Essen     


- The third reich -



Essen on the morning after the British air-raid on March 5th, 1943




The pre-war years:

On January 30th, 1933 Adolf Hitler is nominated as the German Chancellor by the German president Paul von Hindenburg. A regular National Socialism terror against political adversaries follows. On February 17th, 1933 there is a change of the whole district Essen - Borbeck and a subsequent arrest of all "public enemies". Shortly after the Reichstag election on March 5th, 1933, where the NSDAP do not win the majority in spite of their terror, the Minister of the Interior Hermann Goering calls up to the persecution of the social democrats in Essen on March 10th. " We've told the people for years: You are allowed to settle up with the traitors, we stand to our words and it will be settled!"
On 21th of June 1933 the burning of books takes place on the Gerling square in Essen.

1933 the Baldeney lake (picture 25 KB) ( a storage-lake) in Essen is completed as well, after 100,000 unemployed have been working for 2 years at the construction (daily wage of a worker was about 1 - 1.8 Reichsmark )

On 27th of March 1936 Adolf Hitler visits the Krupp factories and calls at the same time for an increase of arms production by the city of Essen.

During the night of November 9th, 1938, the so called "Reichsprogromnacht", the synagogue (picture 41 KB)in Essen was burned down, too.


World War II:

After the outbreak of World War II on September 1st in 1939 and a year with fast success for the German Reich the first air-raids start in 1940 in Essen, too. Once again the ordinary people feel the effects of the war first. In winter 1941 e.g. the food is rationed another time. On March 5th, 1943 the city of Essen experiences one of the heaviest air-raid (see picture above). In this attack 461 people are killed, 1,593 are injured and about 50,000 inhabitants of Essen are made homeless. Until the end of the war in 1945 the city is completly in ruins and the number of inhabitants of Essens decreases to about 285,000. (In comparison to that: number of inhabitants in 1939: about 600,000)
It must be mentioned that there was resistance against Hitler's regime in Essen, too. Two examples for that are the parish priest of Essen Heinrich Held and Mrs Maria Kreulich.