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63-487: The castle gained international fame as the site of Oflag IV-C , a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II for "incorrigible" Allied officers who had repeatedly attempted to escape from other camps. In 1046, Henry III of the Holy Roman Empire gave the burghers of Colditz permission to build the first documented settlement at the site. During 1083, Henry IV urged Margrave Wiprecht of Groitzsch to develop

126-432: A BBC television series, Colditz (1972), featuring David McCallum , Edward Hardwicke and Robert Wagner , that focused on life at Colditz. During the last days of the prison camp at Colditz, many of its prominent or high-ranking prisoners were transferred to Laufen by order of Himmler. In April 1945, U.S. troops entered the town of Colditz and, after a two-day fight, captured the castle on 16 April 1945. In May 1945,

189-452: A Polish choir , a Dutch Hawaiian guitar band, and a French orchestra . The British put on homemade revues, classical plays and farces including: Gaslight , Rope , The Man Who Came to Dinner , Pygmalion , and The Importance of Being Earnest . Several prisoners intentionally grew their hair long so as better to portray female roles. Prisoner Jock Hamilton-Baillie used to shave his legs, rub them in brown shoe polish, and draw

252-564: A fashion that corresponded to the way it was divided-— into the cellar, the royal house and the banqueting hall building. There is nothing more to be seen of the original castle, where the present rear of the castle is located, but it is still possible to discern where the original divisions were (the Old or Lower House, the Upper House and the Great House). The structure of the castle was changed during

315-523: A large German garrison. The prisoners lived in an adjacent courtyard in a 90 ft (27 m) tall building. Outside, the flat terraces which surrounded the prisoners' accommodation were watched constantly by armed sentries and surrounded by barbed wire . The prison was named Oflag IV-C (officer prison camp 4C) and was operated by the Wehrmacht . While the camp was home to prisoners of war from many different countries, including Poland, France, Belgium,

378-461: A line down the back of his legs in pencil to simulate the appearance of silk stockings. This allowed him special "bath privileges" in the German guards washroom, since the prisoners' showers were unable to get the polish off his legs. Staging these plays even gained the prisoners access to "parole tools", tools which were used to build the sets and promised not to be used to escape. During the summer months,

441-481: A mental institution, including Ludwig Schumann, the second youngest son of the composer Robert Schumann , and Ernst Baumgarten  [ de ] , one of the inventors of the airship . When the Nazis gained power during 1933, they converted the castle into a political prison for communists , homosexuals , Jews and other people they considered undesirable. Starting 1939, Allied prisoners were housed there. After

504-688: A museum and guided tours showing some of the escape tunnels built by prisoners of the Oflag during the war. The chapel has been restored to its prewar decoration, with glass panels inserted to the flag stone flooring to reveal an escape tunnel dug by French escapees. The outer courtyard and former German Kommandantur (guard quarters) have been converted into a youth hostel / hotel and the Gesellschaft Schloss Colditz e.V. (the Colditz Castle historical society), founded during 1996, has its offices in

567-550: A noted theologian and was made cardinal in 1994, at age 90. At 1:30 a.m. on 13 April 1945, while the final battles of the war approached the area, the Prominente were moved under guard and the cover of darkness, over the protestations of the other prisoners. The Allies were concerned that the Prominente might be used as hostages, bargaining chips and human shields , or that the SS might try to kill them out of spite. But they reached

630-685: A portion of the administration building in the front castle court. Oflag IV-C Oflag IV-C , generally known as Colditz Castle , was a prominent German Army prisoner-of-war camp for captured Allied officers during World War II . Located in Colditz , Saxony , the camp operated within the medieval Colditz Castle, which overlooks the town. The word "Oflag" is an abbreviation of the German term Offizierslager , meaning "officers' camp." The camp held officers who were deemed escape risks or who had already attempted escape from other prison camps. Known for its seemingly impenetrable structure, Colditz Castle became

693-475: A radio room established by the French POWs, which was then "lost" again to be rediscovered some twenty years later. During 2006 and 2007, the castle underwent a significant amount of refurbishment and restoration which was paid for by the state of Saxony. The castle walls were repainted to recreate the appearance of the castle prior to World War II. With renovations largely completed, the castle now includes both

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756-439: A site of numerous escape attempts, some of which were successful, earning a reputation for the ingenuity and daring of its prisoners. The camp's history and the elaborate escape plans conceived there have been widely covered in postwar memoirs, books, and media. Today, Colditz Castle has become a popular tourist destination, with guided tours, exhibitions and a museum dedicated to the prisoners' life. This thousand-year-old fortress

819-432: A sparkling wine dubbed "Château Colditz". Some prisoners would get black teeth or even temporary blindness from consuming this beverage — a condition known as "jam-happy" — as it contained many impurities. Although the German guards despised the drunken prisoners, they generally turned a blind eye to the distilling. Officers also studied languages, learning from each other, and told stories. Most popular of these stories were

882-583: A total of no more than 200 with their orderlies. 200 French officers arrived in February 1941. A number of the French demanded that French Jewish officers be segregated from them and the camp commander obliged; they were moved to the attics. By the end of July 1941, there were more than 500 officers: over 250 French, 150 Polish, 50 British and Commonwealth, 2 Yugoslavian. In April 1941, a French officer, Alain Le Ray , become

945-411: A wide variety of staff positions, as well as overseeing prisoners' labour. There was also a large contingent of civilians and local townspeople who worked on the castle grounds. Some were in maintenance, some in medical roles, some were there in a supervisory role ( Nazi Party leaders, Swiss Red Cross observers, etc.). Some family members of the German military officers lived at the camp. In Colditz,

1008-745: The Holy Roman Empire and created the German Confederation , throughout the lifespan of the North German Confederation , the complete reign of the German Empire , throughout the First World War , and until the beginnings of the Weimar Republic . Between 1914 and 1918, the castle was home to both psychiatric and tuberculosis patients, 912 of whom died of malnutrition . The castle was home to several notable figures during its time as

1071-772: The Middle Ages , the castle was used as a lookout post for the German Emperors and was the hub of the Reich territories of the Pleissenland (anti- Meißen Pleiße-lands ). During 1404, the nearly 250-year rule of the dynasty of the Lords of Colditz ended when Thimo VIII sold Colditz Castle for 15,000 silver marks to the Wettin ruler of the period in Saxony . As a result of family dynastic politics,

1134-548: The RAF just before the war) became the first British prisoners at Colditz. On 7   November, six British officers, the " Laufen Six", named after the camp ( Oflag VII-C ) from which they made their first escape, arrived: Harry Elliott, Rupert Barry, Pat Reid , Dick Howe , Peter Allan, and Kenneth Lockwood . They were soon joined by a handful of British Army officers and later by Belgian officers. By Christmas 1940 there were 60 Polish officers, 12 Belgians, 50 French, and 30 British,

1197-519: The Soviet occupation of Colditz began. According to the agreement at the Yalta Conference it became a part of East Germany . The government turned Colditz Castle into a prison for local criminals. Later, the castle was a home for the aged and a nursing home , as well as a hospital and psychiatric clinic. For many years after the war, forgotten hiding places and tunnels were found by repairmen, including

1260-497: The Warsaw Uprising ; and five other Polish generals. British Commando Michael Alexander claimed to be a nephew of field marshal Harold Alexander in order to escape execution, but was merely a distant cousin. Micky Burn , another well-known inmate of Colditz, was a British commando captured at Saint-Nazaire . Burn had been a journalist like Romilly before the war, working for The Times . Burn had briefly been an admirer of

1323-523: The Wehrmacht abided by the Geneva Convention . Would-be escapees were punished with solitary confinement, instead of being summarily executed. In principle, the security officers recognized that it was the duty of the POWs to try to escape and that their own job was to stop them. Prisoners could even form gentlemen's agreements with the guards, such as not using borrowed tools for escape attempts. Most of

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1386-541: The 1st US Army. Among the more notable inmates were British fighter ace Douglas Bader ; Pat Reid , the man who brought Colditz to public attention with his post-war books; Airey Neave , the first British officer to escape from Colditz and later a British Member of Parliament; New Zealand Army Captain Charles Upham , the only combat soldier ever to receive the Victoria Cross twice; and Sir David Stirling , founder of

1449-592: The American lines alive a couple of weeks later, an action aided by the SS head of POW camp administration Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger , which contributed to his lessened sentence after his war crimes verdict in 1949. Keeping the castle running in a secure and efficient manner was a difficult task, and the Germans maintained a larger garrison at the castle than at many of their other prison camps. Between 1939 and 1945 more than 70 German officers and enlisted men worked in

1512-755: The Dutch escape officer, Captain Machiel van den Heuvel , planned and executed his first of many escape plans. On 13 August 1941 the first two Dutchmen escaped successfully from the castle, followed by many more of whom six officers made it to England. Afterwards a number of would-be escapees borrowed Dutch greatcoats as their disguise. When the Wehrmacht invaded the Netherlands they were short of material for uniforms, so they confiscated anything available. The coats in Dutch field grey in particular remained unchanged in colour, since it

1575-554: The Nazi Party and in 1936 had met Adolf Hitler, who signed his copy of Mein Kampf . After war broke out Burn shifted politically to Marxism and gave lectures to prisoners at Colditz, but due to his pre-war interest in Nazi philosophy he was widely regarded with distrust and scorn. John Arundell, 16th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1907–1944) was an aristocrat held at Colditz who, despite his pedigree,

1638-581: The Netherlands, and Canada, in May 1943 Wehrmacht High Command decided to house only British and American officers. The camp's first British prisoners were the Laufen Six on 7 November 1940, who were transferred to Colditz after their first escape attempt from the Laufen Camp . Although it was considered a high security prison, it had one of the greatest records of successful escape attempts . This could be owing to

1701-448: The Polish contingent using a recipe of yeast, water, German jam and sugar from their Red Cross parcels, and then taken up by other prisoners, it did not take long for stills to be secreted all across Colditz (one of which remained undiscovered until a tourist trip in 1984). Prisoner Michael Farr, whose family ran Hawker's Gin (the sole purveyors of Sloe gin with a Royal Warrant), managed to make

1764-444: The UK and built by Southdown Aviation Ltd at Lasham Airfield , closely following Goldfinch's drawings. Watched by several of the former prisoners of war who worked on the original, it was test-flown at RAF Odiham during 2000. The escape plan could have worked. In 2012, Channel 4 commissioned another full-sized replica of the glider which was launched from the same roof as had been planned for

1827-405: The camp was liberated not long after its completion. After liberation, the glider was brought down from the hidden workshop to the attic below and assembled for the prisoners to see. Assigned to the task force that liberated the castle, American war correspondent Lee Carson entered Colditz on 15 April 1945 and took the only photograph of the glider completed in the attic. For some time after the war

1890-657: The camp, among the 68 Dutch was Hans Larive with his knowledge of the Singen route. This route into Switzerland was discovered by Larive in 1940 on his first escape attempt from an Oflag in Soest. Larive was caught at the Swiss border near Singen. The interrogating Gestapo officer was so confident the war would soon be won by Germany that he told Larive the safe way across the border near Singen. Larive did not forget and many prisoners later escaped using this route. Within days after their arrival,

1953-647: The castle lord and his retinue, while also sometimes serving as a burial site. Because the construction of such church edifices was expensive for the lord of the castle, separate chapels are not found at every seat of the nobility. Often, a secondary room furnished with an altar had to suffice. According to historian Sarah Speight , "The religious role of chapels was as normal, as routine, and arguably, as integral to castles as any concern for symbolism and/or military strength." Castle chapels were usually consecrated to saints ; especially those associated with knighthood , such as Saint George or Saint Gereon . In 1437,

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2016-472: The castle site, which Colditz accepted. During 1158, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa made Thimo I "Lord of Colditz", and major building works began. By 1200, the town around the market was established. Forests, empty meadows, and farmland were settled next to the pre-existing Slavic villages Zschetzsch , Zschadraß , Zollwitz, Terpitzsch and Koltzschen. Around that time the larger villages Hohnbach, Thierbaum , Ebersbach and Tautenhain also developed. During

2079-465: The castle. During this period the portal at what is known as the church house was created during 1584, made of Rochlitz Porphyr ( rhyolite tuff ) and richly decorated in the mannerist style by Andreas Walther II. This dimension stone has been in use in architecture for more than 1,000 years. It was at this time that both the interior and the exterior of "the Holy Trinity" castle chapel that links

2142-539: The cellar and electors' house with one another were redesigned. Soon thereafter the castle became an administrative office for the Office of Colditz and a hunting lodge . During 1694, its then-current owner, King Augustus the Strong of Poland, began to expand it, resulting in a second courtyard and a total of 700 rooms. During the 19th century, the church space was rebuilt in the neo-classic architectural style, but its condition

2205-557: The chapel of Saint Mark at the castle in Braubach , Germany, gave the castle its present name: the Marksburg . Frequently, castle chapels were located near the gate or in the upper storey of the gate tower as, for example, at Wildenberg Castle in the Odenwald . This was in order to claim God 's protection over the most vulnerable point in the castle. Though castle chapels might be used as

2268-536: The embellished retelling of BBC broadcasts by Jim Rogers. Since mail was regularly screened by censors, and the German newspapers received by prisoners contained much Nazi propaganda, the only reliable information prisoners could obtain on the progress of the war in Europe was through BBC broadcasts received via one of two radios which were secreted in the castle. These radios were smuggled in by French prisoner Frédérick Guigues and named "Arthur 1" and "Arthur 2". The first radio

2331-571: The end of the war approached, the number of Prominente increased. Eventually there were Lord Lascelles and John Elphinstone , nephews of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth; Captain The Lord Haig , son of World War I Field Marshal Douglas Haig ; Lord Hopetoun , son of Lord Linlithgow , the Viceroy of India ; Lieutenant John Winant Jr., son of John Gilbert Winant , US ambassador to Britain ; Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski , commander of Armia Krajowa and

2394-583: The existence of Colditz is virtually unknown in Germany today. Eggers wrote a book based on his experiences of the German side of events. From the Imperial War Museum (IWM) oral history collection: From all IWM collections: Castle chapel Castle chapels ( German : Burgkapellen ) in European architecture are chapels that were built within a castle . They fulfilled the religious requirements of

2457-481: The first camp Olympics were organized by the Polish prisoners. Events were held in football (soccer), volleyball, boxing, and chess, but the closing ceremony was interrupted by a German fire drill. "The British came in last place in every event cheerfully, to the dismay of the other participants who took the competition deadly seriously," according to the British inmate John Wilkens in a 1986 interview. Prisoners also formed

2520-674: The first prisoner ever to escape from the Colditz Castle. On 24 July 1941, 68 Dutch officers arrived, mostly members of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army who had refused to sign a declaration that they would take no part in the war against Germany which most other Dutch prisoners of war had accepted. According to the German Security Officer, Captain Reinhold Eggers , the Dutch officers appeared to be model prisoners at first. Importantly for other internees in

2583-456: The general nature of the prisoners that were sent there; most of them had attempted escape previously from other prisons and were transferred to Colditz because the Germans had thought the castle escape-proof. One escape scheme even included a glider , the Colditz Cock , that was built and kept in a remote portion of the castle's attic during the winter of 1944–45. The glider was never used, as

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2646-417: The glider was regarded as a tall tale , as there was no solid proof that the glider had existed and Colditz was then in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany . Bill Goldfinch took home the drawings he had made while designing the glider, and when the single photograph finally surfaced the story was taken seriously. During 1999, a full-sized replica of the glider was commissioned by Channel 4 Television in

2709-518: The guard company was composed of World War I veterans and young soldiers not fit for the front. Because Colditz was a high security camp, the Germans organized three and then later four Appells (roll calls) per day to count the prisoners. If they discovered someone had escaped, they alerted every police and train station within a 40 km (25 mi) radius, and many local members of the Hitler Youth would help to recapture any escapees. Because of

2772-408: The guards. Douglas Bader encouraged his junior officers to do the same. British Flight Lieutenant Pete Tunstall especially tried to cause havoc by disturbing the roll call even if nobody was trying to escape, so that the guards would not become suspicious when somebody was. He went through a total of five courts-martial and suffered a total of 415 days in solitary confinement. Oflag IV-C provided

2835-424: The inspiration for both television and film because of the widely popular retellings by Pat Reid and Airey Neave. This started as early as 1955 with the release of The Colditz Story , followed by The Birdmen in 1971, continuing until 2005 with the Colditz mini-series. The escape stories of Colditz Castle have inspired several board and video games, such as Escape from Colditz and Commandos . In contrast,

2898-514: The long reign of the Elector Augustus of Saxony (1553–86), and the complex was reconstructed into a Renaissance style castle from 1577 to 1591, including the portions that were still in the gothic architectural style. Architects Hans Irmisch  [ de ] and Peter Kummer supervised further restoration and rebuilding. Later, Lucas Cranach the Younger was commissioned as an artist in

2961-508: The number of Red Cross food parcels, prisoners sometimes ate better than their guards, who had to rely on Wehrmacht rations. Prisoners could use their relative luxuries for trade and, for example, exchange their cigarettes for German Reichsmarks that they hoped could later use in their escape attempts. Occasionally this turned out to be a mistake as several of the bills they received were of varieties that were not considered valid. Prisoners had to make their own entertainment. In August 1941

3024-465: The original. The unmanned radio-controlled replica made it across the river and landed in a meadow 180 metres below. Captain Pat Reid , who successfully escaped from Colditz in 1942, went on to write multiple works on the living conditions and various escape attempts at Colditz from 1940 to 1945: The Colditz Story and The Latter Days at Colditz . In the early 1970s, he served as a technical consultant for

3087-580: The outbreak of World War II, the castle was converted into a high security prisoner-of-war camp for officers who had become security or escape risks or who were regarded as particularly dangerous. Since the castle is situated on a rocky outcrop above the River Zwickauer Mulde , the Germans believed it to be an ideal site for a high security prison. The larger outer court in front of the Kommandantur (commander's offices) had only two exits and housed

3150-444: The prisoners' courtyard and goals were scored by touching the opponent's stool with the ball. This game served as an outlet for pent-up aggression, and also provided noise to cover the sounds of tunnel-digging. In addition to escape attempts, prisoners tried to make the life of their guards more miserable by resorting to " goon-baiting ", making nuisances of themselves by harassing the guards. For example, they would drop water bombs on

3213-417: The servant Clemens the baker accidentally set Colditz afire, and the town hall, church, castle and a large part of the town was burned. During 1506, reconstruction began and new buildings were erected around the rear castle courtyard. During 1523, the castle park was converted into one of the largest zoos in Europe. During 1524, rebuilding of the upper floors of the castle began. The castle was reconstructed in

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3276-559: The theatre's peak periods, there were new productions every two weeks. The biggest success of the theatre however was the Christmas-themed Ballet Nonsense which premiered on November 16, 1941, and ran until the November 18, 1941 show which Hauptmann Priem (the first prison warden of Colditz) attended. Another pastime which occupied much of the prisoners' time was the production of moonshine alcohol. Initially started by

3339-692: The town of Colditz was incorporated into the Margraviate of Meissen . During 1430, the Hussites attacked Colditz and set town and castle on fire. Around 1464, renovation and new building work on the castle were done by order of Prince Ernest , who died in Castle Colditz in 1486. During the reigns of Electors Frederick III the Wise and John the Gentle , Colditz was a royal residence of the electors of Saxony . During 1504,

3402-416: The war approached the area, the prisoners became concerned at the danger, both from the SS in the town who might kill them, or from the approaching Allied forces who might mistakenly attack the castle. To prevent this the prisoners persuaded the German guards to surrender to them in secret and prevent the SS from entering. This was successful and on 16 April 1945 Oflag IV C was captured by American soldiers from

3465-457: The wartime Special Air Service . There were also prisoners called Prominente (German for 'celebrities'), relatives of Allied VIPs. The first one was Giles Romilly , a civilian journalist who was captured in Narvik, Norway who was also a nephew of Winston Churchill 's wife Clementine Churchill . Adolf Hitler himself specified that Romilly was to be treated with the utmost care and that: When

3528-466: Was allowed to deteriorate. The castle was used by Frederick Augustus III, Elector of Saxony as a workhouse to feed the poor, the ill, and persons who had been arrested. It served this purpose from 1803 to 1829, when its workhouse function was assumed by an institution in Zwickau . During 1829, the castle became a mental hospital for the "incurably insane" from Waldheim . During 1864, a new hospital building

3591-458: Was approximately 254 at the start of the early winter that year. On 19 January 1945 six French Generals — Lieutenant-General Jean Adolphe Louis Robert Flavigny , Major-General Louis Léon Marie André Buisson , Major-General Arsène Marie Paul Vauthier , Brigadier-General Albert Joseph Daine, and Brigadier-General René Jacques Mortemart de Boisse — were brought from the camp at Königstein to Colditz Castle. Major-General Gustave Marie Maurice Mesny

3654-541: Was erected in the Gothic Revival style , on the ground where the stables and working quarters had been previously located. It remained a mental institution until 1924. From 1829 to 1924, Colditz was a sanatorium , generally reserved for the wealthy and the nobility of Germany. The castle thus functioned as a hospital during a long period of massive change in Germany, from slightly after the Napoleonic Wars destroyed

3717-696: Was in the heart of Hitler's Reich, four hundred miles (640 km) from any frontier not under Nazi control. Its outer walls were seven feet (two metres) thick and the cliff on which it was built had a sheer drop of two hundred and fifty feet (75   metres) to the River Mulde below. The first prisoners arrived in November 1939; they were 140 Polish officers from the September Campaign who were regarded as escape risks. Most of them were later transferred to other Oflags. In October 1940, Donald Middleton, Keith Milne, and Howard Wardle (a Canadian who joined

3780-454: Was murdered by the Germans on the way from Königstein to Colditz Castle. On 5 February, Polish General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski , deputy commander of the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and responsible for the Warsaw Uprising , arrived with his entourage. In March, 1200 French prisoners were brought to Colditz Castle, with 600 more being imprisoned in the town below. When the final battles of

3843-488: Was not awarded Prominente status. Arundell made a habit of exercising in the winter snow; he contracted tuberculosis and died in Chester Military Hospital. Another officer, not listed as among the Prominente but who became famous after the end of the war, was French military chaplain and Catholic priest Yves Congar , who was captured as a POW and later sent there after repeated attempts to escape. He became

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3906-400: Was quickly discovered because of a mole, but the second remained secreted until Guigues returned and removed it during a tour of the castle in 1965. The prisoners' "Radio Laboratory" was not permanently exposed until 1992 during repairs to the roof. Later the most popular way to pass the time was stoolball , a particularly rough version of rugby , where there were two stools at either end of

3969-976: Was similar to the tone already in use by the Germans, thus these greatcoats were nearly identical with very minor alterations. In May 1943, the Wehrmacht High Command decided that Colditz should house only Americans and Commonwealth. In June the Dutch were moved out, followed shortly thereafter by the Poles and Belgians. The final French group left 12 July 1943. By the end of July there were a few Free French officers, and 228 Commonwealth officers including Britons, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Irish, and one Indian. On 23 August 1944 Colditz received its first Americans: 49-year-old Colonel Florimond Duke , Captain Guy Nunn, and Alfred Suarez. They were all counter-intelligence operatives parachuted into Hungary to prevent it joining forces with Germany. Population

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