that
When Mr. President Roosevelt stutters about culture, then I can only say: what Mr. President Roosevelt calls culture, we call lack of culture. To us, it is a stupid joke. I have already declared a few times that just one of Beethoven’s symphonies contains more culture than all of America has managed to produce up to now! Strictly speaking, we colonised England and not the other way around.On the other side Churchill’s V-for-Victory device was used by the BBC in Morse code as the opening bar of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony. The house itself survived the war almost unscathed although during the air raid of the Bonn city centre on October 18, 1944, a fire bomb fell on the roof of Beethoven's birthplace. Thanks to the help of janitor Heinrich Hasselbach and Wildemans, who were later awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit, as well as Dr. Franz Rademacher from the Rhenish National Museum, the bomb did not ignite a conflagration. the connection with Beethoven no doubt induce the British to decide in Bonn’s favour when choosing the capital of the new Federal Republic of Germany by offering to make it autonomous and free from their control, helped too by the fact that Frankfurt was administratively too important for the Americans to relinquish.
Cologne (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Reichsadler found on the Autobahnbrücke Rodenkirchen. Rodenkirchen is a southern borough of Cologne.When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jewish population of Cologne was about 20,000. By 1939, 40% of the city's Jews had emigrated. The vast majority of those who remained had been deported to concentration camps by 1941. The trade fair grounds next to the Deutz train station were used to herd the Jewish population together for deportation to the death camps and for disposal of their household goods by public sale.
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| Swastikas above the Kölner Eis-und Schwimmstadion and today |
On Kristallnacht in 1938, Cologne's synagogues were desecrated or set on fire. It was planned to rebuild a large part of the inner city, with a main road connecting the Deutz station and the main station, which was to be moved from next to the cathedral to an area adjacent to today's university campus, with a huge field for rallies, the Maifeld, next to the main station. The Maifeld, between the campus and the Aachener Weiher artificial lake, was the only part of this over-ambitious plan to be realized before the start of the war. After the war, the remains of the Maifeld were buried with rubble from bombed buildings and turned into a park with rolling hills, which was christened Hiroshima-Nagasaki-Park in August 2004 as a memorial to the victims of the nuclear bombs of 1945. An inconspicuous memorial to the victims of the Nazi regime is situated on one of the hills.
The city of Cologne was bombed 262 times during the Second World War ,
more than any other German city, over 31 of which were heavy. On the night of May 30–31, 1942, Cologne was the target for the first thousand bomber raid of the war. Between 469 and 486 people, around 90% of them civilians, were reported killed, more than 5,000 were injured, and more than 45,000 lost their homes. It was estimated that up to 150,000 of Cologne's population of around 700,000 left the city after the raid. The Royal Air Force lost 43 of the 1,103 bombers sent. By the end of the war, 90% of Cologne's buildings had been destroyed by Allied aerial bombing raids, most of them flown by the RAF.
After that it was regularly bombarded until 1945. On the left is an image from a series of stamps, showing Sir Arthur Harris, with a Lancaster bomber from his command. It was his plan that brought about the indiscriminate area bombing of German cities, destroying houses and civilian morale as much as factories and military targets. As he stated,
The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.
Images of Cologne's destruction
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| The Rathausturm from the Alter Markt |
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| An SA man walking through the Heumarkt, and today |
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| Adolf-Hitler-Platz, now Ebertplatz. |
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| Prinzenhof in 1939 and today |
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| The Heumarkt in 1938 and today |
The attack caused about 2,500 fires in the city, 1,700 of which were described by the Cologne fire brigade as "large". Due to the efforts of the fire brigade and thanks to the vastness of many streets, there was no fire storm , but the majority of the damage was caused by fire and less by the explosive devices. Around 3,300 non-residential buildings were completely destroyed, 2,090 severely and 7,420 more easily damaged. This makes a total of 12,810 buildings in this category that have been hit. The only military building that was damaged was an anti-aircraft position. On the other hand, 13,010 of civilian residential units, mostly in multi-storey houses, were completely destroyed, seriously and 22,270 more easily damaged. According to the report by the chief of police, 469 people were killed involving 411 civilians and 58 military officers, 5,027 were wounded and 45,132 homeless. The number of registered residents of Cologne decreased by around 11% in the next few weeks. It is estimated that between 135,000 and 150,000 of the 684,000 residents left the city after the attack.
The RAF meanwhile lost 43 aircraft, which corresponds to approximately 4.5% of the bombers used. 22 of them were shot down above or near Cologne, sixteen elsewhere by anti-aircraft fire, 4 by night fighters, 2 in attacks on surrounding airfields and 2 were lost in a collision. Later in the war there were "more 1000 bomber attacks" although only four-engine machines with a significantly higher bomb load were used.
On November 10, 1944, a dozen members of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group were hanged in public. Six of them were sixteen-year-old boys of the Edelweiss Pirates youth gang, including Barthel Schink; Fritz Theilen survived. The bombings continued and people moved out. On March 2, 1945, the RAF attacked Cologne for the last time with 858 bombers in two phases. As part of Operation Lumberjack, the first part of Cologne was captured by the 1st US Army a few days later. By May 1945 only twenty thousdand residents remained out of 770,000. The outskirts of Cologne were reached by American troops on March 4, 1945. The inner city on the left bank of the Rhine was captured in half a day on March 6, meeting only minor resistance. Because the Hohenzollernbrücke was destroyed by retreating German pioneers, the boroughs on the right bank remained under German control until mid-April 1945 before the British took over. As the director of the British Military Government, General Gerald Templer, put it, "[t]he city was in a terrible mess; no water, no drainage, no light, no food. It stank of corpses."
Troops
entering the Rhineland via the Hohenzollernbrücke in March 1936 in
contravention of the treaties of Versailles and Locarno.
Hitler inspecting a model of the cathedral and the real thing in 1936 when, on March 28, Hitler arrived in Cologne and had himself celebrated
as the “liberator of the Rhineland” at an official reception in the
Giirzenich banquet hall. He received the praise of various
“liberated” districts and declared
That Providence has chosen me to perform this act [restoring German military sovereignty in the Rhineland) is something I feel is the greatest blessing of my life.
The
cathedral in Cologne is Germany's most visited landmark, attracting an
average of thwenty thousand people a day, and currently the tallest twin-spired
church at a height of 515 feet, second in Europe after Ulm Minster and
third in the world. Together the towers for its two huge spires give the cathedral the largest façade of any church in the world. Its
construction began in 1248 but was halted in 1473, unfinished. Work did
not restart until the 1840s, and the edifice was completed to its
original mediæval plan in 1880. The choir has the largest height to
width ratio, 3.6:1, of any mediæval church. Cologne's mediæval builders
had planned a grand structure to house the reliquary of the Three Kings
and fit its role as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor.
Despite having been left incomplete during the mediæval period, Cologne
Cathedral eventually became unified as "a masterpiece of exceptional
intrinsic value" and "a powerful testimony to the strength and
persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe" according
to UNESCO. Not mentioned is the fact that the cathedral has stones with swastikas, leading church bell expert Birgit Müller to remark that “[i]f these were taken out, the cathedral would have to be reconstructed.” 
Cologne from aerial photos taken by the Nazis to assist in rebuilding plans once Germany won the war. The photos were recently discovered in an attic by the daughter of an employee of Speer's building inspection department.
The Hohenzollern Bridge, with Cologne Cathedral and Museum Ludwig in the background, after the war and as it appears today. Cologne was left after the war with its cathedral seemingly the only intact building whilst the Hohenzollern Bridge across which a faux German division marched in 1936 is destroyed. The
Hohenzollern Bridge functioned as one of the most important bridges in
Germany during the war; even consistent daily
airstrikes did not badly damage it. On March 6, 1945 German military
engineers blew up the bridge as Allied troops began their assault on
Cologne. After Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, the bridge was
initially made operational on a makeshift basis, but soon reconstruction
began in earnest. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge but after its destruction in 1945 and its subsequent reconstruction, it was only accessible to rail and pedestrian traffic. By May 8, 1948 pedestrians could again use the Hohenzollern Bridge. The southern road traffic decks were removed so that the bridge now only consisted of six individual bridge decks, built partly in their old form. The surviving portals and bridge towers were not repaired and were demolished in 1958; finally the following year reconstruction of the bridge was completed.
The Hohenzollern Bridge, with Cologne Cathedral and Museum Ludwig in the background, after the war and as it appears today. Cologne was left after the war with its cathedral seemingly the only intact building whilst the Hohenzollern Bridge across which a faux German division marched in 1936 is destroyed. The
Hohenzollern Bridge functioned as one of the most important bridges in
Germany during the war; even consistent daily
airstrikes did not badly damage it. On March 6, 1945 German military
engineers blew up the bridge as Allied troops began their assault on
Cologne. After Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, the bridge was
initially made operational on a makeshift basis, but soon reconstruction
began in earnest. Originally, the bridge was both a railway and road bridge but after its destruction in 1945 and its subsequent reconstruction, it was only accessible to rail and pedestrian traffic. By May 8, 1948 pedestrians could again use the Hohenzollern Bridge. The southern road traffic decks were removed so that the bridge now only consisted of six individual bridge decks, built partly in their old form. The surviving portals and bridge towers were not repaired and were demolished in 1958; finally the following year reconstruction of the bridge was completed.
The cathedral itself suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during the war. Badly damaged, it nevertheless remained standing in an otherwise completely flattened city; the twin spires provided an easily recognisable navigational landmark for Allied aircraft bombing. On 6, March 1945, an area west of the cathedral along Marzellenstrasse and Trankgasse was the site of intense combat between American tanks of the 3rd Armoured Division and a Panther Ausf. A of Panzer brigade 106 Feldherrnhalle. The Panther successfully knocked out a Sherman, killing three men, before it was destroyed by a T26E3 Pershing hours later. Footage of that battle survives. The destroyed Panther was later put on display at the base of the cathedral for the remainder of the war in Europe. shown in these photographs. Repairs of the war damage were eventually completed in 1956. An emergency repair to the base of the northwest tower, carried out in 1944 using poor-quality brick taken from a nearby ruined building, remained visible as a reminder of the war until 2005, when it was decided to restore the section to its original appearance. Repair and maintenance work is constantly being carried out in one or another section of the building to this day, and thus the cathedral is rarely completely free of scaffolding, as wind, rain, and pollution slowly eat away at the stones.
Attempts to protect the interior from further collapse. Inside, under a choir-stall seat, a judensau is still allowed to remain. On the left a Jew holds up a pig by the front leg whilst a second Jew feeds it whilst a third kneels down in order to drink from its teats. In the right quatrefoil a pig with three piglets is knocked out of a trough. From the right a Jew leads a boy who is distinguished by a nimbus with a cross which continues to trot out the mediæval lie about Jewish ritual murder of Christian children.
The Nazis celebrating the Machtübernahme in 1933 in front of the rathaus, and how it appeared after their war, now extensively rebuilt
On the left is a closer view of what was the Schlagetersäule on Rudolfplatz which in 1933 was renamed Schlageterplatz to which the column with the Swastika-adorned flagpole was added. Albert Leo Schlageter was born in Schönau in the Black Forest on August 12, 1894. On May 26, 1923, he was shot because of sabotage in the Ruhr which had been occupied by the French at that time. Because of the special historical situation, Albert Leo Schlagter became the last soldier of the Great War and, at the same time, the first soldier of the Third Reich according to Nazi propaganda. Between 1919 and 1921 he was involved as a volunteer corps member in battles in the Baltics and in Upper Silesia as well as the suppression of a communist uprising in the Ruhr. From 1922 Schlageter had been a member of the "Greater German Labour Party," (Grossdeutschen Arbeiterpartei), a branch of the Nazi Party. He ended up being betrayed after his sabotage during the so-called "Ruhr struggle" against the French occupation forces, arrested by the French occupation forces and on May 26, 1923, shot near Dusseldorf.
The Hahnentor sporting the swastika and today. As with the aforementioned opportunities the destruction of Cologne provided in the field of archæology, so too did it allow for urban planning that had been held up before the war.
Already
in the 1920s there were considerations for car-friendly street
breakthroughs, but failed due to the resistance of the mayor Konrad
Adenauer. Upon his depaerture in March 1933, the traffic planners had
free rein. After Nazi Gauleiter Josef Grohé received the order to
redesign the city on June 7, 1939, Hahnenstrasse became the centre of
planning for an east-west axis with a width of 68 metres from July 1939,
but due to the events of the war could not be realised. Because of
the international traffic exhibition planned for 1940 in Cologne, the
planners had to be satisfied with a much reduced width of 28 metres due to lack of time.
However, the exhibition was canceled due to the war. The breakthrough on
Hahnenstrasse / Pipinstrasse began as early as January 22, 1939,
which led to the straightening of the original course of the road. As a
result, the older plots of land were under today's street whilst some
buildings such as the Apostelgymnasium had to make way 
for the
breakthrough in 1939. In August 1939 the breakthrough to the Hahnentor
was made. After
the war on the right, showing the severe damage. The Hahnentorburg was badly damaged
in the Second World War with the half tower on the left of the field
largely destroyed. After war, Rudolf Schwarz was commissioned to design the
entirety of Hahnenstrasse in mid-1945, and the war ruins in the street leading to the tower were
removed in 1946. Wilhelm Riphahn received an additional order from the
city to develop a concrete "development plan" for this connection
between Neumarkt and Rudolfplatz . In September 1945 he conceived his
“basic ideas for the redesign of Hahnenstraße / Cäcilienstraße” as a
promenade and cultural mile with a city character as well as an
architectural and visual connection between the high Wilhelminian-style
buildings on the ring and the buildings of the lower old town.
for the
breakthrough in 1939. In August 1939 the breakthrough to the Hahnentor
was made. After
the war on the right, showing the severe damage. The Hahnentorburg was badly damaged
in the Second World War with the half tower on the left of the field
largely destroyed. After war, Rudolf Schwarz was commissioned to design the
entirety of Hahnenstrasse in mid-1945, and the war ruins in the street leading to the tower were
removed in 1946. Wilhelm Riphahn received an additional order from the
city to develop a concrete "development plan" for this connection
between Neumarkt and Rudolfplatz . In September 1945 he conceived his
“basic ideas for the redesign of Hahnenstraße / Cäcilienstraße” as a
promenade and cultural mile with a city character as well as an
architectural and visual connection between the high Wilhelminian-style
buildings on the ring and the buildings of the lower old town. 
Gestapo Headquarters
Standing
in front of the former EL-DE Haus, now officially known as the National
Socialist Documentation Centre, the former headquarters of the Gestapo
and now a museum documenting the Third Reich. The building was at first
the business premises of the jeweller Leonard Dahlen - hence the name.
In 1934, the Nazis seized the building from him and turned it into the
headquarters of the secret police, Gestapo. It proved an excellent location as it was close to the police headquarters in Krebsgasse, the courthouse and the Central Prison- Klingelpütz . The Gestapo had the building rebuilt for their purposes- offices had been set up and ten prison cells established within the upper two basements . This was Gestapo HQ from 1 December 1935 until March 2 1945 , a mere few days before the invasion of American troops in the city on March 6, 1945. It seems like a special irony of history that it is precisely this house has survived the war, whilst 90% of the city was destroyed. After the bombings, the basements of the building, which had been used as torture rooms, were used to store wartime files and paperwork.
In 2006, the National Socialist Documentation Centre was awarded the Best in Heritage award, which is given to select museums. The only other German museum to have won the prize is the Buddenbrook Museum in Lübeck.
In 2006, the National Socialist Documentation Centre was awarded the Best in Heritage award, which is given to select museums. The only other German museum to have won the prize is the Buddenbrook Museum in Lübeck.
Inside the basement to the Gestapo cells:
Some poignant examples of messages prisoners left behind on the cell walls. Many prisoners, never again to see their 
freedom, wrote messages or recorded figures, landscapes, animals and more on the walls of their cells. There are still numerous inscriptions which date from the end of 1943 until 1945. Other inscriptions are practically invisible. About 600 inscriptions in Cyrillic were written Russians and Ukrainians whilst another 300 were written in French, Dutch, Polish, English and Spanish. After the war, some partitions were removed from the cells and thus, in cells 2 and 3 and in the cells 5 and 6, some inscriptions were lost.
Some examples:
freedom, wrote messages or recorded figures, landscapes, animals and more on the walls of their cells. There are still numerous inscriptions which date from the end of 1943 until 1945. Other inscriptions are practically invisible. About 600 inscriptions in Cyrillic were written Russians and Ukrainians whilst another 300 were written in French, Dutch, Polish, English and Spanish. After the war, some partitions were removed from the cells and thus, in cells 2 and 3 and in the cells 5 and 6, some inscriptions were lost. Some examples:
The Russian POW Askold Kurow (who escaped and survived) wrote from cell 1: "Here at the Gestapo HQ with two friends, Askold Kurow and Gaidai Vladimir, since 24/12/44. It is now already February 3, 1945. 40 people were hanged. We have spent 43 days since interrogation and await the gallows. I ask those who read this to inform our comrades that we have perished in these torture chambers."
In cell 1 there is also the signature of Hans Weinsheime from 1944: "If no one thinks of you, your mother thinks of you. "
A French prisoner wrote in cell 6: "The German customs reveal particularly in cell 6, where the ready to bring it up to thirty-three hineinzupferchen people at once."
Another example, probably from a Edelweißpiraten, reads: "Rio de Schanero, aheu kapalero, Edelweiss Pirates are true"
The neue Universitäts Hauptgebäude by architect Adolf Abel, 1934, in 1935 and today with the Nazi eagle removed. After the war the British military government graciously approved the reopening of the university which resumed its lessons on November 26, 1945. With 1,549 admitted students on December 10, 1945, the solemn reopening of the university took place. The students were to be educated into the "ideal of pure humanity". According to the Cologne history professor Erich Meuthen, these lines of thought corresponded to an interpretation common after 1945: the turning away from the anti-Christian tradition had led to the barbarism of National Socialism. Critics later evaluated this "new beginning" as a restoration and "silence" of the Nazi past. In fact, in 1948 Theodor Schieder was appointed Ordinary for Middle and Modern History despite his own personal history being known to his colleagues: Schieder had became a Nazi party member in 1937 and was an active 
member of the NS-Dozentenbund. In 1939 Schieder proposed the deportation of several hundred thousand Poles as well as the "Entjudung" of the rest of Poland in a "Polendenkschrift". By 1962 he became the rector of the University of Cologne for two years.
member of the NS-Dozentenbund. In 1939 Schieder proposed the deportation of several hundred thousand Poles as well as the "Entjudung" of the rest of Poland in a "Polendenkschrift". By 1962 he became the rector of the University of Cologne for two years.
LEFT: The façade of the church of St. Maria in der Schnurgasse in the 1930s and today. During the war in April 1942 after an incendiary attack hit the church, the building burnt down. The interior design and the image of the "Regina Pacis"were destroyed. Only the walls of the western façade, the southern transept and the church tower were partially preserved. After the end of the war Joseph Cardinal Frings and the mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, pressed for the return of the sisters who were to rebuild the original Carmel on the Schnurgasse. In mid-1945, the first Carmelites from Cologne returned from their refuge, the Welden Monastery near Augsburg, to Cologne and organized its reconstruction. As early as July 1946 the foundation stone was laid for a new monastery. In 1948 a donated statue of the Virgin Mary was consecrated in the partially restored monastery church to replace the destroyed image. In 1949 the sisters were able to return to a first tract of the rebuilt convent after about 150 years since their abolition. In 1957, after their consecration on Easter, the bells of the church rang for the first time again. By 1964 the church was externally restored as it originally appeared in 1716. Even the original interior was replaced by correcting the structural changes of the 19th century by, for example, rearranging the aisles as originally envisioned.
From Adolf-Hitler-Platz to Ebertplatz
A woman sits with all her possessions amidst the ruins.
The removal of some 13.5 million cubic meters of rubble from the centre of Cologne alone took over a year, to say nothing of the makeshift restoration of canals, bridges over the Rhine, and the central train station. As if the cleanup in the factories had not been hard enough, “the chief problems only emerged when actual production was restarted,” because the delivery of raw materials slowed and energy supplies remained unreliable. Time and again, frustrating bottlenecks thwarted a revival of activity. If the mines, for example, managed to extract sufficient coal, there would be “no rolling stock” available to transport it to either factories or homes. Likewise, supplying foodstuffs proved particularly difficult, since domestic production was unable to satisfy the needs of a population whose numbers had rapidly grown with the influx of refugees. Rationing of the shortages, moreover, led to a great deal of injustice, with some groups and areas inevitably getting more than others. Thus despite much hard work, by 1946 industrial production had only reached 50 to 55 percent of its pre-war level.
Jarausch (82) After Hitler: Recivilising Germans, 1945–1995
In the summer of 1945, the British wisely installed Konrad Adenauer in office as Lord Mayor of Cologne, but then ordered him to cut down Cologne's famous trees to feed the furnaces that winter. When Adenauer obstinately refused, the British angrily kicked him out of office. On October 6, Adenauer was summoned to appear before the head of the British Military Government in North Rhine Province, Brigadier John Barraclough, and two other officers in Cologne and was denied even the right to sit down in their presence. They read out a letter dismissing him from office. He was to be banned from all political activity and was to leave Cologne as quickly as possible.This would appear to have been a natural reaction against the representative of a prostate and occupied enemy especially given that, according to Giles MacDonogh (507), "the winter of 1946–7 was possibly the coldest in living memory. In Cologne there were sixty four days in the 121 from December to March when the temperature was below zero at 8.00 a.m." Such was the state the British found themselves, now ruling the largest and most populous of the four zones of postwar Germany.
The hauptbahnhof in the 1930s, 1960 and today. Things have definitely changed since, with the mayor of Cologne forced to admit the "outrageous" series of New Year's Eve attacks on women at the main train station by large gangs of men “of Arab or North African appearance” after police described a group of some 1,000 men who took over the area around the main station on New Year’s Eve who proceeded to attack and rape numerous German women whilst the authorities covered up all mention of such attacks by migrants.
The Feuerschlößchen on Rommersdorfer Straße 78–82 is a villa built in 1905/06 and remains as a monument under monument protection. Under the Nazis it became the new "Gauschulungsburg" when it was inaugurated July 1 1934 at the presence of DAF directors Robert Ley and Gauleiter Josef Grohé.
During Reichskristallnacht in November 1938, the Honnefer synagogue, formerly an evangelical church, was set on fire on the Linzerstrasse near the Ohbach and was destroyed in this way. Many Jewish inhabitants emigrated. The Jews living in Honnef after 1939 had to leave their homes and were all concentrated within two houses in Honnef. From here they had to relocate to a camp in Much. In July 1941, transport to the east was carried out from Much to their deaths. In the Second World War, around 250 Honnef soldiers were killed and the city had three civilian casualties. Honnef had been largely spared from air raids in the Allied air war. One of the few destruction was that of the Penaten factory. For this reason, foreign authorities moved to the city, including parts of the Upper Prussianium of the Rhine province from Koblenz, the NSKOV to Linzerstrasse 108. Numerous prisoners of war and later forced labourers, especially women from the Soviet Union, worked in Honnef. An air attack on Honnef with bombs dropped onto Lohfelder Straße took place in November 1944. On the evening of March 10, 1945, the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 78th Infantry Division of the United States had occupied Honnef. Three days later the American combatants reached Hohenhonnef and the Rhine heights near Rhöndorf.
The Heimbach Hydroelectric power station during the final defeat of Germany and today. The power plant survived the war relatively undamaged although on February 11, 1945, the German armed forces blew up the tunnel seals on the power plant's side to prevent the Anglo-American allied forces from breaking through to the Rhine. Consequently, the Urft reservoir drained completely and the power plant was flooded by masses of water and rubble. Following extensive and arduous cleanup and repair work – both labour and tools were in short supply – the first four turbines could be started up again in January 1948, followed by the other four turbines at the end of the year.
Brühl
Bad Honnef
During Reichskristallnacht in November 1938, the Honnefer synagogue, formerly an evangelical church, was set on fire on the Linzerstrasse near the Ohbach and was destroyed in this way. Many Jewish inhabitants emigrated. The Jews living in Honnef after 1939 had to leave their homes and were all concentrated within two houses in Honnef. From here they had to relocate to a camp in Much. In July 1941, transport to the east was carried out from Much to their deaths. In the Second World War, around 250 Honnef soldiers were killed and the city had three civilian casualties. Honnef had been largely spared from air raids in the Allied air war. One of the few destruction was that of the Penaten factory. For this reason, foreign authorities moved to the city, including parts of the Upper Prussianium of the Rhine province from Koblenz, the NSKOV to Linzerstrasse 108. Numerous prisoners of war and later forced labourers, especially women from the Soviet Union, worked in Honnef. An air attack on Honnef with bombs dropped onto Lohfelder Straße took place in November 1944. On the evening of March 10, 1945, the 331st Infantry Regiment of the 78th Infantry Division of the United States had occupied Honnef. Three days later the American combatants reached Hohenhonnef and the Rhine heights near Rhöndorf.
Standing in front of schloß Augustusburg which was bombed on March 4, 1945. From shortly after the war until 1994, the schloß was used as a reception hall for guests of state by the German President, as it is not far from Bonn, which was the capital of Germany at that time.
Dortmund (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Nazis hoisting the hakenkreuz over the town hall on March 3, 1933, thus marking the start of the transformation of democracy to dictatorship. Soon after saw the renaming of the town's streets: Rathenau-Allee became Adolf-Hitler-Allee, Stresemann- to Göringstraße, Erzberger- to Schlageterstraße and Republikplatz to Horst-Wessel-Platz. All democratic and socialist newspapers were banned. The left-liberal "Dortmunder General-Anzeiger" was confiscated and all of its business assets were confiscated by the Nazis. The first city councilors, especially from the ranks of the KPD and SPD, were immediately persecuted, mistreated or taken into so-called "protective custody". As with everywhere else, all political parties, with the exception of the Nazis, were banned in Dortmund. On April 20, 1933, Adolf Hitler became an honorary citizen of Dortmund (revoked immediately after the war in one of the first council meetings).
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| Hansaplatz in 1933 and during the 2006 World Cup |
On June 20, social democracy was banned, and on May 2, 1933, the unions were "brought into line". Many supporters of the KPD, SPD, the trade unions, as welllas those from other democratic parties and the churches joined illegal resistance groups. Dortmund remained an unpopular city with the Nazi leadership due to its intense resistance actions.
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| Hansaplatz 1938 with swastikas and today |
Supporters of socialist and democratic parties, "anti-socal" and "non-Aryan" were dismissed from the civil service or banned from their profession. Many resistance fighters and opposition figures fell victim to an unprecedented persecution of "enemies of the state". Like Fritz Henßler, who later became mayor of Dortmund, they were arrested, sentenced, humiliated and ill-treated for years in prisons and concentration camps. Hundreds of them were murdered by the Nazis and with the help of the Nazi arbitrary justice system. Between 1933 and 1945, a total of more than 30,000 political opponents of the Nazi system, including "racially persecuted" and foreign forced labourers, were temporarily detained in the "Steinwache" Gestapo prison alone. 
The
former Gestapo headquarters (and way station for those being sent to
concentration camps) today serves as the site for the exhibition Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Steinwache.
Inside, shown below, is a reminder that from 1933 to 1945, over 66,000 people were imprisoned, some 30,000 of them for "political reasons".
The
former Gestapo headquarters (and way station for those being sent to
concentration camps) today serves as the site for the exhibition Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Steinwache. Inside, shown below, is a reminder that from 1933 to 1945, over 66,000 people were imprisoned, some 30,000 of them for "political reasons".
The Jewish population had been systematically marginalised and persecuted since 1933. In June 1933 the Jewish population numbered 4,108 out of a total population of 540,875. That year 217 Jews were arrested, including a few from other communities in the district. Many fell victim to random acts of violence and harassment by individuals. The economic boycott against the Jews was rigorously enforced with municipal institutions breaking off 
commercial ties with the Jews and shoppers staying away from stores owned by Jews. Agitation against Jewish businessmen was intensified in the summer of 1935, with public boycotts organised in front of Jewish stores with windows occasionally smashed. Anti-Jewish demonstrations were accompanied by signs labelling the Jews as traitors, murderers, warmongers and defilers of women. Jewish traders and entrepreneurs faced a crowding-out campaign, which soon became an "Aryanization" campaign. Even before Kristallnacht, the beautiful synagogue on Hiltropwall in Dortmund, which was in the immediate vicinity of the city theater on the one hand and the Nazi district leadership on the other, was destroyed. The synagogue in Hörde was set on fire by SA hordes and, like many Jewish prayer houses, shops and apartments, looted and destroyed. Immediately following Kristallnacht six hundred Jews were arrested, most being sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where seventeen would die and others released only after paying extortionate demands. Another five hundred Jews fled the city after the pogrom, leaving a Jewish population of 1,444 by May 1939. Just 63 houses remained in Jewish hands in September 1939 and at the end of the same year a mere eighty businesses. With another two hundred Jews managing to leave after the outbreak of war, 1,222 remained in June 1941 - these were left without rights, property, homes or income. They were not allowed to use public shelters, radios, telephones, or even the streets without authorization. Gradually they were confined to “Jewish houses.”
commercial ties with the Jews and shoppers staying away from stores owned by Jews. Agitation against Jewish businessmen was intensified in the summer of 1935, with public boycotts organised in front of Jewish stores with windows occasionally smashed. Anti-Jewish demonstrations were accompanied by signs labelling the Jews as traitors, murderers, warmongers and defilers of women. Jewish traders and entrepreneurs faced a crowding-out campaign, which soon became an "Aryanization" campaign. Even before Kristallnacht, the beautiful synagogue on Hiltropwall in Dortmund, which was in the immediate vicinity of the city theater on the one hand and the Nazi district leadership on the other, was destroyed. The synagogue in Hörde was set on fire by SA hordes and, like many Jewish prayer houses, shops and apartments, looted and destroyed. Immediately following Kristallnacht six hundred Jews were arrested, most being sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp where seventeen would die and others released only after paying extortionate demands. Another five hundred Jews fled the city after the pogrom, leaving a Jewish population of 1,444 by May 1939. Just 63 houses remained in Jewish hands in September 1939 and at the end of the same year a mere eighty businesses. With another two hundred Jews managing to leave after the outbreak of war, 1,222 remained in June 1941 - these were left without rights, property, homes or income. They were not allowed to use public shelters, radios, telephones, or even the streets without authorization. Gradually they were confined to “Jewish houses.”
The main railway station in 1944 and today. Through it, Dortmund was used as a
central point for deportations to the East; between 1942 and 1945 there
were eight transports, each containing about 5,000 Jews, including the
Jews of Dortmund. On April 27, 1942 the largest group of Jews from
Dortmund numbering 700 -800 was deported to Zamosc in the Lublin
district of Poland and from there sent to the Belzec death camp, which a
month earlier had commenced gassing Jewish communities in the
Generalgouvernment.Of the approximately 4,500 Dortmunders of Jewish origin, two thousand were later murdered in concentration camps. On January 27, 1942, the first deportation of over 1,000 Jews from the Arnsberg region from Dortmund to Riga took place. The last deportation took place on February 13, 1945 to Theresienstadt. But not only citizens of Jewish origin, but also members of other "racial" or socially discriminated minorities like those of the Sinti and Roma were persecuted and deported from Dortmund to the Nazi extermination camps. |
| Book burning in front of the Amtshaus |
The cultural and economic life that was so lively in the 1920s became impoverished in the period of National Socialism. However, Dortmund was able to claim the dubious reputation that the exhibition on "Degenerate Art" was already shown in Dortmund in 1935 - two years before Munich - in what was then the "House of Art" on Königswall. Other exhibitions such as the Hitler Youth exhibition "Schaffende Jugend" (1936), "Volk und Rasse" (1938) or "Kunst der Front" (1940) primarily proclaimed the ideology of blood, soil and race.
The Market operating in Hansaplatz with the swastika adorning the maypole during the Nazi era and today. Only with the armaments programme, accompanied by an improvement in the global economy, did the mining and steel and iron industries benefit from the Nazis' four-year plans, which further solidified Dortmund's economic monostructure. From 1937 onwards, total production rose sharply and the unemployment rate fell rapidly. The Ruhr region industry, and above all coal chemistry, became increasingly important in the efforts to prepare for war, to secure an adequate fuel supply for the increasing motorization of the Wehrmacht and the economy, and to replace the missing oil. The situation for Nazi Germany soon turned around as a result of the war. The war already affected the home front in 1943. Despite the most ruthless exploitation of foreign forced labourers, in particular Eastern European prisoners of war, concentration camp prisoners and abducted workers - 45,000 foreign forced labourers were still employed in the relevant factories and mines in Dortmund alone during the last year of the war - the arms industry and other branches of production collapsed. |
| Luftwaffe Nazi eagle remaining on the façade of the police academy |
In May 1943, Dortmund, considered by the Allies alongside Essen as one of the "armaments factories" in the Ruhr area, was the target of two major attacks. Six more were to follow by March 12, 1945, and 95 percent of the city center was to be destroyed. Around 6,000 civilians and forced labourers were killed in the bombing. Dortmund had completely lost its urban face, which was decisively shaped between 1890 and 1930, in the hail of bombs. When the Americans advanced to downtown Dortmund on April 13, 1945, they found a chaos of rubble. Electricity, water and other important elements of urban infrastructure had completely collapsed. For the approximately 300,000 Dortmunders who experienced the last days of the war in their hometown, the city seemed to be at the end of its historical development at the end of the war in 1945 - more
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| Another continues to look down on the city |
than ever before. On the part of the British military government and in parts of the fragmented city administration, people even played with the idea of rebuilding the city outside of its historical core.
In 1945 as many as 300,000 people lived in the ruins. Their most pressing concerns involved the housing shortage and the food supply; in April 1947 there were still hunger demonstrations in Dortmund. Under the capable British military government, political, urban development and economic reconstruction were pushed ahead relatively quickly. Fritz Henßler, the later mayor who was liberated from the concentration camp, and Wilhelm Hansmann, who had returned from emigration, were regarded as the "chief initiators" or "motors" of the reconstruction who supported the British. The dismantling of irreplaceable industrial plants, which the British military government prescribed as sanctions, and which took place between 1947 and 1949 under massive protests by the steelworks, subsequently proved to be a barrier in the drive to modernise outdated production units. On the other hand, the monostructure of the mining, iron and steel industry was further stabilised.
The Dortberghaus was completed in 1938 after the plans of Cologne architect Emil Rudolf Mewes as an administrative building of the Gelsenkirchen Mining-AG and displays classic Nazi architecture. By the beginning of the Second World War it was planned as a U-shaped building but not fully completed. It sported a bust of Hitler inside shown here.
The Hohensyburg memorial, shown with Nazi flags in front from period postcards and today, located on a hill in the southern Dortmund district of Syburg. The memorial was erected in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm I from 1893 to 1902 and opened to the public on June 30, 1902. Under the Nazis the memorial was completely rebuilt in 1935 according to plans by the Dortmund sculptor Friedrich Bagdons and redesigned based on the National Socialist architecture. Of the four accompanying statues, those of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Prince Friedrich Karl (both by Karl Donndorf) were removed whilst those of Otto von Bismarck and Helmuth von Moltke (also by Adolf Donndorf) were preserved in a different arrangement. On an inscription removed after 1945, March 16, 1935 was given as the date of completion. Nearby are the remains of the castle, partially destructed in 1287 by Count Eberhard von der Mark and probably eventually abandoned in the 16th or early 17th century. Inside its ruins is the war memorial dating from 1930 designed by the sculptor Friedrich Bagdons. It depicts a lying fallen soldier in the uniform of a German war participant from the First World War. At the level of his left lower leg an eagle stands guard. In the immediate vicinity of the war memorial there are three stone plaques erected by the Syburg community in memory of the victims of the Syburg war from the Franco-Prussian war and both world wars.Essen
Renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz in 1933 and serving as the main site for Nazi demonstrations in Essen, the main square reverted back to Burgplatz after the war. Here the Volkshochschule on Burgplatz 1 is decked out in Nazi regalia.
After the right-wing Kapp Putsch in Berlin had failed in the spring of 1920, the Rote Ruhrarmee rose up against the SPD-led national government with street fighting in Barmen , Duisburg, Elberfeld , Esseb, Remscheid and Velbert. On March 19, 1920 armed "Bolshevik" groups in Essen marched up to the site where civil defence units of the police and Home Guards waited; forty were killed. It was the largest resistance movement that has taken place in Germany since the peasant wars of the 16th century.
Burgplatz on the left in 1941 with the Johanneskirche and Münsterkirche and today.Hitler had visited Essen a number of times. During one speech he made here at the Exhibition Grounds on November 2, 1933 Hitler claimed that "I will never sign anything knowing that it can never be upheld, because I am determined to abide by what I sign." The following year on June 28 Hitler and Göring went to Essen to attend the church wedding ceremony of the Essen Gauleiter, Josef Terboven. This was taking place during the so-called Night of Long Knives during which he purged his own followers in the SA. While he had been in Essen and had toured the labour camps in the West German Gaue in order to create the outer appearance of absolute calm so that the traitors might not be warned, the plan of carrying out a thorough purge had been fixed to the last detail.
The Lichtburg on Adolf-Hitler-Strasse and Platz. The Lichtburg was built as a result of the city general plan of 1924. The exterior was designed by municipal planner Ernst Bode in a stark New Objectivist style without surface adornment; the building had a 20-metre dome, at the time the largest in a German theatre. It had 2,000 upholstered seats with an electrical system which sent a message to the cashier when the seat was occupied, and a 150,000 Reichsmark Wurlitzer organ, at the time the largest in any European cinema, with sound effects including traffic noise and thunder. The 30-person orchestra was drawn in part from the Cologne Philharmonic. Under the Third Reich, the Lichtburg's operator, Karl Wolffsohn, a Berlin publisher and entrepreneur, was forced as a Jew to sell it in 1933/34 for a tenth of its value to Universum Film AG (UfA). He and his family fled to Palestine in 1939 and he did not live to see the end of his lawsuit for recompense. In 2006 a memorial plaque was placed on the building; Wolffsohn's nephew, the historian Michael Wolffsohn, was present at the unveiling and heads the Berlin Lichtburg-Stiftung, among whose projects is a German-Turkish-Jewish cultural centre. During World War II, the building was almost completely destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943. The auditorium was completely destroyed by fire, but the walls remained standing.
The Hauptpost on Hachestraße 2, completed in 1933. The reichsadler still adorns its façade.
The Reichsgartenschau in 1938 with the swastika flying atop the Grugaturm today. The Botanischer Garten Grugapark was established in 1927 for recreation, teaching, and research. Parts of the garden were destroyed in World War II but gradually rebuilt and re-designed for the Essen Bundesgartenschau of 1965.
The Hotel Vereinshaus, from where Hitler spoke on June 16 and 20, 1926. The postcard in the centre dates from a decade after.
The Hotel Handelshof in 1941 and today. The Hotel hanged a banner that read „Herzlich Willkommen in der Waffenschmiede des Reiches“ "Welcome to the armoury of the Reich" during a visit by Benito Mussolini accompanied by Hitler in 1937 . During the Battle of the Ruhr in the Second World War the building was severely damaged in 1945 but repaired without needing major modifications.
Berliner Straße then and now
Adolf-Hitler-Platz and today, now Willy-Brandt-Platz
The Haus der Technik in 1941 and today
The synagogue in 1915, attacked during Reichskristallnacht, and today
Another view in 1941 and today
The Haus der Technik in 1941 and today
Another view in 1941 and today
Gymnasium
Essen-Borbeck- the centre photo shows the school celebration for the
re-establishment of the compulsory military service on 5 April 1935. The
speaker is Head master and Propagandawart Walter PfeilIt.
„Heldengedenktag"
in the auditorium on 11 March 1933, „Day of Potsdam" 21 March 1933,
„Ehrung des Lieblingskomponisten des Führers"- (Wagnerfestival as
Hitler's favourite composer) 3 April 1933 and „Schlageter-Feier" 27 May 1933
From 1933 until the end of the regime, Burgplatz was called Adolf-Hitler-Platz; here the SA is being sworn in March 9, 1933 and another view from the north
The hauptbahnhof before and during the war, and today
Evil is being revisited today thanks to the current chancellor's policies of unrestricted mass immigration forced upon the people she is supposed to represent and protect and Europe as an whole after at least four women were sexually assaulted by immigrant men of fighting age in a chilling echo of the New Year's Eve attacks. Police said the people who filed complaints could be "the tip of the iceberg."
Erwitte
Two 1937 postcards showing the Reichsschulungsburg den NSDAP
The Horst-Wessel-Halle, part of a school complex for the DAF designed by Julius Schulte-Frohlinde
The former Reichsschulungsburg der NSDAP und DAF
The former Reichsschulungsburg der NSDAP und DAF
Despite being banned in all uses by the German government, the town still uses the Wolfsangel, symbol of the forbidden Jungen Front,
in its Nazi-era arms which were approved by the Oldenburg Ministry of
State for the Interior and have been used since 10 July 1934.
NS Ordensburg Vogelsang
NS Ordensburg Vogelsang
Ordensburg
Vogelsang is a former national socialist estate placed at the former
military training area in the national park Eifel in North
Rhine-Westphalia. The landmarked and completely preserved estate was
used by the National Socialists between 1936 and 1939 as an educational
centre for future leaders. Since 1 January 2006 the area is open to
visitors. It is one of the largest architectural relics of National
Socialism. The gross area of the landmarked buildings is 50,000 m². It remains an example of the rural version of 1930s Nazi herrschaftsarchitektur.
Vogelsang was built by architect Clemens Klotz as a training centre
for the young Nazi elite. It is situated on a terraced hillside above
an artificial lake in the Eiffel nature reserve. Its design was based
on the image of the feudal castle or "Ordensburg". In 1950 the British army generously offered Vogelsang to Belgium.
In 2006 the military left and the complex was opened to the public.
Plans are being made to turn the complex into a conference and
exhibition centre, with proper respect for its historical significance.
As might be expected, intellectual standards were very low and attendance to the Ordensburg did little to foster education. Students went to each of the four castles for a year at a time. At the academy at Krössinsee, the first year, the stress was on the study of racial science, athletics, boxing and gliding. Great attention was given to horse riding because that gave the Junkers the feeling of being able to dominate a living creature. The second year, at Sonthofen, the emphasis was on athletics, parachute jumping, mountain climbing and skiing. The third year, at Vogelsang, the students received political and military instruction, and physical training. One of the tests that year was the Tierkampf, combat with bare hands against wild dogs. The fourth year, at the prestigious Teutonic castle Marienburg, the Junkers were expected to obtain their final military formation, and political and racial indoctrination.
Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage, Hitler Youth, 1922-1945: An Illustrated History (97-98)
On the left, the building housed the female service staff whilst that on the right formed part of the complex called Forum East which contained at one time an auditorium and ballroom, dining hall and kitchens.
The Burgschanke, left, a restaurant and banquet hall for the senior staff and on the right, so-called Eagle Square
Eagle on a wall above the Assembly Square
Most
of the sculptures in Vogelsang - "Fackelträger" (torch bearer), "Der
deutsche Mensch" (The German Man), "Adler" (Eagle) and the
"Sportlerrelief" (sportsmen-relief) - were created by Willy Meller:
Eagle on a wall above the Assembly Square
Sportlerrelief (sportsmen-relief)
In contrast with the Napolas, the castles were not linked with German military traditions, and the system failed miserably. The Ordensburgen never attracted a full complement of students despite the financial inducement and the prestige of attendance. According to some estimates, half the avail- able places remained vacant. Even in the most fanatical NSDAP circles, the product of the Ordensburgen were occasionally considered too ruthless and arrogant.
