Street View and World War 2

marcsignal · 14-09-2011 4:06am #1

I was thinking about the idea of 'Then and Now' photos you sometimes see on the web, and thought, why not use google street view for the same purpose ? So i'll get the ball rolling with these.

I lived in a suburb of Munich called Allach. The Krauss Maffei Works was down the street, and was a target for Allied bombers during the war. I can't find any info about exactly what vehicles they produced during the war, but today they make the Leopard II MBT. There was also the ruin of a factory called Diamalt closeby, who made lozenges and sweets issued to the Wehrmacht.

Recon photo of Allach taken in 1944.
Main railway (todays S-Bahn line), is to the left of the factory, and runs N/S

Krauss Maffei Works = Orange dot
Air Raid Shelter = Light blue dot
Diamalt Factory = Yellow dot
Railway track, (today a pedestrian walkway) for transporting vehicles, leading to a main rail junction/depot = Red dot
Rail Junction/Depot = Green dot
Unidentified buildings, Barracks or huts ? do not exist today = Pink dot
Position of Tanks on todays pic = Flesh coloured dot

Allach 2011

Air Raid shelter today.

Where railway track once crossed the main road at top of 1944 pic, looking towards Red dot in 1944 pic.

Where railway track once crossed the main road at top of 1944 pic, looking towards Rail Depot.

Taken from site of unidentified buildings in 1944 pic, looking across field towards Krauss Maffei works.

Diamalt Factory - Diamalt Brand Sweets 1 - Diamalt Brand Sweets 2

Diamalt Factory - Taken from across railway in the 1970s, from below red dot on 1944 pic.

Tank Testing track inside Krauss Maffei works Today.
A row of Leopard II Tanks is visible slightly up and left of centre.

Leopard II Tanks beside Testing Track.

Anyone any ideas for similar WW2 sites ?

marcsignal · 14-09-2011 10:50am

Siegestor - just after the war.
Bomb and fire damage is evident to building on RHS. Top floor is missing, and rubble is piled up at front.

Siegestor today - Top floor of building on RHS has been rebuilt.

Siegestor - 1945 / 2011

Hitler and Mussolini outside central station Munich 1938
MunichCentralTrainStation1938MussoliniAndHitlerOutside1.jpg

Outside central station Munich 2011
Hitler and Mussolini were standing, just where the man is standing at the Parking Ticket vending machine on the RHS.
Most of the surrounding buildings were destroyed during the war.

Haus Der Kunst 1939 - House of German Art

Haus Der Kunst - House of German Art 1939 / 2011

Haus Der Kunst 1939 - House of German Art

Haus Der Kunst 2011 - House of German Art

Haus Der Kunst 2011 - House of German Art
Troops on Parade in 1939 pic are standing on this street outside Art Gallery.

Feldherrnhalle - Munich

Feldherrnhalle 2010

Allied Soldiers at the Feldherrnhalle - Munich 1945
Derogatory Graffiti includes the names of 3 Concentration Camps : Dachau - Velden - Buchenwald

Ghosts of 1945 at the Feldherrnhalle - Munich 2011.

jonniebgood1 · 14-09-2011 2:35pm

Great work Marc- Any ideas what the graffitti says below the names of the 3 camps? (You did say you lived in munich so might know!)

marcsignal · 14-09-2011 2:56pm

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Great work Marc- Any ideas what the graffitti says below the names of the 3 camps? (You did say you lived in munich so might know!)

The graffiti is long since gone, and the full sentence is not visible. From what I can make out, what is visible in the 1945 pic reads:

'Sch**e mich dass ist ein Deutscher bin****' (sentence continues)

1st word could be Schade in German which means 'Harm' by itself. However in the context of what I think this sentence means, it reads:

'Unfortunate for me, who is German ****' (sentence continues) or 'Shame on me who is German ***' (sentence continues)

It's possible it was written here because the Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshalls Hall) was significant to the Nazi Regime, and many parades were held there. In fact SS soldiers swore the oath to Hitler at a parade held on this square.

EDIT : For posters who are unsure how to get pics from Street View? Open Photoshop (if you have it) or MS Paint first. Choose your Street View scene you wish to copy, press F11 at the top of your Keyboard to view in full screen, then press 'Print Scrn' button beside F12 at top of your keyboard. Minimise Street View, Maximise MS Paint, go to File, New, open new file, and then just 'Edit, Paste' and You're Done !! Street View pic should appear

Save to your Computer

marcsignal · 14-09-2011 7:59pm

There doesn't seem to be any Street View available in Bad Tölz yet, but here are some pics I had of the SS Junkerschule from a previous visit.
The main complex is now an Office Park. The sports field is gone. Only the indoor swimming pool remains, is still in use, and is open to the public.

Men at edge of main square in Bad Tolz SS Junkerschule, year unknown.

Same View today. A new access to the complex was made on the RHS, by demolishing part of the original perimeter building.

Wartime Ghosts of the Junkerschule 2011

One of the Towers at the main gate of the Barracks.

The same tower today. The original Archway has been removed.

Main Gate, year unknown.

Main Gate today, taken from inside the Office Park. The Archway has been removed.

The SS junkerschule at Bad Tölz, was taken over by the American Army at wars end, and became the the base of the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group until 1991.

marcsignal · 15-09-2011 2:12am

Did some of Berlin

Berlin Victory Column 1945.

Berlin Victory Column today.

1945/2011

Brandenburg Gate 1945

Brandenburg Gate 2011

1945/2011

Brandenburg Gate 1945

Brandenburg Gate 2011

1945/2011

Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag in Background 1945

Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag in Background 2011

1945/2011

Berlin Tourists at the Brandenburg Gate 2011

Berlin Tourists at the Brandenburg Gate 1936 / 2011 as Hitler passes in car on left.
Note people (possibly ss security men) on top of Brandenburg Gate.

Victor · 15-09-2011 2:28am

marcsignal wrote: »

'Sch**e mich dass ist ein Deutscher bin****' (sentence continues)

It may be pidgin German and that is the full text.

Dr Strange · 15-09-2011 6:39am

marcsignal wrote: »

The graffiti is long since gone, and the full sentence is not visible. From what I can make out, what is visible in the 1945 pic reads:

'Sch**e mich dass ist ein Deutscher bin****' (sentence continues)

1st word could be Schade in German which means 'Harm' by itself. However in the context of what I think this sentence means, it reads:

'Unfortunate for me, who is German ****' (sentence continues) or 'Shame on me who is German ***' (sentence continues)

It's possible it was written here because the Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshalls Hall) was significant to the Nazi Regime, and many parades were held there. In fact SS soldiers swore the oath to Hitler at a parade held on this square.

EDIT : For posters who are unsure how to get pics from Street View? Open Photoshop (if you have it) or MS Paint first. Choose your Street View scene you wish to copy, press F11 at the top of your Keyboard to view in full screen, then press 'Print Scrn' button beside F12 at top of your keyboard. Minimise Street View, Maximise MS Paint, go to File, New, open new file, and then just 'Edit, Paste' and You're Done !! Street View pic should appear

Save to your Computer

The sentence would be: "Dachau - Velden - Buchenwald. Ich schäme mich, daß ich ein Deutscher bin."

It means: Dachau etc...I am ashamed to be a German. The ß in daß is what we call an sz...it is often written as ss if the letter ß is not available on a keyboard like in dass instead of daß.

marcsignal · 15-09-2011 7:47pm

Some more shopped pics of Vienna

Vienna - Parliment Building 2011

Vienna - Parliment Building - Russian Ghosts of 1945

Vienna - Heldenplatz 2011

Vienna - Heldenplatz - Russian Ghosts of 1945

BlaasForRafa · 17-09-2011 8:30pm

marcsignal wrote: »

I was thinking about the idea of 'Then and Now' photos you sometimes see on the web, and thought, why not use google street view for the same purpose ? So i'll get the ball rolling with these.

I lived in a suburb of Munich called Allach. The Krauss Maffei Works was down the street, and was a target for Allied bombers during the war. I can't find any info about exactly what vehicles they produced during the war, but today they make the Leopard II MBT. There was also the ruin of a factory called Diamalt closeby, who made lozenges and sweets issued to the Wehrmacht.

Anyone any ideas for similar WW2 sites ?

iirc the KM munich factories mainly made locomotives but they did also manufacture the SDKFZ 8 heavy half track.

An interesting one might be Schweinfurt, a relatively small town that just happened to manufacture the majority of ball-bearings, it had half a dozen ball bearing factories that the allies wished to destroy. It was the target of long range 8th air force attacks in late 1943 and early 1944 and a heavy toll was taken by Jagdwaffe. The following site gives some decent aerial pictures (although there surely must be better ones) http://www.thirdreichruins.com/schweinfurt.htm

marcsignal · 17-09-2011 9:02pm

Nice 1 BlaasForRafa, I'll have a browse through that

and some of London

Queen Victoria Street London 2011

Queen Victoria Street London 1940 / 2011

St Pauls from Distraff Lane 2011

St Pauls from Distraff Lane 1940 / 2011

Tower Bridge from London Bridge 2011

Tower Bridge from London Bridge 1940 / 2011

Tower Bridge from London Bridge 2011

Tower Bridge from London Bridge 1940 / 2011

matchu · 18-09-2011 5:27pm

These images are from Villers Bocage, and Villers-Bocage Through the Lens (After the battle):

Next one is just a few metres down the road, heading for the Town Centre:

marcsignal · 18-09-2011 5:36pm

Those are great matchu

@ BlaasForRafa.

I emailed that guy who owns the 'Third Reich in Ruins' website, asking his permission to show some work I did on pics of Schweinfurt that I took from his site. Hopefully he will give me the ok to post them here.

BlaasForRafa · 18-09-2011 11:20pm

marcsignal wrote: »

Those are great matchu

@ BlaasForRafa.

I emailed that guy who owns the 'Third Reich in Ruins' website, asking his permission to show some work I did on pics of Schweinfurt that I took from his site. Hopefully he will give me the ok to post them here.

Good stuff, I've checked with google maps and the railway yards are still there and are still surrounded by factories. At least one, the former Kugelfischer-Georg-Schäfer works is now called Schaeffler Technologies and still manufactures high quality ball bearing assemblies.

Schweinfurt came to mind as its a small town (same size as Waterford or Galway) but became the focus of inordinate attention from the strategic bomber offensive. Also the factories were quite near to easily identifiable landmarks which is handy.

marcsignal · 19-09-2011 3:34am

and a few more of Berlin

Brandenburg Gate Berlin 2011