Editing Spandau Prison (section)

== History ==
Spandau Prison was built in 1876 on [[Wilhelmstraße (Spandau)|Wilhelmstraße]]. It initially served as a military detention centre for the [[Prussian Army]]. From 1919 it was also used for civilian inmates. It held up to 600 inmates at that time.

In the aftermath of the [[Reichstag fire]] of 1933, opponents of [[Hitler]], and [[journalist]]s such as [[Egon Kisch]] and [[Carl von Ossietzky]], were held there in so-called [[protective custody]]. Spandau Prison became a predecessor of sorts of the [[Nazi concentration camps]]. While it was formally operated by the [[Ministry of Justice|Prussian Ministry of Justice]], the [[Gestapo]] tortured and abused its inmates, as Kisch recalled in his memories of the prison. By the end of 1933, the first Nazi concentration camps had been erected (at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]], [[Osthofen concentration camp|Osthofen]], [[Oranienburg]], [[Sonnenburg concentration camp|Sonnenburg]], [[Lichtenburg (concentration camp)|Lichtenburg]] and the marshland camps around [[Esterwegen]]); all remaining prisoners who had been held in so-called protective custody in state prisons were transferred to these concentration camps.

After [[World War II]], the prison fell in the British Sector of what became [[West Berlin]], but it was operated by the [[Four-Power Authorities]] to house the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[war crime|war criminals]] sentenced to imprisonment at the [[Nuremberg Trials]].

Only seven prisoners were finally imprisoned there. Arriving from Nuremberg on 18 July 1947, they were:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name
! No.
! Status
! data-sort-type="date" | Born
! data-sort-type="date" | Died
! Age
|-
| {{sortname|Baldur|von Schirach}} || 1 || Served a 20-year sentence; released on 30 September 1966. || 9 May 1907 || 8 August 1974 || {{age|1907|5|9|1974|8|8}}
|-
| {{sortname|Karl|Dönitz}} || 2 || Served a 10-year sentence; released on 30 September 1956. || 16 September 1891 || 24 December 1980 || {{age|1891|9|16|1980|12|24}}
|-
| {{sortname|Konstantin|von Neurath}} || 3 || Released early due to ill health on 6 November 1954 after serving a 15-year sentence scheduled for release on 30 September 1961. || 2 February 1873 || 14 August 1956 || {{age|1873|2|2|1956|8|14}}
|-
| {{sortname|Erich|Raeder}} || 4 || Released due to ill health on 26 September 1955 after receiving a life sentence. || 24 April 1876 || 6 November 1960 || {{age|1876|4|24|1960|11|6}}
|-
| {{sortname|Albert|Speer}} || 5 || Served a 20-year sentence; released on 1 October 1966. || 19 March 1905 || 1 September 1981 || {{age|1905|3|19|1981|9|1}}
|-
| {{sortname|Walther|Funk}} || 6 || Released due to ill health on 16 May 1957 after receiving a life sentence. || 18 August 1890 || 31 May 1960 || {{age|1890|8|18|1960|5|31}}
|-
| {{sortname|Rudolf|Hess}} || 7 || Committed suicide by hanging on 17 August 1987 while serving a life sentence. || 26 April 1894 || 17 August 1987 || {{age|1894|4|26|1987|8|17}}
|}

Of the seven, three were released after serving their full sentences, while three others (including Raeder and Funk, who were given life sentences) were released earlier due to ill health. Between 1966 and 1987, Rudolf Hess was the only inmate in the prison, and his only companion was the warden, [[Eugene K. Bird]], who became a close friend. Bird wrote a book about Hess's imprisonment titled ''The Loneliest Man in the World''.

Spandau was one of only two Four-Power organisations to continue to operate after the breakdown of the [[Allied Control Council]]; the other was the [[Berlin Air Safety Centre]]. The four occupying powers of Berlin alternated control of the prison on a monthly basis, each having the responsibility for a total of [[Spandau Prison#Rotation of the Four Power Guards|three months out of the year]]. Observing the Four-Power flags that flew at the Allied Control Authority building could determine who controlled the prison.

[[File:Kriegsverbrechergefängnis Spandau - Wachablösung.JPG|thumb|right|Changing the guard (US troops left and British right) at Spandau Prison]]
The prison was demolished in August 1987, largely to prevent it from becoming a [[neo-Nazi]] shrine,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hesss-body-exhumed-and-grave-destroyed-to-stop-neo-nazi-pilgrimages-2318497.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/hesss-body-exhumed-and-grave-destroyed-to-stop-neo-nazi-pilgrimages-2318497.html |archive-date=2022-05-24 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Hess's body exhumed and grave destroyed to stop neo-Nazi pilgrimages |last=Paterson |first=Tony |date=22 July 2011 |work=The Independent |access-date=29 August 2018}}</ref> after the death of Hess, its final remaining prisoner. To further ensure its erasure, the site was made into a parking facility and a shopping centre, named [[Britannia Centre Spandau|The Britannia Centre Spandau]], nicknamed Hessco's<ref>Williams, Peter (2006). ''BRIXMIS in the 1980s: The Cold War's 'Great Game{{'}}''. Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security (PHP), www.php.isn.ethz.ch.</ref> after the well-known British supermarket chain [[Tesco]]. All materials from the demolished prison were ground to powder and dispersed in the [[North Sea]], or buried at the former [[RAF Gatow]] airbase,<ref>{{cite book | author=Goda, Norman J. W. | title=Tales from Spandau | publisher=University of Florida | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-521-86720-7 | url=https://archive.org/details/talesfromspandau00goda }}</ref> with the exception of a single set of keys now exhibited in the regimental museum of the [[King's Own Scottish Borderers]] at [[Berwick Barracks]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}