Schützenhaus (Pasewalk)

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The rifle house in Pasewalk

The Schützenhaus or Adolf Hitler consecration site in Pasewalk was a hotel and restaurant with a dance hall, which was used with other buildings as a reserve hospital during the First World War . It was converted into a "consecration place" in 1937 and demolished in 1945.

history

Adolf Hitler consecration place in Pasewalk 1937

The Schützenhaus was a former brick factory just outside the city that was bought in September 1859 by Christian Darling, a local businessman and entrepreneur. He converted it into a restaurant, which his advertising brochures described as "attractively landscaped gardens". Further construction work included a hotel, a hall with a stage and a shooting range for the local rifle festival, from which the building finally got its name. The inn was one of the first buildings on site to have a telephone connection (Tel.No. 363), which made it possible to take bookings.

Pasewalk reserve hospital

Due to the remoteness of Pasewalk and good railway connections, the military authorities selected the city of Pasewalk as the location of a reserve hospital in 1914. For this purpose they confiscated seven properties, including a school, some large private houses and the rifle house. The restaurant, the offices, the shooting range and the music room were equipped with beds for around thirty patients, who were looked after by fifteen doctors, nurses and carers under the direction of Wilhelm Schroeder.

Hitler in Pasewalk

In October 1918, Adolf Hitler was admitted there for 28 days, where he also saw the end of the war. It was the second hospital stay for him after the one in Beelitz-Heilstätten , where he was treated for a leg injury from October 9 to December 4, 1916. Towards the end of the First World War he suffered mild mustard gas poisoning and was temporarily blind. At first he was treated by Karl Kroner , who could not diagnose any physical damage. Thereafter Hitler was examined by the psychiatrist Edmund Forster , who diagnosed him with " hysteria ". It has often been speculated that he had hypnotized him. However, due to the meager file situation, it could never be documented. Hitler describes the events and his decision to become a politician as follows:

“On November 10th the pastor came to the hospital for a little talk; now we found out everything. I was extremely excited, also present at the short speech. The worthy old gentleman seemed to tremble very much when he informed us that the Hohenzollern house was no longer allowed to wear the German imperial crown, that the fatherland had become a "republic" [...] What followed were horrific days and even worse nights - I knew that all was lost. To hope for the mercy of the enemy could at best manage fools or - liars and criminals. During these nights my hatred grew, the hatred of the perpetrators of this act. In the following days I also became aware of my fate. I had to laugh at the thought of my own future, which a short time ago had worried me so bitterly. [...] There is no pact with the Jew, only the hard either-or. But I decided to become a politician. "

- Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf

Adolf Hitler consecration place in Pasewalk

The building became a place of pilgrimage during the Third Reich , as were other places associated with Hitler's career, such as the Landsberg correctional facility . In June 1934 Hitler had the area converted into a place of worship through his Gauleiter and Oberpräsident of the Pomerania Province, Franz Schwede-Coburg . The "National Socialist House Cooperative Pommern GmbH" was founded especially for this purpose and bought the site at the end of 1934. The old building was razed to the ground. A one-story building with two wings and a saddle-gabled central building was then built, with a consecration hall and a spacious parade and assembly area. The consecration site was opened to the public on October 21, 1937. Hitler himself was not against it, but the act was carried out by his deputy Rudolf Hess . In the gable was a mosaic with an allegorical representation of knight, death and the devil with a poem from Hutten's last days by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer :

The nasty couple, of which the cowards dread,
I always looked straight in the eye.
With these two strong squires
I ride on the streets of life at all times,
until I force one with a brave mind
And am conquered by the other myself.

A hall of honor with further mosaics was also set up. In another room there was a bust of Hitler on a high pedestal, which was always electrically illuminated. Above the epitaph:

Further sites with flags for sacred moments were established throughout the house. Hitler himself never visited this site.

post war period

The building was demolished in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . The new event location for Pasewalk was the officers ' mess (Pasewalk) , the so-called "bamboo crack". The site of the former rifle house is now a neglected sports field. The Lindenbad swimming pool was built next door . There is a two-hundred-year-old linden tree there, legend has it that Hitler had the plan to become a politician under her.

Image gallery

  • Based on a design by Georg Gruber. The war wounded Hitler as Archangel Michael . The circulating message reads: A soldier was brought to this site who carried concern for Germany like a burning fire in his heart.

  • The area today

  • Remains of the shell limestone blocks

  • Remains of the converted sports field

  • The Lindenbad with the "Hitler-Linde"

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernhard Horstmann : Hitler in Pasewalk: Hypnosis and its consequences. 2nd Edition. Droste, 2004, ISBN 3-7700-1167-8 .
  2. ↑ Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf. Munich 1943, pp. 222-225.
  3. ↑ Nordkurier dated August 7, 2013, accessed on November 4, 2019

literature

Web links

Commons : Schützenhaus Pasewalk  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 30 '2.7 "  N , 13 ° 59" 59.4 "  E