Stretching for over three miles along the white sandy beach on Germany's Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, lies the world’s biggest hotel with 10,000 bedrooms all facing the sea. But for 70 years since it was built, no holiday maker has ever stayed there. This is hotel Prora, a massive building complex built between 1936 and 1939 by the Nazis as part of their "Strength through Joy" ("Kraft durch Freude," KdF) programme. The aim was to provide leisure activities for German workers and spread Nazi propaganda. Locals call Prora the Colossus because of its monumental structure.
Prora lies on an extensive bay between the Sassnitz and Binz regions, known as the Prorer Wiek, on the narrow heath (the Prora) which separates the lagoon of the Großer Jasmunder Bodden from the Baltic Sea. The complex consist of eight identical buildings that extend over a length of 4.5 kilometres and are roughly 150 metres from the beach. A workforce of 9,000 took three years to build it, starting in 1936, and the Nazis had long-term plans for four identical resorts, all with cinema, festival halls, swimming pools and a jetty where Strength Through Joy cruise ships would dock.
Hitler's plans for Prora were ambitious. He wanted a gigantic sea resort, the "most mighty and large one to ever have existed", holding 20,000 beds. All rooms were planned to overlook the sea, while corridors and sanitation are located on the land side. Each room of 5 by 2.5 metres was to have two beds, a wardrobe and a sink. There were communal toilets and showers and ballrooms on each floor. In the middle, a massive building was to be erected that could be converted into a military hospital in case of war.
War, indeed happened, before the building could be completed and Hitler’s priorities changed. He transferred the construction workers to build the V-Weapons plant at Peenemünde instead. During the Allied bombing campaign, many people from Hamburg took refuge in one of the housing blocks, and later refugees from the east of Germany were housed there. By the end of the war, these buildings housed female auxiliary personnel for the Luftwaffe. After the war, Prora was used as a military outpost for the East German army. After German reunification in 1990, part of it was used by the Military Technical School of the Bundeswehr and later to house asylum seekers from the Balkans.
Today, the whole place is still pretty much deserted except for a few blocks that has been repurposed for other uses. In 2011, one block was converted into a 400-bed youth hostel and the plan now is to turn Prora into a modern holiday resort with 300 beds that includes tennis courts and swimming pool and a small shopping center.
Sources: Wikipedia, BBC, Daily Mail
This place looks amazingly good. If converted to i.e. cheap guesthouses, then it can be great party place for backpackers :)
ReplyDeleteGERMAN DEATH CAMP
ReplyDeleteIt's GERMAN hotel, not legendary nazi...
ReplyDeletePlease, don't do it again...
He wanted a gigantic sea resort, the "most mighty and large one to ever have existed"
ReplyDelete...typical Hitler.
GERMAN DEATH CAMP
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't made to be a death camp. It was intended to be the largest sea resort ever
DeleteI SEE A SCI-FI or HORROR MOVIE SET MY GOD!
ReplyDeleteChernobyl diary if I'm not mistaken :p
DeleteI thought I see the remake for the exorcist being filmed
DeleteLooks like any shitty council estate in Britain to me.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a death city, i will never go there
ReplyDeleteGrow up, all of you, you may like it or not.
ReplyDeleteIt is a monument from the past,
and neither good nor bad in itself.
Most historic buildings have dubious origins.
Most nations used slaves or serfs to build their
great works or empires.
it looks like the projects in jersey
ReplyDeleteWell said Just-a-human-being.
ReplyDeleteThere are buildings all over the place...including CHURCH'S with horrific killing stories....the thing we civilised people need to do is to accept that the past has occured, learn from it, move on....and try to encompass the extraordinary...like this HUGE hotel that was never used and is in ruin...maybe it could be turned into a historic funpark with the hotels being used with 25% of them to be preserved as is.
thanx. well said
DeleteI agree with those comments which reflect the need to learn lessons from history. This is a feat of architecture that came into being as a direct result of all that is negative and base about the human psyche. However, it exists and to ignore its presence would be wrong. It is a place where so much that is positive about humanity could be explored and extended. If Europe as an entity genuinely wants to be taken seriously, then here are a set of ready made buildings with appropriate history attached. Buildings that could be converted to use as a focal point where people come together; a think tank and catalyst for social and cultural good. Who are the politicians that could/would want to make that happen. I don't see them anywhere.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a death camp. The end on views on the blocks (3rd and 7th pics) sent a tingle down my spine, reminded me of Auswich when I visited in 1993. The Germans have got away with their actions very lightly I think. They seem to have been accepted into the world community very easily after their atrocities. Lets not forget its only 70 years ago since they were slaughtering anyone who didn't fit their profile at an alarming rate and now we all drive Mercs BMWs and Audis.Seems wrong to me??
ReplyDeletejust to you.
DeleteWould be wise to just demolish it. Creepy relics from another era don't do any good for anyone.
ReplyDeleteand we have silence within the crowd...
DeleteI agree.it looks just like another crappy inner city slum tenament project without private facilities..............................and in front of what could have been such a lovely view...............a hotel should be something more than that...................and it's a very short summer season there.......................
DeleteA masterpiece in architecture - the longest building in the world, length 2.8 miles!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that it survived the war.
Why? It's a holiday resort, just like pretty much the entire island it's situated on. An incomplete, unoccupied resort in a non-strategic location? Who would bother wasting munitions on it?
DeleteLike many examples of grandiose Nazi architecture, it survives because it's just too much bloody expense and trouble to demolish it.
GERMS hate you
ReplyDeleteIt is a know hot spot for gay cruising.
ReplyDeleteA little fix up and it would house a lot of Syrian refugee's ??
ReplyDeleteJust announced that is's been partially updated with terraces and modern amenities , ie.: condos. With excellent beach views! Wow, quite Structurally-sound doesn't mean it's to be demolished... It's "creepy" looking only to a tiny few observers; as it's spartan in detailing due to it's following the Bauhaus architectural style of the previous decade.
ReplyDeleteSince it was built before the "Final Solution" was implemented and was built to give German workers a holiday with their family's( I can't think of many governments that have done the same) and it was never ever used as a Nazi Holiday it shares no more shame than many of the Autobahns that many tourists use every day. It should be used as a hostel or holiday complex for people who cannot afford the more exotic climes. It can't be any worse than Butlins(only joking) One other thing someone commented quite rightly that most giant structures in the past where built by forced labour however the Pyramids of Egypt were not among them. Each village would volunteer to help build their Pharaoh's gateway of the soul and the final resting place for their earthly body, simply out of love..
ReplyDelete