Inside Adolf Hitler's German beach resort after being abandoned 75 years ago
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This is the 10,000-room hotel that has never had a guest.
Situated on the island of Rügen in Germany, the Prora beach resort was built by Adolf Hitler between 1936 and 1939 as a striking show of Third Reich architecture.
Yet the project was halted, with eight separate buildings having been erected, when the Nazi leader decided to focus on building more planes and war infrastructure.
The monumental seaside resort of Prora in Rügen was built by the Nazis between 1936 and 1939
Hitler pulled the plug when the job was half done as he decided it was more important to pump resources into the war effort
Prora was constructed on the Baltic island of Ruegen by the stormtroopers of the Nazi 'Strength Through Joy' leisure organisation over a six-year period and occupies nearly three miles of beachfront.
It was meant to provide holiday entertainment for 20,000 of Hitler's hordes at any one time. But not a single Nazi ever got to stay there.
It was occupied after 1945 by the Red Army and became a top-secret Soviet base.
After the war, the Soviets considered blowing it up, but discovered they didn't have enough dynamite for the job.
Instead they turned it into a massive tank-and-artillery base for the People's Army of East Germany and it vanished from all maps.
It is hoped a number of rooms will be sold to the elderly, while there are plans to build a smaller hotel on site
The hotel resort was meant to show off the class of Third Reich architecture - sadly it's been left to ruin
Prora was supposed to be the frontrunner of the Nazi's 'Strength Through Joy' leisure programme
A museum at the site chronicles the history of Prora which, aside from the building of the Atlantic Wall of coastal fortifications stretching from Norway to the border of Spain - intended to thwart any Allied landings in occupied Europe - was Hitler's biggest building project.
The Nazis viewed leisure as just one more aspect of human activity to be governed by the party.
Prora was destined to be the forerunner of a string of such giant camps whose plans were mothballed due to the war he unleashed on the world.
The site is currently being sold off and renovated, in the hopes it will one day again be home to tens of thousands of people. Some of the buildings will be marketed as homes for the elderly, others luxury apartments, and still others as a 300 room hotel.
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