Adolf Hitler tourism resort redeveloped into luxury condos
Aryan tourist paradise commissioned by the Fuhrer himself is redeveloped into luxury condos
Built by the Third Reich just before the second world war, it was a Nazi vision of tourism's future.
Happy, healthy Aryans would stay and play at the 10,000-room Strength Through Joy resort on the Baltic Sea, eating, swimming and even bowling for the Fuhrer.
But 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the complex nicknamed the Colossus of Prora is part of a growing debate that pits commercialism against Vergangenheitsbewaltigung — the German term for how the country should come to terms with its dark past.
Identical blocks of six-storey buildings stretching for 4.5km went up before the second world war slowed construction, leaving an unfinished hulk later retrofitted for East German soldiers.
But a group of investors in Prora is now doing what the Nazis never could - realising the site's final stage of transformation into a vacation wonderland.
Large parts of the complex are being gutted and rebuilt into developments, including one called New Prora that will house luxury beachfront condominiums — half of which have been sold — as well as an upscale hotel and spa.
It's not just the cashing in on a major Nazi landmark that troubles opponents. In a sense, some argue, the renovation also is fulfilling the Third Reich's initial plan to turn the colossus into a massive tourism hub.
In promotional material, developers are hailing the original project — the design of which was believed to have been chosen by Hitler himself — as a "world-famous monument" recognised in its day for "award-winning architecture".
Nevertheless, critics say, their plans may also wash away many of the elements that provided the reason for preserving the colossus in the first place.
"These are not harmless buildings," said Jurgen Rostock, co-founder of the Prora Documentation Centre.
"The original purpose for Hitler was the construction of [a resort] in preparation for the war to come. This way of dealing with the building trivialises it and affirms the Nazi regime."
The facades of some blocks, for instance, are being brightened by dozens of quaint sea-facing balconies, changing the nature of the imposing, austere architecture that stood as a monument to insatiable militarism.
In addition, the one documentation centre at the site explaining the Strength Through Joy programme — a Nazi effort to provide affordable fun to workers living the socialist dream — may be moved to the fringes of the complex or, some fear, abandoned altogether.
The project was masterminded in the 1930s by Robert Ley, a top Hitler lieutenant. He led the Strength Through Joy effort, which was meant to be a cornerstone of the resort.
At picturesque Prora, thousands of small, heated rooms facing the sea would recharge the minds and bodies of the German masses, preparing vacationers for life as the masters of Europe. They would enjoy communal meals and common entertainment areas in the embodiment of Nazi fun.
Yet the colossus never lived up to Hitler's ambitions. Despite the importation of forced Polish labour to help build it faster, the resort became a low priority as war raged. It was left unfinished before being briefly claimed by the Red Army and ultimately finished into barracks.
After reunification, historic preservationists and other government officials made determinations that the colossus was too expensive and architecturally significant to tear down. So the government sold its various blocks to different developers.
A youth hostel opened there in 2011. But the complex is now in the midst of a full-blown redevelopment, with the first owners of luxury holiday homes moving in over the summer.
Gerd Grochowiak, managing director of developer IRISGERD real estate, sees nothing wrong with commercialisation there.
The structure was "always about tourism, so it doesn't have such a negative history", he said.
