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Miscellaneous Sites
Associated with the Third Reich
Part 6
The following sites can be found
on this page. Click these links to proceed directly to a particular site: Frankfurt
am Main (Hessen), Tannenberg (East Prussia /
Poland), Ratibor (Upper Silesia / Poland), Sassnitz
(Saßnitz) (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Feilitzsch
(Bavaria), "Natter" rocket launch
site, Kirchheim unter Teck (Baden-Würtemburg).
Frankfurt
am Main
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| This
large building in Frankfurt was the headquarters of the I.G. Farben
industrial complex. I.G. Farben was involved in many areas of the
chemical industry, but the company is perhaps best known today as the
maker of the Zyklon-B poison gas that was used in the death camps of the
Third Reich.
At the end of World War II the building complex was appropriated as
Allied Headquarters under General Eisenhower, and it continued as a U.S.
Army and NATO headquarters until the early 1990s (known as the Abrams
Building). The complex is now the Goethe University. (Werner Rittich, "Architektur und Bauplastik der
Gegenwart," Berlin, 1938) (MapQuest
Map Link) |
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| The
entrance to the I.G. Farben Building is practically unchanged, except
for the removal of the flags and the addition of the Johann Wolfgang
Goethe Universität sign over the entryway. On the left, the building is
seen decorated for a labor festival. |
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| My
father, Army Air Forces Lt. Delbert R. Walden, visited the I.G. Farben
Building in 1946, when it was in use as SHAEF Headquarters under General
Eisenhower. Visit the US
Army in Germany page for a history of the I.G. Farben / Abrams
Building (scroll down the page to the bottom). (collection
of G.R. and G.A. Walden) |
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| Behind
the main building is a large reflecting pool. The building on the right,
also part of the complex, served as the Officer's Club while the I.G.
Farben complex served as Allied Headquarters. |
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| A bronze
sculpture by Third Reich period artist Fritz Klimsch appears above the
reflecting pool - "Am Wasser," 1931. As the story goes, Mamie Eisenhower did
not like this sculpture and had it removed to storage, but after the
American forces left the building in the 1990s it was returned to its
original position. Click here
to see another similar work by Klimsch, also still in existence. |
Tannenberg
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| In the
mid-1920s a monument was built in East Prussia on the site of the August
1914 battle of Tannenberg, in which German forces under Field Marshal
Paul von Hindenburg defeated the Russian Second Army. Following
Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler had him buried in a crypt built into
the monument. The monument was designed as a walled octagon with eight
towers, reminiscent of a Teutonic fortress. In January 1945, as
advancing Soviet forces neared the site, the Germans removed the remains
of Hindenburg and his wife, and blew up two of the towers. The site was
eventually stripped for building materials by the Poles who moved into
East Prussia after the end of World War II. (Hubert Schrade, "Bauten
des Dritten Reiches," Leipzig, 1937; Werner Rittich, "Architektur und Bauplastik der
Gegenwart," Berlin, 1938 ) (MapQuest
Map Link - approx. location) |
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| The
burial of Paul von Hindenburg at the Tannenberg monument on 2 October
1935. (Bundesarchiv) |
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| A
gathering of the SA (Sturmabteilung) at Tannenberg in July
1938. (private collection) |
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Adolf
Hitler lays a wreath at the Tannenberg memorial in 1931.
"Deutschland erwacht -
Werden, Kampf un Sieg der NSDAP," Hamburg, 1933
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| Only a
stone arch and wall, and some brick rubble remains on the site today,
which is located in a park area of the Polish town of Olsztynek. The
stone arch seen above is thought to be part of the original entrance to
the monument. (Many thanks to Dietmar Grauer for sending the modern
photos!) |
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| The
memorial marker below was placed by the Volksbund
Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V., the organization that oversees
German war cemeteries, in memory of World War I casualties buried at the
site. (Many thanks to Dietmar Grauer for sending these photos!) |
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Ratibor,
Border Tower
Reich
Academy, DAF School, Saßnitz
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| In
1934-35 architect Julius Schulte-Frohlinde redesigned and renovated a
summer hotel in Saßnitz on the Island of Rügen into a Schulungsburg
training academy for the DAF (Deutsche Arbeits-Front - Workers Front).
Schulte-Frohlinde added side wings to the building and stonework on the
grounds, and redesigned the main part of the building with exercise
rooms, a library, a Fest Hall, meeting rooms, and living quarters. The
building was torn down after the war and the only recognizable remains
to be seen today are the stone entryway and semi-circular flag bastion. Click
here to see a
similar school in Erwitte. (photos and location info courtesy
Stephen Hicks) (MapQuest
Map Link) |
This plan view of the north side of the
building shows the stonework bastion at the left. A flagpole and salute cannon were
mounted there.
("Bauten der Bewegung," Vol. 1, 1938)
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| What
appear to be remains of the back wall of the building are at the edge of
the woods at the rear of the site, and other rubble of the building is
in an overgrown area. Click here
to see another site in Saßnitz, and here
to see the remains at Prora on the Island of Rügen. ("Bauten
der Bewegung," Vol. 1, 1938; right - courtesy Stephen Hicks) |
Feilitzsch
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| This
school in the village of Feilitzsch in northern Bavaria was built during
the period 1933-39. The basic building still exsists, although changed
somewhat through renovation, and is still a school. (MapQuest
Map Link) |
"Natter"
Rocket Launch Site, Kirchheim unter Teck
One of
the secret weapons being developed by the Germans toward the end of World War II
was the Ba 349 "Natter" rocket plane ("Natter" can be
translated as Adder or Viper). This vehicle, which was developed by Erich Bachem
and went through several different design configurations, was the first manned
vertically-launched rocket vehicle in history. Although the vehicle never went
past the testing stage, and had only one manned launch, it was designed to
quickly climb to the altitude of enemy bombers, engage and destroy a bomber with
missiles, and fall back to earth. The plane could not land, but the pilot would
parachute to safety and the main part of the plane would also come down on a
parachute, to be reused (the vehicle was cheaply constructed, mainly of wood).
The
single manned test flight, 1 March 1945, ended in tragedy as the pilot Lothar
Sieber was killed when the rocket
plane crashed, apparently due to a malfunctioning booster rocket and canopy. This was the first launch of a manned rocket powered vehicle that
was launched vertically, and would not be repeated for sixteen years, until
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew into space in 1961. (further info: Joachim
Dressel and Manfred Griehl, "Die deutschen Raketenflugzeuge
1935-1945," ISBN: 3-89350-692-6)
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| The
Natter/Viper was launched from a metal launch tower, with side rails to
support the wings, that was erected from a circular concrete base. The
concrete launch base can be seen in the photo on the left, which shows
test vehicle #23, later used for Lothar Sieber's tragic test flight in
March 1945. The other photos show unmanned Viper test launches.
(U.S. National Archives, RG342FH-3A1993 and
3A1994; courtesy Digital
History Archive) |
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| On 11 May 1945, the advancing U.S. Army captured four more-or-less intact
Vipers, along with some of the design scientists, near St. Leonhard, Austria. These rocket planes
underwent various tests after the war, and one of them remains in
storage in the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Collection. In the
photo on the right above, Dr. Heinz Rieck, one of the plane's inventors,
is seen explaining the flight plan to a GI of the 44th Infantry Division. The device near the rear of the rocket plane that looks like a bomb
with a nozzle is a small solid-fuel booster rocket, four of which assisted in
the launch (very much like NASA's space shuttle). In the photo on the
left below, GIs inspect the liquid-fuel main rocket exhaust, and the photo on the right
below shows the Viper's business end - its armament of 24 73mm
air-to-air missiles
(various other armaments had been tried; this was to be the production
configuration). These missiles were covered during launch and powered
flight by a plexiglass cover; this was to be jettisoned and the missiles
launched in a volley at the bomber target. (U.S. National
Archives; upper left - RG111SC-211911; upper right - RG111SC-211913;
lower left - RG111SC-211917; lower right - RG111SC-211912;
courtesy Digital
History Archive) |
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| This
restored Ba 349 "Natter" (BP-20 test model) is on display in
the Deutsches Museum in Munich, along with an original Walther rocket
motor HWK 109-509A (above right and below). This display
"Natter" is painted to portray test model M-17, which flew in
an unmanned test flight in early 1945. The black stripes were to aid
visual tracking of the rocket plane (see the middle photo of the first
group above). |
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Continue to Part 7
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