During the liberation of Europe, the Battle of Aachen was a significant battle conducted between Allied and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany. The battle took place in October 1944. Aachen was the first city on German soil to be captured by the Allies. You will discover many iconic sites and stories in the city, including the location of the Aachen special courts, the Oppenhoffallee Monument and the traces of war at St. Foillan Church.

Germany

The photo, taken on 11 May 2023, shows the entrance of St. Folian with the wounds of the past visible here.​ 

st-folian-2_1280_1280_fit_90.webp

​As a newspaper that had been published since January, the Aachener Nachrichten was the only newspaper in Germany able to report on the end of the war.​  As a work of the U.S. Federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States.

aachener_nachrichten_8._mai_1945_1280_1280_fit_90.webp

Photograph of the bunker at the corner of Saarstraße and Wittekindstraße with a view of both side walls (21.02.2023)​ ​​

bunker_saarstrasse_1280_1280_fit_90.webp

The liberation of Aachen

Annelies "Anne" Marie Frank (nata il 12 giugno 1929 a Francoforte sul Meno e morta a Bergen-Belsen nel 1944) è diventata nota grazie alla pubblicazione del suo diario, iniziata dal padre dopo la sua morte, e da allora è stata diventato simbolo dei bambini perseguitati e uccisi.Le annotazioni private dell'adolescente vanno dal 12 giugno 1942 al 1° agosto 1944 e non solo permettono al lettore di conoscere la vita quotidiana di Anne nella clandestinità di Amsterdam, ma descrivono anche la vita della famiglia ebrea Frank prima della lunga e accuratamente pianificata fuga dalla Germania nel 1933, in cui Aquisgrana ebbe un ruolo centrale. I genitori di Anne, Otto ed Edith Stein (nata Holländer), stavano pensando di lasciare la Germania dal 1932, poiché la loro vita quotidiana e le loro opportunità professionali erano sempre più compromesse dal rafforzamento delle politiche nazionalsocialiste. Su consiglio del cognato, Otto, che lavorava nel settore bancario, decise di abbandonare l'appartamento di Francoforte e di costruirsi una nuova vita professionale ad Amsterdam, per poter offrire alla sua famiglia un nuovo sostentamento.A tal fine, la famiglia si separò per diversi mesi. Durante questo periodo, Anne e la sorella maggiore Margot vissero prima con la madre a Francoforte, nella casa della madre di Otto. Poi, dal settembre 1933 al 7 dicembre 1933, vissero al primo piano della casa di Pastorenplatz 1 ad Aquisgrana con la madre di Edith, Rosa. Anne si fermò più a lungo ad Aquisgrana, rimanendo nella casa della nonna fino al 16 febbraio 1934, anche dopo che la sorella e la madre si erano trasferite ad Amsterdam per raggiungere il padre nel dicembre 1933. Sebbene nei suoi diari Anne abbia poi descritto un forte affetto per la nonna Rosa, secondo un ex ragazzo ebreo vicino di casa la sua permanenza ad Aquisgrana fu determinata dalla solitudine, soprattutto nel periodo successivo alla partenza della sorella.Dopo la Notte dei Cristalli del 1938, la famiglia cercò anche di portare la nonna fuori dal Paese, ad Amsterdam, cosa che riuscì a fare nel marzo del 1939. Dopo una lunga malattia, Rosa Holländer morì ad Amsterdam nel gennaio 1942.

Il soggiorno di Anne Frank ad Aquisgrana

Dopo la liberazione di Aquisgrana nell'ottobre 1944, le autorità di occupazione statunitensi cercarono di far ripartire la vita quotidiana della città. Per loro, questo significava anche assicurarsi che la popolazione locale potesse nuovamente informarsi attraverso un giornale in lingua tedesca.Così, mentre nel resto della Germania la propaganda dei nazionalsocialisti continuò fino al maggio 1945, ad Aquisgrana apparve dal 24 gennaio 1945 un primo giornale controllato dalla potenza di occupazione statunitense: l'Aachener Nachrichten. La storia dei media fu così scritta ad Aquisgrana. In nessun'altra città tedesca venne autorizzato un giornale locale analogo in questa situazione da immediato dopoguerra.La licenza per la pubblicazione del giornale fu data dalle autorità statunitensi a due persone lontane dal nazionalsocialismo: il giornalista Otto Pesch e il socialdemocratico e tipografo Heinrich Hollands che assunse il ruolo di editore. Venne presa una decisione di equidistanza da tenere nei confronti dei cattolici e borghesi, al fine di creare un contrappeso all'amministrazione cittadina. Era anche chiaro che i nuovi redattori dovevano contribuire allo sviluppo di una cultura democratica con il loro giornale. In effetti, ci furono frequenti conflitti tra il governo cittadino e le Aachener Nachrichten.Ciononostante, l'Aachener Nachrichten rimase l'unico giornale autorizzato in Germania nell'immediato dopoguerra. Tuttavia, è da notare che il nome di Holland non poteva apparire sul giornale perché suo figlio stava ancora combattendo nella Wehrmacht, cercando così di evitare ritorsioni nei suoi confronti.

Un giornale indipendente in Germania

​​After long, heavy fighting, the city of Aachen was occupied in October 1944. Just ten days later, the US military authorities installed a new city government with German civilians at its head. The large city, which by then had only about 10,000 inhabitants, was ruled by Mayor Franz Oppenhoff, who was assisted by nine other Mayors. However, they all belonged to bourgeois circles with strong Catholic beliefs. Workers, on the other hand, were not represented at the top of the city - this applied even to representatives of the Catholic labour movement.The military government initially had no problem with this composition, as the proposal for Oppenhoff's appointment had come from the Bishop of Aachen. Since the American authorities saw the Catholic Church in particular as the bearer of resistance against the Nazis, they had great confidence in the new city leadership. This was especially because it could only work under American supervision anyway and, above all it was important for the occupying power to ensure an orderly everyday life behind the front.​However, it did not take long before fundamental criticism of the work of the newly appointed Aachen city government arose. Above all, the Department of Psychological Warfare of the 9th Army of the US Armed Forces took offence at the circumstances. Saul K. Padover, a history professor who had emigrated from Austria to the USA as a child in the 1920s, was particularly bothered by the lack of diversity in Aachen's city leadership. It did not reflect Padover's understanding of democracy, as it did not reflect the whole composition of the population. He saw it instead as a clique of upper-class notables, most of whom had been active in political Catholicism before the Nazi era. A democratic spirit, which the PWD wanted to establish in Germany, was not evident in the city's leadership.​Therefore, numerous American newspapers reported on the "Aachen Scandal". According to the reports, readers in the USA must have thought that under a disinterested occupying power, a group of anti-democratic forces was trying to prevent the occupied city of Aachen from becoming democratic. It was only after these newspaper reports that the military authorities removed numerous former Nazi bigwigs from the administration. However, they left Oppenhoff in the position of Mayor, until his assassination by a Werewolf-Kommando from the leftover Nazi Germany on 25 March 1945.

“Aachen Scandal”: Aachen Town Hall

​​In the shadow of the UNESCO World Heritage Aachen Cathedral is St. Foillan&nbsp;City Church. From the 12th century onwards, this was the church for the citizens of the city, and throughout this time it was repeatedly affected by fires. During the Second World War, however, the building was almost completely destroyed.St. Foillan&nbsp; was quickly rebuilt in the early post-war years, and by 1958 the shape that is visible today had been created. However, on the front of the church, directly on the narrow lane leading to the cathedral, there is still visible damage that was caused by violence during&nbsp;the Second World War. The building damage, which was inflicted during bombardments and fighting during the liberation of Aachen, was deliberately left unrepaired.​Today, they are wounds of the martial past. Chipping on the plinth shows how badly the church was damaged in the fighting. However, because most of the damage is at ground or knee level, most people no longer notice these traces of the Second World War.

Wounds of the past: St. Foillan Church

​​​The judiciary system played a significant role in National Socialist Germany, steadily expanding and strengthening the power of the Nazis. Once the war started,&nbsp;judges working in the judicial system were invoked as soldiers of the "Inner Front". The concept and legitimisation of Special Courts was taken from the Weimar Republic. The purpose of them was mainly to try political crimes, and they thus became instruments to eliminate political opponents quickly and confidently.Based on the Sondergerichtsverordnung (Special Courts Ordinance) of 21&nbsp;March 1933 (which after the Reichstagsverordnung was a step further towards eliminating the rule of law), Special Courts were established in every higher regional court district. The aim of this was to secure and stabilise the Nazi regime. Initially, this made Cologne the next competent court for the Aachen district. However, due to the increasing number of judicial cases a separate Special Court was established in Aachen in 1941.Following the steady expansion of the courts' jurisdiction, the start of the war and the Kriegssonderstrafrechtverordnung (Special Wartime&nbsp;Criminal Law Ordinance (KSSVO)), which had already been passed, finally led to an almost unlimited expansion of special jurisdiction. This included draft evasion, incitement to desertion and self-mutilation, as well as decomposition of military strength. Other political punishment provisions followed. In addition to the expansion of jurisdiction, procedures were also increasingly 'simplified'. For example, arrest warrants could not be challenged, and the accepting of evidence could be refused if the court concluded that it was no longer relevant to the clarification of the incident.Towards the end of the war, due to the Allies'&nbsp;approach the Aachen Special Court was transferred first to the nearby city of Düren, and then to Siegburg. The last surviving document from the court office is dated 30&nbsp;January 1945. A unique feature of the files from the Aachen&nbsp;Special Court is that some of them were continued after the end of the war, continued in another court, re-evaluated, or closed.​​

Aachen Special Courts

​​Oppenhoff was born on 18 August 1902, and from 1933 was a lawyer in Aachen, known for defending priests and Jews. The Nazis were unhappy with Oppenhoff and he had been warned by high-ranking National Socialist officials several times because of his actions. Oppenhoff also worked for the armaments company Veltrup, which helped him avoid being drafted into the military. In September 1944, when the American troops were near Aachen and the city was largely destroyed, Oppenhoff reached out to the American forces. After the withdrawal of German troops on 31 October 1944, he was appointed as mayor by the military.Oppenhoff knew that, as long as the war was not yet over, his life was in danger. Despite this he chose to cooperate with the victorious powers. Unfortunately, on 25 March 1945 he was murdered in front of his home on Eupener Straße by a Werewolf-Kommando squad. The five attackers included a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Although the attackers were caught, the exact individual responsible for the kill was never discovered, but Oppenhoff was surely a victim of the National Socialist dictatorship. He was buried in the Aachen Eastern Cemetery.To remember him, a monument made of 13 concrete pillars was built in his memory, with the following quotes:​"Judge not, that ye be not judged." - New Testament&nbsp;​"Man is free. The individuality of man is transformed into freedom." - G. Büchner&nbsp;​"Love thy neighbour as thyself." - Leviticus&nbsp;​"Silence can become a crime." - Kurt Schumacher&nbsp;​"Our generation is a guilty generation to a very great extent." - Alfred Oelp&nbsp;​"The dignity of man is inviolable." – §1 Grundgesetz (Basic Law Germany)&nbsp;​"One can only overcome fate through understanding." - Hermann Hesse&nbsp;​"Not only the deed but also suffering is a path to freedom." - D. Bonhoeffer&nbsp;​"The imprisoned truth torments." - Rosa Luxemburg&nbsp;​"Sixth Commandment: Thou shall not kill." - Hebrew Bible&nbsp;​"If he has not fought alone and is defeated, the enemy has not yet won." - Berthold Brecht / C. v. Ossietzky&nbsp;​"Love your enemies, bless those who curse you." - New Testament​&nbsp;

Oppenhoffallee Monument

​​​Haus Löwenstein, located on Aachen's market square, is one of the city's most famous buildings. It was likely built in the 14th century and is one of the few buildings from that period still standing today. It is believed that the house was once used both for residential purposes and as an Inn.​At the beginning of the 20th century, the house was united with the neighbouring house, Zum Wolf. During the Second World War, Haus Löwenstein was damaged. In 1969, the house was acquired by the city and restored by the city conservator Leo Hugot, who made significant structural changes. In the process, Haus Löwenstein and the house Zum Wolf were again visually separated, although today they still share the same entrance. Hugot strove to restore the house to its Gothic form, although he had no historical plans or illustrations. For this reason, his renovations were viewed quite critically at the time. The historic facade, however, stands in marked contrast to Hugot's interior design of Haus Löwenstein which is, in keeping with the early seventies trend, done in brutalist style.This approach is characteristic of the reconstruction of destroyed cities in Germany. Immediately after the end of the war, reconstruction was influenced by a lack of space and was subject to the maxim of restoring important infrastructure and creating housing as quickly as possible. As a result, many historic buildings initially underwent only makeshift repairs and were not comprehensively renovated and restored until the 1960s or 1970s. &nbsp;​Subsequently, they were often re-purposed, as was the case with Haus Löwenstein. The new design of the interior made it possible to use the building for the city administration, a purpose which it still serves today along with a large hall for press conferences and space for the marketing department.Haus Löwenstein is thus emblematic of a particular era of German reconstruction: historic building fabric was preserved after the war, but at the same time changed and re-purposed.

Löwenstein House (Haus Löwenstein)

​​During the Nazi regime, the city health department of Aachen was housed alongside the city administration in the Haus Grenzwacht. It was responsible for implementing the Nazi's law for the prevention of genetically diseased offspring, which aimed to promote Nazi racial hygiene and included compulsory sterilisations of people with disabilities.The government doctors in Aachen requested hundreds of such sterilisations for those they deemed "inferior". From 1941 to 1945, with the help of the health department, people with disabilities and sick individuals from Aachen were deported and then systematically murdered in operations such as Action T4. Many were also abused in cruel human experiments, disregarding ethical principles. The Wege gegen das Vergessen (Ways Against Forgetting) project remembers the participation of Aachen government doctors in these crimes with a memorial plaque attached to the western tower facade of Haus Grenzwacht.​

Border Guard House

​​The deportations of Aachen's Jewish residents began with their forced relocation from their homes and apartments to collection camps. One of these camps was located on Grüner Weg. From there, the Jewish victims were driven under SS and police supervision to the nearest tram stop.They were then taken to Aachen Central Station with special trains. There, the deportation trains, made up of goods wagons, were already waiting for them. Often, the trains first went to Düsseldorf, where trains from various places were assembled into a large transport. Everything was organised, including the transportation costs. According to the third-class tariff, the victims were charged 4 Reichspfennige per person and kilometre. Usually the trains, which consisted of up to 45 goods wagons, were occupied by 1,000 people.​By the end of the war, 2,000 to 3,000 people were crammed into the goods wagons. Four people per square metre. Without adequate nutrition, without toilets. The journeys took days: how the people in the wagons coped is hard to imagine. During World War Two, all Jewish citizens of Aachen who had not fled to safety beforehand&nbsp;were deported. A total of seven transports left from Aachen to concentration and extermination camps. The deportations in Aachen started in March 1942 and ended in September 1944.In October 1944 the central station was heavily fought over&nbsp;during the liberation. The 1st and 30th American infantry divisions had taken the heights south and west of Aachen, leading to an attack on Aachen. After intense fighting that resulted in partial destruction of the train station, on 21 October 1944 the military conflict in Aachen ended. Following this, the central station was quickly rebuilt as it was the needed by the Allies for logistical reasons.

Aachener Hauptbahnhof (Aachen Central Station)

​​The house at the corner of Pippinstraße and Rolandstraße in Aachen is a significant site in Aachen's history, as it is believed that the city's final declaration of surrender was signed there. On 21 October 1944 at 12:05, Colonel Gerhard Wilck signed the city's surrender declaration. The first major German city was thus&nbsp;liberated from the Nazi dictatorship. Wilck was commander of the 246th People's Grenadier Division and the last city commander of Aachen as of 12 October. He had tried in vain to defend the city from the Allied troops. Even though Wilck and his predecessor, General Gerhard Graf von Schwerin, had been trying since 10 September 1944 to convince the supreme army command to abandon the city, this proposal was brusquely rejected. Wilck was obliged not to voluntarily&nbsp;surrender an inch of ground to the enemy and to hold the city to the last man. The battle for Aachen had mainly propagandistic purposes, since strategically speaking the city was almost meaningless.​When the German troops were pushed back to a single bunker, U.S. officer John Corley presented Wilck with an ultimatum: surrender or destroy the city. At Corley's office, on the corner of Pippinstrasse and Rolandstrasse, Wilck initially refused to sign the surrender declaration, fearing for his family, who did not live in Aachen. Corley then poured him a glass of whiskey and again urged him to surrender. But Wilck continued to refuse. Only after the third glass of whisky did Wilck sign the declaration and then, with the remaining 3,473 German soldiers, was placed in captivity. Today, the house is used as a residence.​

House on the corner of Pippinstraße / Rolandstraße

Dopo le prime incursioni aeree sul territorio tedesco nel 1940, fu avviato un "programma urgente per la protezione della popolazione civile", che classificò Aquisgrana come città particolarmente a rischio a causa della sua posizione. Su questa base, nel gennaio 1941 iniziarono i primi lavori per i rifugi antiaerei. Per risparmiare sui costi e sui materiali, si preferirono bunker alti. Per motivi di mimetizzazione, dovevano confondersi il più possibile con gli edifici circostanti. Con 15 bunker alti, alcuni dei quali costruiti ad anello intorno al centro storico medievale, Aquisgrana era la città con la più alta densità di bunker in termini di popolazione tra quelle censite nel Reich tedesco.Il bunker all'angolo tra Scheibenstraße e Wittekindstraße, in vista della porta delle mura medievali (Ponttor ), fu costruito a partire dal 1941 secondo i progetti dell'Ufficio Costruzioni Finanziarie. Per questa costruzione, come per tutte le altre costruzioni di bunker nell'area della città, furono utilizzati prigionieri di guerra a partire dal dicembre 1941. In questo caso, provenivano dal Battaglione 25 di costruzione e lavoro dei prigionieri di guerra. Dal 1942, l'edificio a tre piani con base pentagonale fu utilizzato come rifugio civile. A causa della pianta insolita per gli edifici bunker, le stanze, spesso poligonali, sono raggruppate intorno a una scala triangolare. Tuttavia, con soli 250 posti letto su una superficie di 655 m³, il bunker è uno dei rifugi più piccoli e allo stesso tempo più costosi della città. Il motivo per cui il rifugio fu comunque costruito in questa forma non è documentato.Dal 1946 al 1948, l'edificio è stato utilizzato come alloggio di emergenza per circa 40 famiglie. In seguito, l'edificio è stato destinato al de-sheltering (la rimozione delle installazioni di protezione per renderlo adatto a un uso alternativo moderno, ad esempio come sede di eventi), di cui si conoscono i progetti e i costi stimati (circa 520.000 DM), ma che non è mai stato realizzato per ragioni sconosciute.Nel 2003 l'edificio, di proprietà privata, è stato inserito dalla città di Aquisgrana nell'elenco degli esempi di storia architettonica della Germania sotto il regime nazista. I pavimenti, le porte antiaeree, le porte metalliche delle singole stanze e alcuni locali sanitari si sono conservati fino ad oggi. Le aggiunte successive sono facilmente riconoscibili come tali. Demolizioni ai piani superiori hanno creato stanze più grandi. Delle installazioni tecniche originali si sono conservati l'impianto di riscaldamento e una turbina dell'impianto di ventilazione. L'edificio può essere visitato solo dall'esterno.

Bunker alto all'angolo

Poco dopo l'inizio della guerra contro la Francia, il 12 maggio 1940 ebbe luogo il primo raid aereo su Aquisgrana. Quando il 12 settembre 1944 iniziarono i combattimenti per Aquisgrana (con l'attraversamento del confine occidentale e l'attacco alla Linea Sigfrido il 15 settembre), un totale di 2.364 persone vennero uccise in 5 grandi attacchi e 64 attacchi minori . Inoltre, anche la città stessa fu gravemente danneggiata.Dopo oltre cinque settimane di combattimenti in città, in parte combattuti da una strada all'altra con carri armati e artiglieria, il 43% delle circa 14.000 case della città fu completamente distrutto e un altro 40% danneggiato. Delle 68 chiese e cappelle di Aquisgrana, 25 vennero distrutte e altre 43 gravemente danneggiate. Anche il palazzo storico del Municipio e gli ultimi edifici medievali cittadini finirono in macerie. Nonostante gli ingenti danni dovuti ai bombardamenti,&nbsp; la Cattedrale di Aquisgrana mantiene la sua struttura originale riconoscibile.Per quanto riguarda gli edifici di Annastrasse, la distruzione della Annakirche, la più antica chiesa protestante di Aquisgrana, è particolarmente ben documentata. La chiesa bruciò nel bombardamento del 14 luglio 1943 e dell'aprile 1944 in cui furono colpite la casa del pastore e la sala parrocchiale. Tuttavia, le maggiori distruzioni nella Annastrasse, di cui furono vittime anche la parete sud e la torre della chiesa, furono causate dal fuoco dell'artiglieria durante la battaglia di Aquisgrana.La ricostruzione della città iniziò già nel novembre 1944. La priorità fu quella di ricostruire le abitazioni, inizialmente su base di provvedimenti normativi d'urgenza, dato che fino a 5.000 persone a settimana rientravano in città subito dopo la resa di Aquisgrana. Le discussioni sugli obiettivi e sull'attuazione del piano di ricostruzione, in particolare sul trattamento dei monumenti architettonici, continuarono fino agli anni Ottanta. A quel punto, la maggior parte delle distruzioni della guerra era stata cancellata dal paesaggio urbano. Tuttavia, laddove non furono costruiti nuovi edifici, ma le aree vennero utilizzate, ad esempio, come parcheggi, i resti e le tracce degli edifici distrutti sono ancora visibili oggi.

La liberazione di Aquisgrana

Foto

Siti e storie lungo il percorso