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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).
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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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
Go to the War Memorials page
Back to the Third Reich in Ruins homepage
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