POINT OF INTEREST

Polizeigebäude

Süderhofenden 1 · 24937 Flensburg

During the plebiscite in 1920, the “Commission Internationale Slesvig” (CIS) resided in the building, which today houses the police department. In the period of Nazi rule, the police and Gestapo used it. On 23 May 1945, the arrested members of the last government of the German Reich were paraded before the press in the courtyard.

In1920, the “Commission Internationale Slesvig” (CIS) resided in “Flensburger Hof” hotel, which was built in 1889/90, and monitored the plebiscite and discussed the future border between Germany and Denmark. After the Nazis seized power, the hotel owners were forced to sell the building to the state, which in 1935 converted it into the police headquarters and for the secret state police (GESTAPO). From there, the Kristallnacht attacks on 9/10 November 1938 on Jägerslust and elsewhere were organised and carried out. Those who resisted were held, interrogated and tortured. Quite a few were sent to concentration camps from there. On 5 May 1945, Himmler chaired the last conference of SS commanders (“Northern Ratline”) and they were also able to obtain false passports there. During the British occupation of Flensburg (10 May 1945), the building served as the headquarters (HQ) for the 159th Infantry Brigade. On 23 May 1945, the representatives of the last German Imperial government, Dönitz, Jodl and Speer, were presented to the international press in the courtyard. Later, the building was used again by the Flensburg criminal police. Former Nazi officials continued to work in senior positions up to the 1950s[1]. Today, the complex houses the Flensburg police department, which is responsible for the city of Flensburg as well as Schleswig-Flensburg und Nordfriesland. A monument was erected on the forecourt in 2013 in memory of the victims of the Nazi dictatorship.