Braunschweig correctional facility

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Entrance area of ​​the JVA Braunschweig, Rennelbergstrasse 10 , seen from the Rennelbergstrasse

The Braunschweig correctional facility , also JVA Braunschweig or JVA Rennelberg , is a prison in Braunschweig . It is the former district and remand prison . The building complex on the Rennelberg is a listed building .

Historical background

Braunschweig had several prisons since the Middle Ages . In the precincts of the old town , the so-called "thief Keller" was with torture chamber in the basement of Old Town City Hall . Other prisons were in the cellar of the Ratsapotheke on Eiermarkt and since 1368 in the “Langen” or “Wipperturm” at the southern end of the Kattreppeln street . Several criminals and disobedient children from the upper class were killed there under unexplained circumstances. When the structure was demolished in 1723, numerous skeletons were found there . Debtors, among others, sat in the “Lauenturm” between Kohlmarkt and Hutfilter and in the tower of Fallersleber Tor , which was demolished in 1786 . Between 1671 and 1830 there was also a prison in the west wing of the Neustadtrathaus . The military prison was located in the rebuilt Augusttor from 1806 to 1832 , then from 1832 to 1867 in the Aegidienkloster , where the prison for the Braunschweig district court has been located since 1832 and the state penal institution since 1840. In order to meet the increased security requirements for prisons, the new district and remand prison was built on the Rennelberg in 1884/1885.

District and remand prison from 1885

Floor plan from 1884

The building complex was built on the site of the Braunschweig Kreuzkloster . It is divided into three main buildings, a kitchen and farm building, two business operations, a factory as well as a church and an administration building. Originally the prison had 150 cells for 296 people. The individual cells were 2 m wide and 3 m long and each had an outlet in one corner.

In 1885 it was put into operation on the Rennelberg after the previous accommodation of prisoners in the building of the Aegidienkloster no longer met the requirements after the amendment of May 31, 1870 to the penal code . The remand prison was housed in the northern wing of the building . The penal sections for men were in the south wing and on the upper floor of the middle building, while the women were on the middle floor.

Up until then, the 14,000 m² property had housed a dairy garden , barns and storage buildings of the monastery. In 1884 the new Rennelbergstrasse was laid out, which leads to the entrance of the prison. During a mutiny and the subsequent attempt to break out at the beginning of 1919, 15 prisoners armed with axes are said to have managed to get to Rennelbergstrasse.

The Rennelberg remand prison

In the main building, the business premises and the women's prison were initially housed in the central building. The two side wings were used as a prison and as a remand prison for men. During the National Socialist era , the average occupancy was around 344 men and 50 women. This number was above the actual capacity of the prison. During this time, members of the opposition who had been taken into protective custody were also housed there. There were various, mostly arbitrary, reasons for imprisonment. Often these were people who were classified by the National Socialist regime as dissenting or political opponents.

The correctional facility

Braunschweig JVA Rennelberg 2 (2012) .JPG
Some buildings photographed from outside
Braunschweig JVA Rennelberg Mauer (2012) .JPG
Walls seen from Petristraße


The task of the JVA Braunschweig is to carry out pre- trial detention on male prisoners. There are also 21 separate detention spaces available for young prisoners on remand. On January 1, 2011, the previously independent JVA Braunschweig with the Helmstedt area was subordinated to the Wolfenbüttel prison as a department in the course of the reorganization of the penal system in Lower Saxony .

Up to 143 prisoners can be accommodated in the institution; they have several activities available to them during their imprisonment in the Braunschweig JVA.

Employment opportunities
Different types of work can be carried out in the workshops and businesses, for example in paper and plastics processing. This is where mass print products are sorted and packaged, shipping items are shrink-wrapped and packaged, and gluing, assembly or labeling work is carried out.
There are also employment opportunities in the laundry and kitchen or building cleaning sector. The repair and maintenance measures within the institution are also carried out under qualified guidance by inmates.
Leisure time
In addition to team sports such as football, the inmates are offered table tennis, fitness and running training, among other things, to help them exercise. In addition, there are common rooms where board games or television sets are available. Further education measures at school or art courses are also offered. In 2011 the cellist Peter Bruns gave a concert for the inmates of the institution, which was attended by around 50 inmates.

Known inmates

Surname comment Year / period
Ernst Boehme SPD politician , from 1929 to 1933 and from 1945 to 1948 Lord Mayor of Braunschweig. In 1933 he was taken into "protective custody" by the National Socialists. March 12 to April 19, 1933
Klaus Geyer Pastor, convicted of manslaughter in affect on his wife in 1998. July 30, 1997 to April 16, 1998
Erich Gniffke SPD and later SED politicians were taken into “protective custody” several times. 1933 and
August 1938 to June 1939
Otto Grotewohl SPD, later SED politician, Prime Minister of the GDR from 1949 to 1964 . August 1938 to March 1939
Berthold Heilig SS- Kreisleiter sentenced to death for murder on June 12, 1947, but escaped from prison. from March 28, 1946
Auguste Imlau As a self-confessed Jehovah's Witness, she was sentenced to two months in prison in 1934 for “maintaining and continuing a prohibited organization”. She spent a total of 14 months in the Rennelberg prison before she was transferred to the Ravensbrück concentration camp . 1934, 1937 and 1938
Heinrich Jasper SPD politician and multiple Prime Minister of the Free State of Braunschweig was abused and tortured in Rennelberg. He later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . March 18 to April 19, 1933
Dietrich Klagges from 1933 to 1945 appointed NSDAP Prime Minister of the Braunschweig region
(arrested by US troops, later sentenced to prison)		 from April 13, 1945
Albert Rohloff Braunschweig SPD politician. March to April 1933,
1935 and 1938
Ferenc Sos Five-time murderer of the Kraemer family , was imprisoned in 1977. 1977
Otto Thielemann Braunschweiger SPD politician and editor of the Braunschweiger Volksfreundes was sentenced to three years in prison by the Braunschweig Special Court on the basis of the treachery law . 1933 to July 1936
Klaus Volkert Trade unionist, former VW works council chairman November 21 to
December 12, 2006
Erna Wazinski She was sentenced to death as a pest of the people by the special court for alleged looting. Before her execution in the Wolfenbüttel correctional facility , she was housed in the Rennelberg prison. October / November 1944
Hans-Walter Zech-Nenntwich SS officer, escaped from custody in 1964 with the help of numerous accomplices under circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified. Spring 1964 to 21./22. April 1964

Closure in 2018

It is planned to close the Braunschweig department by the end of 2018 [out of date] after it became known in 2013 that a 17-year-old inmate was believed to have been abused for months by six of his fellow inmates. There had already been an incident in the prison in January of that year when a 75-year-old detainee on remand hanged himself with a belt in his cell. The prisoners are to be transferred to the Wolfenbüttel correctional facility after the closure. The investment outlay for the renovation of the Rennelberg building is estimated at 5 to 8 million euros.

Lower Saxony's Minister of Justice, Antje Niewisch-Lennartz, confirmed the decision to finally give up the Braunschweig site and announced that the investment funds would instead be used to expand the Wolfenbüttel prison. The “ gray house ” there is to be rebuilt for around 15 million euros, and an additional 8 million euros are being invested in the modernization of the youth prison in Hameln for the juvenile offenders .

Braunschweig's "longest street"

The Rennelberg in 1899 with Kreuzkloster and prison ("No. 10")

The Rennelbergstrasse leading to the prison is popularly known - although only a few hundred meters long - as the “longest street in Braunschweig”, as many who go in there often only come out after years.

literature

Web links

Commons : Braunschweig correctional facility  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Kimpflinger: Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Architectural monuments in Lower Saxony. Volume 1: City of Braunschweig. Part 2. 1996, p. 170 f.
  2. ^ Norman-Mathias Pingel: Prisons. In: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Braunschweig 1992, p. 82.
  3. ^ A b Norman-Mathias Pingel: Prisons. In: Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Braunschweig 1992, p. 83.
  4. ^ A b Rudolf Blasius (Ed.): Braunschweig in the year MDCCCXCVII. Festschrift for the participants in the LXIX meeting of German natural scientists and doctors. Braunschweig 1897, p. 413.
  5. ^ A b Norbert Jonscher: New opportunities for the Rennelberg. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. January 16, 2014 (fee required).
  6. ^ "Rennelberg" remand prison. In: Neue Westpost. (PDF, p. 6.) on braunschweig.de. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  7. ↑ Rennelberg Detention Center - overview on vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de
  8. ^ The Braunschweig department of the Wolfenbüttel JVA on justizvollzugsanstalt-weltenbuettel.niedersachsen.de.
  9. ↑ Select the work tab ( Memento from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on 1a-jva.de.
  10. ↑ Select the leisure time tab ( memento from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on 1a-jva.de.
  11. ↑ Do you know Ernst Toch? on kiz-online.de.
  12. ↑ a b c d e Rennelberg remand prison - individual fates on vernetztes-gedaechtnis.de
  13. ^ Klaus Geyer: Excuse me from the cell. In: The time . No. 8, dated February 13, 1998. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  14. ^ A b Karl Wilhelm Fricke , Peter Steinbach , Johannes Tuchel (eds.): Opposition and resistance in the GDR. Political Life Pictures (= Beck'sche Reihe. Vol. 1479). CH Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-47619-8 , p. 204.
  15. ↑ Gniffke, Erich Walter on bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  16. ↑ Black-red-gold words in: Der Spiegel. No. 42, October 13, 1949. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  17. ↑ Albert Rohloff ( memento of January 29, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on zhsf.gesis.org. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  18. ↑ Joachim Holtz: The thread became a rope for him. In: The time. No. 19, dated May 6, 1977. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  19. ↑ Henning Noske: Volkert's new home. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung . November 21, 2006 (fee required).
  20. ^ Kai Hermann: The career of an SS officer. In: The time. No. 18, dated May 1, 1964. Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  21. ↑ Abuse in custody: a particularly serious case. ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  22. ↑ Birgit Wiefel: Prison: But no "off" yet. In: New Braunschweiger. September 16, 2016 ( neue-braunschweiger.de ).
  23. ↑ Jörg Fiene: The murder suspect had a pastoral telephone in the cell. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. April 2, 2013 (fee required).
  24. ↑ Michael Ahlers: Land removes hundreds of prison places In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. January 22, 2014 (chargeable).
  25. ^ Jürgen Hodemacher : Braunschweig's streets. Their names and their stories. Volume 2: Between Okergraben and the city ring. Elm-Verlag, Cremlingen 1996, ISBN 3-927060-12-7 , p. 249.
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Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 7 "  N , 10 ° 30 ′ 27.9"  E