Prora

Prora - built by Hitler in 1936 but never occupied.

One of National Socialism's (Nazi) first efforts to care for its people. Another one, the Volkswagen, did better!

The Prora resort was planned to consist of two complexes - North and South - each consisting of four blocks of ten housing units each, providing rooms for 20,000 vacationers. Every room had a view of the sea. Between the two complexes would have been administration buildings and a large open festival square with an assembly hall at one end. The housing sections were joined by community buildings and swimming halls. The complex included plans for several restaurants, cinemas, sport halls, and other entertainment sites, as well as housing for workers, a rail station, and other necessary infrastructure (water works, electrical substation, post office, etc.). When completed, the complex would have stretched along the beach for almost five kilometers. Need for construction materials for the war effort halted construction on the Prora resort, and it never actually functioned as such, although refugees from the bombing of Hamburg and other cities lived in the most-finished buildings in 1944-45. During the war the complex was also used as a training site for police and female signals auxiliaries, and as a military hospital. After the war the buildings were occupied by the Soviet military for a time, and then stripped of useable materials. In the late 1940s two of the housing blocks - one on the North and one on the South - were demolished and the remains mostly removed. The East German Army used the complex from about 1950 to 1991. During this period the Number 4 block on the north side was apparently used for urban combat training, and large sections were blown up (these remain as ruins today). However, in the 1950s the East German military rebuilt several of the buildings to house soldiers, and later as a resort for officers. Since the buildings had been stripped to the bare brick in the latter 1940s, most of the exterior and interior finish that can be seen today was done under East German control
Great graffiti (click for detail)
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