Wewelsburg: Difference between revisions
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* On the ground floor the "Obergruppenführersaal" (literally translated: hall of the Obergruppenführer (the twelve highest SS-generals)), a hall with twelve columns, was created. The room was almost finished. It was to serve as an representative hall for the SS-Obergruppenführer. In the centre of the marbled whitish/greyish floor a dark green sun wheel is embedded. Probably a golden disc was placed in the middle of the ornament originally. After the second world war the ornament was called the "black sun". Neither it is known if the SS had a special name for the ornament nor it is known if they attributed a special meaning to the ornament. |
* On the ground floor the "Obergruppenführersaal" (literally translated: hall of the Obergruppenführer (the twelve highest SS-generals)), a hall with twelve columns, was created. The room was almost finished. It was to serve as an representative hall for the SS-Obergruppenführer. In the centre of the marbled whitish/greyish floor a dark green sun wheel is embedded. Probably a golden disc was placed in the middle of the ornament originally. After the second world war the ornament was called the "black sun". Neither it is known if the SS had a special name for the ornament nor it is known if they attributed a special meaning to the ornament. |
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* The upper floors were to be completed as a prestigious meeting hall for the entire corps of the SS-Gruppenführer. This room was only planned. |
* The upper floors were to be completed as a prestigious meeting hall for the entire corps of the SS-Gruppenführer. This room was only planned. |
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** It is nothing known about the possible way and the kind of arrangement of ceremonies in the tower |
** It is nothing known about the possible way and the kind of arrangement of ceremonies in the tower [http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/de/wewelsburg/thema_3/index.html]. |
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===Legends and rumors=== |
===Legends and rumors=== |
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Revision as of 18:42, 16 April 2007
Wewelsburg (pronounced /ˈveːvəlsˌbʊɐk/) is a Renaissance castle located in the northwest of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the village of Wewelsburg (the same name as the castle) which is a quarter of the city Büren, Westphalia, in district of Paderborn in the Alme Valley (see Alme). It is known for becoming the ritual headquarters of the SS in 1934 under Heinrich Himmler. In 2006 and 2007 it hosted the annual Internacia Seminario, a meeting of Esperanto youth.
Early history
The Wewelsburg was built from 1603 to 1609 by the Prince of Paderborn. Its location is near what was then believed to be the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Legend suggests that it held thousands of accused witches during the 17th century, who were tortured and executed within its walls.
In 1802, the castle fell to the ownership of the Prussian state - and 13 years later fell victim to a fire that gutted the North Tower.
SS History
Introduction
In 1925, the castle had been renovated into a museum, banquet hall and hostel - six years later the North Tower again proved to be the weak point of the architecture, and had to be supported by guy wires. In 1934, at the suggestion of Karl Maria Wiligut, Heinrich Himmler signed a 100-mark 100-year lease with the Paderborn district, initially intending to renovate and re-design the castle as a school for Nazi leadership (the so-called SS "Führerkorps").
Schoolings never occurred but SS-scientists practised "germanic purpose research" (germanische Zweckforschung) here[1].
In 1938, Siegfried Taubert was in charge of developing the castle, when Himmler enquired about the cost of installing a planetarium. The Ahnenerbe are also said to have had major input into the redevelopment.
Prisoners from the Saxonia and Niederhagen concentration camps were used as labourers to perform much of the construction work on Wewelsburg between 1939 and 1943, under the design of architect Hermann Bartels.
The design of floor mosaic laid in the Marble Hall during that time became known as the "Black Sun" (Schwarze Sonne) and is used as a symbol in Odinism and Neo-Nazism and in occult currents of Irminenschaft or Armanenschaft-inspired esotericism. It is not known whether or not this symbol was placed in the floor at Wewelsburg before or after the National Socialist Regime and the taking over of the castle by Himmler.
Any recipient of one of Himmler's Totenkopfrings (SS ring of honour) was to arrange to have the ring returned to the Castle upon his death.
Himmler's plans included making it the centre of a new Germanocentric world following the "final victory". To symbolize that, an installation of a circular wall centred on the castle, one kilometre in diameter, was planned.
Description of the North Tower
This tower was to serve as the actual "centre of the world".
- Where primary a cistern was a vaul after the model of Mycenaean domed tombs was created which probably was to serve for some kind of commemoration of the dead. The room is unfinished. In the middle of the vaul probably a bowl with an eternal flame was planned. Around the presumed place for the eternal flame twelve pedestals are placed. Their meaning is unknown.
In the zenith of the vaul a swastika (which ends run out in sig runes) is walled in.
The vaul has a special acoustic and illumination.
- On the ground floor the "Obergruppenführersaal" (literally translated: hall of the Obergruppenführer (the twelve highest SS-generals)), a hall with twelve columns, was created. The room was almost finished. It was to serve as an representative hall for the SS-Obergruppenführer. In the centre of the marbled whitish/greyish floor a dark green sun wheel is embedded. Probably a golden disc was placed in the middle of the ornament originally. After the second world war the ornament was called the "black sun". Neither it is known if the SS had a special name for the ornament nor it is known if they attributed a special meaning to the ornament.
- The upper floors were to be completed as a prestigious meeting hall for the entire corps of the SS-Gruppenführer. This room was only planned.
- It is nothing known about the possible way and the kind of arrangement of ceremonies in the tower [2].
Legends and rumors
- The vaul allegedly dubbed the Himmler Crypt, was (allegedly) dedicated to Heinrich I, of whom Himmler believed himself to be the reincarnation, and where he hoped to be interred after his death[unreliable source?].
- Himmler reportedly imagined the castle as a locus for the rebirth of the Knights of the Round Table and appointed 12 SS officers as his followers, who would gather at various rooms throughout the castle and perform unknown rites[unreliable source?]. The only documented meeting was in June 1941, though they are assumed to have been held regularly.
- When one of the officers died, his ashes would be interred in the castle. There is speculation, if the urns of dead SS-leaders should have been placed on the pedestals in the vaul.
Blasting operation
When the final victory failed to materialize, Himmler ordered Heinz Macher, with 15 of his men, to destroy the Wewelsburg, only two days before the US Third Infantry Division seized the grounds. Reports vary from near-complete damage, to only the North Tower suffering great damage; either way the damage was soon repaired after Macher's company ran out of explosives.
Members
- Heinrich Himmler - Overseer
- Manfred von Knobelsdorff - Commandant
- Karl Elstermann von Elster Stabsführer - replaced by Paul Hübner
- Walter Muller - Hauptsturmführer
- Josef Schneid - Hauptsturmführer also known as Pepi
- Walter Franzius - architect brought onboard in October 1935
- Karl Lasch
- Dr. Hans-Peter de Courdes - until May 1939
- Dr. Bernhard Frank - SS Commander of the Obersalzburg
- Dr. Heinrich Hagel Arztchef - Obersturmbannführer
- Wilhelm Jordan
- Elfriede Wippermann
Niederhagen Camp
Just offsite of Wewelsburg was the smallest German KZ , Niederhagen prison and labour camp.[3] Begun on June 17th 1940, the camp was completed the following year and named after Niederhagen Forest, the name Himmler had given to the forest outside the castle several years earlier.
It began with 480 prisoners from Sachsenhausen, and grew to 1200, comprised chiefly of Soviet POWs and captured foreign labourers shipped to Germany, although early in its life it was also a gathering point for Jehovah's Witness prisoners. During the SS's December 1942 Korherr Report it was reported to have only housed 12 Jews all of whom had died.[4]
Of the 3900 prisoners held during the camp's existence, 1285 of them died and 56 were formally executed. In August 1942, the Allies began deciphering death tolls transmitted from the camps, Niederhagen had reported 21 deaths for that month.[5] The camp was dissolved in 1943 with most of the prisoners resettled in Buchenwald, though several dozen prisoners remained behind, housed directly in Wewelsburg.[6]
Hauptsturmführer Adolf Haas, who had overseen the camp from its beginning, was transferred to a command position at Bergen-Belsen, while Schutzhaftlagerführer Wolfgang Plaul was transferred to Buchenwald. Untersturmführer Hermann Michl had last been recorded at the camp in 1942, and later appeared at the Riga ghetto.
Post-War
On June 29, 1950 the castle was reopened as a museum and youth hostel, while the Niederhagen kitchen had been renovated into a village fire station.
In 1973, a two-year project was begun to restore the North Tower, and by 1977 it had been decided to restore the entire site as a war monument. It opened on March 20, 1982, with several survivors of the Niederhagen camp present. Karl Hueser of the University of Paderborn was considered influential in the reopening project, and Wulff Brebeck would become the curator through the 1990s.[7]
A memorial was built in honour of the deceased Niederhagen prisoners in 2000, four years later the Kreismuseum Wewelsburg was granted DM 29,400 for restoring and moving the remnants of the Niederhagen camp, as well as producing an educational film on the Ukrainian and Russian prisoners who were housed there.[8]
The castle seems to be one of the major sources of inspiration for the Wolfenstein games, such as Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Spear of Destiny.
Popular culture
- Wewelsburg and its Black Sun mosaic is the subject of the 2005 novel The Black Sun by James Twining.
- Wewelsburg and its Black Sun mosaic is the subject of the 2005 novel Black Order by James Rollins.
- Wewelsburg is one of the many missions in Medal of Honor Underground, which the player has to infiltrate and find the Knife of Abraham.
See also
External links
- Wewelsburg and concentration camp forced labour (in German)
- Kreismuseum Wewelsburg (in German)