After the Nuremberg Trials, Spandau Prison Was Dedicated To Holding 7 Nazi War Criminals
After the Nuremberg Trials, Spandau Prison Was Dedicated To Holding 7 Nazi War Criminals
Colin Fraser
 
Up: Spandau Prison. Photo Credit . Bottom from the left: 1. Albert Speer, 2. Erich Reader, 3. Rudolf Hess, 4. Karl Donitz, 5. Konstantin von Neurath, 6. Walter Funk. Photo Credit ., 7. Baldur von Schirach.
 
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In the borough of Spandau on Berlin’s west side, there sits a shopping complex on Wilhelmstraße that was once a shopping and leisure fixture for the British forces stationed there in the late 1980’s. Until 1987, it had been the sight of a prison built in 1876 that was demolished, pulverized to dust, and thrown into the sea after the last inmate held there died from apparent suicide.
Spandau prison once held those in military detention in the German Empire. After World War I, civilians were also held within the walls. Starting in the 1930’s, Spandau prison began holding dissidents, journalists, and many who opposed Hitler and the Nazi Party.
The prison had a capacity of up to 600 inmates, but shortly after the Second World War, it would only hold seven: some of the highest ranking German Nazi government and military officials, sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison.
Management of Spandau prison was an elaborate collaboration between the four powers, Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. Each country would take one month on a rotating schedule to run the prison for a total of three months each per year. Thus, the prison had four of every official; four wardens, four cooks, four sets of guards, etc. This dramatic and costly feature was the center of much debate and scorn for the decades the prison was operating and especially for the last two when it only housed one inmate.
American and Russian soldiers during the Changing of the Guard ceremony in front of the entrance to Spandau Prison in 1949 / 1950 via  usarmygermany.com
Conditions in the prison were strict, including a ban on any diary or memoir writing, no talking between prisons and short and sparse family visits. Many guards and officials, especially those that developed relationships with their wards, often bent these rules; the ones to do with writing, for example.
But all inmates dreaded the months in which Russia ran their prison. The Russians had no leniency and were far more punitive, not least to do with being a country that had some 19 million civilian deaths during the war.
At least 60 guards, half a dozen machine guns in towers, high walls and barbed wire kept Spandau Prison closed up tight 24 hours a day. And with Nazi sympathizers and those looking to exact revenge on a high-ranking Nazi alike, those measures were just as much, if not more, to keep people out than in.
The men that were kept in Spandau prison became known as the Spandau Seven. Some hated each other, some could get along nicely. Some saw a future in politics again and some saw themselves as still the legitimate leaders of Germany. Some lived as fully as they could, accomplishing a lot in their time in captivity and some despised every last minute of it.
1. Erich Raeder
Erich Reader being released in 1955
The Grand Admiral of the German Navy, Kriegsmarine, for the first half of Word War II, Raeder was replaced by his now fellow prisoner, Karl Dönitz. The two argued endlessly about who between them had lost the war for Germany on the high seas. However, they spent most of their time together, liking the other prisoners even less. During his time served, Raeder was chief of the prison library and Dönitz his assistant.
Raeder was sentenced to life in prison at the Nuremberg Trials but was released from Spandau Prison in 1955 due to very poor health. He died in 1960.
2. Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz (center, in dark coat) being arrested with the rest of the Flensburg government on May 23rd, 1945.
Dönitz was the Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine after Hitler jilted Raeder. Not only this but from April 30th to May 23rd, 1945, Dönitz was president of Germany, appointed by Hitler before his suicide. Charged with conducting unrestricted submarine warfare at the Nuremberg trials, his case wasn’t decided on this point because other nations, including Britain and the U.S., admitted to the same in many instances.
Dönitz was sentenced to ten years in Spandau prison and released in 1956. During his prison term, he still believed he was rightfully head of the German state.
3. Konstantin von Neurath
Neurath was the foreign minister of the Reich from 1932 to 1938 before Hitler replaced him with one more committed to the Nazi agenda. Later, as Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Neurath oversaw the suppression of Czech resistance and the execution of students. These details were included in his trial at Nuremberg where he was charged with several counts including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Arguing that his successor in the office of foreign affairs was far more culpable, Neurath was sentenced to 15 years in Spandau prison, instead of life in prison or death, and was released in 1954 because of failing health. He died two years later. Being a very diplomatic man, he got along with all his fellow inmates better than most.
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