| During one of my Munich tours |
Welcome to my website, a daily work in progress which has gone far
beyond my original pretensions when I first launched it nearly two
decades ago as a way of trying to bring the past to life for my
students. I've cycled around the world taking photographs of obscure an prominent historic sites which are then paired with innovative GIFs that juxtapose the sites as they appear today with their historical counterparts, offering a vivid, visual connection to the past. These are complemented by archival images, film footage, and survivor accounts, with GIFs seamlessly blending past and present to illustrate how these places have evolved. This method not only preserves the memory of historical events but also provides a tangible link to the physical spaces where they unfolded, grounded in meticulous research and firsthand exploration, to aim to become an invaluable tool for educators, students, and historians seeking to understand the complexities of modern history. To this end my site also aims to provide a robust collection of teaching resources tailored to history curricula, including GCSE, A-Level, and International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme requirements. These include detailed lesson plans, worksheets, and examination-style questions covering topics such as the Weimar Republic’s collapse, Hitler’s rise, and the Holocaust’s consequences. The resources draw on the site’s extensive archive of primary sources and visual comparisons, enabling other teachers to craft lessons that encourage critical analysis and historical empathy. Students benefit from access to past IBDP History exams, hyperlinked to graded student responses, as well as lecture notes and extended essays, all designed to foster rigorous academic inquiry.
Ultimately, what
gives me the greatest satisfaction is having people from around the
world contact me, whether to correct the various errors within these
pages, ask for help researching material, request tours, or just feel
provoked to reach out from a shared interest in the past.
GERMANY
My
most visited page to date despite the one showing the least number of
sites given the extensive destruction and reconstruction of the area. Instead, I focus on corporeal decay: Hitler’s tremors, Eva Braun’s presence, the Goebbels children’s poisoning, and the charred remains ignited in the Chancellery garden. Such visceral details, paired with forensic analysis of bloodstained sofas and contested skull fragments, strip away myth to expose raw desperation. Central are the visual confrontations; archival schematics map the Vorbunker’s warren-like layout beside contemporary photographs- my students dwarfed by overgrown foundations, the emergency exit choked by weeds—to underscore terrain irrevocably altered yet hauntingly resonant. Provocation emerges through dissonance- footage of Churchill scrutinising the ruins in 1945 collides with modern re-enactments, whilst STASI film from 1988 reveals flooded corridors mere years before redevelopment entombed them beneath parking lots. Soviet troops hauling away a Reich eagle with Groucho Marx’s Charleston atop Hitler’s grave. Degussa’s anti-graffiti coating on Holocaust Memorial stelae- produced by the firm behind Zyklon B. It questions whether Madame Tussaud’s bunker reconstruction or viral selfies constitute remembrance or voyeurism, citing Beevor’s scorn for "Disneyland approaches." By charting the struggle to commemorate—from Stalin’s trophy hunts to the Topography of Terror’s rejection of sensationalism—I try to frame the Führerbunker not as inert stone but as a palimpsest where ideology, erasure, and frail humanity collide.
Sites featured: Führerbunker, New Reich Chancellery, Old Reich Chancellery, Mohrenstrasse Underground Station, Wilhelmplatz, Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe
An historical exploration of Berlin centred on the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, using archival images, student photographs from my class trips over decades, and detailed historical commentary to show how architecture, power, and memory intersect in one of Europe’s most contested cities. It traces the Gate’s transformation from imperial symbol to Nazi propaganda tool then through wartime ruin, Cold War division as part of the Berlin Wall’s death strip, and post-1989 reunification. The Reichstag’s examined through pivotal moments: the 1918 republic proclamation, the 1933 fire and debate over Nazi involvement, its capture in 1945, and post-war use as a museum before Lord Foster’s reconstruction. The site’s Soviet-era graffiti is presented as raw testimony of conquest and memory. I also include analysis of manipulated photographs, challenging mythologised narratives and document wartime destruction, the fate of buildings like the Adlon Hotel and Palais Arnim, and lesser-known stories — the Kapp Putsch, the Volkssturm, and individual figures like Marija Limanskaja using primary sources, academic works, and eyewitness accounts. The juxtaposition of my students at these sites with historical events creates a direct link between past and present.
Sites featured: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Pariserplatz, Various embassies (American, Swiss, French), Adlon Hotel, Konzerthaus Clou, Akademie der Künste, Central Office of the Inspector General for Construction in the Reich Capital, Berlin Wall, Moltke bridge and various sites associated with the Battle of Berlin
My exploration of Unter den Linden examines Berlin's ceremonial boulevard as a palimpsest of competing historical narratives, from Prussian grandeur through Nazi spectacle to divided city and reunified capital. I trace the street's transformation using archival photographs, Nazi-era postcards, and contemporary visits with my students, documenting how monumental spaces designed for mass rallies have become sites of amnesia and ambiguity. Through then-and-now comparisons, I reveal the Neue Wache's evolution from Prussian guardhouse to Wehrmacht shrine to DDR memorial, now housing an enlarged Kollwitz pietà that conflates perpetrators with victims under the vague dedication "To the Victims of War and Tyranny." My analysis of Bebelplatz integrates footage of the 1933 book burning with images of today's subtle underground memorial, demonstrating how the square that witnessed Goebbels's "cleansing by fire" now hosts tourists who often miss Micha Ullmann's subterranean empty library. I document the Lustgarten's transformation from site of million-strong Nazi rallies using photographs of Hitler addressing the SA alongside images of my students standing where tanks defended the Museum Island in 1945. My coverage extends to contested reconstructions: the Stadtschloss rising where the Palast der Republik once stood, the Alte Kommandantur's "bogus neo-Renaissance front" concealing modern offices, and debates over authentic preservation versus Disney-fication. Through images of wedding ceremonies at the Dom draped in swastikas, the Armistice railway carriage displayed as trophy, and Great War tanks pressed into final service, I demonstrate how the street served as theatrical backdrop for Nazi power. My juxtaposition of Wehrmacht honour guards with schoolchildren, demolished ruins with pristine facades, reveals Berlin's approach to its difficult past: neither honest preservation nor complete erasure, but selective reconstruction that smooths over historical ruptures.
Sites featured: Humboldt
Universität, Berliner Dom, Ehrenmal, Friedrichstraße, Neue Wache,
Bodemuseum, Museumsinsel, Alte Kommandantur, Stadtschloss, Lustgarten,
Gendarmenmarkt, Staatsoper, Zeughaus, Bebelplatz, St. Hedwig's
Cathedral, Französischer Dom, Deutscher Dom, Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Altes Museum, Pergamon Museum, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berliner Schloß, Russian embassy, Reich Ministry of the Interior 
Lined
with imposing buildings and government offices, Wilhelmstraße was the
epicentre of Nazi governance, housing key institutions and ministries
essential to the regime's control. Among these were the offices of the
Reich Chancellery and Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda which played a crucial role in shaping public opinion and
disseminating Nazi ideology. I detail the street’s historical significance as a metonym for the German Reich government, focusing on the Reich Aviation Ministry, the only major Nazi-era building still standing, and the Gestapo headquarters, now the Topography of Terror exposing the bureaucratic machinery of Nazi terror. My visual juxtapositions using archival images alongside modern photographs from my educational visits capture the street’s physical and symbolic evolution. The Aviation Ministry stands as a monumental relic of Nazi ambition, its stark limestone façade and vast scale embodying the regime and today serving the Federal Ministry of Finance, raising questions about repurposing structures tied to oppression. Equally significant is the Berlin Wall’s presence along Wilhelmstraße, renamed Niederkirchnerstraße post-war, which marked the Cold War divide between East and West. My GIFs contrast the Wall’s imposing barrier in 1990 with its remnants today, underscoring the street’s layered history of division and trauma. The Wilhelmstraße History Mile, with glass information boards, attempts to contextualise sites like the Reich Colonial Office, where the Herero and Nama genocide was orchestrated. By weaving these visual comparisons into its narrative, I challenge my students to reflect on how Berlin navigates its complex legacy, balancing preservation, erasure, and the enduring weight of history’s atrocities.
Sites featured: Reich Justice Ministry,Reich Colonial Office,Reich Foreign Office, Central Office of the Führer's Deputy, Reich Aviation Ministry, Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaf, British Embassy, Reichsministerium für Wissenschaft, Erziehung und Volksbildung, Gestapo Headquarters, Haus der Flieger, Reich Propaganda Ministry, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, Topography of Terror, Berlin Wall, Hotel Kaiserhof
By focusing on Friedrichstrasse I examine Berlin's north-south artery as a continuum of state terror, from Nazi deportations through Cold War division to contemporary commercial amnesia. I present the street through an analysis of Battle of Berlin photographs- identifying
specific vehicles, units, and casualties, the half-track of
ϟϟ-Hauptsturmführer Pehrsson, the bright red Bergmann Deutsche
Reichspost van, Swedish volunteers' corpses arranged for propaganda
effect- Soviet documentation, and contemporary visits with my students, to reveal how successive regimes weaponised this on street. My then-and-now comparisons trace the station's evolution from deportation point for Jews to the DDR's "Tränenpalast" where families were torn apart at the heavily guarded transit point between East and West. I document the Reichsbahnbunker's transformation from forced-labour construction to NKVD prison to "banana bunker" to luxury penthouse, each iteration erasing previous histories. Through archival footage and contemporary photographs, I show how the street served both regimes: the Gestapo's surveillance of travellers, mass deportations continuing even under Allied bombardment, then the Stasi's control of the few permitted crossing points. My analysis of Checkpoint Charlie extends beyond Cold War clichés to examine its commercialisation- from the 1961 tank standoff to today's costumed guards posing for tourist selfies. I juxtapose Peter Fechter bleeding to death in no-man's land with souvenir shops selling Wall fragments, Wehrmacht parades with James Bond film locations. The systematic documentation of wartime destruction- Soviet artillery coordinates, casualty figures, building-by-building combat- contrasts with the street's current incarnation as shopping destination and tourist trap. Through identification of corpses and commercial façades, I present Friedrichstrasse as where state terror's infrastructure becomes retail therapy's playground.
Sites featured: Main Synagogue, Bendlerblock, Siegessäule, Alexanderplatz, Stauffenberg
office/site of execution, Soviet memorial Tiergarten, Friedrichstrasse,
Charlottenburg, Lichterfelde, Reichsbahnbunker Friedrichstraße, Weidendammer bridge, Admiralspalast, Memorial to Homosexuals, Tiergartenstraße 4, Various Fascist Embassies, Wehrmacht Headquarters, Rotes Rathaus
Tiergarten is where Nazi ideology, wartime destruction, and postwar memorialisation intersect along Berlin's diplomatic quarter. I document the Soviet War Memorial on Straße des 17. Juni using archival photographs from 1945 and class visits, showing how this monument built from materials allegedly taken from Hitler's Chancellery sits provocatively in the former British sector, tracing its construction in November 1945 when Zhukov refused to request British permission, its role during the Cold War when Soviet honour guards from East Berlin stood watch in West Berlin, and incidents including the 1970 shooting of a guard by neo-Nazi Ekkehard Weil. At Tiergartenstraße 4, I document the headquarters of the T4 euthanasia programme through visits to the site now occupied by a rusted metal memorial, detailing how from this address Hitler's secret order led to the murder of over 70,000 disabled patients before personnel were transferred to implement the Final Solution. I examine the fascist embassies built between 1938 and 1943 as compensation for demolitions required by Speer's Germania plans. Through images of the Victory Column's 1938 relocation for the east-west axis, wartime damage, and visits with students, I show how the monument survived despite French attempts at vandalism. At the Bendlerblock, I document the site of the July 20 plot through photographs of Stauffenberg's office with its surviving swastika parquet, the courtyard where conspirators were executed, and Scheibe's memorial statue created by an artist who received both Nazi and Federal honours. I reveal again how Tiergarten's monuments and buildings embody Berlin's layered history: Soviet victors occupying space planned for Germania, euthanasia headquarters marked by abstract sculpture, fascist embassies retaining their authoritarian symbols, and military buildings where resistance came too late transformed into memorial sites that obscure as much as they reveal.
Sites featured: Tiergarten, Bendlerblock, Siegessäule, Stauffenberg office/site of execution, Soviet memorial Tiergarten, Memorial to Homosexuals, Tiergartenstraße 4, Various Fascist Embassies, Wehrmacht Headquarters
Here I trace Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church from imperial monument through British bombing to preserved ruin, showing how Egon Eiermann's modernist church coexists uneasily with the hollow tower where Coventry's Cross of Nails now stands as reciprocal symbols of destruction. I document Plötzensee Prison's execution shed where over 2,500 died, including July 20 plotters hanged from meat hooks whilst cameras rolled for Hitler's viewing pleasure, the memorial created by sculptor Richard Scheibe who received both Nazi and Federal honours. My documentation of Anhalter Bahnhof juxtaposes Hitler's triumphant return from France with the station's use deporting 9,600 Jews, the adjacent bunker that housed 12,000 during Berlin's fall now containing controversial Hitler room reconstructions. At Museum Karlshorst, I show where Keitel signed Germany's surrender, his monocle dropping before Zhukov in the former military canteen. Through systematic comparison of execution protocols, deportation logistics, and architectural survivals, I demonstrate how Berlin today transforms terror infrastructure into commercial normality, revealing through specific locations how the city neither preserves honestly nor erases completely, creating instead a landscape where Nazi eagles persist on pharmacies whilst memorial plaques proliferate, where each site embodies Germany's continuing inability to reconcile preservation with progress, memory with amnesia.
Sites featured: Kaiser
Wilhelm Church, Plötzensee, Deutschlandhalle, Reichspostministerium,
Schillertheater, Reinickendorf Heiligensee, Charlottenburg, Karlshorst,
Anhalter Bahnhof, Invalidenstrasse, Frankfurterallee, Fehrbellinerplatz, Horst Wessel's grave, Horst Wessel Platz, Volksbühne, Kino Babylon,
Europahaus, Gasthaus Zum Nußbaum, Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin
Story Museum, Bülowstraße U-Bahn, Mehringdamm, Eldorado Gay Club, Berlin Messe, Städtische Krankenhaus am Friedrichshain, Hermannplatz, Haus der Reichsjugendführung
I examine how Berlin's Olympic Stadium complex, conceived for the cancelled 1916 Games, was transformed by Werner March into a limestone colossus for the most
spectacular propaganda exercise ever staged by the Nazis. Using archival footage, Nazi-era postcards, and then-and-now GIFs, I trace the stadium's evolution from athletic venue to ideological theatre. I document the surviving Nazi sculptures and analyse how these remain displayed without contextualisation. Through comparisons of the Führerbalkon where Hitler watched Jesse Owens triumph, the bell tower where the Olympic bell still bears its half-heartedly defaced swastika, and the Langemarck Hall celebrating military sacrifice, I reveal how the complex served dual purposes: impressing foreign visitors whilst preparing for war. I examine the torch relay's invention here, running from Greece through territories soon to be invaded, and Riefenstahl's Olympia which transformed the Games into cinematic myth. I examine the Olympic Village, Hitler's "village of peace" that became Wehrmacht barracks then KGB torture facility, and where 20,000 watched Nazi Thingspiel productions beneath Wamper's reliefs that still flank the entrance. I conclude at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery where my great-grandfather lies, having died in 1950 helping rebuild the democracy on the rins of the regime that hosted these Games five years helping to destroy. Here I reveal how Berlin's Olympic complex embodies Germany's selective preservation: Nazi sculptures remain as "art", the bell tower was faithfully reconstructed, yet interpretive silence allows the site to function as mere sports venue rather than confronting its role in legitimising a regime that would soon engulf the world in war.
Sites featured: Haus des Deutschen Sports, Olympiastadion, Olympic Stadium,Reichssportfeld, Commonwealth War Cemetery, Dietrich-Eckart-Bühne, Sportforum, Nazi Statues, Olympic bell tower, Olympic village Wustermark, Olympia-Stadion subway station
My detailed exploration of Wannsee examines the villa where bureaucrats coordinated genocide alongside neighbouring properties that housed Nazi intelligence operations and Soviet torture facilities. I document the conference site through archival photographs, film recreations, graphic novels and visits with my students, tracing how fifteen officials spent ninety minutes on January 20, 1942 discussing the logistics of murdering eleven million Jews. Using then-and-now images, I show the conference room where Heydrich announced the "evacuation to the East," the garden where the perpetrators socialised, and student presentations examining how ordinary bureaucrats facilitated mass murder showing how the site transforms administrative evil into pædagogical opportunity. I also document Tempelhof Airport's evolution from Nazi gateway featuring eagles shorn of swastikas to Berlin Airlift lifeline, and Treptower Park's Soviet memorial where Stalin quotations embossed in gold accompany reliefs portraying Soviet propaganda. At Sachsenhausen, I trace the camp's post-war use as NKVD facility, examining how East German memorialisation excluded Jewish victims in favour of communist martyrology. My then-and-now GIFs capture the Glienicke Bridge's transformation from wartime destruction to Cold War spy exchanges, Fort Hahneberg where Nazi eagles remain unchallenged, and UFA studios where Goebbels orchestrated propaganda now producing period dramas to demonstrate how these sites embody Germany's struggles with memory: administrative buildings becoming educational centres, intelligence facilities transformed to schools, yet Nazi symbols persisting where convenient.
Sites featured: Site of the Wannsee Conference, Reichsluftschutzschule, Liebermann-Villa, Villa Herz, Flensburg lion, Villa Oppenheim, Schweden-Pavillon, Waldhof am Bogensee, The Bridge of Spies, Glienicke Bridge
The Ufa film
studios were one of Europe's largest
film production companies during the Nazi era. Under Goebbels' s
Ministry of Propaganda, Ufa produced numerous films promoting Nazi
ideology and propaganda, including anti-Semitic works such as "Jud Süß."
The studio's output played a significant role in shaping public opinion
and reinforcing Nazi narratives. Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp was one of the first and largest established by the Nazis. Operating from 1936 until the end of the war,
Sachsenhausen was a site of forced labour, torture, and mass murder, with
tens of thousands of prisoners from across Europe perishing within its
walls. The Treptower Soviet Memorial, situated in Treptower Park in
Berlin, commemorates the Soviet soldiers who died liberating the city
from Nazi occupation during the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The memorial
features a grandiose statue of a Soviet soldier holding a rescued German
child, surrounded by Soviet flags, Stalin quotes in gold and symbols of
totalitarian victory.
Sites featured: Ufa
film studios, Fort Hahneberg, Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen Concentration
Camp, Prenzlau, Treptower Soviet Memorial, Tempelhof, Schöneweide,
Lichterfelde
I made the most of my access to Cecilienhof Palace, where fifteen officials spent two weeks in 1945 dividing the post-war world, to trace how the last Hohenzollern palace became the unlikely venue for determining the fate of the world. Through comparisons of wartime photos with contemporary documentation, I reveal how each delegation's quarters were colour-coded with Churchill relegated to the library whilst Stalin and Truman occupied ground-floor studies. My analysis of the conference hall shows where Truman casually informed Stalin about the atomic bomb on July 24, 1945, a moment Stalin feigned ignorance about despite Soviet intelligence having already briefed him. I examine the White Salon's transformation from Crown Prince's music room to Soviet reception space, documenting how furniture was brought from bourgeois households to create Stalin's deliberately modest æsthetic. The garden terrace where press photographers captured the "Big Three" in wicker chairs now displays those same chairs as museum pieces, whilst Christlieb's deer statues were returned only in 2020. I look beyond the palace to Potsdam's broader transformation: the Garrison Church where Hitler and Hindenburg staged their March 21, 1933 handshake, destroyed by British bombing in April 1945; the Lustgarten where Wehrmacht ceremonies occurred; KGB Military Town No. 7 with its hundred buildings and interrogation facilities. All showing how Potsdam serves as contested terrain where each regime inscribed its narrative onto Prussian foundations, from Nazi invocations of tradition to Soviet demonstrations of victory to contemporary struggles over Hohenzollern restitution claims, revealing a landscape where historical legitimacy remains perpetually negotiated through architecture, ceremony, and selective preservation.
Sites featured: Velten,
Brandenburg, Cecilienhof, Potsdam, Luckenwalde, Finsterwalde,
Frankfurt/Oder, Eberswalde, Rathenow, Ravensbrück, Chorin, Prignitz,
Falkensee, Schöneweide, Grünewalde, Treuenbrietzen, Gütergotz, Sans
Souci
My exploration of Munich’s Marienplatz and its surrounding environs traces how the city confronted its 'tattered past', moving from a stage for Nazi spectacle to a symbol of determined post-war reconstruction. I examine the dual functions of the Neues Rathaus, which served as a backdrop for both political theatre and, post-1945, the administrative hub for the American forces, and detail how the Altes Rathaus hosted Goebbels’s infamous Kristallnacht speech. I go beyond the square to explore the sites of Nazi atrocities and early party organisation, from the Aryanisation and persecution of Jewish businesses on Kaufingerstraße to the Sterneckerbräu, the birthplace of the Nazi party, now an innocuous Bavarian restaurant. I examine the public debate over whether to preserve ruins or recreate pre-war identity which represent a deliberate and at times contested effort to overcome the war's devastation and the historical memory of the Third Reich, as shown by the post-war memorials to German prisoners of war which preceded any similar plaques for Nazi victims. I explore the roles of key figures like Rupert Mayer, who opposed the regime from a church now containing his tomb, and the police headquarters on Ettstraße, a site of early Nazi terror bureacracy.
Sites featured: Hotel Torbräu, Sendlinger Tor, Frauenkirche, Isartor, Hitler Paintings, Hofbräuhaus, Marienplatz, Karlstor, Polizeipräsidium, Peterskirche, Sterneckerbräu,Pfeffermühle, Kaufingerstraße, Neues Rathaus, Altes Rathaus, Sites associated with Kristallnacht, Viktualienmarkt, Maxburgstrasse, Alte Akademie, St. Michael's church, Asamkirche, Alter Hof, Burgstraße, Hotel Schlicker "Zum Goldenen Löwen", Am Tal, Haus Neumayr, Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl
My detailed exploration of Munich’s Königsplatz as the symbolic heart of the Nazi movement. I go into how the site, originally a 19th-century neoclassical ensemble honouring art and antiquity, was transformed under the Nazis into a monumental Teatrum sacrum as a stage for ideological ritual. Using archival images, then-and-now images, and historical analysis, I trace the construction of Troost’s imposing Nazi administrative buildings- the Führerbau and Verwaltungsbau- and the twin Temples of Honour that housed the sarcophagi of the 1923 putsch 'martyrs.' I go into how the square became central to Nazi myth-making, hosting annual commemorations, parades, and Hitler’s 1938 Munich Agreement signing where I had the rare opportunity to explore the site to take then-and-now photos. I also covers the post-war fate of the site: the removal of Nazi symbols, the demolition of the temples in 1947, and the controversial reuse of former Nazi buildings, now housing cultural institutions like the University of Music and the Central Institute for Art History. The site’s complex legacy is further illustrated through events like the 1933 book burnings, the American occupation, and the Monuments Men’s work restoring looted art. Today, overgrown temple foundations and subtle plaques mark a deliberate effort to ignore the past and so my webpage serves as a case study in how cities confront dark histories, showing Königsplatz not just as a physical space, but as a contested symbol of memory, ideology, and architectural power.
Sites featured: The
Site of the Munich Agreement, Braunes Haus, Temples of Honour,
Königsplatz, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Königlicher Platz,
Parteizentrum der NSDAP, Verwaltungsbau, Zentrale, Glyptothek,
Führerbau, Ehrentempel, Propyläen, Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Zentraleinlaufamt und Zentralauslaufamt der Reichsleitung der NSDAP, Deutsche Christen Headquarters, Kanzlei des Stellvertreters des Führers, Hitler Paintings
Here I focus on Munich’s Odeonsplatz and the Feldherrnhalle as a key site of Nazi myth-making, tracing the site’s transformation from a 19th-century military memorial into the Nazis' “Altar of the Movement” after the failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Through my GIFs and archival material, I show how the Nazis repurposed the site for annual commemorations, complete with ϟϟ guards, mandatory Hitler salutes, and the display of the blutfahne. I detail the propaganda machinery behind the cult of the sixteen “martyrs,” including the 1935 reburial ceremony and the construction of the Temples of Honour on Königsplatz whilst presenting counter-memories: the police officers killed resisting the putsch, their memorial’s removal, and later attempts to revise the past, such as Reinhold Elstner’s 1995 self-immolation. The site’s post-war evolution is covered, including the dismantling of Nazi symbols, the unofficial “Shirker’s Alley” where locals avoided saluting, and graffiti like “I am ashamed to be a German.” I critically engage with contested imagery, such as the disputed photo of Hitler in the 1914 war rally, and include artistic representations, political protests, and modern-day tensions over remembrance to use the site as a case study in how public space is weaponised for ideology and how societies grapple with its legacy.
Sites featured: Odeonsplatz,
Isartor, Feldherrnhalle, Kriegsministerium, Theatinerkirche, Palais
Preysing, Zentralministerium, Drückeberger Gaßl, Residenz, Shirkers'
Alley, Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler Paintings, Theatinerkirche, Residenz, Ludwigstraße
I examine how Hitler, residing at Prinzregentenplatz 16, envisioned the avenue as a symbol of unyielding power, driving its redesign with structures like the Haus der Deutschen Kunst, a vast neoclassical edifice intended as a temple for ‘genuine German art’. My GIFs contrast the street’s original elegance with its wartime alterations, including the demolition of town houses and the erection of the Luftgaukommando headquarters, now a ministry building still marked by eagles and swastika grilles. These images highlight the regime’s imposition of severity, from the Haus der Kunst’s portico sealing off the English Garden to the Versuchsbauten blocks, designed for a never-realised Südstadt and now housing art exhibitions in repurposed bunkers. The narrative delves into the Haus der Kunst’s exhibitions, revealing the regime’s meticulous curation of approved art against ‘degenerate’ works, and its post-war role as an officer’s mess before becoming a contemporary gallery. The Prince Carl-Palais, once hosting Mussolini, and Hitler’s apartment, site of personal tragedy and diplomatic intrigue, further illustrate this shift. Today, debates over concealing Nazi symbols, like the planned tree removal at the Haus der Kunst, underscore ongoing tensions. Through these elements, the webpage serves as a case study in how urban spaces embody contested histories, challenging viewers to confront the persistence of ideological architecture in modern life.
Sites featured: Day
of German Art, Luftgaukommando, Schackgalerie, House of German Art,
Hofgartenarkaden, Remaining swastikas, Prinzregentenstraße, Hitler
Residence, Degenerate Art Exhibition, Wagner memorial,
Prinzregentenplatz, Kunstbunker Tumulka, Friedensengel, Hubertusbrunnen,
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Kolonialpolitische Amt der NSDAP, Reich
Governor of Bavaria Headquarters
Munich’s Brienner Straße, once renamed Adolf-Hitler-Straße, was transformed from a 19th century boulevard into a corridor of Nazi authority. My visual comparisons contrast the street’s elegant façades with their wartime devastation and post-war reinvention, highlighting sites like the Wittelsbacher Palais, which housed Gestapo headquarters and became a symbol of terror, where many faced execution. Next door was Hitler's planned mausoleum and he Haus der Deutschen Ärzte, the epicentre
of Nazi medical policy and the Holocaust’s grim beginnings. This
building housed the Reich Physicians’ Chamber, where racial laws and the
T4 euthanasia programme were devised and implemented, leading to the
forced sterilisation and murder of hundreds of thousands deemed
“unworthy of life.” The building’s architecture and symbolism reinforced
the regime’s racial ideology, making it a chilling monument to
state-sponsored medical atrocities. I trace the Brown House, the Nazi Party’s nerve centre, where Hitler orchestrated his rise, and the Palais Törring, site of the Supreme Party Court, underscoring the regime’s internal mechanisms of control. I critique the persistence of Nazi symbols, like the altered eagle on surviving buildings, and debates over memorials, such as the Platz der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus, questioning how such spaces confront or conceal historical complicity.
Sites featured: Schwabing,
Maxvorstadt, Alte Pinakothek, Neue Pinakothek, Brown House, Alter
Simpl, House of German Doctors, Osteria Bavaria, Schellingstraße,
Adolf-Hitler-Straße, Hitler's Mausoleum, Karolinenplatz, Gestapo
Headquarters, Café Luitpold, Israeli Consulate, Strength Through Joy
Headquarters, DAF Headquarters, League of German Women Headquarters,
Reichrevisionsamt, Palais Törring, Black House, Nazi Documentation
Centre, Türkentor, Reinhard Heydrich residence, Nazi Party offices,
Völkischer Beobachter offices, Schelling Salon, Georg Elser memorial,
Türkenstraße, Square for Victims of National Socialism,
Maximiliansplatz, Wittelsbacher Palais
Ludwigstraße
housed key institutions and buildings that served various functions
during the Third Reich. Among them the Landeszentralbank, as Bavaria's
central bank, managed financial affairs crucial to the Nazi war effort,
whilst the Kriegsministerium, oversaw military operations and strategic
planning during the war. Munich University became a centre for Nazi
propaganda and indoctrination, influencing professors and students
alike. Haus Deutschen Rechts accommodated legal bodies instrumental in
enforcing Nazi laws, whilst the Staatsbibliothek provided resources for
Nazi propaganda and ideological research. The Staatsministerium
facilitated the implementation of Nazi policies at the regional level,
and the Siegestor, a triumphal arch, symbolised German nationalism and
militarism. The Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern oversaw
internal security and law enforcement, whilst the Zentralministerium für
den gleichgeschalteten bayerischen Staat centralised control over
Bavarian government agencies under Nazi rule.
Sites featured: Landeszentralbank,
Ludwigstraße, Kriegsministerium, Munich University, Haus Deutschen
Rechts, Staatsbibliothek, Akademie der Bildenden Künste,
Staatsministerium, Siegestor, Café Heck, Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern, Day of German Art, Zentralministerium für den gleichgeschalteten bayerischen Staat, White Rose, Hitler Paintings
Various sites within walking distance between Munich's Karlstor and the main railway station. Park Café in the Old Botanical Garden served as a social hub during the Nazi period, frequented by both citizens and party officials. Nearby, The central railway station, facilitated the
transportation of troops, supplies, and prisoners to and from Munich,
playing a logistical role in Nazi operations. The Oberfinanzpräsidium
administered financial affairs in the region under Nazi control,
overseeing taxation and economic policies and still boasts the largest
Nazi eagle in the city. The Justizpalast near Karlsplatz is renowned for hosting the Volksgerichtshof trials, where numerous anti-Nazi conspirators, including members of the White Rose resistance group, faced prosecution. The
Ausstellungspavillon, the first Nazi edifice, hosted Nazi exhibitions
and displays promoting racial superiority and militaristic ideals. Additionally, remnants of Nazi eagles and statues around the area serve as stark reminders of the regime's propaganda. The Main Synagogue, destroyed months before Kristallnacht, marks a site of profound loss and remembrance. Collectively, these sites around Stachus not only highlight Munich's architectural and cultural history but also its dark chapter under Nazi influence.
Sites featured: Park Café, München
Hauptbahnhof, Oberfinanzpräsidium, Justizpalast, Remaining Nazi eagles, Nazi
statues, Hitler's artwork, Karlstor, Stachus, Neptunbrunnen, Ausstellungspavillon, Lenbachplatz, Bernheimer Haus, Main Synagogue, Sites associated with Kristallnacht
Munich's Hofbräuhaus emerged as a pivotal site for Hitler and the Nazi Party, serving to galvanise support for the Nazi movement among the populace, marking it as a symbolic venue for the propagation of Nazi ideology and political mobilisation. The nearby Pfeffermühle cabaret was a hub for anti-Nazi satire, offering a platform for performances that subtly critiqued the regime, symbolising the underground resistance in Munich. The Arisierungsstelle played a key role in the confiscation and forced sale of Jewish-owned businesses and properties as part of Nazi racial policies. The Nordbad, a public swimming pool, was emblematic of the Nazi emphasis on physical fitness and public health, serving as a site for the regime’s ideological propagation. Munich's Opera House, a cultural landmark, was often used for Nazi propaganda events and attended by high-ranking officials, reflecting the regime's efforts to intertwine culture with their political agenda. Hitler’s Residence in Munich served as a personal and political headquarters for Hitler, where numerous strategic decisions were made particularly after the Munich Agreement was signed.
Sites featured: Gasthaus Deutsche Eiche, Pfeffermühle, Hofbräuhaus, Arisierungsstelle, Nordbad, Munich Opera House, Hitler Residence, Alter Hof, Hitler's artwork, GärtnerPlatztheater
Among
the sites featured are the Deutschen Museum, one of the largest science
and technology museums in the world, was utilised by the Nazi regime
for propaganda purposes, showcasing achievements in German science and
technology to promote the regime's image of progress and superiority.
The Löwenbräukeller was a venue frequented by Hitler and the Nazi Party
for political meetings and rallies. Oktoberfest, an annual beer festival
held in Munich, was appropriated by the Nazis as a celebration of
German nationalism and cultural identity, with propaganda displays and
events promoting Nazi ideology. The Freikorpsdenkmal, a monument in
Munich commemorating the Freikorps soldiers who fought in the early 20th
century, was appropriated by the Nazis as a symbol of militarism and
nationalism, glorifying the paramilitary groups that paved the way for
Hitler's rise to power.
Sites featured: Hitler's
Residences, Löwenbräukeller, Oktoberfest, Deutschen Museum, Remaining
swastikas, Freikorpsdenkmal, Ruhmeshalle,
Maximilianeum, Hofbräukeller, Ludwigsbrücke, Baldham, Nazi Party Headquarters, Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, Münchner Neueste Nachrichten, German Research institute for Psychiatry, Eternal Jew exhibition, Kongreßsaal, Remaining Nazi Eagles, Beer Hall Putsch sites, NSDAP Publishing House, White Rose, Ostbahnhof
Another
sprawling page of Nazi-related sites in Munich including Nymphenburg
Palace, repurposed by the Nazi regime for various functions, including
hosting official receptions and ceremonies to bolster the regime's image
of power and grandeur. Stadelheim Prison, used as a detention facility
for political prisoners, resistance fighters, and other perceived
enemies of the regime, where many were subjected to harsh conditions and
torture. The Reichsfinanzhof was responsible for overseeing financial
matters and taxation policies under the Nazi regime, playing a crucial
role in funding the regime's activities and war effort. The
Reichszeugmeisterei was responsible for overseeing the production and
distribution of uniforms and equipment for the Nazi military and
paramilitary organisations, ensuring uniformity and adherence to Nazi
standards. Flughafen Oberwiesenfeld was an airfield used by the Nazis for
military purposes, including training pilots and conducting
reconnaissance flights. Much is devoted to football under the Third
Reich.
Sites featured: Nymphenburg,
Stadelheim, Deutschland Kaserne, Funk Kaserne, Hofgarten,
Staatskanzlei, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Football under the Nazis,
Pasing, Englischer Garten, Haidling, Reichsfinanzhof,
Adolf-Hitler-Kaserne, Reichszeugmeisterei, Flughafen Oberwiesenfeld, Night of the Amazons, Grünwalder
Stadion, Olympic Stadium, Site of the Black September 1972 Olympic
Games terror attack, Allianz Arena, Nazi statues, Manchesterplatz, Site of the Manchester United Air Crash, Gebsattelbrücke, Death March memorial, Scholl graves
My detailed exploration of Munich’s Nazi-era housing developments examines how the regime embedded its ideology not in grand administrative centres, but in the domestic fabric of the city through numerous Siedlungen, or settlements. Using my own then-and-now photography alongside historical analysis, I document multiple sites including the Mustersiedlung Ramersdorf, the Reichskleinsiedlung Am Hart, and the enigmatic Klugstraße settlement to reveal the dual purpose of these projects: providing homes for Party affiliates and workers whilst functioning as tools for social engineering and propaganda. I analyse the overt and esoteric symbolism employed, from the Heimatschutzstil architecture and idealised reliefs at Erich Kästner Straße to the perplexing astrological runes and alleged Masonic symbols on Klugstraße, linking them to figures like Heinrich Himmler and organisations such as the DAF. I highlight the unsettling survival of this architectural legacy, showing how these seemingly ordinary suburban streets remain contested spaces, serving as a case study in the insidious nature of totalitarian design and the complex legacy of its remnants within a modern city.
Sites featured: Alpine
Museum, The Great Escape film locations, Siedlung, Bayerische
Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, Pullach, Remaining Nazi
iconography, Mustersiedlung Ramersdorf, Adolf Hitler fountains, Siedlung Am Hart, Siedlung Neuherberge, Siedlung Kaltherberge, Reichssiedlung Rudolf Hess
A
virtual tour around Munich’s principal cemeteries, including the Nordfriedhof and Waldfriedhof, seeing these sites as complex repositories of the city’s twentieth-century history. Using my own then-and-now photography and historical analysis, I document the final resting places of the Third Reich's most significant figures, from high-ranking perpetrators such as Ernst Röhm and Paul Ludwig Troost to cultural icons like Leni Riefenstahl and victims of the regime like Gustav von Kahr. The work juxtaposes the grand state funerals of the era, such as those for General Dietl, with the quiet, often unassuming graves of today, creating a visual dialogue between past propaganda and present-day remembrance. I also document the graves of collaborators, resistance figures, and those whose legacies remain deeply contested, revealing how these burial grounds serve as a microcosm of the period's moral and political conflicts. By presenting these individuals—from Hitler’s chauffeur Emil Maurice to the philosopher Oswald Spengler—within their final, shared landscapes, my examination offers a unique perspective on the intertwined fates of the era’s key players and how their legacies are confronted, or ignored, in modern Munich.
Sites featured: Westfriedhof,
Waldfriedhof, Nordfriedhof, Hochbunker, Gräfelfing, Ostfriedhof,
Various Nazi-related graves: Troost, Bauriedl, Hoffmann, Riefenstahl,
Wünsche, Böhme, von Kahr, Emil Maurice, Traudl Junge, Oswald Spengler,
von Rauchenberger, Ferdinand Marian, Tirpitz, Bandera, Paul Hausser,
Franz von Stuck, Röhm, Hans Baur, Anton Drexler, Rudolf Trauch, Eisner,
Gerhard Wagner, Julius Schaub, Hjalmar Schach, von Gersdorff, Julius
Schreck
My detailed exploration of the Dachau concentration camp and its surrounding historical sites, moves beyond a simple summary of atrocities to an examination of the camp's architectural, ideological, and post-war legacy. Exploiting my links with the memorial site, I highlight how the camp served as a model for the entire Nazi system, with its infamous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ motto and methodical design, but it also delves into the cynical and sadistic realities that belied this propaganda. Through powerful then-and-now visual comparisons, my page juxtaposes images of the camp during its operation and liberation with its present-day appearance, highlighting both the deliberate reconstruction of key features like the gate and watchtowers, and the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, signs of the past’s contested legacy, such as a Confederate flag flying on a former ϟϟ residence. I draw attention to the ongoing debates over how to commemorate victims, such as the exclusion of homosexuals, ‘asocials’, and common criminals from some memorials. I also include nearby sites like the Hebertshausen shooting range, where 4,000 Soviet prisoners were murdered, and the ‘plantation’ where slave labour was exploited for pseudo-scientific agricultural projects. Through this I reveal the complexities and controversies that have long surrounded Dachau, from the American soldiers' summary executions of guards upon liberation to the subsequent denial and selective remembrance that shaped the memorialisation of the site.
Sites featured: Dachau Waldfriedhof, Konzentrationslager, Dachau, Hebertshausen ϟϟ Range, Müttererholungsheim, Deutenhofen, Kräutergarten, War Crimes Trial, Site of American Massacre of Guards, Bavarian Riot Police Headquarters
I move beyond the infamous concentration camp to reveal the complex and often contradictory history of the municipality itself. The narrative focuses on how Dachau, a predominantly working-class town with strong leftist sympathies, was co-opted and then reshaped by the Nazi regime. I highlight this ideological struggle by referencing places like the Hörhammerbräu Inn, once a stronghold for communists, which later became a meeting place for the local Nazi Party. My page discusses the complicity and resistance of the town's residents showing how local authorities enthusiastically embraced the Nazi regime, renaming streets and granting Hitler honorary citizenship, whilst also detailing the courageous actions of individuals who risked their lives to help prisoners. My page also presents a sober look at the aftermath of the war, including the summary executions of ϟϟ guards and the difficult process of memorialising the victims of the ‘death marches’ in places like the Leitenberg cemetery. Ultimately I present Dachau as a microcosm of Germany’s turbulent 20th century, where the political and social fabric of a community was permanently scarred by its proximity to the brutal realities of Nazism.
Sites Featured: Various
sites of interest within the town as well as Webling, site of an
American massacre of Germans and Dachau-Leitenberg mass grave.
Offering a detailed, on-the-ground exploration of Nuremberg’s Nazi Party rally grounds, using historical photographs, archival sources, and images from numerous visits to examine how the city was transformed into a stage for Nazi propaganda. I focus on key sites like the Zeppelin Field, Congress Hall, and Luitpold Arena, showing how Speer’s monumental architecture was designed to overwhelm and indoctrinate. The page documents the annual rallies from 1927 to 1938, their role in promoting the Nuremberg Laws, and the choreographed displays of loyalty involving the SA, ϟϟ, and Hitler Youth. It includes analysis of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, draws parallels to later cultural imagery including Star Wars and Gladiator, and examines surviving structures like the Zeppelin Tribune and transformer station, now repurposed or decaying. The site’s post-war use as a US military base, sports venue, and location for fast food is contrasted with ongoing debates about preservation, memory, and the ethics of maintaining Nazi architecture. The Documentation Centre in the Congress Hall’s northern wing is highlighted as a key educational resource, presenting the history of the rallies, the regime’s crimes, and the challenges of confronting this legacy.
Sites Featured: Märzfeld,
Ehrenhalle, Kongreßhalle, Luitpoldhalle, Luitpoldgrove, Dutzendteich,
Zeppelinfeld, Deutsches Stadion, Fliegerdenkmal, ϟϟ Barracks, Transformatorenstation, Reichsparteitagsgelände, Hall of Honour
The
city's historical significance, coupled with its strategic location and
infrastructure, made it a focal point for Nazi activities and
propaganda efforts. Additionally, Nuremberg was the site of the
Nuremberg Laws, a series of antisemitic legislation enacted by the Nazis
in 1935. These laws defined who was considered Jewish and restricted
the rights of Jews in Nazi Germany, laying the legal groundwork for the
systematic persecution and discrimination of Jewish citizens. Nuremberg
also gained international attention as the location of the Nuremberg
Trials after the war From 1945 to 1946, the Allies conducted a series of
military tribunals in the city to prosecute prominent Nazi leaders for
war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other atrocities committed
during the war. The trials marked a watershed moment in international
law and justice, establishing the precedent for holding individuals
accountable for crimes against humanity on a global scale.
Sites Featured: Remaining Nazi Eagles, Middle Franconia, Adolf-Hitler-Platz, Nuremberg trials court building, Streicher's Gauhaus, Remaining Nazi eagles, Judensau, Fränkischer Hof, Deutscher Hof, Adolf Hitler Youth Hostel, Triumph of the Will locations, Bahnhofplatz, Frauenkirche, Lorenzkirche, Sebaldus church, Hitler Paintings, Luftschutzschule Hermann Göring, Reichsbahndirektion, Main synagogue memorial, Aufsessplatz
Theis webpage focuses on the area’s central role in the Nazi regime, not as a remote retreat, but as a nerve centre for political decision-making and image-making. I highlight how Hitler's fascination with the region transformed it from a quaint mountain village into a fortified complex, serving as a backdrop for both international diplomacy, such as the meetings with Chamberlain and Schuschnigg, and the cultivation of the Führer’s public persona. The core of the overview is its use of visual comparisons to reveal the layers of history at these sites. The then-and-now photos of Berchtesgaden’s train station, for instance, show how Nazi architectural elements, though altered, have been preserved, prompting questions about the town's enduring relationship with its past. I detail the area's association with high-ranking Nazis, from Göring’s villa to Dietrich Eckart’s grave, and the post-war fate of these locations, including the decision to raze Hitler’s Berghof to prevent neo-Nazi pilgrimage, a stark contrast to the preservation of the Eagle’s Nest as a tourist attraction. The page also touches on the uncomfortable legacies of individuals like the Duke of Windsor and Hitler’s sister, Paula, whose stories complicate any simplistic moral narrative. I try to encourage reflection on how the area’s natural beauty was used to mask a dark and brutal political reality, with the historical legends of the Untersberg and Watzmann mountains serving as a thought-provoking commentary on tyranny and destiny.
Sites featured: Platterhof,
Obersalzberg, Mooslahnerkopf, Kehlsteinhaus, Berchtesgaden, Hotel zum
Türken, Bunker, Eagle's Nest, Berghof, Bischofswiesen, Hitler's Teehaus, Dietrich Eckart's grave, Paula Hitler's grave, Gästehaus Hoher Göll, Obersalzberg Documentation Centre
Took advantage for a few of the locations from Geography fieldtrips I'd run to Blaueis glacier with my students to investigate the satellite sites around Berchtesgaden involving the network of administrative, military, and ideological sites that supported Hitler’s mountain headquarters. I move beyond the Obersalzberg to examine how the surrounding region was systematically transformed, documenting locations such as the Adolf Hitler Kaserne in Strub, the 'Little Reich Chancellery' in Stanggass, and the militarised spa town of Bad Reichenhall. Using my own then-and-now photography and historical investigation, I trace the architectural and ideological imprint left upon these communities. My work highlights the unsettling survival of this legacy, showing how Nazi-era eagles—their swastikas now replaced—still adorn the facades of former government and military buildings, and how sites of indoctrination like the Adolf Hitler Youth Hostel remain in use today for me and my students. I also covers the post-war history of these locations, from the execution of French Waffen-ϟϟ soldiers at Bad Reichenhall to the modern controversies surrounding extremism within the Bundeswehr at the former Strub barracks. This examination serves as a case study in the logistical and ideological colonisation of a landscape, revealing the pervasive infrastructure of the regime far beyond the well-known confines of the Berghof.
Sites Featured: Hintersee, Schönau, Blaueis, Hochkalter, Königssee, Bischofswiesen, Stanggass, Strub, Reichskanzlei Berchtesgaden, Bad Reichenhall, Ramsau, Obersee, Adolf Hitler Kaserne, Jägerkaserne, Adolf Hitler Youth Hostel, Bund Deutscher Mädel, Dietrich Eckart Clinic, Hotel Schiffmeister, Gasthaus Seeklause
I try to offer a multi-layered exploration of Oberschleißheim and Unterschleißheim, presenting them not as a single historical site, but as distinct areas deeply intertwined with the Nazi regime's military, cultural, and ideological projects. I focus on schloß Schleißheim, a baroque masterpiece that was repurposed as a repository for art looted by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg including the Rothschild Collection. My then-and-now comparisons underscore the palace’s transformation from a symbol of Nazi cultural theft to a hub for post-war art restitution by the Monuments Men, revealing a complex story of a place’s moral reclamation. I also delve into the military history of the Oberschleißheim airfield, which served as a crucial training centre and was the site of significant Allied bombing raids. I offer an account of the Battle of Lohhof, using photographic evidence to contrast the violence of the American advance with the peaceful appearance of the town today only a few miles from where I teach. A particularly compelling feature is the narrative surrounding the Lohhof flax processing plant, which functioned as a forced labour camp for Jewish women before their deportation to extermination camps.
Sites featured: Lohhof, Schönbrunn, Lustheim Palace, Oberschleißheim, Unterschleißheim, Schlosswirtschaft, Military Aviation School, Fliegerbeobachterschule, Fliegerfunkerschule, Lichtbildstelle, Various Film Locations- Paths of Glory, Three Musketeers, Last Year in Marienbad
Deserving
of especial attention given it's where I live, I examine how this historic episcopal seat was systematically Nazified, from the coerced resignation of its long-serving mayor and the renaming of its main street as Adolf-Hitler-Straße, to the public persecution of its Jewish families. Using my GIFs alongside historical analysis, I document the sites of Nazi rallies on the Marienplatz, the various military barracks that dominated the town, and the locations scarred by the devastating 1945 air raid. I reveal the intimate nature of both complicity and resistance, tracing the fate of families like the Lewins and Neuburgers, whose businesses were boycotted before they were driven to flight or murder, whilst also noting the difficult role of the Catholic church on the Domberg. My research traces the ambiguous post-war period, including the establishment of a Jewish DP community and the slow process of denazification. My photographic comparisons highlight an unsettling legacy, juxtaposing archival images of Nazi parades with the modern town's tolerance and even encouragement of extremist vandalism.
Sites Featured: Pettenbrunn,
Kloster Wies, Hexenprozesse, Kreisleitung, Hohenbachern,
Adolf-Hitler-Straße, Lindenkeller, Tüntenhausen, Weihenstephan,
stolperstein, Vimy Kaserne, Hangenham, Dürneck, Münchenerstraße, Alte Gefängnis, Rathaus, Neustift, St. Georg kirche, Domberg, Gasthof Kolosseum, Prinz-Ludwig-Straße, Ziegelgasse, Fischergasse, Landshuter Hof, Hindenburg
Straße, Captain Snow
Straße, Adolf Wagner Straße, Norkus Straße, Von-Blombergstraße, Von-Stein-Straße, Sigmund-Halter-Straße, Horst Wessel Straße, Hotel Gred, Casellastraße, Hofbräuhaus, Adler Apotheke, Stauberhaus, Marienplatz, Fürstbischöfliches Lyceum, Marcushaus, NS-Kindergarten Neustift, Bürgerturm, Prinz Arnulf-kaserne, Stein kaserne, Pallotti Haus, Knabenseminar, Christi-Himmelfahrt Evangelical Church, bahnhof, Brunnhausgasse, Mohrenbrücke, bunkers, Lindenkeller, Waldfriedhof, Isarbrücke, Bayerischer Hof, Technische Universität München
My detailed exploration of Moosburg an der Isar examines the town’s profound transformation under the shadow of Stalag VII-A, the largest prisoner-of-war camp in Germany. I focus on the camp itself, documenting its immense scale, its multinational population, and the chaotic conditions that prevailed, culminating in its liberation on April 29, 1945. I move beyond simple narratives by examining the complex roles of individuals, from the persecuted Jewish merchant Alois Weiner to the camp’s final commandant, Colonel Otto Burger, whose defiance of orders prevented a death march. I also confront the difficult post-war legacy, including the violent aftermath of liberation and the camp’s eventual conversion into the Neustadt district for German refugees. Through photographic juxtapositions of wartime streets and the few surviving camp structures with their modern counterparts, this examination serves as a case study in how a small Bavarian town’s identity became inextricably linked to a vast instrument of war, leaving a layered and often-overlooked history embedded in its landscape.
Sites featured: Stalag
VIIA, Moosburg, Bernstorf, Neufahrn bei Pettenbrunn, Neufahrn bei
Freising, Allershausen, Aign, Hohenkammer, Zolling, Fürholzen,
Kranzberg, Eching, Hangenham, Dürneck, Hallbergmoos
I look at Erding’s transformation into a key Luftwaffe hub, documenting the construction of its air base in 1935, the devastating Allied bombing of April 1945 that killed 144 people, and the town's unique use as a primary location for the 1941 aviation comedy Quax, der Bruchpilot which allows for an examination of the career of its star, Heinz Rühmann, as a case study in cultural complicity. This cinematic diversion is juxtaposed with the brutal realities of the regime, including the persecution of the Einstein family, commemorated today by stolperstein, and the notable 1941 women’s protest against the removal of crucifixes from schools. A significant focus is placed on Isen, where my photographic comparisons document the immediate aftermath of the war and the American occupation by the 101st Airborne Division, showing GIs outside the Gasthof Klement, their local headquarters, and chronicling the complex denazification process. The work extends across the wider district to map a network of often-overlooked sites, from the strategic use of the Ismaning radio transmitter during the abortive Freiheitsaktion Bayern uprising to the grim history of forced labour at the Meindl brickworks in Dorfen. I also document the fates of individuals, from the three Hohenkammer schoolboys imprisoned for their defiance to the American airmen of the Gawgia Peach murdered near Aign after parachuting to safety.
Sites Featured: Isen,
Mauern, Dorfen, Dingolfing, Erding, Wartenberg, Ismaning, Scheyern, Geisenhausen, Brauerei Bortenschlager,
Goldach, Reichsluftschiff Z1 memorial
A focused examination of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm’s deep complicity in the Nazi regime, tracing how this Upper Bavarian town became one of the movement’s most loyal strongholds well before 1933 and remained so throughout its rule. The analysis centres on the town’s early embrace of Nazism, documented through archival photographs and political records showing that by 1923, local SA men participated in the Beer Hall Putsch, and by 1933, Pfaffenhofen delivered the Nazis their highest vote share in Upper Bavaria in the Reichstag election. Hitler himself visited the town in 1922. and several ϟϟ men from Pfaffenhofen made careers, most notably Anton Thumann, known as the "Hangman of Majdanek".
His presence in the Höcker Album, alongside Mengele and Höss, links the
town directly to the machinery of genocide. Equally vital is the
recovery of Jewish lives erased from official record—Reinhard Haiplik’s
research corrects earlier omissions, identifying families deported to
Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, their fates detailed with precision. Nearby in Eberstetten, a memorial marks the site where young ϟϟ men were killed by American soldiers in the final days of the war. Holledau bridge on the Reichsautobahn is relevant as a significant infrastructure project of the Nazi era in the region. The Rasthof Holledau, a rest stop built in 1938, was visited by Hitler and still operates. The
inclusion of Uttenhofen’s forgotten children’s camp, where sixteen
Polish children died in squalid conditions, further exposes the reach of
Nazi racial policy into rural Bavaria.
Sites Featured: Neuburg an der Donau, Rennertshofen, Schrobenhausen, Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm, Eberstetten, Rasthaus Holledau, Uttenhofen
My exploration of Landsberg am Lech and its surrounding Kaufering camp complex I researched in the summer of 2023 examines the town’s contradictory role as both a Nazi shrine and a centre of post-war Jewish rebirth. I document here Landsberg’s transformation into the "Town of the Hitler Youth," a pilgrimage site centred on the prison cell where Hitler dictated Mein Kampf. This
is juxtaposed with the sober reality of the prison after the war, when
it became a centre for holding and executing convicted Nazi war
criminals, a fact that is still commemorated with considerable
controversy at the Spöttingen cemetery. I visit the brutal reality of the eleven Kaufering subcamps, established in 1944 for the subterranean production of Messerschmitt Me 262 jets. I explore the system of "extermination through labour" that defined these "cold crematoria" and document the camps' liberation by American forces, including the massacre at Kaufering IV and its impact on soldiers like J.D. Salinger and survivors like Bill Glied whom I interviewed. Visiting often-neglected memorial sites today, including the mass graves at Schwabhausen and the European Holocaust Memorial at Kaufering VII help present a case study in how a single locality could embody the full spectrum of Nazi history, from ideological genesis and genocidal horror to Allied justice and the determined survival of its victims.
Sites Featured: Kaufering subcamp complex, Landsberg am Lech, KZ Friedhof, Schwabhausen, Ingolstadt, Buchloe, Landsberg Prison, ϟϟ graves, Concentration camps, Erpfting Jewish cemetery, Concentration Camp Cemetery Hurlach, Holzhausen concentration camp cemetery, Igling–Stoffersberg–Wald concentration camp cemetery
Featuring sites along the Danube situated within Oberbayern including Eichstätt with the remains of its Nazi Thingstätte high above the town shown here, an open-air theatre used for propagandistic purposes where Nazi rallies and cultural events were held to reinforce ideological indoctrination. These gatherings were designed to foster a sense of community and loyalty to the regime through orchestrated displays of nationalism. Ingolstadt housed military facilities and was a centre for armament production, playing a crucial role in the regime's military preparations and wartime activities. Also included is an extensive section on Rosenheim, birthplace of Hermann Göring featuring numerous then-and-now images from Hitler's visits. The town served an important transportation hub, facilitating the movement of troops and supplies. Its strategic location made it a key point in the Nazi logistical network, supporting both military operations and the enforcement of Nazi policies in the region.
Sites Featured: Eichstätt, Ingolstadt, Thingstätte, Rosenheim, Flötzinger Bräustüberl, Gaimersheim, Markt Indersdorf
This webpage reveals how picturesque landscapes became instruments of ideological control by examining sites like Mittenwald, where traditional violin-making and folklore were weaponised to embody 'Blut und Boden' mythology, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, host to the 1936 Winter Olympics, demonstrating how the regime exploited international events for propaganda while enforcing antisemitic policies behind temporary façades. I expose the deliberate manipulation of alpine symbolism to sell a myth of Aryan purity, contrasting idyllic postcards with evidence of persecution, such as the exclusion of Jews from Mittenwald’s hotels and the removal of Nazi-era murals from town halls. Central to this is the integration of archival imagery with contemporary photographs, exposing lingering physical remnants like the Nazi eagle at Garmisch’s Artillerie Kaserne and the controversial reliefs at Murnau’s railway bridge. I confronts uncomfortable legacies, such as the renaming of barracks after war criminals and the contested memorials, including the cenotaph for Nazi Alfred Jodl on Herrenchiemsee. I also probes lesser-known histories, like Leni Riefenstahl’s exploitation of Sinti and Roma extras in Tiefland filmed near Mittenwald, and the death marches through Wolfratshausen, where memorials now stand alongside erased traces of violence. By the end it underscores the tension between preserving heritage and confronting historical complicity, so such landscapes serve as visceral reminders of how beauty and ideology can be perilously intertwined.
Sites featured: Chiemsee,
Schönau, Mittenwald, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Starnberg, Mangfall, Bad
Tölz, Murnau, Tutzing, Bodensee, Wolfratshausen, Gmund, Sites associated
with the 1936 Olympics, Remaining Nazi eagles, Herrenchiemsee, Ludendorff's grave, Lambacher Hof, site of Ludwig II's death, ϟϟ Junker School Bad Tölz, bunkers, Schloss Linderhof, Meersburg am Bodensee, Death March memorials
Herrsching’s Reichsfinanzschule, established in 1935 and adorned with a prominent Nazi eagle, exemplifies the regime’s ideological transformation of functional spaces, its grand Feierhalle with monumental spruce beams later repurposed for post-war civic use, reflecting a pragmatic yet uneasy continuity. Oberammergau’s Passion Play, co-opted by Hitler in 1934, underscores the regime’s exploitation of cultural traditions, with modern revisions addressing its anti-Semitic undertones, prompting reflection on historical accountability. The Weingut I bunker in Mühldorf, a vast wartime project built by concentration camp prisoners, stands as a stark ruin, its then-and-now visuals exposing the scale of Nazi ambition and human cost. Traunstein’s war cemetery and Wasserburg’s memorial to euthanasia victims further illustrate efforts to confront suppressed histories, though often with ambiguity, as seen in Mühldorf’s vague commemorative markers. These comparisons, integrated across the region, reveal not just physical remnants—eagles, bunkers, and repurposed buildings—but a contested legacy of ideology, memory, and architectural power.
Sites featured: Deining,
Oberammergau, Bad Wiessee, Oberbayern, Kaltenberg, Mühldorf,
Oberaudorf, Feldberg, Mangfall, Traunstein, Herrsching, Uffing,
Weilheim, Wasserburg am Inn, Durnbach, Markt Schwaben, Siegsdorf, Gmund
Commonwealth War Cemetery, Weingut I, Rottenbuch, Tegernsee, Aufkirchen, Red Army Faction, Chiemsee, Lambacher Hof
A focused examination of Landshut’s entanglement with the rise and rule of Nazism, centred on the town’s role as an early and enduring Nazi stronghold shaped by two of the movement’s key figures: Gregor Strasser and Heinrich Himmler. Landshut served as a military
garrison town, housing troops and supporting logistical operations. Himmler
moved to Landshut in 1913 when his father became assistant principal at
the local Gymnasium, where Himmler studied until graduating in 1919. .
In 1921, Landshut saw the establishment of Bavaria’s fifth Nazi Party
branch, led by pharmacist Gregor Strasser, a key early Nazi figure with
membership number 9, who later served in the Bavarian parliament and
Reichstag until his 1934 murder during the Night of the Long Knives. By
December 1944, a Dachau subcamp near Landshut’s train station was set
up, forcing prisoners into labour repairing bomb damage. Allied bombing
in March 1945 devastated the station, but the Gothic old town was
spared. The municipal hospital, where ϟϟ
physician Karl Gebhardt worked in 1922, and the Deutsches Arbeit Front
headquarters opposite Trausnitz Castle, remain as relics of Nazi
structures. Vilsbiburg, 18km southeast, saw its Jewish community
eradicated by 1939.
Sites Featured: Landshut, Vilsbiburg, Trausnitz Castle, Ussar-villa, Städtisches Krankenhaus, St. Martin's church, Adolf-Hitler-Platz, Himmler residence, Humanistisches Gymnasium, Niederbayern
My detailed exploration of Straubing and Passau traces how two quiet Danube towns became laboratories of Nazi policy, using archival police reports, local newspapers, then-and-now photographs and survivor testimony to expose the mechanics of persecution and consent. I follow the transformation of Straubing’s Ludwigsplatz into Großdeutschlandplatz after the Anschluss. I reconstruct Kristallnacht through the smashed interior of the synagogue, preserved only because the fire brigade feared collateral damage, and pair it with a 1945 photograph of German women scrubbing the desecrated walls under American orders. The page documents the first Bavarian murder of a Jew after January 1933 and places it beside the still-standing houseto show geography itself bears witness. I trace the economic strangulation of family firms like Schwarzhaupt and Loose, showing how “Aryanisation” was executed not by Berlin emissaries but by local banks and neighbours, and let the current Hafner department store’s proud anniversary slogan sit uncomfortably against this history. In Passau I examine the renaming of streets after Hitler’s mother and the installation of a Thingplatz, then cut to the post-war decision to keep the Nibelungenhalle whilst scrubbing its dedicatory plaque. I use the surviving Nazi eagle on the Danube bastion—re-erected in 1954 with swastika chiselled off yet unmistakable in form—to question whether erasure is ever complete. Throughout, heroic narrative is replaced with municipal minutes, prison sterilisation files and Gestapo surveillance logs to show how ordinary routines were enlisted in genocide, and how those routines still shape the towns’ present streetscape.
Sites Featured: Remaining Nazi eagles, Niederbayern, Passau, Straubing,
Synagogue, Hitler Residence, Schochkaserne,
Hans-Schemm-Schule
How Nazi ideology infiltrated the Bavarian towns of Kelheim and its surrounding districts, refracted through architectural spectacle, political ritual, and the quiet persistence of historical erasure. The Befreiungshalle, a neoclassical monument to 19th-century German unity, is repositioned not as a static relic but as a contested site violently repurposed- Hitler’s 1933 speech beneath its dome reframes it as a temple of völkisch consolidation, where the language of liberation is twisted into a justification for expansion and racial purity; the same stone façades that once bore swastikas now stand cleansed, yet remain embedded with the memory of orchestrated mass devotion. Archival footage and survivor testimony reveal the mechanics of early terror and the town’s reluctant reckoning- revoking Hitler’s honorary citizenship decades later, renaming streets, preserving but not explaining the Judensau- is presented as a microcosm of Bavaria’s broader struggle with complicity. Even acts of remembrance are fraught: the American soldiers’ memorial erected after a 1975 training accident, stands in silent contrast to unmarked graves of forced labourers and concentration camp victims whose presence is acknowledged only obliquely, if at all. The narrative extends to satellite sites- Steinhöring’s Lebensborn home, where racial engineering was normalised under the guise of maternal care; Deggendorf, where a post-war Jewish DP camp emerged on the very ground of a mediæval massacre; Geisenfeld, birthplace of Gregor Strasser, whose murder in 1934 underscores the regime’s internal purges. The result isn't a regional history but a forensic study of how authoritarianism insinuates itself into the fabric of everyday life, leaving behind monuments that speak as much through silence as through inscription.
Sites Featured:
Mainburg, Siegenburg, Bayerisch Eisenstein, Ganacker concentration
camp, Wolnzach, Steinhöring, Osterhofen, Grafentraubach, Geisenfeld,
Schönberg, Deggendorf, Simbach, Weltenburg, Kelheim, Befreiungshalle,
Napoleonshöhe, Abensberg
I begin my focused exploration of the Allgäu region with Füssen’s Generaloberst-Dietl-Kaserne, named after Nazi general Eduard Dietl, with then-and-now photographs showing its renaming to Allgäu Kaserne and the persistent Second World War mountain corps relief, capturing the region’s unresolved tension with its militaristic past. I trace Kempten’s Prinz-Franz-Kaserne, constructed for Wehrmacht rearmament, and the nearby Dachau subcamp where prisoners toiled for Messerschmitt, using visual comparisons to highlight enduring scars. Kaufbeuren’s grim history under the T4 euthanasia programme, where thousands perished at the district hospital, is illustrated through stark then-and-now images, revealing a suppressed legacy. I cycled all the way to Ordensburg Sonthofen, a Nazi training castle for party cadres, to present through photographs the contrast between its monumental construction with its current Bundeswehr use, underscoring a shift from ideological hub to military base. I also get into Füssen’s prominence in The Great Escape, with then-and-now visuals of St. Mang, Lechhalde bridge, and Neuschwanstein Castle, linking wartime settings to their Hollywood portrayal. By integrating these then-and-now comparisons, the site offers a sobering examination of the Allgäu’s Nazi-era complicity and post-war reckoning, whilst its cinematic role provokes questions about how history is remembered and repurposed in a region defined by both trauma and scenic allure.
Sites featured: Kempten,
Oberbayern, Oberjochpass, Oberstdorf, Kaufbeuren, Hopfen am See,
Lindau, Steingaden, Ordensburg Sonthofen, Neuschwanstein, Füssen,
Allgäu, Great Escape Locations, Generaloberst-Dietl-Kaserne, Prinz-Franz-Kaserne, Concentration camp Kottern-Weidach, Oberstdorf
My detailed exploration of Regensburg traces how a city that survived seventeen sieges and two millennia of history was forced to confront its own complicity in genocide. Using my then-and-now GIFs of the Steinerne Brücke, I juxtapose Hitler Youth marching across its intact arches in 1933 with the same bridge dynamited by retreating ϟϟ troops in April 1945, revealing how the same stones that once carried crusaders later carried looted gold and concentration-camp jewellery into the Reichsbank vaults beneath the cathedral square. I follow the precise choreography of Kristallnacht: NSKK men torching the synagogue on Schäffnerstraße whilst mayor Otto Schottenheim orders the fire brigade to protect only neighbouring buildings, then forcing 224 Jewish men on a 'Schandmarsch' down Maximilianstraße beneath a banner reading 'Exodus of Jews'. Present-day shots of the same street, now lined with cafés, force the visitor to measure the distance between past and present. The page documents how the mediæval Judensau still clings to the cathedral façade whilst sixty stolen gravestones remain embedded in house walls as silent witnesses. I trace the post-war DP camp in Ganghofersiedlung, where 5,000 Ukrainians rebuilt lives metres from where Gestapo files listed their murdered neighbours, and show how Domprediger Johann Maier’s public plea for surrender in April 1945 earned him a noose, his memorial now a discreet plaque on Dachauplatz. Finally, I use Hitler’s 1937 Walhalla ceremony- laying a wreath before Bruckner’s bust as the Munich Philharmonic played- to expose how cultural monuments were weaponised to sanctify territorial ambition, a scene I rephotograph from the exact spot where Sophie Scholl’s bust now stands, asking whether memory can ever truly displace myth.
Sites featured: Waldmünchen, Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, Grafenwöhr, Schindler residence, Weiden, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Oberpfalz, Regensburg, Walhalla, Auerbach, Kemnath, Judensau, Adolf Hitler Brücke, Hans-Schemm-Schule
I look at Upper Franconia’s role as a crucible of early Nazi influence, using archival records, photographs, and then-and-now comparisons to trace how places like Coburg, the self-styled “First National Socialist City,” became epicentres of Nazi power, with its town hall flying the swastika in 1931 and electing a Nazi mayor in 1929. Bayreuth’s Festspielhaus, under Winifred Wagner’s direction, served as a propaganda stage, whilst Kulmbach’s Plassenburg hosted Nazi training schools. Then-and-now GIFs such as Bamberg’s Alte Rathaus, stripped of wartime swastikas, and Wunsiedel’s cemetery, once a neo-Nazi pilgrimage site for Rudolf Hess’s grave, highlight efforts to erase or confront this past. The region’s smaller towns, like Forchheim with its early Nazi group and Hirschaid’s destroyed synagogue, reflect similar patterns of radicalisation and erasure. Sites like Schloss Callenberg and Bad Berneck’s Hotel Bube, tied to Hitler’s visits, underscore the region’s symbolic weight. Through these visual and historical juxtapositions, my work reveals how Upper Franconia’s spaces were co-opted for Nazi myth-making and how their modern transformations- often marked by subtle plaques or renamed streets- reflect a selective reckoning with a dark legacy, raising the constant questions about memory and accountability in public spaces. Sites featured: Wunsiedel,
Kulmbach, Bayreuth, Bamberg, Bad Berneck, Coburg, Gefrees,
Hiltpoltstein, Naila, Forchheim, Staffelstein, Pegnitz, Behringersmühle,
Hof Saale, Hohenberg, Lichtenfels, Münchberg, Oberfranken, Schloss Callenberg, Marktredwitz, House of German Education, Rotmainhalle, Restaurant Eule, Behringersmühle, Hotel Bube, Bad Staffelstein am Main, Hohenberg an der Eger, Hirschaid, Burgkunstadt
Located
in the heart of Bavaria, this region bore witness to the full spectrum
of Nazi policies and actions. Fürth exemplifies the party’s gradual entrenchment: from a struggling 1922 branch facing SPD dominance to a hub of SA intimidation and antisemitic violence, illustrated by the Braunes Haus on Nürnberger Straße, its 1935 facade contrasting with its post-war repurposing. The town’s Jewish community, once centred on the Jakobinenstraße synagogue, was systematically erased-mirrored in photographs of Kristallnacht’s aftermath and the mikvah preserved beneath Pfarrgasse, now part of the Jewish Museum Franconia. Rothenburg ob der Tauber emerges as a curated Nazi idyll, its mediæval architecture romanticising “Germanicity.” Strength through Joy tours, documented in propaganda imagery of Hitler Youth marches and the restored Burggarten, framed the town as a timeless Aryan utopia. Yet this veneer masked virulent antisemitism: wooden plaques at its gates, still bearing traces today, spewed medieval anti-Jewish tropes, whilst the 1938 expulsion of Jews was lauded as a “liberation.” I juxtapose these efforts with Rothenburg’s near-destruction in 1945 and its post-war reconstruction, which prioritised architectural unity over historical accuracy—a silent reconciliation with its compromised past. Erlangen’s reichsadlers on the Amtsgericht and Friedrich-Rückert-Schule symbolise enduring Nazi symbolism, whilst the Stadttheater’s wartime role and forced sterilisations at the Frauenklinik underscore systemic oppression. Zirndorf’s Adolf-Hitler-Platz, paired with a 2016 bomb attempt near a migrant centre, links historical and contemporary extremism.
Sites featured: Wehrmachtunterkunftheim, Remaining Nazi eagles, Schwabach, Roth, Zirndorf, Erlangen, Altdorf bei Nürnberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Fürth, Leutershausen, Hotel Eisenhut
Another page illustrating Middle Franconia varied roles in supporting the Nazi apparatus, but with a special focus on the enduring weight of memory starting with Dinkelsbühl’s Kinderzeche festival, commemorating a legendary 1632 surrender to Swedish troops, re-enacted annually with residents in period costume, juxtaposed against chilling then-and-now images that uncover the town’s fervent Nazi support, with electoral records showing 67.5% Nazi votes in 1933 against a national 43.9%. These visuals, paired with archival postcards, contrast festive traditions with the stark reality of the town’s embrace of Nazi ideology, evident in events like the 1933 glider christenings named for Hitler. Then to Gunzenhausen, where then-and-now photographs of the market square, once Adolf-Hitler-Platz, and the desecrated Jewish cemetery highlight a community complicit in anti-Semitic violence, notably the 1934 pogrom where two Jews died amid mob attacks. Weißenburg’s Roman fort Biriciana is meticulously documented through reconstructions and then-and-now images, revealing its 2nd-century grandeur alongside its modern archaeological significance, whilst the town’s Nazi-era renaming of streets underscores its political alignment. Ermetzhofen’s Jewish cemetery, with its neoclassical gravestones and symbols like the Kohanim hands, stands as a testament to a vanished community, its history laid bare through images contrasting past vibrancy with present desolation. Through these visual comparisons, the content not only preserves historical traces but also confronts the moral complexities of a region shaped by celebration, complicity, and loss.
Sites featured: Weißenburg, Dinkelsbühl, Gunzenhausen, Schwabach, Ansbach, Leutershausen, Roth, Ellingen, Allersberg, Ermetzhofen,
For my exploration of Lower Franconia’s entanglement with the Nazi regime, I look at in particular the early establishment of Nazi structures: the formation of local party branches in Würzburg by 1922, the Palais Thüngen as SA headquarters, the renaming of streets like Theaterstraße to Adolf-Hitler-Straße, and the construction of institutions such as the Gauhaus and Dr. Goebbels-Haus to consolidate control over students and civil life. I bring to life through my GIFs mass rallies such as Hitler’s 1937 speech at Würzburg’s Residenzplatz framed as a legal revolution, whilst repression unfolded in parallel: the 1933 book burnings on Residenzplatz, the forced sterilisations overseen by Werner Heyde at the Welzhaus, and the deportation of Jewish citizens from Aumühle station to Riga and Auschwitz. Industrial centres like Schweinfurt became strategic targets due to their ball-bearing production, suffering the devastating “Black Thursday” of October 1943, which I document through archival images of flattened factories and postwar ruins. My comparison images are used to confront continuity and erasure: a Nazi eagle still visible on a barracks in Hammelburg, the altered Studentenstein in Würzburg defaced by extremists, the rebuilt old towns where little remains of prewar urban fabric. The aftermath of bombing- Würzburg’s 90% destruction on March 16, 1945, the obliteration of Gemünden’s mediæval core- is presented alongside American occupation, the Volkssturm’s last stands, and acts of civilian resistance, such as the women of Ochsenfurt who dismantled barricades to prevent further bloodshed.
Sites featured: Kitzingen,
Würzburg, Niederbayern, Ochsenfurt, Lohr, Miltenberg, Aschaffenburg,
Unterfranken, Remaining Nazi eagles, Gemünden, Bad Kissingen,
Pompejanum, Schweinfurt, Hammelburg, Hitlerjugend schule, Adolf Hitler Tower
My detailed exploration of Augsburg’s Nazi-era legacy reveals how the city became a fulcrum of Nazi power and war production. The webpage traces Hitler’s early political foothold via speeches at sites like Café Mamimilian, where his 1921 “Worker in the Germany of the Future” rhetoric laid groundwork for local party growth. By 1933, Augsburg’s Adolf-Hitler-Platz became a stage for Nazi spectacles, their then-and-now imagery contrasting swastika-draped parades with today’s scrubbed streets, where the Reichsadler still clings to the Landratsamt façade. Central to the narrative is the regime’s architectural ambition: Hitler’s unrealised Gauforum plan, designed by Hermann Giesler, envisioned a monumental axis of power replacing Fuggerstraße’s linden-lined boulevard. I juxtapose these grandiose designs with post-war pragmatism—the avenue’s surviving trees now mute the regime’s megalomania. Augsburg’s industrial role is framed as both engine and victim: Messerschmitt’s Bf 109 production fuelled the Luftwaffe, whilst Allied raids in 1944 reduced much of the city to rubble. The Stadttheater’s destruction and the Rathaus’s reconstructed Golden Hall exemplify fractured continuity whilst Nazi-era reliefs still adorn buildings. The synagogue’s reopening as a Jewish museum contrasts with the Hall 116 documentation centre, memorialising the subcamp’s prisoners—a site only acknowledged decades later. Augsburg is a contested space: its streets renamed, Gestapo headquarters repurposed, yet its architecture and scars persist as unresolved dialogues between ideology, violence, and uneasy remembrance.
Sites featured: Augsburg, Remaining Nazi eagles, Halle 116, Gestapo HQ, Synagogue, Gauforum, Nazi reliefs, Fuggerei
Cycling through Swabia’s towns reveals a fractured regional memoryscape where Nazi legacies persist beneath layers of selective commemoration and uneasy coexistence. Memmingen, Nördlingen, Donauwörth, Günzburg and beyond—where Nazi-era postcards confront contemporary streetscapes to expose how communities negotiate complicity. In Memmingen, the bricked-up Bismarck Tower and haphazard Alles stammt Heil art installation- meant to condemn the Beer Hall Putsch yet abandoned in a car park- epitomise the gap between commemorative intent and reality, whilst the Siebendächerhaus, saved from bombing by citizens propping its skeletal timbers, embodies resilience shadowed by the synagogue foundations left from Kristallnacht. Similarly, Nördlingen’s mediæval walls, built within a meteorite crater, frame contradictions: the rathaus where Hitler rallied supporters now hosts stolpersteine for murdered Jews, and the Reichsadler still crowns a war memorial fountain, untouched since 1902. Donauwörth’s High Street, flattened by raids that killed 285 civilians, shows how strategic destruction erased physical traces yet not moral accountability, evident in the Hans-Leipelt-Schule honouring a White Rose resistor executed locally. Günzburg’s enduring tension centres on the Mengele legacy. Here I avoid regional homogenisation, instead juxtaposing specific scars: Altenstadt’s synagogue site, now a kebab shop marked by granite steles; Hof’s Christuskirche with its disputed Hitler-like figure beside Christ; Aichach’s unblemished town hall where Nazi flags flew from church towers. All highlighting how Swabia’s landscape absorbs violence through deliberate erasures (painted-over Bismarck coats of arms), stubborn survivals (intact Nazi eagles), and performative gestures (schoolchildren placing stolpersteine).
Sites Featured: Oettingen, Donauwörth, Dillingen, Nördlingen, Günzburg,Wemding, Aichach, Hof, Memmingen, Altenstadt, Friedberg
A deep-dive into Weimar’s complex history, capturing its transformation from a cultural beacon to a site of political upheaval, using my then-and-now GIFs to underscore its layered legacy. Weimar, once the cradle of the German Enlightenment and home to luminaries like Goethe and Schiller, became a hub for the Bauhaus movement under Walter Gropius, with the Haus am Horn standing as a testament to its innovative design ethos from 1919 to 1925. This sole surviving Bauhaus structure, now an exhibition space, contrasts with the city’s later role as the birthplace of the Weimar Republic, where Germany’s first democratic constitution was signed in 1919 amid post-war chaos. This webpage delves into Weimar’s darker chapter under Nazi control, highlighted by then-and-now visuals of the Gauforum, a Roman-fascist-style administrative centre built by Hermann Giesler, now repurposed for Thuringian state offices. Archival images of the Hotel Elephant, a frequent haunt of Hitler, juxtaposed with modern views, reveal how Nazi propaganda co-opted Weimar’s cultural prestige. The site also examines the nearby Buchenwald concentration camp, established in 1937, with stark comparisons of its gate and crematorium courtyard, where American liberators forced Weimar citizens to confront Nazi atrocities in 1945. I further explore post-war shifts, such as the Soviet occupation and the DDR’s Buchenwald memorial, which prioritised communist narratives over broader victimhood. Through these visual contrasts, I present Weimar as a contested space, grappling with its Enlightenment ideals, democratic aspirations, and complicity in Nazi crimes, offering a sobering reflection on memory and ideological manipulation.
Sites Featured:
Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Buchenwald Memorial, Weimar, Hotel
Elephant, Reichsstatthalterei, Deutsches Nationaltheater, Schiller's
house, Nietzsche Archives, Weimarhalle, Emmy-Göring-Stift, Thälmann
memorial, Ettersberg Cemetery
Cycling from Bavaria, the journey begins at Cold War border scars like Billmuthausen- razed villages now marked only by empty fields-where DDR border walls severed communities, their remnants preserved as museums in Mödlareuth. Archival photographs juxtaposed with present-day shots reveal how Nazi rule seeped into daily life: Jena’s Volkshaus, where Hitler rallied crowds in 1925 against 'Marxist' Zeiss workers, now stands unadorned beside plaques noting forced sterilisations at the university. These striking comparisons-Saalfeld’s bombed railway station contrasted with its pre-war grandeur, or Nordhausen’s shattered Rathaus flying swastikas versus its modern counterpart- force engagement with uncomfortable continuities. At Blankenburg, a Nazi barracks repurposed as a luxury hotel displays original postcards of war ensigns, whilst Gera’s Osterstein Castle, scarred by 1945 bombing, overlooks streets where Jewish businesses were "aryanised" . My analysis is grounded in specific sites: Hummelshain’s seniors’ home, once a REIMAHG hospital where 175 forced labourers died; Eisenach’s Fürstenhof, where Hitler denounced "Jewish-capitalist bondage" before 7,000 listeners; or Altenburg’s demolished marketplace, where 390 citizens committed suicide under Nazi terror. I end by framing the 2013 Bad Klosterlausnitz spa’s "romantic Kristallnacht" promotion as symptomatic of Thüringen’s unresolved reckoning, where Soviet memorials coexist with erased synagogue foundations.
Sites Featured: Egendorf, Meiningen, Erfurt, Wasungen, Gera, Jena, Salzungen, Eisenach, Sonneberg, Blankenburg, Nordhausen, Saalfeld, Thüringen, Greiz, Quittelsberg, Oberdorla, Eisfeld, Gotha, Altenburg, Masserberg, Bad Klosterlausnitz, Zeulenroda, Weida, Schmölln, Remaining swastikas
Today
in no other federal state in Germany are there so many properties that
are permanently used by right-wing extremists for political purposes; in
2012, by far the most neo-Nazi concerts took place in Saxony, almost a
quarter in a single inn in Staupitz in northern Saxony. The eight
members of the right-wing terrorist group Freital, who carried out
several explosive attacks on refugee accommodation and political
opponents in Freital and Dresden and were sentenced to several years in
prison by the Dresden Higher Regional Court for forming a terrorist
organisation and attempted murder or aiding and abetting, were active
here. The right-wing extremist NPD entered the Dresden state parliament
in 2004 and 2009 and in the 2017 federal election, the right-wing
Alternative for Germany (AfD) became the strongest force in
Saxony.
Sites Featured: Riesa,
Bad Brambach, Annaberg, Glauchau, Löbau, Frankenberg, Freiberg, Aue,
Zittau, Obergurig, Königsbrück, Rochlitz, Leipzig, Schkeuditz, Plauen im
Vogtland, Hohenstein, Eilenburg, Görlitz, Augustusburg, Zwickau,
Schildau, Geringswalde, Raschwitz Markkleeberg, Hammerleubsdorf,
Leubsdorf, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Oschatz, Markranstädt, Schwarzenberg,
Neuhausen, Bad Düben, Schlettau im Erzgebirge, Crimmitschau, Bautzen,
Struppen
A look at how a landscape of mediæval cathedrals and Bauhaus factories became a laboratory of Nazi policy and post-war erasure. I juxtapose Dessau’s Marienkirche, once framed by swastika banners, with the same square now dominated by a statue of Leopold I, asking what visual absences still speak. I follow the forced closure of the Bauhaus in 1931 and its 1986 resurrection as a museum, showing how architectural modernism was first criminalised, then commodified. My page documents the systematic destruction of Jewish life: Zeitz’s synagogue torched in 1938, Köthen’s deportations to Theresienstadt, Halle’s subcamp where prisoners built Siebel aircraft under ϟϟ guard. I embed the precise choreography of the Gardelegen massacre—1,016 prisoners herded into a barn and burned alive- using American Signal Corps photographs of local civilians burying the dead, then cut to the same meadow today, now a quiet memorial ringed by suburban houses. I trace how Ammendorf’s railway works expanded from 2,200 to 4,700 workers between 1936 and 1941, powered by 3,800 forced labourers housed in segregated barracks, and how the RAF reduced 38 % of the district to rubble whilst production continued until three days before the Yanks arrived. Finally, I show how the region’s post-war fate—handed from American to Soviet control in July 1945, then dissolved into East German districts in 1952—left contested memories: a Rathenau assassination shrine at Saaleck Castle quietly replaced by a crude neo-Nazi stone, and Bitterfeld’s poison-gas bunkers still sealed beneath suburban gardens.
Sites Featured: Burg Saaleck, Bitterfeld, Staßfurt, Freyburg, Gardelegen, Wittenberg, Alsleben an der Saale, Zeitz, Torgau, Schafstädt, Köthen, Ammendorf, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Merseburg, Dessau, Tangermünde, Stendal, Bitterfeld, Halle (Saale), Burg Regenstein, Zeitz, Blankenburg (Harz)
Braunschweig’s
status as the site of Hitler’s 1932 naturalisation-engineered through a
sham civil service appointment to grant him citizenship- is central to
my narrative here where I continue to use visceral site-specific
evidence, with then-and-now visual comparisons forming the structural
backbone of the analysis rather than mere decoration via Küchenthal’s
fabricated civil service post in February 1932, juxtaposing archival
shots of SA parades before the palace against its tranquil modern
counterpart to expose bureaucratic theatre. I chart
Goslar’s transformation into Reichsbauernstadt-Hitler addressing
700,000 peasants before the imperial palace in 1934 contrasted with
today’s unassuming square- revealing how blood-and-soil ideology
colonised mediæval spaces. Hanover’s narrative unfolds through the
Kröpcke clock’s enduring presence beside the renamed
Adolf-Hitler-Straße, whilst the Breker lions and defaced
Victory Column silently testify to monumental propaganda. I pilgrimmage
to Bergen-Belsen, where British bulldozers pushing corpses into mass
graves in 1945 are counterposed with Gauck’s 2015 tribute to liberators,
forcing confrontation with the camp’s dual legacy as site of atrocity
and post-war reckoning. Smaller towns yield equally potent evidence:
Quakenbrück’s "Jews unwanted" pool sign versus its current
Adolf-Hitler-Straße renaming; Hildesheim’s reconstructed
Knochenhaueramtshaus rising from 1945’s rubble; Celle’s Schloßtheater
reopening as Nazi cultural propaganda yet retaining its pre-war facade.
Forced labour permeates every locale, from Brunswick’s unprotected
'Ostarbeiterinnen' children dying in clinics to Hanover’s 60,000
enslaved workers shot at Seelhorst cemetery. Throughout I employ visual
dissonance like Tietlingen’s contested Hermann Löns grave or the
Besenmännchen sculpture’s survival to demonstrate how landscapes absorb
trauma without resolution, and memory resides in the space between a
photograph and its present-day echo.
Featured Sites: Bergen-Belsen, Riddagshausen, Hannover, Stade, Goslar, Wunstorf, Hildesheim, Bergen-Hohne, Niedersachsen, Braunlage, Braunschweig, Tietlingen, Celle, Quakenbrück, Bernhard-Rust-Hochschule, Hitler Painting, Technischen Hochschule
My continued examination of Lower Saxony’s Nazi landscapes starts with Wilhelmshaven's transformation under Nazism to show how this naval hub became instrumental in Hitler's geopolitical strategy. I dissect the harbour expansion programme begun in 1933, juxtaposing archival shots of the Raeder-Schleuse lock chambers against today's functional infrastructure to expose how naval rearmament masked aggressive ambitions. I foreground Hitler's April 1939 town hall speech where he declared Germany would "never tire" against British intimidation against the unmarked modern square, demonstrating how rhetoric became policy at this strategic location. Beyond military infrastructure, the page traces the incremental Nazification of daily life: the Strandhalle's 1938 construction as propaganda architecture, the Neuengamme subcamp memorial marking where French forced labourers cleared bomb rubble, and Rüstringen's synagogue site now bearing stolpersteine for the 116 murdered Jews. I visited smaller locales where trauma persists beneath surface normality: Bückeberg's harvest festival grounds now overgrown but retaining Speer's Führerweg pathway, Norderney's Strandstraße swastikas contrasted with its current tourist promenade advertising "Jew-free" holidays, and Varel's Lichtspielhaus where Jewish shops were looted now standing unmarked. Forced labour again permeates every locale, from Wilhelmshaven's concentration camp prisoners to Norderney's Organisation Todt workers building Atlantic Wall defences. By using Uslar's repurposed Hitler Tower or Wangerooge's NSKOV holiday home now a Seeblick hotel I demonstrate how landscapes absorb trauma without resolution. This is an history where citizenship was forged in deception, industry thrived on slavery, and memory transactional.
Sites
Featured: Göttingen, Wittingen, Rüstringen, Bad Sachsa,Varel, Wilhelmshaven, Neuwallmoden, Norderney, Delmenhorst, Bückeberg, Niedersachsen, Lingen, Bad Nenndorf, Bad Gandersheim, Hamelin, Bad Pyrmont, Emden, Obernkirchen, Bad Grund, Uslar, Wangerooge, Hitler Tower, Oldenburg, Varel am Jadebusen
This exploration of Dresden and its surroundings analyses the city's complex role as a cultural metropolis under Nazi rule, its near-total annihilation, and its contentious post-war reconstruction came out of my preparation for my subsequent lecture at the 2023 AGIS conference. Using my own then-and-now photography and historical analysis, I document Hitler's only visit to the city in 1934, juxtaposing propaganda images of Nazi rallies on the Theaterplatz with the rebuilt square today. I look into the city’s cultural life, from the expulsion of director Fritz Busch from the Semperoper to the Nazi repurposing of institutions like the Hygiene Museum for their racial ideology. I describe the systematic persecution of Dresden's Jewish population, the book burnings, and the executions at Münchner Platz, chronicled through the diaries of Victor Klemperer. I of course shift to the devastating Allied bombing of February 1945, contrasting Richard Peter’s iconic post-war photographs of the ruins with the restored cityscapes of today, focusing on key sites like the Frauenkirche and the Zwinger palace. I also visit nearby Pirna, documenting the Sonnenstein Castle's horrific role as an euthanasia killing centre under the T4 programme. Through it I offer Dresden as a case study in the layers of historical memory, contrasting the regime’s use of cultural spectacle with the brutal realities of persecution and war, and the subsequent, politically charged processes of destruction and rebirth.
Sites Featured: Saxony, Luftgaukommando, Dresden, Pirna, Radebeul, Adolf-Hitler-Platz, Theaterplatz, Dresden-Friedrichstadt Hospital, Luftkriegsschule Klotzsche, Tachenberg Palace, Zwinger palace, Villa Wach, Kulturpalast, Frauenkirche
I trace how the Rhine-Ruhr heartland, once the industrial engine of the Kaiserreich, was re-engineered into both arsenal and graveyard under Nazism. I juxtapose Cologne’s cathedral- its twin spires still scarred by fourteen wartime hits- with the same towers serving as a navigational beacon for RAF bombers in 1942, asking what survival means when everything around is flattened. I follow the precise choreography of Kristallnacht in Essen: the Alte Synagogue torched while its reinforced shell refused to collapse, now repurposed as a cultural centre whose dome once echoed with Wagner and now hosts chamber music. The page documents how Dortmund’s Hansaplatz, renamed Adolf-Hitler-Platz in 1933, became the staging ground for torch-lit parades and, by 1945, a rubble-strewn refugee camp where 300,000 survivors queued for British rations. I embed the EL-DE Haus in Cologne, its basement cells still bearing 1,800 prisoner inscriptions, showing how Gestapo interrogations spilled into the street whilst passers-by heard screams yet walked on. Finally, I trace the post-war British occupation: Krupp works dismantled, Adenauer dismissed for refusing to fell Cologne’s trees for fuel, and the Ordensburg Vogelsang—once a Nazi leadership academy—now a documentation centre where bullet-scarred torch-bearer statues confront hikers with the question of whether memory can ever outrun myth.
Sites Featured: Bad Godesberg, Ordensburg Vogelsang, Synagogue, Köln, Dortmund, Brühl, EL-DE Haus, Essen, Rheinhotel Dreesen, Judensau, Erwitte, Remaining Nazi eagles, Bonn, Schloss Augustusburg, Cologne, Rheinhotel Dreesen, Universitäts Hauptgebäude, Bad Honnef, Reichsschulungsburg der NSDAP und DAF, Remaining Nazi iconography
Especial focus is how Himmler’s triangular castle at Wewelsburg was re-imagined as the mystical 'centre of the world', using period plans signed by the Reichsführer and present-day photographs of the scorched north tower to expose the fusion of pseudo-archaeology, racial doctrine and forced labour that underpinned the project. I juxtapose the castle’s 1938 Obergruppenführersaal—where twelve ϟϟ generals once gathered around an oak table beneath a black sun mosaic—with the same chamber today, its acoustics now guiding schoolchildren rather than consecrating a future Aryan elite. The page follows the 3,900 prisoners of the adjacent Niederhagen camp, 1,855 of whom died quarrying stone for Himmler’s never-completed Valhalla, and shows how their unmarked graves lie metres from the tourist car park. I embed the precise choreography of Kristallnacht in Bielefeld: torch-lit flag burnings on Schillerplatz, the forced sale of the synagogue for 56,000 Reichsmarks, and the last deportation train leaving the Adolf-Hitler-Park on 31 July 1942. Finally, I trace how the British Army’s post-war occupation converted the Ordensburg Vogelsang into a Belgian barracks, leaving bullet-scarred torch-bearer statues to confront hikers with the question of whether monumental stone can ever truly be neutral.
Sites Featured: Bochum, Herford, Werne, Übach-Palenberg, Münster, Teutoburg, Wewelsburg, Hermannsdenkmal, Bielefeld, Düsseldorf, Moers am Niederrhein, Siegen, Mülheim, Hamm, Gremmendorf, Nazi statues, Reichsmuseum für Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftskunde, Schloss Jägerhof, Remaining Nazi eagles, Grevenbroich, Bad Hamm
Aachen’s cathedral- once draped in swastikas for Hitler’s 1932 rally- are merged with the same stones scarred by American artillery in October 1944, asking what continuity remains when the fabric of memory is rebuilt from rubble. I follow the torch-lit parades in Krefeld down Adolf-Hitler-Straße, the burning of two synagogues, and the first deportation train of 1,007 Jews freezing toward Rumbula. The page documents how Jülich, 97 % flattened in a single November 1944 raid, became the backdrop for Churchill surveying ruins whilst Goebbels shamelessly compared him to Nero. I embed the transformation of Schloss Nordkirchen into a Nazi leadership school, its Versailles façade now a Belgian art depot, and show how Warstein’s psychiatric hospital shipped 1,575 patients to Hadamar under the guise of euthanasia. Finally, I trace the post-war occupation: Wesel’s 97 % destruction followed by Operation Varsity’s airborne landings, and Duisburg’s “Victory Bridge” thrown across the Rhine in six days, leaving the city’s swastika-eagles defaced but still perched above the rebuilt streets.
Sites Featured: Bad Salzuflen, Lünen, Wuppertal-Barmen, Mönchengladbach, Rheydt, Jülich, Xanten, Krefeld, Hagen, Selm, Viersen am Niederrhein, Wesel, Ibbenbüren, Kempen, Duisburg, Horn Bad Meinberg, Aachen, Oberhausen, Hilchenbach, Dreiländerpunkt, Hamminkeln, Glesch, Burg an der Wupper, Büttgen, Tondorf, Hasten Remscheid, Warstein, Werl, Remaining Nazi eagles, Lippstadt
This page documents the methodical process of Nazification, from the hoisting of swastika flags on Speyer’s rathaus to the establishment of Gestapo headquarters in Trier’s Hauptwache and the hostile takeover of the Karl Marx Haus. I look at the architectural legacy, contrasting images of the swastika-adorned Altpörtel with its modern appearance and noting the survival of Nazi eagles on buildings like the Worms cathedral and the Finanzamt in Alzey. A significant focus is the war’s destructive climax, vividly captured by the comparison of American GIs taking cover on the heavily contested Nibelungenbrücke in Worms in March 1945 with the same peaceful scene today through my GIFs. I document pivotal events such as the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, the extensive bombing of Mainz, and the post-war Allied occupation. I also managed to uncover unique local histories, from the use of Bacharach’s castle as an indoctrination centre and Beilstein as a Nazi-era film set, to the controversial rebuilding of the imperial monument at Koblenz's Deutsches Eck. This examination of sites from Frankenthal to Donald Trump's ancestral home in Kallstadt serves as a case study in uncovering the layers of political violence, wartime destruction, and contested memory that lie just beneath the surface of a seemingly tranquil landscape.
Sites Featured: Speyer,
Alzey, Ingelheim, Rheinbrohl, Neuwied, Linz am Rhein, Mainz, Trier,
Laubenheim, Remagen, Braubach, Bacharach, Koblenz, Landau in der Pfalz,
Schweigen-Rechtenbach, Coblenz, Kallstadt, Beilstein, Rheinzabern,
Worms, Werdohl, Frankenthal, Idar-Oberstein, Schifferstadt, Beilstein,
Remaining Nazi eagles
Here I scrutinises the 1935 referendum not as liberation but as a theatre of coercion, where bishops’ salutes and Goebbels’s covert religious fronts—like the anti-Bolshevik exhibition smuggled via Geneva—exploited Catholic piety for Nazi gain. Visual comparisons chart Saarbrücken's transformation: the rathaus’s vaulted ceilings framing both Hitler’s motorcade and modern bureaucracy, or Adolf-Hitler-Straße’s renamed Bahnhofstraße, where Nazi parades once marched past the Johanneskirche’s unchanged spire. I ouline collaboration and complicity, looking at how Saarbrücken’s synagogue fell during Reichskristallnacht, whilst the Neue Bremm camp- hidden beyond the city limits- funneled thousands toward extermination. Wartime devastation is rendered starkly: Bahnhofstraße’s skeletal ruins after 1944 bombings contrast with its rebuilt uniformity, and the Ludwigskirche’s shattered nave mirrors the region’s fractured identity. Then and now sequences frame contested memory: the Winterberg Monument’s dynamited plinth, where a Nazi-lit beacon once glared toward France, now overlooks overgrown foundations; or the Saarlouis courthouse, its defiant Nazi eagle excised but the structure’s authoritarian bulk intact. I question why fascist reliefs on the Saarländisches Staatstheater or Casa Littoria lack explanatory plaques whilst the narrative lingers on absences: vanished synagogues, the Hindenburgturm’s toppled eagles, or the unmarked graves of forced labourers. Ultimately, the webpage frames this tiny region as a palimpsest of power, where Roman roads, Prussian memorials, and Nazi forums compete beneath Allied-bombed streets, a landscape demanding confrontation, not commemoration.
Sites Featured: Galgenbergturm,
Spiesen-Elversberg, Saarlouis, Höchen Bexbach im Saarpfalz, Merzig,
Hanau im Mainz, Dillingen, Saar, Saarbrücken, Bad Hersfeld, St. Wendel,
Quierschied, Winterberg Monument, Saarländisches Staatstheater, Hindenburgturm
My brief look at Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania and Mecklenburg under Nazi rule traces a landscape reshaped by ideology, militarism and collective amnesia- swastikas draped over town halls in Kiel and Lübeck, Hitler Youth marching through Quickborn, the Thingplatz at Bad Segeberg repurposed from quarry to ideological stage. My then-and-now comparisons don't merely illustrate change; they confront the persistence of form amid shifts in meaning; the naval academy in Flensburg still stands as the “Red Castle,” its Nazi eagle preserved above the entrance, whilst Bismarck’s mausoleum, bombed in error, remains a site of pilgrimage and propaganda, visited by Hitler in 1939 as a symbolic prelude to war. The Kiel naval memorials erected to glorify sacrifice at sea now gaslit into memorials to peace underscoring a deliberate sanitisation of memory. At Prora on Rügen, the 4.5-kilometre shell of a never-completed KdF resort looms over the Baltic, a monument to failed utopianism, its scale revealing the regime’s ambition to engineer leisure as a tool of control. Sites of violence are rendered visible through absence: the Jewish cemetery in Güstrow, burned in 1938, now marked only by a wrought-iron fence; the synagogue in Neustrelitz, reduced to rubble after Kristallnacht; the anti-Semitic sign at Dangast, replaced today by grotesque parody. The forced labour camps embedded within industrial towns left no formal traces, their victims uncommemorated. In Demmin, the mass suicides of 1945, triggered by Soviet atrocities but rooted in years of Nazi indoctrination, were suppressed under East German rule, their memory buried as inconvenient. Even the liberation was marked by horror: at Woebbelin, American troops discovered a satellite camp of Neuengamme, where the dead lay unburied, and locals were forced to view the corpses- a moment captured in stark images that the webpage uses to challenge any redemptive narrative of victory.
Sites Featured: Prora,
Kiel, Horst, Heiligendamm, Greifswald, Sylt, Demmin, Rügen, Adolf
Hitler Koog, Güstrow, Schwerin, Friedrichsruh, Pelzerhaken, Barracks,
Mecklenburg, Quickborn, Pomerania, Ahlbeck Heringsdorf,
Schleswig-Holstein, Bad Segeberg, Adolf-Hitler-Schanze, U-Boots
Ehrenmal, Flandernbunker, Kellenhusen, Thingplatz, Plön, Ahlefeld
Bistensee, Flensburg, Bad Arnis, Lübeck, Leck, Neustadt in Holstein,
Heide, Neumünster, Remaining Nazi eagles, Grömitz, Kappeln/Schlei,
Kellenhusen an der Ostsee, Rostock, Wismar, Neustrelit, Zingst, Anklam,
Kellinghusen, Haffkrug, Neustrelitz, Nordseebad Dangast, Kühlungsborn,
Schloß Ludwigslust
My investigation of Nazi-era Baden unfolds along the Neckar, anchoring each location in a tight weave of archival documents, eyewitness accounts, and precisely aligned then-and-now photographs. Beginning on Heidelberg’s Alte Brücke, I follow SA columns across the same stones I cycled in July 2022, before mapping the regime’s swift capture of the university, the Thingstätte’s failed pseudo-Germanic ritual, and the uneasy afterlife of Führer-era offices now masquerading as music academies and art institutes. Karlsruhe’s vanished Adolf-Hitler-Platz appears beside today’s market square, the overlap exposing both the speed of 1933 renamings and the later scrubbed-clean city map. In Freiburg, charred synagogue sites, the Möslestadion rally, and the scorched Bertoldsbrunnen sit alongside contemporary street scenes, inviting visitors to my site to gauge what restoration chooses to foreground or forget. Stuttgart’s Killesberg deportation ramp, Schwetzingen’s toppled Jagdtiger embedded in a corner house, and Reutlingen’s bomb-shattered market square complete a regional circuit that treats ordinary pavements as contested archives. Throughout, detailed captions track electoral figures, firing dates, bombing tonnage, and post-war planning decisions, challenging visitors to consider how civic pride, commercial opportunism, and deliberate neglect shape present landscapes. The result is neither heritage tour nor moral sermon: it is a working laboratory where camera angles, planning files and cemetery epitaphs force the observer to test comfortable myths about German modernity against stubborn masonry, erased road signs and overgrown foundations.
Sites Featured: Öschelbronn,
Stuttgart, Esslingen, Konstanz,Thingstätte, Freiburg, Karlsruhe,
Hechingen, Obertürkheim, Durlach, Heidelberg, Fruchtsäule, Schwetzingen,
Bismarckturm, Wilhelmspalais, Stuttgarter Polizeipräsidium, Panzer
Kaserne, Tompkins Barracks, Grenadierdenkmal, Karlsruhe Badisches
Innenministerium, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Adolf-Hitler-Haus,
Möslestadion, Remaining Nazi eagles, Reutlingen
This webpage provides a detailed, visually-driven account of German locations transformed during the Nazi era, using archival and contemporary photographs to contrast past and present. It documents how towns like Offenburg (renamed Adolf-Hitler-Straße, synagogue destroyed) and Mannheim (90% of municipal posts Nazified, industrial rearmament, near-total Allied bombing destruction) were systematically altered. Key sites include Kehl am Rhein, where Hitler visited a factory in 1939 and the population was forcibly evacuated; Schwäbisch Hall, featuring a Sparkasse still bearing a Nazi eagle and the repurposed Neues Krankenhaus; and Tübingen, where the University became a hub for racial pseudoscience and forced sterilisations.Visual comparisons are central: Rexingen’s synagogue site, Göppingen’s 1938 Nazi war memorial, and Sir Francis Drake’s statue in Offenburg all show deliberate erasure. Friedrichshafen highlights forced labour use in Zeppelin factories and wartime bombing devastation. Ulm’s Oberer Kuhberg concentration camp and the leaning Metzgerturm underscore everyday complicity. Post-war legacies persist: Blaustein’s site of Rommel's forced suicide, Schloss Lichtenstein's potential papal internment plan, and Todtnau’s Hitler Youth hostel now repurposed. Ongoing Nazi symbols remain, such as eagles on Donaueschingen’s town hall and Heidenheim an der Brenz’s surviving architecture. The webpage catalogues these locations, offering a sober record of physical spaces altered by ideology, with present-day images revealing contested preservation, demolition, or reuse.
Sites Featured: Radolfzell,
Laufenburg, Pfullingen, Villingen-Schwenningen, Offenburg,
Friedrichshafen,Tübingen, Schönau, Breisach, Schwäbisch Hall, Rexingen,
Maulbronn, Ulm, Altenstadt, Mannheim, Schlageter's grave, Breisach am Oberrhein,
Rommel's grave, Rommel's home, Blaustein, Dilsberg, Schloss
Lichtenstein, Metzgerturm, Todtnau, Remaining Nazi eagles, Göppingen,
Donaueschingen, Heidenheim an der Brenz, Kloster Maulbronn, Neues
Krankenhaus Diakonie-Klinikum, Kinzigdamm, Sir Francis Drake memorial, Ebingen
Through a series of historical photographs and contemporary images of Nazi-era towns in Württemberg, the narrative traces how local communities were systematically dismantled and reshaped under Nazi governance. Each town's account demonstrates a consistent pattern: democratically elected officials were ousted, Jewish communities were progressively marginalised, and civic institutions were forcibly aligned with Nazi ideology. Heilbronn’s town hall draped in swastikas beside its present-day facade, the Rosenberg Bridge’s surviving Nazi eagle, the Theresienwiese bunker’s austere structure all anchor the narrative in physical continuity. In Heilbronn, the forced Gleichschaltung of civic institutions, the eradication of Jewish life culminating in Kristallnacht, and the use of salt mines for both war production and looted art storage illustrate the town’s role in systemic repression and industrial complicity. The December 1944 bombing, which killed 6,500 and reduced the centre to rubble, is memorialised annually, yet the postwar reconstruction and reuse of Nazi-era buildings reflect a selective engagement with the past. Schwäbisch Gmünd’s war memorial, stripped of its swastika but preserved through postwar debate, embodies the tension between erasure and remembrance, whilst the fate of its Jewish population underscores the incremental brutality of local persecution. Aalen’s market square, once festooned for Hitler’s birthday, now hosts stolpersteine that name victims like Karl Schiele, whose resistance and posthumous vindication reveal the cost of defiance. Schloss Sigmaringen’s brief existence as the Vichy regime’s final refuge highlights the absurdity and desperation of collaboration’s end. Crailsheim’s near-total destruction during fierce fighting and its functionalist postwar redesign reject historical replication, symbolising a forced rupture with the past.
Sites Featured: Lörrach,
Böblingen, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Amstetten, Ravensburg, Hardheim, Cannstatt, Ebingen, Ludwigsburg, Gengenbach, Nagold, Aalen,
Heilbronn, Bräunlingen, Waldhilsbach, Schirenhof, Wiesendorf
concentration camp, Weingarten, Schloss Sigmaringen, Böblingen, Schloß
Kapfenburg, Esslingen, Künzelsau, Obertürkheim, Remaining Nazi eagles,
Bad Cannstatt, Gengenbach, Crailsheim, Freistett
My detailed exploration of Nazi-era Hesse through juxtaposed historical and contemporary imagery examines how Frankfurt’s Römerberg, where students burned books to Heine’s prescient warning about burning people, now bears only a discreet plaque acknowledging this atrocity, its ox-cart pyre site obscured by modern commerce. Similarly, the IG Farben Building, once central to nerve gas experiments and forced labour, retains its travertine façade whilst housing Goethe University, its Eisenhower-era legacy overshadowing its darker past. Darmstadt’s Luisenplatz, where Hitler prophesied six million unemployed in April 1932, now stands unadorned, its firestorm devastation of September 1944 memorialised only in the city’s reconstructed plainness. I trace how sites like Marburg’s university, where Papen’s defiant 1934 speech preceded the Night of the Long Knives, retain subtle scars: defaced eagles, repurposed barracks, and unmarked foundations where synagogues stood. These comparisons reveal not passive decay but active, calculated erasure—where Nazi eagles linger on Luftschutzbunkers in Offenbach while swastikas are smoothed away, or where Kassel’s firestorm ruins were rebuilt without acknowledging the 10,000 lives lost. Here the physical landscape confronts the persistent tension between remembering and rebuilding, demanding we see beyond the plaques to the spaces deliberately left uninterpreted.
Sites Featured: Frankfurt,
Windecken, Gießen, Saalburg, Niederwalddenkmal, Darmstadt, Wiesbaden,
Bad Wildungen, Remaining Nazi eagles, Kassel, Runkel, Bad Homburg,
Fritzlar, Hitlerturm, Offenbach am Main, Marburg, Naumburg, Rotenburg an
der Fulda, Bad Sooden-Allendorf, Erlensee, Schloß Dehrn, Rüdesheim,
Fliegerdenkmal, Wasserkuppe
Austria
This webpage examines Upper Austria's complex relationship with Nazi history, focusing on sites connected to Hitler's early life and the region's transformation under Nazi rule. I begin with Hitler's birthplace in Braunau am Inn, detailing the building's architectural history and its post-war fate as a contested memorial site. I explore Hitler's formative years through Linz, where he attended school and later envisioned grandiose urban redesigns as Führer. My analysis extends to Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps where details like the 'Stairs of Death' and the 1945 'Mühlviertel rabbit hunt' massacre reveal the camps’ brutality, whilst post-war images show Austrians burying victims on the ϟϟ football pitch. Gusen’s crematorium, preserved only after survivor protests, now sits ignored in a housing estate. I moralising but highlight tensions in preserving these sites: Hitler’s parents’ grave in Leonding dismantled in 2012 after neo-Nazi visits, whilst the Burschenschafterturm tower’s Nazi-era slogan was controversially replaced with a German-nationalist logo. I also cycled to lesser-known sites like Fischlham, where Hitler attended primary school, and Leonding, where his family lived, throughout presenting details about architectural changes, administrative decisions, and ongoing debates over remembrance.
Sites Featured: Braunau
am Inn, Gusen, Leonding, Mauthausen Concentration camp, Fischlham,
Linz, Hitler's birthplace, Hitler's schools, Adolf Eichmann residence,
Nibelungen Bridge, Burschenschafterturm, Hitler's parents gravesite,
Where Hitler's father died
The result of two research visits I made to Vienna to explore its transformation under Nazi occupation and its post-war reckoning with memory and architectural amnesia, exemplified by the Loos Haus, a pre-war modernist provocation now tainted by Nazi propaganda shrines, and the Heldenplatz, where Hitler’s 1938 rally balcony remains sealed yet still evokes its toxic history. I juxtapose Hitler’s crude watercolours of Vienna, devoid of human nuance, with the empty pragmatism of his political rise, asking whether æsthetic failure masked ideological fervour. Integrating archival images of Nazi rallies against post-war rubble, I underscore Vienna’s role as a stage for fascist spectacle and Allied occupation, whilst highlighting monuments like the Stalin statue on Schwarzenbergplatz- now defaced with Ukrainian colours- to reflect shifting political sympathies. I use The Third Man as a lens to critique Cold War-era denial, noting how the film’s nostalgic portrayal of bombed-out Vienna obscured recent horrors. Similarly, Vienna’s Jewish community is shown fighting posthumous erasure: the Judenplatz memorial’s controversial design, which abstractly honours victims as 'nameless books' sparks debate over whether æstheticisation risks diluting guilt. Neglected details- a swastika hidden in a Ferris wheel scene, the persistence of Nazi-era police uniforms- refuse easy catharsis to show Vienna as a city where every reconstructed facade and contested monument testifies to the instability of memory itself.
Sites Featured: St.
Charles's church, Vienna State Opera House, Chancellery, Hotel
Imperial, Heldenplatz, Hofburg, Äußeres Burgtor, Loos Haus,
Michaelerplatz, Burgtheater, Holocaust memorial, Gauhaus,
Adolf-Hitler-Platz, Urania, Schönbrunn palace
Apart
from the various ski resorts frequented by the wife and kid, this webpage examines key locations across Austria that were transformed under Nazi rule, focusing on their wartime roles and post-war legacies. The Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl, where Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war in 1914, later became a Nazi administrative site. Dürnstein, a picturesque Wachau town, saw its history co-opted by Nazi propaganda, including dubious claims about Hitler’s artwork. Melk’s Baroque abbey overlooked a brutal subcamp of Mauthausen where thousands perished in underground armaments production. St. Pölten, renamed and reshaped as a Nazi stronghold, witnessed the expulsion of its Jewish population and heavy Allied bombing. The analysis extends to Alpine regions like Zell am See, a Nazi leisure destination that also hosted forced labour camps, and Kitzbühel, where prominent Nazis vacationed whilst resistance members were executed. Innsbruck’s mediæval streets became battlegrounds during Allied air raids targeting the Brenner railway, whilst Salzburg’s cultural landmarks were repurposed for Nazi pageantry, including the infamous book burning at Residenzplatz. As always I contrast archival images with contemporary views of these sites, now stripped of overt fascist symbolism but still bearing scars to document the tension between preservation and erasure.
Sites Featured:
Döbling, Amstetten, Kufstein, Zell am See, Innsbruck, Kapfenberg,
Salzburg, Dürnstein, Bad Ischl, Styria, Friesach, Kitzbühel, Melk,
Lienz, Bad Leonfelden, Bad Radkersburg, Gröbming, St. Pölten,
Traismauer, Wolfgangsee
ITALY
My exploration of Rome’s transformation under Fascist rule, particularly during Adolf Hitler’s 1938 visit, reveals a city reshaped to project Mussolini’s vision of a new Roman Empire, blending ancient grandeur with fascist propaganda. Through then-and-now GIFs and historical analysis, I examine key sites like Roma Ostiense station, built to welcome Hitler with a Travertine marble façade and fascist mosaics, including a map of the Roman Empire framed by a triumphal arch. The station’s decorations, such as the German eagle and swastika alongside murals glorifying Nazism and Fascism, underscored Mussolini’s alliance with Hitler. The nearby Viale Adolfo Hitler, now Viale delle Cave Ardeatine, led to monumental routes like Via dei Trionfi and Via dell’Impero, showcasing Rome’s imperial past while masking the destruction of 40,000 square yards of historic neighborhoods. The Palazzo Venezia, Mussolini’s stage for speeches, and the Vittoriano, a backdrop for fascist displays, remain potent symbols, though now repurposed as cultural sites. The Foro Mussolini (now Foro Italico), with its enduring Mussolini Obelisk, and the EUR district’s Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, with arches symbolising Mussolini’s name, reflect Fascism’s architectural legacy. The Ara Pacis and Mausoleum of Augustus, excavated and relocated to glorify Mussolini as a modern Augustus, contrast with their current museum settings. Sites like the Colosseum, once a stage for fascist rallies, and the Via Rasella, marked by bullet holes from a 1944 resistance attack, bear witness to both oppression and defiance.
Featured Sites: Accademia Fascista, Quirinal, Via dell’Impero, EUR, Stadio dei Marmia, Stadio dei Marmi, Termini, Florence, Colosseum, Roma Ostiense, Naples, Foro Mussolini, Palazzo Venezia, Palazzo Braschi, Via Rasella, Porta San Paolo, Via Nazionale, Porta San Giovanni, Campidoglio, Capitoline Hill, Piazza Augusto Imperatore, Ara Pacis, Piazza del Popolo, Castel Sant'Angelo, EIAR, Caserna Mussolini, Viale Romania, Viale Regina Elena, Via del Mare, Piazza Bocca della Verità, San Giorgio in Velabro, Arch of Janus, Largo Argentina, MVSN, Via del Circo Massimo, Curia Julia, Palazzo degli Uffici dell’Ente Autonomo, Basilica of Maxentius, Campo Roma
Ruled
by two fascist dictatorships, South Tyrol's unique history and
cultural identity is shaped by its location at the crossroads of Germanic
and Latin cultures. This webpage interrogates Bolzano’s entangled legacies, probing how architecture and terrain became instruments of power across imperial, fascist, and democratic regimes. I scrutinise the city’s contested identity through the physical remnants of its past, deploying archival and contemporary imagery to chart transformations. Visual comparisons anchor the narrative, exposing how neoclassical ambitions yielded to Mussolini’s rationalist impositions- witness the Victory Monument’s triumphal arch, its fasces columns and arrow-wielding goddess still dominating Waltherplatz, or the railway station’s fascist-era statues framing identical platforms today. The lens lingers on structures repurposed yet unresolved: the Casa Littoria’s Mussolini frieze overlooking finance offices, the INFPS building’s defaced insignia, or the courthouse’s unblinded Justitia.The analysis extends beyond aesthetics to violence embedded in stone. I trace the Nazis' brutality through the Bolzano transit camp’s foundations and Gestapo headquarters where partisans perished, contrasting liberation’s euphoria with the Südtiroler Ordnungsdienst’s complicity. My then and now sequences frame resilience: Laurin Fountain’s shattered fragments reassembled before the parliament, or overgrown Temple foundations near Königsplatz echoing South Tyrol’s own scarred earth. Ötzi’s glacier-encased remains, juxtaposed against Great War soldiers thawing from Dolomite ice, underscore humanity’s fragile imprint. I confront demographic ruptures- the Option’s exodus, book burnings, and bombed bridges- whilst questioning memory’s selectivity. Why do fascist reliefs lack context? How do bilingual plaques reconcile irreconcilable pasts? The Brenner Pass’s enduring border, surveyed from both sides, becomes a metaphor for unresolved belonging.
Featured Sites: Bozen,
Chiusa, Alto Adige, Bolzano, Bressanone, Klausen, Brixen, Elephant
Hotel, Victory Monument, INA Headquarters, Headquarters of the fascist
party (PNF), Casa Littoria, Piazza del Tribunale, Viale Giulio Cesare,
INFPS, Gestapo Headquarters
CZECHIA
My detailed exploration of Prague’s history under Nazi occupation offers a compelling examination of the city’s transformation after the 1938 Munich Agreement and the 1939 German invasion. Through my then-and-now images, archival photographs, and historical analysis, I trace Prague’s shift from a democratic hub to a stage for Nazi oppression. I go into key sites like the Petschek Palace, repurposed as the Gestapo’s brutal headquarters, where 36,000 interrogations occurred, and Hradcany Castle, where Hitler proclaimed the Protectorate. Visual comparisons, such as the Charles Bridge crossed by German troops in 1939 and today, or the bullet-scarred Church of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, where paratroopers resisted in 1942, underscore the city’s wartime scars and its resilience. I highlight the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and its aftermath, including the destruction of Lidice and mass executions. The Jewish Ghetto’s survival, with the Pinkas Synagogue’s 80,000 inscribed names and the Old Jewish Cemetery’s layered graves, reflects both Nazi plans for a perverse museum and the community’s endurance. Post-war, the expulsion of Germans and the Soviet takeover, culminating in the 1948 communist coup, are juxtaposed with modern memorials, like those for Jan Palach and the Velvet Revolution. Prague serves as a case study in urban memory, a city that bears the weight of ideological conflicts, ethnic purges, and democratic struggles, yet persists as a testament to resistance and renewal, its streets and squares embodying a complex legacy of trauma and triumph. Sites featured: Gestapo
Headquarters, Cernínský Palác, Hradcany Castle, Wenceslas Square, Deutsches Theatre, Operation Anthropoid, Commonwealth War
Cemetery, Prague, Winston Churchill Square, Stalin Monument, Czech
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, New Jewish Cemetery, Soviet Cemetery,
Maisel Synagogue, Armadni Muzeum, National Museum, Staromestske Namesti,
Charles Bridge, Rudolfinum concert hall, New German Theatre, Site of
Heydrich's assassination, Church of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Restaurant
Krčma u Parašutistů, National Liberation Memorial
A granular examination of the Sudetenland’s historical trajectory from its contested status post-WWI to its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938 and subsequent expulsion of its German-Bohemian population. I compare archival imagery with contemporary photographs to show the region’s transformation under Nazi ideology and the fraught post-war settlement. Key sites such as Asch, Eger (Cheb), and Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) are scrutinised to reveal how Nazi authorities repurposed urban landscapes- renaming streets, erecting propaganda displays, and co-opting historic monuments to erase Czech and Jewish heritage whilst reinforcing Aryan supremacist narratives. The inclusion of Hitler motorcade through Asch and speech in Eger’s market square underscores the performative nature of Nazi propaganda, contrasting with the region’s earlier multicultural identity as part of Austro-Hungarian and later Czechoslovak rule. I get into the post-war era, detailing the expulsion of approximately 3 million Sudeten Germans under the Beneš decrees and the resettlement of Czechs, Slovaks, Roma, and repatriates. Then-and-now images of sites like the bombed Hotel Métropole in Sokolov and the derelict Hotel Partyzán in Krnov illustrate the physical and demographic collapse of communities, whilst acknowledging the systemic violence of expulsions, such as the death march from Brno and the brutal 'blood court' in Landskron. These accounts are balanced against Nazi-era atrocities, including the destruction of synagogues in Marienbad and the exploitation of forced labour in Falkenau’s subcamp of Flossenbürg. By integrating primary sources, including Hitler’s speeches, Nazi propaganda films like Eger—eine alte deutsche Stadt, and post-war testimonies, the page avoids simplistic narratives, instead framing the Sudetenland as a microcosm of Europe’s 20th-century upheavals- territorial ambition, ethnic cleansing, and the enduring scars of ideological violence.
Sites featured: Aš,
Cheb, Olomouc, Karlsbad, Nürschan, Liberec, Marienbad, Bratislava,
Eger, Jägerndorf, Komotau, Görkau, Kamnitz, Wildenau, Leitmeritz,
Czechoslovakia, Falkenau, Wiesengrund, Franzensbad, Sokolov, Lanškroun,
Konrad Henlein Platz,Straße der SA, Hermann Göring Platz, Adolf Hitler
Platz, Orlau, Orlová
France & Belgium
My examination of Strasbourg under Nazi occupationreveals a city subjected to a systematic campaign of cultural erasure and forced Germanisation. The regime’s immediate imposition of civil administration under Robert Wagner initiated a ruthless effort to dismantle French identity, exemplified by the renaming of streets, banning of the French language, and removal of national symbols such as the Kléber statue from Place Kléber. I spent over a week taking photos to juxtapose with archival photographs and contemporary images, showing how public spaces were overwritten with Nazi iconography- Adolf-Hitler-Platz replaced Place de la République, whilst Karlsplatz erased the memory of the French general. The cathedral, a contested symbol of Alsatian heritage, was seized and closed to Catholic worship; Hitler’s personal interest in repurposing it as a Nationalheiligtum underscores the ideological weight placed on architectural control. My then-and-now GIFs integrated throughout highlight the physical continuity of the cityscape against the violent discontinuity of its political and cultural life. The University of Strasbourg was replaced by the Reichsuniversität, a tool for ideological indoctrination and racial science, where August Hirt’s grotesque experiments on Jewish prisoners were conducted under institutional cover. The site of the former synagogue, burned by Hitler Youth in 1940, now marked only by absence, speaks to deliberate erasure. Today the city’s scars- physical, legal, and moral- endure, embedded in its reconstructed buildings and contested memory. Sites featured: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Place du Château, Karl Roos Platz, Gare de Strasbourg, Adolf-Hitler-Platz,Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse, Reichsuniversität Straßburg, Opéra de Strasbourg, Main synagogue
My investigation of Alsace under Nazi occupation between 1940 and 1945 reveals a region subjected to an aggressive campaign of political, cultural and racial reengineering, framed as a “reintegration” into the Reich yet executed through systematic repression and ideological violence. At Natzweiler-Struthof, the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil, forced labour, medical experimentation and mass murder were institutionalised. Prisoners from across Europe were worked to death in the Vosges quarries to supply Speer’s monumental architecture, whilst August Hirt’s skull collection project, using victims gassed at the camp and later identified through forensic research, exemplifies the regime’s fusion of pseudo-science and genocide. Public hangings, secret killings and the burial of ashes in unmarked grounds underscore the camp’s role as a site of total dehumanisation. In towns like Colmar, Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, frontline combat during the 1944–45 Colmar Pocket reduced entire villages to rubble, with civilians caught between retreating German units and advancing Allied forces. Photographs of ruined churches, shattered homes and scarred landscapes are juxtaposed with present-day views, highlighting both reconstruction and absence. The persistence of stork nests on ruined gables, the survival of half-timbered facades, and the quiet return of daily life contrast with memorials to the dead and the unmarked graves of forced labourers. This visual dialogue underscores a central tension: the resilience of place against the fragility of memory, confronting how ideology reshapes space, how occupation distorts identity, and how the physical remnants of violence- whether a gas chamber foundation or a bullet-pocked church door- refuse to be forgotten.
Sites Featured: Jebsheim,
Lauterbourg, Provence, Alsace, Ostheim, Illhäusern,
Mulhouse, Riquewihr, Molsheim, Le Bonhomme, Ammerschwihr, Sigolsheim,
Kaysersberg, Kientzheim, Colmar, Munster, Bergheim, Verdun, Rethondes,
Compiegne, Boulay, Bolchen, Münster im Elsass, Douaumont, Maginot line,
Rouffach, Hill 351 memorial, Haguenau, Bergheim German war cemetery
Several
sites associated with Hitler's service in the First World War hold
historical significance and shed light on his early life and rise to
power. One such site is the Ypres Salient in Belgium, where Hitler
served as a messenger for the German Army. Hitler's experiences in the
trenches of the Ypres Salient left a lasting impression on him and
shaped his worldview, contributing to his later militaristic and
nationalist beliefs. Hitler's time in this area influenced his later
attitudes towards warfare, sacrifice, and nationalism.
Sites Featured: Roeselare,
Becelaere, Lorraine, Hitler's artwork, Reims, Rethondes, Langemark,
Fournes, Ypres, Menen, Belgium, Compiègne, Douaumont, Vimy Ridge,
Messines, Fromelles, France, Ardooie, Poperinghe, Verdun, Arras,
Bayershof German Headquarters, Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries, Le
Touret, Bapaume, Notre Dame de Lorette
Other
Visiting a number of sites in and around Munich that provided the locations for various films which include: The Great Escape, The Passenger, Last Year in Marienbad, Paths of Glory, The Three Musketeers, and Quax der Bruchpilot.
Deining's Alpine backdrop, featured in The Great Escape's opening convoy, contrasts with its modern appearance, highlighting unchanged landmarks like the town church. Füssen's mediæval streets and Neuschwanstein Castle provided iconic settings for escape scenes, with the Lechhalde bridge and St. Mang's café vividly recreated. Markt Schwaben's Ebersberger Straße, where Sedgwick steals a bike, and Großhesselohe's former railway station, a Gestapo checkpoint, reflect wartime authenticity. Oberschleißheim's Schloss Schleißheim, used in Paths of Glory, juxtaposes the Great Hall's opulent court martial with its historical role as a Nazi airfield celebration site. Nymphenburg Palace and Bogenhausen's St. George's Church, featured in The Passenger, blend rococo elegance with WWII resistance narratives. Through wartime photographs and contemporary views, the site captures these locations' enduring legacy, connecting cinematic history with their historical and cultural significance.
Sites Featured: Deining, Füssen, Hopfen am See, Neuschwanstein, Pullach, Markt Schwaben, Oberschleisssheim, Munich, Erding
Spent Christmas 2023 cycling around Vienna following the remaining traces of Harry Lime. Sites Featured: Zentralfriedhof,
Schoenlanterngasse, Alserbachstraße, Spittelauer Lände, Hoher Markt,
Vermählungsbrunnen, Tuchlaubenstrasse, Michaelertrakt, Wiener Riesenrad,
Vienna Ferris Wheel, Morzinplatz, Former site of Gestapo Headquarters,
Am Hof, Judengasse, Shulhofplatz, Mölker Steig, Hannakenbrunnen, Maria
am Gestade church, Schreyvogelgasse, Salesianerinnenkirche, St.
Ruprecht's church, Ruprechtsplatz, Ledererhof, Boersegasse, Tiefer
Graben, St. Ulrichsplatz, Josefsplatz, Neuer Markt, Schloss Belvedere,
Justizpalast, Schmerlingplatz,Hofburg Palace, Strauss monument in Stadtpark, Beethovenplatz, Rathaus, Votive church, Schoenbrunn Palace, Belvedere, Justizplatz, Wedding Fountain, Vermählungsbrunnen, Stephansdom, Lime's apartment, Site of Lime's 'death', Lime's grave, Café Mozart, Braunerstrasse, Portzellangasse, Marc Aurel Strasse, Metastasiogasse, Minoritenkirche, Sonnenfelsgasse, Rennweg, Metternichgasse, Salesianerinnenkirche, Wipplingerstraße, Judengasse, Shulhofplatz, Baron Kurtz's apartment, Ballgasse
After
the game was released in 2018 which coincided with my family's tour of
Ancient Greek sites, I compared the sites from the game with how they
appear in reality and was most impressed by the level of research,
accuracy and creativity employed by the designers. Archaeogaming, pioneered by Andrew Reinhard in 2013, merges archaeology with video games, and this page compares the game’s meticulously crafted scenes with their real-world counterparts. Guided by Drake Winston, we delve into iconic sites like Athens’ Acropolis, Delphi’s Temple of Apollo, and Olympia’s Temple of Zeus, blending historical accuracy with immersive storytelling. Ubisoft Quebec, advised by historian Stéphanie-Anne Ruatta, recreated Greece using over 13,000 reference photos and Google Earth, ensuring authenticity in locations like Sparta and Mycenae. From the Propylaea’s monumental gateway to the Parthenon’s Pentelic marble, discover how the game balances historical fidelity with creative liberties, such as anachronistic temples and fictional bronze gables.
Sites Featured: Athens, Delphi, Mycenea, Olympia, Sounion
In
2015 I travelled with my family down the Nile visiting numerous ancient
sites,f as always comparing them with how they might have originally
appeared. It features the Giza pyramid complex, housing the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx, carved from bedrock around 2570 BCE, the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. It explores Abu Simbel’s monumental temples, relocated in July 1968 to avoid Lake Nasser’s flooding, and Philae’s temple complex, preserved through UNESCO’s intervention. The page showcases Karnak and Luxor, with their sphinx-lined avenues and enduring hypostyle halls, alongside Kom Ombo’s distinctive double temple, dedicated to Sobek and Haroeris. It also details the Valley of the Kings, with 63 royal tombs, including Tutankhamun’s, discovered in November 1922. Through vivid descriptions and imagery, this site offers a deep dive into Egypt’s timeless legacy, from ancient engineering to modern preservation.
Sites Featured: Esna, the Pyramids, Cairo, the Sphynx, Kom Ombo, Luxor, Abu Simbel, Karnak, Philae, Temple of Isis, Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, Aswan Dam, Monument of Arab-Soviet Friendship, Mammisi, Temple of Philae, Temple of Augustus, Chapel of Horus, Temple of Hathor, Trajan's Kiosk, Avenue of Sphinxes, Hypostyle Hall, Akhmenu, Obelisk of Hatshepsut, Sphinx Alley, Court of Ramesses II, Colonnade of Amenhotep III, Temple of Hathor and Nefertari, Solar Cult chapel, Tombs of Ramesses IV, Merneptah, Twosret, Setnakhte, Tutankhamun, Temple of Khnum
Twenty
years after having left Greece where I taught in the Peloponnese I
returned with Drake Winston, seeing how much has changed just in that
space of time post 2008-financial crisis. The Acropolis features prominently, with the Parthenon, alongside its German occupation. The Erechtheum's Caryatids, the Propylaea's monumental gateway, and the Temple of Athena Nike, rebuilt after Persian destruction, highlight ancient craftsmanship. The Roman Agora's Tower of the Winds, the world's first meteorological station, and the Arch of Hadrian reflect Roman influence. The Panathenaic Stadium, site of the first modern Olympics, and the Lysicrates Monument, a symbol of ancient artistry, are featured. Marathon's burial mound commemorates the 192 Athenian dead, whilst Sounion's Temple of Poseidon evokes myths of Aegeus and Theseus. Through Nazi-era photographs and contemporary views, this site captures Athens' rich cultural heritage, blending its classical legacy with a resilient historical narrative, offering a vivid portrayal of the city's enduring significance.
Sites Featured: Sounion, Marathon, Acropolis, Propylaea, Erechtheion, Parthenon, temple of Nike, Areopagus, Arch of Hadrian, Temple of Olympian Zeus, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Hotel de Grande Bretagne, Temple of Hephaestus, Panathenaic stadium, Lysicrates Monument, Tower of the Winds, Gate of Athena Archegetis, Library of Hadrian, Prison of Socrates, Pnyx, monument of Philopappos, Academy, National Archaeological Museum, Marathon Dam
A few sites relating to the Nazi occupation but for the most part focused on the sites found in Pausanias. Thermopylae showcases Leonidas’ 300 Spartans’ stand against the Persians in 480 BCE, with a 1955 memorial and Nazi reenactment photos from 1941. Mycenae, Agamemnon’s city, features the Lion Gate, Cyclopean walls, and Grave Circle A with gold masks, linked to Homeric legends. Corinth displays the 6th-century BCE Temple of Apollo and the Corinth Canal, dug in 1893 after ancient attempts. Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, offers the Temple of Hera, Zeus’ statue site, and the stadium’s ancient track. Delphi, the world’s navel, presents the Temple of Apollo, Charioteer statue, and Athenian Treasury, tied to the Pythian Games. The webpage includes Drake Winston’s site visits, archival images, and Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey recreations, detailing Greece’s historic sites, from Spartan defiance to Mycenaean treasures, Corinth’s engineering, Olympia’s athletic legacy, and Delphi’s oracular heritage, capturing their cultural and historical significance.
Sites Featured: Olympia, Mycenae, Corinth, Delphi, Thermopylae, Tomb of Clytemnestra, Tomb of Aegisthus, Temple of Atreus, Corinth Canal, Temple of Apollo, Beme, Peirene fountain, Temple of Nemean Zeus, Temple of Hera, Heraeum, Philippeion, Temple of Zeus, Athenian Treasury, Sacred Way, Theatre of Delphi, Tholos of Delphi, Treasury of Siphnos
Returned
to Rome with Drake Winston, his mother driving the distance just to let
me bring my lorica segmenta in which to prance around and get
constantly hassled by the police. The highlight was fighting outside the
Colosseum with my son on Christmas morning with absolutely no one
around. Sites include: Arch of Constantine, Colosseum, Pantheon, Basilica of Maxentius, via dei Fori
Imperiali, Trajan's Forum and Column, Curia Julia, Forum Romanum, Temple of Mars Ultor, Temple of Castor and Pollux, Temple of Cæsar, Capitoline, Arch of Titus, Circus Maximus, Theatre of Marcellus, Aurelian Walls, Porta Flaminia, Arch of Septimius
Severus, Arch of Gallienus, Temple of Hercules Victor, Largo Argentina, Arcus Argentariorum, Ara Pacis, Mausoleum of Augustus, Porticus of Octavia, Arch of Drusus, Arch of Janus, Mausoleum of Hadrian, Pons Aelius, Cordonata, Campidoglio, Statue of Marcus Aurelius, Column of Marcus Aurelius, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Campus Martius, Stadium of Domitian, Circus Agonalis, Pyramid
of Cestius, Porta San Paolo, Via Ostiensis, Via della Marmorata, Tivoli, Temple of Vesta, Hadrian's Villa
Besides
comparing as many of the sites as Drake Winston would allow on the day
whilst wearing my subarmalis and caligae with how the might have
appeared before 79 AD, focus is also given to the changes to the site
after the wartime bombing by the Allies when the site was held by the
Germans. I've also included some earlier images taken when I last
visited Herculaneum. Sites include: Porta Marina, House of the Gladiators, House of Triptolemus, Samnite palaestra, Villa of the Mysteries, Temple of Isis, Odeon, Large Theatre, Amphitheatre, Arch of Caligula, Via di Mercurio, Via delle Terme, Via della Fortuna, Via del
Foro, Porta Nocera, House of the Bronze Bull, brothel, House of the Faun, Casa dei Ceii, Porta Saliniensis, House of Fabius Amandius, Fullonica of Stephanus, Via dell'Abbondanza, House of Ephebus, House of the Tragic Poet, Temple of Vespasian, Stabiae Gate, Macellum, House of Fabius Rufus, Forum Holitoriumis, House of the Fugitives, House of Loreius Tiburtinus, Temple of Apollo, Forum baths, Stabian Baths, Statue and Arch of Marcus Holconius Rufus
Took advantage of a family holiday to visit various ancient Roman (and some WWII) sites to present the historical evolution of Arles, Orange, Nîmes, Glanum, and Aix-en-Provence, showcasing their past and present. It features Arles’ Roman amphitheatre, restored for cultural events, and Van Gogh’s Langlois Bridge and Café Terrace. Orange’s triumphal arch and Roman theatre stand as ancient landmarks. Nîmes displays the well-preserved Maison Carrée and Arena, reflecting Roman architecture. Glanum’s mausoleum and arch highlight Roman conquests. Aix-en-Provence includes Aquae Sextiae and the wartime Camp des Milles. The Barbegal aqueduct and Montmajour Abbey illustrate technological and religious heritage. Neolithic graves and the Chapel of Saint-Gabriel de Tarascon add depth to the region’s ancient roots. Each site’s history, from Roman times to modern restoration, is detailed with visual comparisons, capturing their enduring significance. including: Nîmes,
Arelate, Provence, Glanum, Orange, Carpentras, Nemausus, Barbegal
aqueduct, Aix en Provence, Gallia Narbonensis, Pont du Gard, Arausio,
Saint-Gabriel de Tarascon, Van Gogh Paintings, Maison Carrée, Temple of
Diana, Nymphaeum, Pont du Gard, Mausoleum of the Julii, St. Remy, Abbey
of Saint-Pierre de Montmajour, Hypogée du Castelet
I
currently live a three hour cycle ride from the very borders of the
Roman Empire, allowing me to visit remarkable sites and take part in
Roman reenactments including Augusta Vindelicum (Augsburg), a key Roman municipium founded in 15 BCE, highlighting the Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz then and now, alongside its role as a trade hub. Castra Regina (Regensburg) is depicted with its ancient Porta Praetoria, Germany’s oldest stone structure from 179 CE, illustrating its military and commercial importance. Sorviodurum (Straubing) reveals a thriving civilian settlement with archaeological finds like the Fortuna dedication stone, reflecting Roman frontier life. Abusina (Eining), a well-preserved fort and UNESCO World Heritage Site, showcases reconstructed foundations and the Caracalla altar, offering insights into Raetian military history. The page also covers sites like Cambodunum (Kempten), with its temple district, and the Raetian Limes’ watchtowers and forts, such as Weißenburg and Ruffenhofen, enriched with artefacts and reconstructions.
Sites Featured: Celeusum,
Biriciana, Castra Regina, Abusina, Manching, Altmannstein, Schirenhof,
Castra Vetoniana, Hienheim, Augusta Vindelicum, Cambodunum, Rustica
Möckenlohe, Römerpark Ruffenhofen, Weltenburg, Dalkingen, Mönchsroth,
Regensburg, Augsburg, Passau, Straubing, Eining, Bad Gögging,
Weltenburg-Frauenberg, Hienheim, Pförring, Weißenburg, Schwäbisch
Gmünd, Buch, Mahdholz, Halheim, Dambach, Kreutweiher, Kleinlellenfeld,
Filchenharder forest, Pfünz, Sorviodurum