Do you know your city? - Täterspuren 2014

Täterspuren 2014, Demostration on 13/02/2014, 2:00 pm, Schützenplatz.

On every February 13th since 2011, our "March for traces of offenders" (Täterspurenmahngang) points out places where traces of the Nazi offenses can be found in Dresden. This was by no means was an "innocent city" as often suggested in the remembrance of February 13^th . It was an important hub of the war industry, thousands suffered here from forced labour and this place has also been an important host to key Nazi institutions to maintain the race ideology. Jewish citizens were ostracized, disenfranchised, deported and killed. We cordially invite you to look for traces of offenders with us in 2014.

The handout containing all information on the single sites and a map of the march can be found here.

The sites to find traces of offenders in 2014 are:

1. Schützenplatz
The "Dresden House of the People" on Schützenplatz, home of the general association of german unions was opened in 1902, enlarged 1930 and eventually occupied by Police and SA on March 8th , 1933. A sign reading ?SA Hostel? was placed at the entrance and the widely visible letters on the roof showing this to be the home of the unions were removed. After the building was handed back to the Unions on 26/03/1933 it was occupied again on 02/05/1933 and became home to the German Workers Front (Deutsche Arbeiterfront).

1a. Keglerheim
In the "Home to bowlers" (Keglerheim) in the Friedrichstraße 12, a traditional site to hold meetings of the local workforce, 9 workers and policemen were shot on January 25th , 1933. Many others were injured, 11 of them severely, as they attended rally held by the communist party KPD.

2. Wettiner Platz
The publishers of the Newspaper "Dresdner Volkszeitung", closely related to the SPD, and a book shop resided in this building. On 08/03/1933 it was occupied by the SA. Consequently, Party literature, books of poetry and fiction, newspapers and archived material was piled up in the front yard and eventually burned in a bonfire. Its basement got converted into a so-called "camp for preventive detention". From midst 1933 onwards, the producers of the daily newspaper of the saxon NSDAP "Der Freiheitskampf" and Nazi publishers resided in here.

3. Sternplatz
According to plans of the city's authorities, the Sternplatz was one of 100 designated places to collect dead bodies. The only building remaining after the war was the meanwhile 100-year-old building of the local health insurance.

4. Landesbauernschaft, Ammonstrasse 8
The building was errected between 1936 and 138 for the association of saxon farmers. This organization, founded 1933, was the - by force - united body of all firms, people and associations in saxon agriculture. During World War II, this body organized the complete war food economy, including the use of prisoners of war and other types of forced labor also in agriculture.

5. Florastrasse/Zwickauer Strasse
Engineering and accurate industries (optics, fine mechanics, electrical engineering) were used heavily to maintain the arms industry. A key site for air force industries was the Dresden area with numerous foreign workers in at least 781 companies. The Florastraße hosted a satellite camp of the concentration camp Flossenburg. Roughly 700 women from different countries had to perform forced labor in here. They were exploited brutally - many died.

6. Gestapo-Leitstelle
On todays "Bayrische Straße 16", the former Bismarkstraße 16/18, the previous Continental-Hotel was home to the local Gestapo Headquarters. Amongst others, their section IV B 4 was in charge of all state-police measures against Jewish citizens in Dresden and consequently also their stepwise deportation from 1942.

7. Technische Hochschule
On today's Friedrich-List-Platz, then still "Bismarckplatz", was the central building of the Dresden College of Technology (Technische Hochschule Dresden). The College showed significant influence of Nazi ideology even before 1933. 11 Professors, for example, signed a call published in a well-known Nazi newspaper to support the NSDAP prior the general elections in November 1932. Also the students were under increasing influence of the Nazi ideology whilst the the Nazi student body gained control over them.