Prora Holiday Resort

Discussion in 'Germany' started by Gerard, Feb 6, 2008.

  1. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

  2. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

  3. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Ah, didn't Michael Palin go there on his last program of his Eastern Europe series?
     
  4. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    I think that was the last episode!!
     
  5. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    GoogleEarth Co-ords.

    54°26'44.10"N 13°34'18.52"E

    Palin's Travels: Germany, New Europe


    Rügen is a pretty, amoeba-shaped island, its beaches always popular, especially during the GDR, and here, on a wooded bay at a place called Prora, the Nazis planned a People's Resort (the language of the National Socialists was uncannily similar to that of the Democratic Socialists who replaced them). It was part of what was known as 'Kraft durch Freude', 'Strength through Joy', a policy of organised leisure which would offer lucky workers a carefully regimented holiday of relaxation and indoctrination.

    All Nazi buildings had to be monuments to the thousand-year Reich, and a holiday camp was no exception. Work began in Prora in May 1936, and by the summer of 1939 over 3 miles of five-storey accommodation stretched along the coast, enough rooms to take 20,000 people at a time. But no holidaymakers ever came here. The outbreak of war brought other priorities, and the People's Resort became a hospital for evacuees from the bombing of Hamburg, and a hostel for forced labour squads from all over Nazi-conquered Europe.

    Now under federal ownership, there is a museum here, and one or two well-intentioned educational projects, and some talk of a hotel, but its scale is so daunting that, sixty-eight years after it was built, it's still here, a long, dusty-white concrete skeleton between the pine forest and the sand. I walk through it and onto the beach. A few boys are playing football. A crisp, cooling breeze comes off the Baltic.

    I look behind me at the wreckage of a dream. A dream of a Europe united by force.
     
  6. stevew

    stevew Senior Member

    Owen,

    Good to see in Google Earth, only previuosly seen it on tv.

    steve
     
  7. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The island of Rugen is quite a pleasant holiday venue and we were thinking of having a break there this summer, that or Gers.

    There is no reference to the past at Prora in the publicity literature and as I see it its location is not indicated although I know where it lies.

    Looking at my research, it appears that Ostseebad, Halbinsel, Ahrewnshoop, Darss and Zingst are popular for holidays in this area.DSDF at one time used to offer holidays inclusive with ferry and accomodation at Ostseebad (Eastseaspa, the Germans referring the the Baltic Sea as the East Sea).However it can be rewarding to arrange it yourself after a search for Ferienhaus (holiday house) or Ferienwohnung (holiday appartment).The latter seem to be in greater availability and it is common to find a house comprising of two or more flats.My experience is that there is a high standard of quality of this type of accomodation in Germany and you will not find shoddy furnishings as you might in the UK.The other point is that the rentals give value for money and that is why a self organised holiday can be so economical in terms of cost.
     
  8. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Places like that give me an eerie feeling, I must admit.
     
  9. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Going to be on TV again tomorrow.
    BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Julia Bradbury's German Wanderlust, Ruegen

    Julia Bradbury takes her boots and backpack to the Continent to explore the landscape of Germany and the cultural movement that made it famous - Romanticism.
    The Germans enjoy a relationship with walking that has lasted over 200 years. The exploration of their landscape has inspired music, literature and art, and Romanticism has even helped shape the modern German nation, as Julia discovers. By walking in four very different parts of Germany, she explores river valleys, coastlines, mountains and gorges, following in the footsteps of Richard Wagner, Caspar David Friedrich, Johannes Brahms as well as British Romantics like William Turner and Lord Byron. This is Julia's chance to discover her own sense of wanderlust.
    The Baltic coastline is the setting as Julia continues her walking tour. Generations of holidaymakers have flocked to the island of Ruegen, inspired by the Romantics of the 19th century - particularly Caspar David Friedrich, the most celebrated of German Romantic painters. Julia's walk explores popular seaside resorts and beaches as well as the stunning chalk cliffs that Friedrich loved to paint. But in between lies the eerie and unexpected remains of Hitler's ambitious attempt to create a vast Nazi holiday camp.
     
  10. Smudger Jnr

    Smudger Jnr Our Man in Berlin

    Places like that give me an eerie feeling, I must admit.

    Going to be on TV again tomorrow.
    BBC - BBC Four Programmes - Julia Bradbury's German Wanderlust, Ruegen


    I have just had one holiday on Rügen and must say the island is extremely nice, but like most islands and holiday places is a little on the expensive side.

    Lots to see and do for everyones taste.

    I drove past this great concrete apartment block(s) and it remains impressive to this day although I recall that it was never fully completed due to the start of WW2.

    Impressive in size, but ugly.
    Today it is full of holiday accommodation and what looks like small unit business's.

    I was glad that I was stopping well away from the place near to Cap Arcona.

    Panoramio - Photo of Rügen - Cap Arcona bei Michaels Rundflug

    Regards
    Tom
     
  11. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    Ley and his "Strength through Joy".
     
  12. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    Secret Nazi files have been found that reveal how Hitler wanted his party to become the world’s largest tour operator with holiday camps modelled on the British ‘Butlins’ chain.
    The long-lost plans for a chain of 'super-resorts' accommodating 20,000 holidaying Nazis at a time were found in the state archive of Greifswald in north-east Germany.
    One of the papers revealed how the Nazis envisioned 'British holiday camps designed to provide affordable holidays for the average worker'.

    Read more: Mein summer camp: How Adolf Hitler wanted Nazi Butlins-style holiday resorts | Mail Online






     
  13. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

  14. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

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