Adolf Hitler visited Stuttgart in March 1938. His motorcade drove down Königstraße from the Hauptbahnhof. Trees grow along that route today, and a Mercedes symbol replaces the swastika flag on the top of the Bahnhof tower.  (Heinrich Hoffmann, "Hitler Baut Grossdeutschland," Berlin, 1938 (author's collection)  (MapQuest Map Link)

Hitler's entourage drove through the Hauptplatz (main city square). Stuttgart was heavily bombed during the war, and a comparison modern photo would show only post-war buildings of a different style. The main post office featured Nazi mosaics in the grand hall; the building is still there but the mosaics are gone now.  (photo on left from "Hitler Baut Grossdeutschland;" on the right from "Kunst dem Volk," edited by Heinrich Hoffmann, Special Edition, Vol. 10, No. 7, July 1939 (author's collection)

Stuttgart's wartime buildings included an air-raid shelter of a unique style. These so-called Winkeltürme (Winkel Towers) were cone-shaped concrete towers designed by Leo Winkel of Duisburg. Winkel patented his design in 1934 and began construction in 1936. Eventually some 98 Winkeltürme of five different types were built. The towers were intended mainly as protection for factory workers and railroad personnel, and they appeared most often in areas of heavy industry and rail centers. This Winkelturm in Stuttgart, a Type 2, is located on Wiener Platz in the Feuerbach rail area. The cone shape was designed to defeat bombing attacks by deflecting bombs off the top and sides, toward a reinforced area around the base. However, a Winkelturm of this type in Bremen suffered a direct hit by U.S. bomb in October 1944, which exploded through the roof and killed five people inside. Click here to see other Winkeltürme in Giessen, and here in Zossen near Berlin.  (see Michael Foedrowitz, "Die Luftschutztürme der Bauart Winkel in Deutschland, 1936 bis Heute," Waffen-Arsenal Band 175, Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, 1998; also http://www.luftschutz-bunker.de/winkel_tuerme.htm)  (Google Maps link)

The headquarters building of the former RAW (Reichsbahn Ausbesserungs Werk) maintenance facility, located on Pariser Straße in Kaiserslautern, still displays the Reichsbahn insignia of a winged locomotive wheel.  (Google Maps link)

The Heiligenberg (Holy Mountain) overlooking Heidelberg was the site of an unusual Nazi edifice - a "Thingstätte." In early Nazi quasi-religious Völkisch ceremony and Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) ideology, a "Thing" was an open-air gathering of the people, harking back to old Germanic pagan gatherings. Some 1200 "Thing" sites were planned, but only about 40 were built, as the Nazi hierarchy lost interest in the "Thing" movement in 1936. Another such site that remains today is the Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne adjacent to the Berlin Olympic Stadium.  (1936 postcard in author's collection)  (MapQuest Map Link)  Click here to visit a "Third Reich in Ruins" page showing other Thingplatz/Thingstätte sites.
Virtual Tour of the Heidelberg Thingstätte by Benjamin George  --  http://gardentaining.com/dililah/thingstatte_map_post.html

The views above show the Heidelberg Thingstätte from the highest point of the site. At either side of the period view can be seen hexagonal flag towers (obscured by trees in the modern photo).  (postcard courtesy Teresa Boni)

Current views of the flag towers near the top of the site. The remaining flagpole appears to be the original. (Note - In June 2008 this flagpole was no longer there - thanks to Bob Lyons for this information.)

Left - period postcard showing the Heiligenberg Thingstätte. Right - this poster advertised the Summer Solstice Festival in June 1937, held at the Heidelberg Heiligenberg. By 1937, the Thingstätte had been renamed "Feierstätte" (Festival Site). By this time the "Thing" movement had declined, and the Thing places were largely being used for folk fests instead of the original ideological meetings and propaganda theatricals.  (left - courtesy James Lees; right - author's collection)

When the 3rd and 45th Infantry Divisions of the U.S. Army moved into the Franconian city of Bamberg on 13-14 April 1945, they found the defenders fighting from the rubble produced by repeated bombing and artillery attacks. However, the defenders knew the futility of their actions and the city was quickly surrendered, sparing it from the near-complete destruction experienced in towns further west (although artillery rounds ignited a destructive fire that burned many of the older wooden houses in the city). In the photo above, tanks and infantry of the 45th Infantry Division (3/180 Infantry) clear a roadblock on Hallstadterstraße, in front of the Oehlhorn & Wöltz factory. The factory building has been changed, but practically all the other buildings on this part of the street remain much as they appeared in 1945. (National Archives RG 111-SC-333006; my thanks to Andreas Redel and the Bamberg Stadtarchiv for identifying this location)  (MapQuest Map Link)

GIs inspect a Panther tank (Ausf. D) parked on Zollnerstraße, near the Panzerkaserne. This had been the home of Panzerregiment 35 of the 4th Panzerdivision, and this must have been a training tank. The building, located outside the former U.S. Army Warner Barracks, is practically unchanged.  (Stadtarchiv Bamberg)  (MapQuest Map Link)

Another view of the same Panther tank on Zollnerstraße (presumably the same tank, although it appears to have been moved slightly). Two characteristics of the Ausf. D (the earliest Panther model) are evident in this photo - the simple cylindrical commander's cupola, and the rectangular armor flap covering the port for the bow machinegun.

War damage to the Grüner Markt area was severe. About the only item recognizable today is the Neptune Fountain on the right, which Bambergers call "Gabelmann" (Fork Man) because of his golden trident.  (Stadtarchiv Bamberg)

In 1945 this was the control tower for Kitzingen Army Air Base (used by the U.S. Army as Harvey Barracks, but now closed), and the scene of one of the more interesting examples of the German surrender at the end of the war. Famed Stuka pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel, only member of the German forces to have been awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross) with golden oakleaves, swords and diamonds, flew his unit here from Czechoslovakia to surrender to the Americans on 8 May 1945. Rudel slammed his canopy shut on the first GI to reach his plane, who had reached in and tried to steal Rudel's one-of-a-kind decoration.  (MapQuest Map Link)

German scientists worked on a nuclear reactor, and possibly an atomic bomb, in the city of Stadtilm in Thüringen. A laboratory for the development of nuclear power was located in the basement of this school building in Stadtilm in 1945. The work was fairly far progressed when the war ended, but there is little evidence that the Germans were anywhere close to developing an atomic bomb (although persistent rumors of nuclear tests remain). This may have been due to Hitler's apparent skepticism that such a weapon was possible.  (MapQuest Map Link)

Ochsenfurt, on the Main River south of Würzburg, was the scene of Nazi May Day (Tag der Arbeit) marches. The city Maibaum (May Pole) can be seen in both views, in front of the Rathaus in the distance.  (Stadtarchiv Ochsenfurt)  (click here for another Ochsenfurt site)  (MapQuest Map Link)

Sculptor Josef Thorak, one of the premier artists who displayed in the annual Haus der Deutschen Kunst exhibitions, had a huge studio in Baldham, a suburb east of Munich. The building was designed by Albert Speer and was described as the largest studio in the world. The studio building still exists, but is not open to the public.  (Albert Speer, "Neue Deutsche Baukunst," Berlin, 1943 (author's collection)

(U.S. Army Signal Corps Collection, National Archives)

   The side of the building seen here is the back side, but it is the most accessible for viewing, being located just off Waldstraße in Baldham. Today the building houses archaeological collections of the Munich museums, and vegetation blocks the front view.

(MapQuest Map Link)

The Atlantikwall in France was an elaborate defense system in the Calais area, but in Normandy, where the invasion actually landed, the "wall" was more a system of isolated bunkers and gun positions. However, some of these housed powerful artillery pieces, which dueled with Allied battleships and destroyers on D-Day. Some of these positions held out for almost a week following D-Day. The largest of these positions in the invasion area were near Saint-Marcouf and Crisbecq, inland from Utah Beach. These housed 210mm naval guns in reinforced concrete shelters.  (U.S. Army)

The concrete gun positions were blown up by the Americans after their German defenders surrendered. These sites used to be rather "out in the boonies" and overgrown, but they have recently been cleared and marked for historical interpretation (this photo of one of the Saint-Marcouf positions was taken in 1981).
(MapQuest Map Link)