In 1924 Adolf Hitler spent 264 days incarcerated in Landsberg after being convicted of treason following the Beer Hall putch in Munich the previous year. During his imprisonment, Hitler dictated and then wrote his book Mein Kampf. After the war, the Allies used Landsberg Prison for performing executions of death sentences meted out in the Dachau and Nuremberg Trials, with 252 Nazis executed by hanging. A further 33 criminals, mostly displaced persons (DPs) who had committed capital crimes, were executed by the Allies into the late 1940s by firing squad or hanging.
Located in the town of Landsberg am Lech, in the southwestern part of the German state of Bavaria. The prison has a long and dark history, having been used to house some of the most dangerous and notorious criminals in German history. Perhaps the most well-known prisoner to have been held at Landsberg was Adolf Hitler, who was incarcerated there in 1924 following the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.
Following the end of World War II, the prison was repurposed by the Allied powers and was used to hold convicted Nazi war criminals. In fact, the US Army went so far as to rename the facility "War Criminal Prison No. 1". The prison was run and guarded by personnel from the United States Army's Military Police, and soon became a hotbed of activity as convicted war criminals arrived to serve out their sentences.
Between 1945 and 1946, Landsberg was home to a total of 110 prisoners who had been convicted at the Nuremberg trials, as well as a further 1,416 war criminals who had been sentenced at the Dachau trials. Additionally, the prison housed 21 prisoners who had been convicted in the Shanghai trials, which were a series of military tribunals conducted by the American forces in Japan between August 1946 and January 1947.
Unfortunately, Landsberg Prison also became notorious as the site of numerous executions, with a total of 252 war criminals being put to death by hanging over the course of just five and a half years. Executions were carried out quickly and without ceremony, with the bodies of those who were not claimed being buried in unmarked graves in the cemetery next to the Spöttingen chapel.
It is also worth noting that the prison was used for the executions of common criminals, with 33 such individuals being put to death between 1947 and 1949. One particularly noteworthy execution was that of a US soldier who had been court-martialed for murdering a civilian, who was executed by firing squad.
Today, Landsberg Prison is still in operation and is maintained by the Prison Service of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice. However, the prison is no longer used for the housing of war criminals or for executions, and instead serves as a more conventional correctional facility.
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