80 Jahre Kriegsende im Südwesten (1944/45)

This year is not only the 80th anniversary of Freiburg's bombing but also the twilight of the Third Reich. This is why Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann is offering a seminar entitled "80 Years, End of the War in the Southwest" (1944/45).

Red Baron has long known and respected Dr. Schwendemann as the expert on Freiburg's Jewish and Nazi history.

Before I started writing blogs, Heinrich once led a group and explained how Freiburg had changed structurally during the Nazi era and would have changed after the final victory.

The name Joseph Schlippe recurred throughout the tour. As Freiburg's master builder under the Nazis, he retained this post after the war.

©Förderverein NS Dokumentationszentrum

One of Schlippe's preferred architectural elements was the installation of open arcades. The tourist information center on the corner of Rotteckring and Rathausgasse was already built during the Nazi era. Presently, Freiburg's National Socialism Documentation Center is moving into these premises.

Following the bombing raid of November 27, 1944, which destroyed the city center, Schlippe essentially implemented his idea of arcades after the war to expand the traffic area in Kaiser-Josef-Straße.

Before the coronavirus brought human contact to a virtual standstill, Dr. Schwendemann's last guided tour took place in March 2020. In freezing temperatures, he led us through Jewish Freiburg.

Due to his trip to Hamburg, Red Baron could not attend the seminar introduction and only joined the participants on the second evening. The event is scheduled every second week in a room on the upper floor of the Breisacher Tor.


On November 5, the session's topic was: Fall 1944 "People's War" at the Upper Rhine?

Dr. Schwendemann showed a map of the military situation in June 1944. The Russian central front had collapsed while the Allies, who had landed in Normandy on June 6, were advancing in France.

Territory lost by the German armed forces between April and December 1944

With the advance of the Allied forces in France, Baden suddenly became the front line in the fall of 1944.

    

The Military Situation on the Upper Rhine in early 1945

In Alsace, in a wide bridgehead around Colmar, fierce battles were fought between Wehrmacht units and American-French troops.

Old men and children are called into service to build ramps.

On the other side of the Rhine, the Baden Governor (Gauleiter) Robert Wagner called on the population to wage a "People's War."

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