Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany

🇩🇪 Landsberg am Lech (Landsberg at the Lech) is a town in south-west Bavaria, Germany, about 65 km west of Munich and 35 km south of Augsburg. It is the capital of the district of Landsberg am Lech.

Overview Landsberg is situated on the Romantic Road and is the centre of the Lechrain region, the boundary region between Swabia and Bavaria. It is noted for its picturesque historic center.

Landsberg am Lech developed where a major historic salt road crossed over the Lech. To protect the bridge, Duke Henry the Lion ordered a castle to be built, Castrum Landespurch, incorporating an older settlement and castle named Phetine. Soon a greater settlement evolved, which received its town charter as early as the 13th century.

In 1315, the town burned down, but was rebuilt because of its important location. In 1320, Landsberg was permitted to collect salt duties, bringing considerable wealth to the town. In 1419, a river tax added a further source of income.

The town is noted for its prison where Adolf Hitler was incarcerated in 1924. During this incarceration Hitler wrote/dictated his book Mein Kampf together with Rudolf Hess. His cell, number 7, became part of the Nazi cult and many followers came to visit it during the German Nazi-period. Landsberg am Lech was also known as the town of the Hitler Youth.

In the outskirts of this town existed a concentration camp, where over 30,000 victims were imprisoned under inhuman conditions, resulting in the death of around 14,500 of them.

After World War II it was the location for one of the largest displaced person (DP) camps for Jewish refugees and the place of execution for more than 150 war criminals after 1945.

Town areas The town comprises three main areas. The historic old town centre of Landsberg, which lies between the river Lech and its easterly elevated bank. The area to the west of the Lech (Katharinenvorstadt, Neuerpfting, Weststadt, Schwaighofsiedlung – today by far the biggest part of the town) and the area on the easterly elevated bank (Bayervorstadt) developed since the early 19th century.

Also belonging to Landsberg are the hamlets of Sandau and Pössing as well as the former independent boroughs of Ellighofen, Erpfting (with Friedheim, Geratshof and Mittelstetten), Pitzling (with Pöring) and Reisch (with Thalhofen).

Landsberg Concentration Camp and displaced person camp The Landsberg camp began as a Nazi concentration camp. By October 1944, there were more than 5,000 prisoners in the camp.

The camp was liberated on 27 April 1945 by the 12th Armored Division of the United States Army. Upon orders from General Taylor, the American forces allowed news media to record the atrocities, and ordered local German civilians and guards to reflect upon the dead and bury them bare-handed. A dramatization of the discovery and liberation of the camp was presented in Episode 9: Why We Fight of the Band of Brothers mini-series.

After the liberation, it became a displaced person (DP) camp, primarily for Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union and the Baltic states. The DP camp closed on 15 October 1950.

In December 2019, Israeli academic and translator Ilana Hammerman wrote of the difficulties she encountered in trying to visit the site of the concentration camp and to find the memorial to the victims. She noted that "or decades after the war, local residents and the authorities endeavored to ignore its existence and consign it to oblivion". Since 1983 Anton Posset and the association called Landsberg im 20. Jahrhundert are working on the commemorating this part of history and established based on donations the European Holocaust Memorial on the former concentration camp Kaufering VII.

Transport The municipality has two railway stations, Landsberg (Lech) and Landsberg (Lech) Schule.