Correctional facility, Landsberg

Today’s Landsberg correctional facility (JVA Landsberg) was built in 1908. At that time, it belonged to the Ebrach prison as the “State Detainees Facility, Landsberg am Lech”.

In 1947 the US Army established War Criminal Prison No. 1 in the prison building; where German war criminals were imprisoned and, in some cases, executed. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Joseph H. Williams

When the Hitler-Ludendorff putch failed on 9 November 1923, the leading architects of the putsch, Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff, together with Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher and others responsible were held in the detention facility of the Landsberg prison.

From April to December 1924, Hitler served a total of 264 days of imprisonment. During this time, his work “Mein Kampf” appeared. Thereafter, the Landsberg detention facility had a special significance for Hitler and National Socialism. It was a place of pilgrimage for Nazi adherents and was also used as a detention facility by the Nazi regime. Between 1944 and the end of the war, 210 people died in the facility as a result of mistreatment or execution.

Besuch Adolf Hitlers bei der JVA Landsberg.

Landsberg prison had cult status in National Socialist philosophy. Ten years after having been released from it, Adolf Hitler visited it. Seen here in front of the Bayertor in Landsberg. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Richard Freimark

On 27 April 1945, the Landsberg prison was liberated by American troops. From 1947, the US Army used the building as “War Criminal Prison No. 1” (German: Kriegsverbrechergefängnis Nr. 1). Former Nazi leaders and war criminals, who were sentenced in Nurnberg and Dachau were imprisoned or executed here.