Hamburg at war

For years, the National Socialists prepared Germany for war by paramilitary training, the glorification of soldiery, military drill in the Hitler Youth and hate propaganda. Air raid training began in 1935, followed in 1937 by blackout drills and the requirement that all new buildings include air raid shelters. Starting in July 1939, round bunkers were built at Hamburg's major traffic intersections, and 108 over-ground bunkers were completed by September 1942, still only capable of sheltering 10 percent of the city's inhabitants.

Unlike in 1914, the outbreak of war on September 1, 1939, was not greeted with enthusiasm. The war reached Hamburg on May 18, 1940, when 29 people died in the first bombing raid. Another 127 raids, killing 1,194 people, took place by the end of 1942. Children were evacuated to rural districts, where they continued to receive schooling. From March 1943, schoolchildren between 15 and 17 were also deployed as anti-aircraft auxiliaries in the Hamburg area.

The most devastating air raids took place between July 25 and August 3, 1943, killing around 35,000 people and destroying large areas of Hamburg in a fire storm. The city suffered further bombing raids until the end of the war, the number of homeless rose, and supplies became ever scarcer. But expressions of discontent with the Nazi regime remained the exception. At the end of 1944, planning began for the defense of Hamburg. Anti-tank obstacles were erected in the streets, and a territorial army of old men and adolescents was called up.
Although a battle for the city made no sense, Hamburg's National Socialists alternated between fanatical rallying calls and caution. On April 29, 1945, the commanding officer Brigadier-General Alwin Wolz established contact with the English troops outside Hamburg. On May 3, he signed an unconditional surrender on behalf his troops, British soldiers entered the city, and the same evening, Hamburg was handed over to the British forces.

In 12 years of National Socialist dictatorship and five years of war, almost 100,000 Hamburgers lost their lives.


Hamburg in the 20th.century (1)
-    Imperial Germany and the Struggle for Voting Rights
-    Life in Wilhelmine Germany
-    The Mobile City
-    International Port and Economic Center
-    Revolution in Hamburg
-    Democracy and its Enemies
-    A Decade of Economic Crisis
-    Greater Hamburg
-    Life Under the Swastika
-    The Abolition of Democracy
-    Towards a War Economy
-    Persecution and resistance in the National Socialist state
-    Hamburg at war
-    Destruction by Fire Storm

Hamburg in the 20th.century (2)