SS prisoner's son to revamp building

[Jim O]

On a windswept corner of Ruegen island in the former east Germany stands and derelict building of massive proportions - and an equally imposing history. Stretching nearly three miles along the coastline, it was built by Adolf Hitler to offer seaside holidays to strengthen and refresh workers of the Third Reich.

Now after being boarded up for more than a decade, the 1930s complex, with its awkward historical baggage, has attracted a buyer - Ulrich Busch, the son of a famous 1920s cabaret performer and anti-Nazi campaigner who fled from Hitler's Germany. Along with another German investor, the younger Mr Busch plans to revamp the concrete hulk into holiday flats - fulfilling the building's initial purpose some 70 years after construction began.

The 42-year-old estate agent has stressed that he is not doing anything to upset the memory of his father who was in an SS prison for two years. "Precisely because of my dad's history I want to get involved ," he told Bild newspaper. "We are planning to make links with the neighbouring museum and information centre. We want holidaymakers to be able to learn about the past."

Building work for the new complex - which still needs the green light from Germany's budget committee - should start next year. About 450 holiday apartments will measure about 80 square metres - spacious compared with original plans which chopped the six-storey block into 10,000 units, squeezing two beds, a sofa, a cupboard and a wash basin into rooms of 12 square metres.

It was part of the Hitler's Strength through Happiness (Kraft durch Freude) programme, one of the first mass tourism ventures. It aimed to provide affordable breaks to invigorate its workers. Its scale and cubic forms have made it a leading example of Third Reich architecture and a metaphor for Hitler's quest for power. Plans included two swimming pools with wave machines, a cinema, and a festival hall which could accommodate 20,000 people. Building work was put on hold when the war started and it was never used as a holiday camp. It became a school for Nazi police and home to civilians who lost their homes in the bombings.

Its eight identical blocks were left to test the elements after German reunification in 1990. Since then it has sat empty except for museum buildings, a cafe and a disco - an incongruous concrete lump on the Baltic island which has reinvented itself as a quaint tourist destination after the end of communism.


Source: Guardian Unlimited