Ruins of the Reich - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ruins of the Reich is a documentary series that traces the rise & fall of the Third Reich through its architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

. Written and directed by film maker R.J. Adams, the film's then and now format focues on the primary sites that played key roles from Hitler's rise to his final days in his Berlin bunker.

Synopsis

The four part series with its "then and now" format blends first generation archival film with current HD footage of the buildings, monuments and bunkers as they were during the Third Reich and as they appear today.

Historical sites

Part 1 - Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

's Feldherrnhalle

Feldherrnhalle

The Feldherrnhalle is a monumental loggia in Munich, Germany. It was built between 1841 and 1844 at the southern end of Munich's Ludwigstrasse next to the Palais Preysing and east of the Hofgarten. Previously the Gothic Schwabinger Tor occupied that place...

, scene of the failed Beer Hall Putsch

Beer Hall Putsch

The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...

, the Hotel Hanslbauer, site of the "Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives

The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...

", Paul von Hindenburg

Paul von Hindenburg

Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....

's Neudeck

Neudeck

Neudeck may refer to:*the former estate of Paul von Hindenburg, today Ogrodzieniec, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, a village in northern Poland* the former estate of Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck , today Świerklaniec in Upper Silesia...

estate, the Tannenberg Memorial

Tannenberg Memorial

The Tannenberg Memorial commemorated fallen German soldiers of the second Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, which was named after the medieval Battle of Tannenberg...

, the Obersalzberg

Obersalzberg

Obersalzberg is a mountainside retreat situated above the market town of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany, located about southeast of Munich, close to the border with Austria...

retreat including Hitler's Berghof

Berghof

Berghof or Berghoff may refer to:* Herbert Berghof, founder of HB Studio in New York City* Berghof , Adolf Hitler's home in the mountains of Bavaria* Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies* The Berghoff , Chicago...

, the small teehaus on the Mooslahnerkopf, the Platterhof Hotel, Martin Bormann

Martin Bormann

Martin Ludwig Bormann was a prominent Nazi official. He became head of the Party Chancellery and private secretary to Adolf Hitler...

's guest house, the Gutsof, Hermann Goring

Hermann Göring

Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...

's Alpine Chalet

Chalet

A chalet , also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, native to the Alpine region, made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof with wide, well-supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house.-Definition and origin:...

, Albert Speer

Albert Speer

Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...

's architectural design studio, the SS Barracks and Kehlsteinhaus

Kehlsteinhaus

The Kehlsteinhaus is a chalet-style structure erected on a subpeak of the Hoher Göll known as the Kehlstein. It was built as an extension of the Obersalzberg complex erected in the mountains above Berchtesgaden...

more commonly known as The Eagle's Nest.

Part 2 - Nazi party rally grounds

Nazi party rally grounds

The Nazi party rally grounds consist of about 11 square kilometres in the southeast of Nuremberg, Germany...

, Albert Speer

Albert Speer

's Zeppelinfield grandstands, Congress Hall, Hitler Youth

Hitler Youth

The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...

Stadium, war memorial on the Luitpold Field, Hitler's Munich

Munich

headquarters, site of the Munich agreement

Munich Agreement

The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...

as well as the assassination site of Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Heydrich

Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...

and his grave at Invaliden cemetery, Berlin.

Part 3 - Warsaw ghetto

Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...

, Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

headquarters, Pawiak Prison, Palmiry

Palmiry

Palmiry During World War II, between 1939 and 1943, the village and the surrounding forest was one of the sites of German mass executions of Jews, Polish intelligentsia, politicians and athletes, killed during the AB Action. Most of the victims were first arrested and tortured in the Pawiak prison...

massacre site, Oscar Schindler's Deutsche Emalia Fabrika, Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Fermont, Immerhof and Hackenberg on the Maginot line

Maginot Line

The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...

, Compiègne

Compiègne

Compiègne is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.The city is located along the Oise River...

, tomb of Napoleon and the German Submarine pen

Submarine pen

A submarine pen is a bunker which is designed to protect submarines from air attack.The term is generally applied to submarine bases constructed during World War II, particularly in Germany and the occupied countries which were also known as U-boat pens .-Background:Amongst the first...

s and Cross-Channel guns in the Second World War

Cross-Channel guns in the Second World War

During the Second World War, cross-Channel guns were long-range coastal artillery pieces placed on the English Channel coasts of Kent, England and the Pas-de-Calais, France, at the point at which England was closest to continental Europe, with which to bombard enemy shipping in the Channel and...

in Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

and the Pas-de-Calais.

Part 4 - the five D-Day landing Beaches, Erwin Rommel

Erwin Rommel

Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....

's western front headquarters, Wolfsschlucht II

Wolfsschlucht II

Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschlucht II or W2 was the codename used for one of Adolf Hitler's World War II Western Front military headquarters located in Margival, 10 km northeast of Soissons in the department of Aisne in France...

, the Wolf's Lair, Malmedy

Malmedy

Malmedy is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region, Province of Liège. It belongs to the French Community of Belgium, within which it is French-speaking with facilities for German-speakers. On January 1, 2006 Malmedy had a total population of 11,829...

, Bastogne

Bastogne

Bastogne Luxembourgish: Baaschtnech) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardin...

, Remagen

Remagen

Remagen is a town in Germany in Rhineland-Palatinate, in the district of Ahrweiler. It is about a one hour drive from Cologne , just south of Bonn, the former West German capital. It is situated on the River Rhine. There is a ferry across the Rhine from Remagen every 10–15 minutes in the summer...

bridge, Ordensburg Vogelsang

Ordensburg Vogelsang

Ordensburg Vogelsang is a former national socialist estate placed at the former military training area in the national park Eifel in North Rhine-Westphalia. The landmarked and completely preserved estate was used by the National Socialists between 1936 and 1939 as an educational centre for future...

, Bendlerblock

Bendlerblock

The Bendlerblock is a building in Berlin, located on the Stauffenbergstraße , south of the Tiergarten. The building was erected between 1911 and 1914 for the Imperial German Navy Offices. During the Weimar Republic it served as the seat of the Reichswehr command and the Ministry of Defence...

, Plötzensee Prison

Plötzensee Prison

Plötzensee Prison was a Prussian institution built in Berlin between 1869 and 1879 near the lake Plötzensee, but in the neighbouring borough of Charlottenburg, on Hüttigpfad off Saatwinkler Damm. During Adolf Hitler's time in power from 1933 to 1945, more than 2,500 people were executed at...

, Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

headquarters, Berlin and inside the Reich Chancellery

Reich Chancellery

The Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945...

Bunker as it appears today.

Filming

Production of the Ruins series began in Berlin, Munich

Munich

and Bertesgaden in May 1993. Two years later filming resumed in Northern Germany, the Atlantic coast and France. In August 1999 the crew discovered several lost sites in Poland such as the ruins of the Tannenberg memorial

Tannenberg Memorial

The Tannenberg Memorial commemorated fallen German soldiers of the second Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, which was named after the medieval Battle of Tannenberg...

and Hindenburg

Hindenburg

The term "Hindenburg" is most commonly used to refer to the LZ 129 Hindenburg, the first of the German Hindenburg-class airships, which famously caught fire and crashed in 1937 during the infamous Hindenburg disaster.The word "Hindenburg" may also refer to:...

's Neudeck

Neudeck

estate as well as several well known locations like Ordensburg Marienberg

Marienberg

Marienberg can refer to:*Marienberg, Saxony, the capital of the Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis district of the German state of Saxony*Bad Marienberg, a town in the Westerwaldkreis of Rhineland-Palatinate...

(Malbork Castle

Malbork Castle

The Marienburg Castle in Malbork is by area the largest castle in the world. It was built in Prussia by the Teutonic Knights, a German Roman Catholic religious order of crusaders, in a form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg...

), all Poland. The following year the crew was granted unprecedented access to both Auschwitz and Birkenau where cameras captured the entire complex inside and out. Filming also included the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Treblinka and Majdanek

Majdanek

Majdanek was a German Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, established during the German Nazi occupation of Poland. The camp operated from October 1, 1941 until July 22, 1944, when it was captured nearly intact by the advancing Soviet Red Army...

extermination camps. Shooting finally wrapped in the fall of 2002 in France, Belgium, Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

and Germany

External links

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Synopsis

Historical sites

Filming

See also

External links