Spandau Citadel

On July 25 we visited the Citadel at Spandau. The tower to the left, the Juliusturm, dates from the early 13th century, and is therefore one of the earliest structures still standing in Berlin. The bulk of the structure dates from the 16th century, when it represented the latest in (Italian-engineered) Renaissance fortifications, designed to meet the growing challenge of firearms. Spandau continued to be important militarily after these fortifications were obsolete, and during the second world war housed chemical weapons research. But the fort escaped much damage when the Russians, overrating its defensive potential (there were in fact only a few armed troops inside) held off on attacking it. Today, characteristically, it houses nothing more military than an outdoor cinema, and, in winter, numerous bats, which are apparently drawn to the cavernous vaulted passages through the walls.

Nicholas was game enough to climb the Julius Tower under his own power, impressing all of us. From the top of it one has a nice view of Spandau itself (which, in addition to some industrial ick contains an attractive altstadt we've yet to visit), and can even see back to Berlin. But overcast and drizzle made my pictures bland, so I spare you any.

Spandau is most famous today, no doubt, for housing a single Nazi prisoner, the decidedly odd Rudolf Hess. Hess was one of Hitlers most loyal and longest serving subordinates, but lost power to more ambitous men in Hitler's entourage during the 1930's, and held a largerly ceremonial post by May 1941, when, as the Germans were preparing their ill-fated attack on Russia, Hess decided to embark on a one-man mission to Britain, hoping to reach the English king, George the 6th, and arrange for peace between Britain and Germany. Hess seemed unstable to the British, and was repudiated by Hitler; he was imprisoned by the British, and convicted at Nuremberg trials for his role in Nazi war crimes. He was long the only prisoner in Spandau, and committed suicide at the age of 93 in 1987 (though his son always claimed that he was murdered by the British). Hess was not held in the Spandau citidel, I learned (after looking for some trace of this at the citadel) but in a prison located nearby. As he became (and still is) an object of veneration among German neo-nazis, that prison was destroyed after Hess's death, and its pulverished remains were dumped out at sea. The site was covered by an innocuous parking garage, the better to prevent it becoming a place to celebrate Hess as a sort of Nazi martyr. I naively thought this something of an overreaction, especially given Hess's instability--wouldn't even a Neo-nazi pick someone less nuts?--before I surfed a bit for information on Hess and found several websites pushing books claiming that the Nuremberg trials were a complete "perversion" of justice. Presumably one reason Hess is so popular is that revisionist historians (i.e., right-wing wackos) like to claim that Hitler didn't want war with England (or America), but only with less attractive nations to the east: Hess's mission to England seems to support this view. Everything I've read from more creditable sources suggests otherwise: before more pressing matters intervened, Hitler hoped to build a high-seas navy that could compete with those of England and the US. No need for that if all one needs is a bit of lebensraum in Poland. But too much on this theme.

A more mundane bit on Hess. During part of the time Janet was in Berlin, she worked as a supply clerk for the US Army, and when the Americans took their turn looking after Hess, her unit handled matters like ordering his clothes. She remembers her boss showing them Hess's underwear. They were special order, as he was incontinent by this time.