Spandau Prison was a prison situated in the borough of Spandau in western Berlin, constructed in 1876 and demolished in 1987 after the death of the last prisoner. The prison was near, though not part of, the ancient Spandau Citadel fortress. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Berlin is subdivided into 12 boroughs (Bezirke in German), which are administrative units with political rights comparable to incorporated communities in the rest of Germany (although they are not separate legal entities from the city). ... For the 1980s New Wave group, see Spandau Ballet. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Spandau Citadel is the oldest remaining structure in Berlin. ...

History

After World War II it was operated by the Four-Power Authorities to house the Nazi war criminals sentenced to imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Following the defeat of Nazi Germany and then the partition of German territory, two Four-Power Authorities, in which all 4 of the conquering forces (The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union) managed equally were created. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ...

Only seven prisoners were finally imprisoned there:

• Rudolf Hess with life sentence (died 1987)
• Walther Funk with life sentence (released 1957)
• Erich Raeder with life sentence (released 1955)
• Albert Speer 20 year term (released 1966)
• Baldur von Schirach 20 year term (released 1966)
• Konstantin von Neurath 15 year term (released 1954)
• Karl Dönitz 10 year term (released 1956)

Of the seven, only four fully served out their sentences, with the remaining three, Neurath, Raeder, and Funk, having been released partway into their sentences due to ill health. Between 1966 and 1987, [[Rudolf Hess] was the only prisoner in Spandau Prison. His only companion was the warden, Eugene K. Bird, who became a close friend. After Hess's death, Bird wrote a book entitled The Loneliest Man in the World about Hess's imprisonment. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... Walter Funk Walter Emanuel Funk (August 18, 1890 - May 31, 1960) was a prominent Nazi official. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... Erich Raeder. ... Life imprisonment is a term used for a particular kind of sentence of imprisonment. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Baldur von Schirach Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (May 9, 1907 – August 8, 1974) was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of being a war criminal. ... Konstantin von Neurath Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath (February 2, 1873 – August 14, 1956) was a German diplomat, Foreign Minister of Germany (1932-1938) and Reichsprotektor (nazi representative in the Czech puppet state) of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1943). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Lieutenant Colonel Eugene K. Bird (1926, Lambert, Montana – October 28, 2005, Berlin) was U.S. Director of the Spandau prison from 1964 to 1972. ...

Of note, Spandau was one of only two Four-Power organizations to continue to operate after the breakdown of the Allied Control Council; the other being the Berlin Air Safety Center. The four occupying powers of Berlin would alternate control of the prison monthly, each having the responsibility for a total of three months out of the year. Observing the Four-Power flags that flew at the Allied Control Authority building could determine control of the prison. Kammergericht, Headquarters of the Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in German as the Alliierter Kontrollrat, also referred to as the Four Powers, was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in... The Berlin Air Safety Center (BASC) came into existence immediately after the close of World War II and was one of only two Cold War, four-power organizations to ever exist. ...

In 1987, the prison was demolished, largely to prevent it from becoming a Neo-Nazi shrine, after the death of its final remaining prisoner, Rudolf Hess, who had been the prison's sole occupant for more than twenty years after the release of Speer and von Schirach in 1966. To further ensure its erasure, the site was made into a parking facility and a NAAFI shopping center, and all materials from the demolished prison were ground to powder and dispersed into the North Sea. 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The terms Neo-Nazism and Neo-Fascism refer to any social or political movement to revive Nazism or Fascism, respectively, and postdates the Second World War. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... The Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) (pronounced ) is a non-profit retaining organisation created by the British government in 1921 to run recreational establishments needed by the Armed Forces, and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. ... The North Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, located between the coasts of Norway and Denmark in the east, the coast of the British Isles in the west, and the German, Dutch, Belgian and French coasts in the south. ...

As of 2006 a Kaiser's Supermarket and a Media Markt consumer electronics store occupy the former prison grounds. For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Media Markt is a German chain of stores selling consumer electronics with numerous branches throughout Europe. ...

The prison

The prison, initially designed for a prison population in the hundreds, was an old brick building enclosed by one wall of 15 feet in height, another of 30 feet, a 10 feet high wall of electrified wire, followed by a wall of barbed wire. In addition, some of the sixty strong soldiers on guard duty manned nine machine-gun armed guard’s towers twenty-four hours a day. Due to the superfluous number of cells available, an empty cell was left between the prisoners' cells, to avoid the possibility of prisoners communicating in morse code. Other remaining cells in the wing were designated for other purposes, with one being used for the prison library and another for a chapel. The cells were approximately 3 meters long by 2.7 meters wide and 4 meters high.¹ A selection of forms of barbed wire. ...

Garden

The highlight of the prison, from the prisoners' perspective, was the prison garden. Very spacious given the small number of prisoners using it, the garden space was initially divided into small personal plots that were used by each prisoner in many ways, usually for the growing of vegetables. Dönitz favored growing beans, Funk tomatoes, and Speer flowers, although the Soviet director subsequently banned flowers for a time. By regulation, all of the produce was to be put toward use in the prison kitchen, but prisoners and guards alike often skirted this rule and indulged in the garden's offerings. Later, as prison regulations slackened in this regard and as other prisoners became either apathetic or of too ill to maintain their plots, the garden was consolidated into one large workable area. This suited the liking of the former architect Speer, who, being one of the youngest and liveliest of the prisoners, later took up the task of refashioning the entire plot of land into a large complex garden, complete with walking paths, rock gardens, and flower displays. On days without access to the garden, as when it was raining for instance, the prisoners occupied their time making envelopes together in the main corridor. A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. ... An architect at his drawing board, 1893 An architect is a person who is involved in the planning, designing and oversight of a buildings construction. ... A rock garden, also known as a rockery or an alpine garden, is a type of garden that features extensive use of rocks or stones, along with plants native to rocky or alpine environments. ...

Controversy

Before the Allied powers requisitioned the prison in November 1946, expecting a hundred or more war criminals, it housed more than 600 prisoners. Besides the sixty or so soldiers on duty in or around the prison at any given time, there were teams of professional civilian warders from each of the four countries, four prison directors and their deputies, four army medical officers, cooks, translators, waiters, porters and others. This was perceived as a drastic misallocation of resource and became a serious point of contention among the prison directors, politicians from their respective countries, and, especially, the government of West Berlin, who were left to foot the bill and suffer from the lack of valuable prison space. The debate surrounding the imprisonment of the seven war criminals in such a large prison with such a large and expensive complementary staff was only heightened as time went on and prisoners were released. This reached its peak after the release of Speer and Schirach in 1966, when only one prisoner, Rudolf Hess, was left remaining in an otherwise unutilized prison. Various proposals were made to remedy this situation throughout, ranging from moving the prisoners to an appropriately sized wing of another larger, occupied prison, to releasing the men from prison entirely or instead putting them under house arrest. Nevertheless, the prison remained as one exclusively for the housing of the seven war criminals for the rest of its existence, and was demolished in 1987 after the death of Hess. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Boroughs of West Berlin West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... In justice and law, house arrest is the situation where a person is confined (by the authorities) to his or her residence. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Life in the prison

Prison regulation

Every facet of life in the prison was strictly set out by a bloated and intricate prison regulation scheme designed before the prisoners' arrival by the Four Powers — France, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Compared with other established prison regulations at the time, Spandau's rules were quite strict. The prisoners' outgoing letters to family were at first limited to one page every month, talking with fellow prisoners was prohibited, newspapers were banned, diaries and memoirs were forbidden, visits with family were limited to one of fifteen minutes every two months, and lights were flashed into the prisoners' cells every fifteen minutes during the night as a form of suicide watch. A considerable portion of the stricter regulations was either later revised toward the more lenient or conveniently ignored by prison staff. The directors and guards of the Western powers (France, Britain, and the United States) repeatedly voiced opposition to many stricter measures and made near constant protest of them to their superiors throughout the prison's existence, but they were invariably vetoed by the Soviet Union, which favored a tougher approach. The Soviet Union, which pushed for execution of all who were imprisoned in Spandau, was unwilling to compromise with the Western powers in this regard, both because of the harsher punishment that they felt was justified, and as an extension of Cold War-era jockeying for power. This contrasted with Werl Prison, which housed hundreds of former officers and other lower ranking Nazi men who were under comparatively lax regulation. A memoir, as a literary genre, forms a sub-class of autobiography. ... It has been suggested that Suicide method be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Werl Prison has about 900 inmates and is one of the largest prisons in Germany. ...

Daily life

Every day, prisoners were ordered to rise at 06:00 hours, wash, clean their cells and the corridor together, eat breakfast, stay in the garden until lunch time at noon, weather permitting, have a post-lunch rest in their cells, then return to the garden. Supper followed at 17:00 hours and the prisoners were kept in their cells until lights out at 22:00 hours. Prisoners received a shave and a haircut, if necessary, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and did their own laundry every Monday. This routine, except the time allowed in the garden, changed very little throughout the years, although each of the controlling nations had their own varying interpretation of the prison regulations.

Within a few years of their arrival at the prison, all sorts of illicit lines of communication were opened for the prisoners by sympathetic prison staff. This supplementary line to the outside world was free of the censorship put over the official communications allowed to the prisoners and was also virtually unlimited in volume. Since every piece of paper given to the prisoners was recorded and tracked, the secret letters were most often written on toilet paper, whose supply went unmonitored for the entire duration of the prison's existence. Subsequently, many prisoners took full advantage of this illegal privilege. Albert Speer, after having his official request to write his memoirs denied, finally began setting down on paper his experiences and perspectives of his time with the Nazi regime, which would be systematically smuggled out and be later released as a bestselling book, Inside the Third Reich. Dönitz, among other things, wrote letters to his former deputy regarding the protection of his prestige in the outside world. When his release was near, Dönitz gave instructions to his wife on how best she could help ease his transition from a prisoner back into politics, which he intended to do, but never actually accomplished. Funk managed to obtain a seemingly constant stream of cognac (all alcohol was banned in the prison) and other treats that he would share with other prisoners on special occasions. Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

A great fear of the prisoners' was the month in which the Soviets took command, as they were much stricter in their enforcement of prison regulations and offered poorer quality meals. Each month, the nation in charge would bring its own cook and would, in the American, French, and British months, liberally allow food given to the prisoners to exceed the amount prescribed in established prison regulations, as for food energy and volume. The Soviets, until being swayed much later into the prison’s existence, would offer a daily unchanged diet of coffee, bread, soup, and potatoes, which the relatively luxurious food available during the Western months much eclipsed in quality. This was primarily because of the much loathed Soviet director, who perpetually enforced these measures and whom Russian and Western soldiers feared and despised alike. Until his sudden removal from this duty in the early 1960s, when another, more accommodating, director replaced him, the Soviet month was dreaded. Food energy is the amount of energy in food that is available through digestion. ...

The Spandau Seven

The prisoners, still subject to the petty personal rivalries and battles for prestige that characterized the party politics of the Nazi regime, divided themselves up into a few groups: Albert Speer and Rudolf Hess were the loners, generally un-liked by the others — the former for his admission of guilt and repudiation of Hitler at the Nuremberg trials, and the latter for his antisocial personality and perceived mental instability. The two former Grand Admirals, Erich Raeder and Karl Dönitz, stayed together as a matter of seniority, despite the heated dislike they shared for each other ever since Dönitz replaced Raeder as Commander in Chief of the Navy in 1943. Baldur von Schirach and Walther Funk were described as "inseparable"², and Konstantin von Neurath was, being a former diplomat, amiable and amenable to all the others. Despite the time they spent with each other, remarkably little progress was made in the way of reconciliation between prisoners. A notable example was Dönitz's dislike of Speer being steadfastly maintained for his entire ten year sentence, with it only coming to a head during the last few days of his imprisonment. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is a personality disorder which is often characterised by antisocial and impulsive behaviour. ... German Grand Admiral Sleeve Insignia Grand Admiral Shoulder Insignia In the German Navy the rank of Grand Admiral (Großadmiral) was considered the highest Naval rank. ... Erich Raeder. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Baldur von Schirach Baldur Benedikt von Schirach (May 9, 1907 – August 8, 1974) was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of being a war criminal. ... Walter Funk Walter Emanuel Funk (August 18, 1890 - May 31, 1960) was a prominent Nazi official. ... Konstantin von Neurath Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath (February 2, 1873 – August 14, 1956) was a German diplomat, Foreign Minister of Germany (1932-1938) and Reichsprotektor (nazi representative in the Czech puppet state) of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1943). ...

Albert Speer

The prisoners were assigned numbers corresponding to the order in which they were first assigned cells and were, by regulation, referred to by their number only. Speer, number five, was the most ambitious of the prisoners, dedicating himself to a rigorous physical and mental work regime, then scheduling "vacations" of two weeks in length every few months where he relieved himself from his self-imposed routine. He secretly wrote two books, a draft of his memoirs entitled Inside the Third Reich and a collection of diary entries, The Spandau Diaries. Speer also kept busy with architectural works designing a Californian summer home for a guard.¹ He would frequently go on "walking tours of the world" by ordering geography and travel books from the local library and walking laps in the prison garden visualizing his journey. Meticulously calculated, he traveled more than 24,000 km before his release. Inside the Third Reich is a memoir written by Albert Speer, the Nazi Minister of Armaments from 1942 to 1945. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

Erich Raeder and Karl Dönitz

"The Admiralty," as the other prisoners referred to Dönitz and Raeder, were often teamed together in various tasks. Raeder, with a liking for rigid systems and organization, designated himself as chief librarian of the prison library, with Dönitz as his assistant. Both men often withheld themselves from other prisoners, with Dönitz claiming for his entire ten years in prison that he was still the rightful head of the German state, and Raeder having contempt for the insolence and lack of discipline endemic in his nonmilitary prison-mates. After Dönitz's release in 1956 he wrote a pair of books, one on his early life, My Ever-Changing Life, and one on his time as an admiral, Ten Years and Twenty Days. Raeder, in failing health and seemingly close to death, was released in 1955 and died a few years later in 1960. 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess, sentenced to life but without being released due to ill health like Raeder, Funk, or Neurath, served the longest sentence out of the seven and was by far the most demanding of the prisoners. Agreed on being the 'laziest man in Spandau', Hess avoided all forms of work that he deemed below his dignity, such as pulling weeds, and was the only one of the seven who almost never attended the prison's Sunday church service. A paranoid hypochondriac by nature, he repeatedly complained of all forms of illness, mostly stomach pains, and was suspicious of all food given to him, always taking the dish placed farthest away from him as a means to avoid poisoning. His stomach pains often caused wild and excessive moans and cries of pain throughout the day and night and their authenticity were repeatedly the subject of debate between the prisoners and the prison directors. Raeder, Dönitz, and Schirach were contemptuous of this behavior and viewed them as cries for attention or as means to avoid work, rather than out of pain. Speer and Funk, acutely aware of the likely psychosomatic nature of the illness, were accommodating to Hess. Speer, in a move that gained more of the ire of his fellow prisoners, would often tend to Hess's needs, bringing him his coat when he was cold and coming to his defense when a director or guard was attempting to coax Hess out of bed and into work. It is interesting that occasionally as Hess was wailing in pain, affecting the sleep of the other prisoners, the prison's medical officer would inject Hess with what was described as a "sedative" but was in actuality just distilled water, which succeeded in putting Hess to sleep. The fact that Hess repeatedly skirted duties the others had to bear and received other preferential treatments because of his illness was loathed by other prisoners and earned him the title of "His imprisoned Lordship" by the admirals. Hypochondria (sometimes hypochondriasis) is the unfounded belief that one is suffering from a serious illness. ... A psychosomatic illness is one with physical manifestations and supposed psychological cause, often diagnosed when any known or identifiable physical cause was excluded by medical examination. ...

Hess, also as a matter of dignity, was unique among the prisoners in that he refused all visitors for more than twenty years, finally accepting to see his long since adult son and wife in 1969 after suffering from a perforated ulcer that required his treatment at a hospital outside the prison. Fearing for his mental health, now that he was the sole remaining prisoner, and that his death was imminent, the prison directors after that agreed to slacken most of the remaining regulations, moving Hess to the more spacious former chapel space, giving him a water heater to allow the making of tea or coffee when he liked, and permanently unlocking his cell so that he could freely access the prison's bathing facilities and library. For the Stargate SG-1 episode, see 1969 (Stargate SG-1). ...

Trivia

• The famed commando Otto Skorzeny, who freed Benito Mussolini from his captors in 1943, claimed in an interview in 1953 that, given "a hundred reliable men and two planes", he could easily free all of the prisoners. This had a decidedly negative impact on the campaigns of those trying to free the prisoners at Spandau through appeal and legal means, as it suggested that the men were still of high value and that their release would be a boost to neo-Nazis.

• The band Spandau Ballet were initially called 'The Makers'. They changed their name after a visit to Spandau; the inspiration being from graffiti one of their roadies, BBC London 94.9 DJ Robert Elms, saw there.

• Ronald Speirs, who is portrayed by Matthew Settle in the acclaimed 2001 HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, served as director of Spandau Prison in the late 1950s.

For other uses, see Commando (disambiguation). ... After Operation Greif, Otto Skorzeny was labelled the most dangerous man in Europe Otto Skorzeny (June 12, 1908 - July 6[1] 1975) was an Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he is known as the commando leader who rescued... Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) was the prime minister and dictator of Italy from 1922 until 1943, when he was overthrown. ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Spandau Ballet were a popular English band in the 1980s. ... BBC London 94. ... Ronald Speirs (April 20, 1920-April 11, 2007) was a United States Army officer who served in the U.S. 101st Airborne Division during World War II. He was initially a platoon leader in Company D (Dog Company) of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. ... Matthew Settle as Capt. ... Band of Brothers is an acclaimed 10-part television miniseries set during World War II, co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. ...

See also

• Nuremberg Trials
• Spandau Citadel
• Four-Power Authorities
• Cold War
• Berlin blockade

The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ... The Spandau Citadel is the oldest remaining structure in Berlin. ... Following the defeat of Nazi Germany and then the partition of German territory, two Four-Power Authorities, in which all 4 of the conquering forces (The United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union) managed equally were created. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Occupation zones after 1945. ...

Resources

Notes

• Note 1: Fishman, Jack (1986). Long Knives and Short Memories: The Spandau Prison Story. Breakwater Books. ISBN 0-920911-00-5. , pg. 22
• Note 2: Speer, Albert (1976). The Spandau Diaries. Macmillan. ISBN 0-671-80843-5. 

References

• Fishman, Jack (1986). Long Knives and Short Memories: The Spandau Prison Story. Breakwater Books. ISBN 0-920911-00-5. 
• Speer, Albert (1976). The Spandau Diaries. Macmillan. ISBN 0-671-80843-5. 

External links

• Spandau Prison on Western Allies Berlin Website

Coordinates: 52°31′16″N, 13°11′07″E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...