in detail
The memorial museum is on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters in Cologne. The building, named "the EL-DE-House" for the initials of its owner, Leopold Dahmen, was seized by the Gestapo in 1935 before its construction was completed and was altered for their purposes. It was used by the Gestapo from the end of 1935 until March 5, 1945. The Gestapo built a house prison with ten cells in the basement. The building, including the prison tract, survived the war intact.
More than 1,800 inscriptions and carvings on the prison walls are a unique feature of the preserved prison tract. The inscriptions range from illegible scribbles and initials to entire addresses, calendar notations, drawings, as well as lengthy texts and poems with numerous stanzas. The inscriptions reveal the pain and desperation of the prisoners, but also their will to resist. Most of the inscriptions were written by forced laborers and prisoners of war from the end of 1935 until March 1945. In the final phase of the war, hundreds of prisoners were executed in the inner courtyard of the El-DE-House, or on the neighboring property. The EL-DE-House is the most visible evidence in the city of Cologne of the reign of terror.
Since the end of the war, the EL-DE-House has been rented by the city government to house the Registry Office, the Office of Civil Protection and the Pension Bureau as well as other government agencies. In 1980, the City Council decided to convert the prison tract into a memorial. The National Socialist Documentation Center has existed in the EL-DE-House since 1988. The EL-DE-House is presently being rearranged to include a permanent exhibit about Cologne under National Socialism which was completed by 1997. With its completion, the Nazi Documentation Center includes space for special exhibitions, a library, media room and facilities for groups.
1934-35
Erected as a residential and commercial building; seized by the Gestapo.
December 1935 - March 5, 1945
Headquarters of the Cologne Gestapo, with a house prison and execution site .
After 1945
Office space is rented by the Cologne city administration.
December 1981
The Gestapo prison memorial opens after thorough restoration of the inscriptions on the cell walls.
Since 1993
The City Council of Cologne decides to expand the Nazi Documentation Center in the EL-DE-House with the permanent exhibition "Cologne under National Socialism" which will be completed by 1997.
