Landsberg am Lech | |
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![]() The Lech in Landsberg | |
Location of Landsberg am Lech within Landsberg am Lech district ![]() | |
Coordinates: 48°02′52″N10°53′56″E / 48.04778°N 10.89889°E | |
Country | Germany |
State | Bavaria |
Admin. region | Oberbayern |
District | Landsberg am Lech |
Subdivisions | 6 Ortsteile |
Government | |
• Lord mayor (2020–26) | Doris Baumgartl [1] |
Area | |
• Total | 57.89 km2 (22.35 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 630 m (2,070 ft) |
Lowest elevation | 585 m (1,919 ft) |
Population (2023-12-31) [2] | |
• Total | 29,739 |
• Density | 510/km2 (1,300/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
Postal codes | 86899 |
Dialling codes | 08191, 08246 (Ellighofen) |
Vehicle registration | LL |
Website | www.landsberg.de |
Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech) is a town in southwest Bavaria, Germany, about 65 kilometers west of Munich and 35 kilometers south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg am Lech.
Landsberg is situated on the Romantic Road and is the center of the Lechrain region, the boundary region between Swabia and Bavaria. It is noted for its picturesque historic center.
Landsberg am Lech developed where a major historic salt road crossed over the Lech. To protect the bridge, Duke Henry the Lion ordered a castle to be built, Castrum Landespurch, incorporating an older settlement and castle named Phetine. Soon a greater settlement evolved, which received its town charter as early as the 13th century.
In 1315, the town burned down, but was rebuilt because of its important location. In 1320, Landsberg was permitted to collect salt duties, bringing considerable wealth to the town. In 1419, a river tax added a further source of income.
The town is noted for its prison where Adolf Hitler was incarcerated in 1924. During this incarceration Hitler wrote/dictated his book Mein Kampf together with Rudolf Hess. His cell, number 7, became part of the Nazi cult and many followers came to visit it during the German Nazi-period. Landsberg am Lech was also known as the town of the Hitler Youth. [3]
In the outskirts of this town existed a concentration camp, where over 30,000 victims were imprisoned under inhuman conditions, resulting in the death of around 14,500 of them.
After World War II it was the location for one of the largest displaced person (DP) camps for Jewish refugees and the place of execution for more than 150 war criminals after 1945. [4]
It is the birthplace of the Nobel laureate Erwin Neher.
The town comprises three main areas. The historic old town centre of Landsberg, which lies between the river Lech and its easterly elevated bank. The area to the west of the Lech (Katharinenvorstadt, Neuerpfting, Weststadt, Schwaighofsiedlung – today by far the biggest part of the town) and the area on the easterly elevated bank (Bayervorstadt) developed since the early 19th century.
Also belonging to Landsberg are the hamlets of Sandau and Pössing as well as the former independent boroughs of Ellighofen, Erpfting (with Friedheim, Geratshof and Mittelstetten), Pitzling (with Pöring) and Reisch (with Thalhofen).
The Landsberg camp began in June 1944 as a Nazi concentration camp. By October 1944, there were more than 5,000 prisoners alive in the camp. Most of the remaining inmates who were able to walk were "evacuated" by the German in death marches in April 1945.
The camp was liberated on 27 April 1945 by the 12th Armored Division of the United States Army. Upon orders from General Taylor, the American forces allowed news media to record the atrocities, and ordered local German civilians and guards to reflect upon the dead and bury them bare-handed. A dramatization of the discovery and liberation of the camp was presented in Episode 9: Why We Fight of the Band of Brothers mini-series. [5]
After the liberation, it became a displaced person (DP) camp, primarily for Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union and the Baltic states. The DP camp closed on 15 October 1950.
In December 2019, Israeli academic and translator Ilana Hammerman wrote of the difficulties she encountered in trying to visit the site of the concentration camp and to find the memorial to the victims. She noted that "[f]or decades after the war, local residents and the authorities endeavored to ignore its existence and consign it to oblivion". [6] Since 1983 Anton Posset and the association called Landsberg im 20. Jahrhundert are working on the commemorating this part of history and established based on donations the European Holocaust Memorial on the former concentration camp Kaufering VII. [7]
The municipality has two railway stations, Landsberg (Lech) and Landsberg (Lech) Schule.
Landsberg am Lech is twinned with: [9]
Landsberg is home to the following sports clubs:
Club | Sport | League | Established |
---|---|---|---|
TSV Landsberg | Football | Landesliga Bayern | 1882 |
Landsberg Riverkings | Ice hockey | Regionalliga (Bayernliga) | 2008 |
Landsberg X-PRESS | American football | Regionalliga Süd | 2007 |
DJK Landsberg | Basketball | Regionalliga | 1956 |
Jahn Landsberg | Football | A-Klasse Oberbayern | 1923 |
Türkspor Landsberg | Football | A-Klasse Oberbayern | -- |
Landsberg Cruisaders | Baseball | Bezirksliga Bayern | 2003 |
Landsberg Kodiacs | Softball | Landesliga Bayern | 2009 |
Landsberg BB-Dance Camp | Dance | Boogie Woogie Dance Festival | 1987 |
Landsberg am Lech is a Landkreis (district) in Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Aichach-Friedberg, Fürstenfeldbruck, Starnberg, Weilheim-Schongau, Ostallgäu and Augsburg.
Dachau was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.
Landsberg may refer to:
Landsberg Prison is a prison in the town of Landsberg am Lech in the southwest of the German state of Bavaria, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) west-southwest of Munich and 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Augsburg. It is best known as the prison where Adolf Hitler was held in 1924, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and where he dictated his memoirs Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess.
Hermann Giesler was a German architect during the Nazi era, one of the two architects most favoured and rewarded by Adolf Hitler.
Ebensee was a subcamp of Mauthausen concentration camp established by the SS to build tunnels for armaments storage near the town of Ebensee, Austria, in 1943. The camp held a total of 27,278 male inmates from 1943 until 1945. Between 8,500 and 11,000 prisoners died in the camp, most from hunger or malnutrition. Political prisoners were most common, and prisoners came from many different countries. Conditions were poor, and along with the lack of food, exposure to cold weather and forced hard labor made survival difficult. American troops of the 80th Infantry Division liberated the camp on 6 May 1945.
Landsberg-Lech Air Base is a former German Air Force base located near the town of Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria.
Hurlach is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.
Igling is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany.
Kaufering is a municipality in the district of Landsberg in Bavaria in Germany. It lies on the river Lech.
Kaufering was a system of eleven subcamps of the Dachau concentration camp which operated between 18 June 1944 and 27 April 1945 and which were located around the towns of Landsberg am Lech and Kaufering in Bavaria.
During the Holocaust, death marches were massive forced transfers of prisoners from one Nazi camp to other locations, which involved walking long distances resulting in numerous deaths of weakened people. Most death marches took place toward the end of World War II, mostly after the summer/autumn of 1944. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, from Nazi camps near the Eastern Front were moved to camps inside Germany away from the Allied forces. Their purpose was to continue the use of prisoners' slave labour, to remove evidence of crimes against humanity, and to keep the prisoners to bargain with the Allies.
Weingut I was the codename for a construction project, begun in 1944, to create an underground factory complex in the Mühldorfer Hart forest, near Mühldorf am Inn in Upper Bavaria, Germany. Plans for the bunker called for a massive reinforced concrete barrel vault composed of 12 arch sections under which Messerschmitt Me 262 jet engines would be manufactured in a nine-storey factory.
Kaufering station is the station of the market town of Kaufering in the Upper Bavarian district of Landsberg am Lech. The station has five platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 4 station. It is used daily by about 140 trains operated by DB Regio and Regentalbahn and is an interchange station between the Munich–Buchloe railway and the Bobingen–Landsberg am Lech railway.
Shlomo Shafir (1924–2013) was an Israeli journalist and historian. His work included the underground Hebrew-language publication Nitzotz, circulated in the Kovno Ghetto and Dachau concentration camp; the Israeli Labor Party newspaper, Davar; and other Hebrew, German, and English language writings.
Vinzenz Schöttl was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and high-ranking functionary in the Nazi concentration camps.
Anton Posset was a German historian, secondary school teacher, and Holocaust researcher.
The European Holocaust Memorial in Landsberg am Lech is on the site of former subcamp number seven Erpfting (Landsberg), one of eleven former subcamps of Kaufering concentration camp complex, the largest remote area of the concentration camp Dachau. It contains the last remains, including six ruins of clay tube barracks and the last traces of concentration camp earth huts. In administrative terms it belonged to the remote concentration camp of Dachau near Munich. The camp commander for the Landsberg/Kaufering concentration camp complex was deployed directly in Berlin. At the suggestion of Franz Josef Strauss, Anton Posset and the "Bürgervereinigung Landsberg im 20. Jahrhundert" were able to convince the Jewish survivor of The Holocaust Alexander Moksel to make the financial means available for the acquisition of part of the former concentration camp site of the Kaufering VII concentration camp command and subsequently return it to a dignified condition. The other, overgrown and neglected part of the site is owned by the city of Landsberg. It was levelled and backfilled. In 2009, the memorial was transferred by the Citizens' Association of Landsberg in the 20th century to the European Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which has successfully carried out the professional conservation of the buildings and monuments on and at the former Kaufering VII concentration camp since then.
Edith Raim is a German historian who studies the Nazi era. She grew up in Landsberg am Lech and first became interested in the topic after watching Holocaust as a child. Being a student of Anton Posset she started under his guidance the historical reappraisal of the concentration camp complex Kaufering, a sub-camp of Dachau concentration camp. Her 1991 dissertation at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich was titled Die Dachauer KZ-Aussenkommandos Kaufering und Mühldorf: Rüstungsbauten und Zwangsarbeit im letzten Kriegsjahr 1944/45 and concerned the Dachau subcamps of Kaufering and Mühldorf.
The Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award, short WDCA, is an international composition contest, as well as a music- and composition award designed by the German cultural society dieKunstBauStelle e. V. in Landsberg am Lech. It is named after the Jewish composer and conductor Wolf Durmashkin (1914–1944).
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