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Corvus
12-27-2012, 01:23 PM
Wewelsburg is a Renaissance castle located in the northeast of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the village of Wewelsburg, which is a quarter of the city Büren, Westphalia, in district of Paderborn in the Alme Valley. The castle has the outline of a triangle (aerial photo). After 1934, it was used by the SS under Heinrich Himmler and was to be expanded to the central SS-cult-site. After 1941, plans were developed to enlarge it to the so-called "Center of the World".

n 1934, SS-leader Heinrich Himmler signed a 100-mark, 100-year lease with the Paderborn district, initially intending to renovate and redesign the castle as a "Reich SS Leadership School" ("Reichsführerschule SS"). Whoever called Himmler's attention to the castle is unknown. There is speculation that Karl Maria Wiligut advised him; Wiligut allegedly was inspired by the old Westphalian legend of the "Battle at the birch tree" (Schlacht am Birkenbaum).

The saga tells about a future "last battle at the birch tree", in which a "huge army from the East" is beaten decisively by the "West". Wiligut supposedly predicted to Himmler that the Wewelsburg would be the "bastion". Himmler expected a big conflict between Asia and Europe.

Another source reports that the NS district president of the city of Minden von Ohnhausen called Himmler's attention to the Wewelsburg. Nevertheless, Himmler certainly knew the apocalyptic saga of the "Battle at the birch tree", which takes place in the Wewelsburg region.

Himmler wanted a castle in the "core-region of Hermann der Cherusker" for the SS. He was seeking for a castle for the purposes of the SS-Rasseamt (SS-race-office). Originally he was interested in Castle Schwalenberg.Himmler visited the Wewelsburg for the first time on 3 November 1933. He was impressed by the triangular shape of the castle and the north-south-axis of the castle. On the same day he decided to restore the castle. In January 1934, the voluntary labour service started with the rebuilding work On 22 September 1934, a ceremonial transfer to Himmler took place.

It was to be enlarged to accommodate the planned SS-leader school (SS-Führerschule). In the planned school, besides physical training, a uniform ideological orientation of the leading cadre of the SS was to be realized.Courses for SS-officers in pre- and early history, mythology, archaeology, astronomy and art were intended as mental warehouse for an ideological-political schooling.
The Wewelsburg SS School

Actual instruction never took place. The first SS commandant of the castle, SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Erich Schupping, envisioned a kind of Nordic academy.Scientists in the SS practiced "Germanic applied research" ("germanische Zweckforschung") at the castle, with a purpose of supporting the racial doctrine of the SS. From the autumn of 1935, the projected work was called "SS-Schule Haus Wewelsburg" (that is, "SS School, House Wewelsburg").
Fields of activity

Wewelsburg castle was also a center for archaeological excavations in the region. Fields of activity included study of prehistory and ancient history (directed by Wilhelm Jordan, who led excavations in the region), study of medieval history and folklife (directed by Karlernst Lasch from March 1935), build-up of the "Library of the Schutzstaffel in Wewelsburg" (directed by Dr. Hans Peter des Coudres), and strengthening the National Socialist worldview in the village of Wewelsburg (directed by Walter Franzius; this included such work as renovation of a timbered house in the center of the village of Wewelsburg—the "Ottens Hof"—between 1935 and 1937 for use as a village community center;Franzius also undertook various other architectural tasks).
Crew

The castle crew consisted of members of both SS branches, the "General SS" ("Allgemeine SS") and the "Armed SS" ("Waffen SS"). Also working at the castle were proponents of a kind of SS esotericism consisting of Germanic mysticism, an ancestor cult, worship of runes, and racial doctrines: Himmler, for example, adapted the idea of the Grail to create a heathen mystery for the SS.


No proof exists that Himmler wanted a Grail castle, but redesign of the castle by the SS referred to certain characters in the legends of the Grail:[ for example, one of the arranged study rooms was named Gral ("Grail"), and others, König Artus ("King Arthur"), König Heinrich ("King Henry"), Heinrich der Löwe ("Henry the Lion"), Widukind, Christoph Kolumbus ("Christopher Columbus"), Arier ("Aryan"), Jahrlauf ("course of the seasons"), Runen ("runes"), Westfalen ("Westphalia"), Deutscher Orden ("Teutonic Order"), Reichsführerzimmer ("Room of the Empires Leader(s)"; "Reichsführer-SS", or "the Empire's Leader of the SS" was Himmler's title), Fridericus (probably in reference to Frederick II of Prussia), tolle Christian (probably referring to Christian the Younger of Brunswick, Bishop of Halberstadt), and Deutsche Sprache ("German language"). In addition to these study rooms, the SS created guest rooms, a dining room, an auditorium, a canteen kitchen, and a photographic laboratory with an archive.

Oak was used to panel and furnish these rooms, though (according to contemporary witnesses) only sparely. All interior decoration was shaped by an SS sensibility in art and culture; the preferred elements of design were based on runes, swastikas, and Germanically interpreted sense characters. Tableware, decorated with runes and Germanic symbols of salvation, was manufactured specifically for Wewelsburg castle, and Himmler's private collection of weapons was housed in the castle. From 1939, the castle was also furnished with miscellaneous objects of art, including prehistoric objects (chiefly arranged by the teaching and research group "Das Ahnenerbe"), objects of past historical eras, and works of contemporary sculptors and painters (mainly works by such artists as Karl Diebitsch, Wolfgang Willrich, and Hans Lohbeck—that is, art comporting with the aesthetics of National Socialism).

In 1934, the eastern castle bridge was built and the castle moat lowered. The exterior plaster was removed to make the building look more castle-like. The following year, a smithy was established on the ground floor of the North Tower for manufacture of the wrought-iron interior decoration of the castle. The western and southern wings of the castle were rebuilt between 1934 and 1938; the eastern, between 1936 and 1938. The first new building, the guardhouse (Wachgebäude), was constructed next to the castle in 1937; historical documentation of "Wewelsburg 1933–1945" has been housed there since 1982. An SS sentry post and a small circular location (Rondell) were placed next to the guardhouse, as was a no longer extant SS staff building (SS-Stabsgebäude). The North Tower was strengthened and rebuilt between 1938 and 1943.


So called "SS-marriage-consecrations" (SS-Eheweihen) took place at the castle.

Since 1936, Himmler (who was often present at the castle) wanted more and more to expand the Wewelsburg to be a representative and ideological center of the SS Order. Consequently, although at first planned to be an educational training center, during the 1930s increasing measures were taken to transform the castle into an isolated central meeting place for the highest ranking SS-officers.
Financing

For financing the project Himmler founded in 1936 the "Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflege deutscher Kulturdenkmäler e.V." (Association for the advancement and maintenance of German cultural relics (registered association)) and assigned the association as building developer. In contrast to the SS, the association was allowed to receive donations and loans. Until 1943, the project cost 15 million Reichsmark. In 1939, Himmler forbade publishing anything about the castle.
Construction and modifications from 1938 on

After the Freiwilliger Arbeitsdienst FAD (voluntary labour service) the Reichsarbeitsdienst RAD (Reich Labour Service) carried out the modifications of the castle. In 1938, the RAD was relocated to the "Westwall" (Siegfried Line).Between 1939 and 1943, prisoners from the Sachsenhausen and Niederhagen concentration camps were used as labourers to perform much of the construction work on Wewelsburg, under the design of architect Hermann Bartels. Due to a decree of 13 January 1943, all building projects which were unimportant for the war—including the Wewelsburg—had to be stopped.


In the middle of the Thirties Himmler had a private safe mounted in the basement of the west tower. Only the commandant of the castle knew about it. The whereabouts of its content after the Second World War is unclear.
Meetings of SS-Leaders

Swearing-in ceremonies were planned at the castle. Meetings of SS-Group-Leaders (equivalent to lieutenant-generals) at so called "spring conferences" were planned since 1939. P

Towards the end of the war Himmler ordered that Wewelsburg castle should become the "Reichshaus der SS-Gruppenführer" (Reich-House of the SS-Gruppenführer)
The death's head rings

In 1938, Himmler ordered the return of all death's head rings (German: Totenkopfringe) of dead SS-men and officers. They were to be stored in a chest in the castle. This was to symbolize the ongoing membership of the deceased in the SS-Order. The whereabouts of the approximately 11,500 rings after the Second World War is unclear, but it has been suggested[by whom?] that they were entombed in a local mountain by blasting closed the entrance to a cave.

SS blueprint for the planned construction of the area around Wewelsburg. The small triangle in the center of the circle, forming the tip of the "spear", is Wewelsburg.

Himmler's plans included making it the "center of the new world" ("Zentrum der neuen Welt") following the "final victory". The monumental estate was never realized; only detailed plans and models exist. The installation of a 15 to 18-meter-high wall in the shape of a three-quarter circle with 18 towers including the actual castle area centred on the North Tower of the castle, 860 m in diameter, was planned. The real purpose of the project was never clearly defined. Inside of this castle area buildings were planned for the exclusive purposes of the Reichsführung-SS (Reich leadership SS).

The main road of an SS village was also to be centered on the North Tower of the castle with a diameter of 1270 m. This road was to be connected with three radial roads and gates with the castle area. The residential area was to be placed in the northwest, the center of the village in the north, and the SS-barracks in the west of the castle area; between the barracks and village a villa colony for higher SS-leaders; in the southwest farmsteads.

In the architectural plans from 1941, the estate had the shape of a spear pointing towards the north; the 2 km long access avenue with four tree rows road looks like a spear shaft with an access to the Reichsautobahn (freeway) Rhynern-Kassel in the south (see architectural drawing). The plan from 1944 shows the castle as the top of a triangular estate surrounded by further buildings (see another drawing[dead link] and model[dead link] from 1944). The plans also included a "hall of the High Court of the SS" (Saal des Hohen Gerichtes der SS), streets, parkways, magnificent buildings,a dam with a power plant, freeway accesses and an airport. From 1941 on (after Hitler's successful military campaigns against Poland and France) the architects called the complex the "Center of the World". It was to be finished within twenty years. The complex was to be a center of the "kind accordant" religion (artgemäße Religion) and a representative estate for the SS-Führerkorps (SS leader corps) If the plans had been realized, the entire village of Wewelsburg and adjacent villages would have disappeared. The population was to be resettled. The valley was to be flooded. 250 million Reichsmark were budgeted for the estate.

Corvus
12-27-2012, 01:25 PM
According to rumors the Death's Head Rings were to be buried in the vault. The vault, allegedly dubbed the Himmler Crypt, was (allegedly) dedicated to Heinrich I, founder and first king of the medieval German state (see East Francia), of whom Himmler reportedly believed himself to be the reincarnation, and where he hoped to be interred after his death.This assertion is unproven. In Himmlers's opinion Heinrich I protected Germany from invaders from the "East", as popularized in Richard Wagner's Lohengrin opera

Himmler reportedly imagined the castle as a focus for the rebirth of the Knights of the Round Table and appointed twelve SS officers as his followers, who would gather at various rooms throughout the castle and perform unknown rites. The SS had twelve main departments (SS-Hauptämter) with twelve leaders. The number twelve plays a major role in the design of the North Tower: twelve pedestals in the vault, twelve pillars and niches in the "Obergruppenführersaal", and twelve spokes of the sun wheel. In the study on ancient sense characters during the Third Reich the sun in general was interpreted as "the strongest and most visible expression of God", the number twelve as documented for "the things of the target and the completion". With reference to the number 12 in their studies on Germanic mythology a relation was drawn to "the twelve Æsir of divine kind who have (according to the Edda) twelve domiciles and twelve stallions" and to the "twelve rivers which flow from the fountain Hwergelmir in Niflheim".

Corvus
12-27-2012, 01:30 PM
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