Located on the Rügen Island in Germany, the Prora beach resort was a World War Two era project expected to showcase the Third Reich’s best architecture. But the 10,000-room hotel has never had a visitor since the project was started. The uncompleted German resort was Hitler’s idea of a ‘Baltic Butlins’ – a place where families can have fun and get entertained.
Built between 1936 and 1939, Hitler was unable to complete the project after already erecting about eight of the buildings. The Nazi leader had to put the project on hold and concentrate on building more planes and war infrastructure to continue fighting World War Two.
Occupying an area of three miles of beachfront, Prora was built on the Baltic island of Ruegen by the Stormtroopers of the Nazi ‘Strength Through Joy’ leisure organisation over a six-year period.
When Hitler embarked on the project, it was intended as a holiday entertainment destination to house 20,000 of the Führer’s crowds at any one time. But unfortunately for them, not a single Nazi had the chance to stay there as it was uncompleted and Hitler and his men lost World War Two to the allies.
The ‘Colossus of Prora’ was considered to have been Hitler’s Nazi camp proportionate to the Butlins in the UK who embarked on building vacation camps all through the country in 1936. It was intended to be the Führer’s way of showing appreciation to the Nazi men that dedicated long hours towards working for the Third Reich. Prora was envisioned to be a bucket-and-spade resort where all the family could have a good time.
After 1945, it became a base for the Red Army, as well as a top-secret base for the Soviets.At the end of the World War Two, the Soviets considered blowing up the place but realised they did not have enough explosives to carry out the job, the Mail Online reports.
As an alternative, it was transformed into a gigantic tank-and-mounted guns base for the People’s Army of East Germany and was then wiped out from all maps.
There is a museum at the site that narrates the historical backdrop of Prora. This, aside from the building of the Atlantic Wall of seaside strongholds extending from Norway to the Spanish border – planned to obstruct any Allied landings in occupied Europe – with gathering.
For the Nazis, relaxation was seen as another aspect of the citizens’ lives that the party had to govern. As a result, Prora was designed to be a harbinger of a series of such colossal camp sites. But unfortunately, the project could not go further because of Hitler’s ambition to fight against the world.
At the moment, there are currently on-going plans to build a 300-room hotel with the property, as well as with other spaces to be sold as luxury apartments as well as homes for the elderly. The abandoned World War Two era properties are expected to be homes to countless individuals.
