Landsberg is situated on theRomantic Road and is the center of theLechrain region, the boundary region betweenSwabia andBavaria. Landsberg am Lech developed where a major historicsalt road crossed over the Lech. To protect the bridge, DukeHenry the Lion ordered a castle to be built,Castrum Landespurch, incorporating an older settlement and castle namedPhetine. 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. As of 1320 Landsberg am Lech was permitted to collect salt duties, bringing considerable wealth to the town. In 1419, a river tax added a further source of income.[citation needed]
In 1437Hans Multscher crafted the LandsbergVirgin and Child as the main figures of an altar. Multscher'sWurzach Altar design for the Lnadsberg church has been noted for anew realism and realistic detail.[3]
Lech weir and the historic centre of Landsberg am Lech
The town is noted for itsprison whereAdolf Hitler was incarcerated in 1924. During this incarceration Hitler wrote/dictated his bookMein Kampf together with Rudolf Hess. His cell, number 7, became part of theNazi cult and many followers came to visit it during the German Nazi-period. Landsberg am Lech was also known as the town of theHitler Youth.[4]
In the outskirts of this town existed a concentration camp complex,Kaufering, where over 30,000 victims were imprisoned under inhuman conditions, resulting in the death of around 14,500 of them.
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).
Landsberg Concentration Camp and displaced person camp
TheLandsberg camp began in June 1944 as aNazi 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 Germans indeath marches in April 1945.
The camp was liberated on 27 April 1945 by the12th 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 inEpisode 9: Why We Fight of theBand of Brothers mini-series.[6]
In December 2019, Israeli academic and translatorIlana 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".[7] Since 1983Anton Posset and the association called Landsberg im 20. Jahrhundert are working on commemorating this part of history and established based on donations theEuropean Holocaust Memorial on the former concentration camp Kaufering VII.[8]
Burgett, Daniel R. (2001).Beyond the Rhine. New York: Dell Publishing. pp. 119–134.
Thomas Raithel,Die Strafanstalt Landsberg am Lech und der Spöttinger Friedhof (1944-1958). Eine Dokumentation im Auftrag des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin (München: Oldenbourg 2009).
