Europe > Germany > Saxony-Anhalt > Colditz > Military History > Articles > Escape to Colditz

On September 9, 1942, six officers were found to be missing. They had sneaked into the office of Sergeant-Major Gephard, where they had cut a hole diagonally through the back wall to the store room a few nights before. The hole was right under the Sergeant-Major’s desk. When the time was right, the six escapees, disguised as two German officers and four Polish inmates, slipped through the hole. A German guard opened the gate and they marched out. Four were recaptured the next day, but British Flight-Lt William Fowler and Dutch Captain D.J. van Doorninck made it to Switzerland.

It was trumped as the impenetrable fortress, the bad boys’ Lager for those who had tried in vain to escape from other camps. But these officers were not to be denied. Through their ingenuity, creativity and daring, the inmates of Oflag IV C (Officers’ Camp IV C) achieved small but important victories against the Germans in a gentlemanly battle of wits that contrasted sharply with the brutal violence of World War II.

For this was no ordinary prisoner of war camp. It was controlled by the German Army, those noble Prussians, with their duelling scars and straight noses, and not by the SS or the Gestapo. There were no atrocities in this camp. The inmates were officers from Britain and the Commonwealth, France, Holland, Belgium and Poland, and thus received excellent treatment. And these German guards were not the vicious brutes history has made them out to be.

The Camp was run under the terms of the Geneva Convention, with the inmates not required to work. That gave them more time to sew uniforms in their secret attic workshops and to dig tunnels under the castle. One such tunnel, constructed by the French, started at the top of the clock tower and dropped down to the cellar below. It then ran under the chapel, which the inmates used as a means of making loud noise to cover the sounds of underground work, and towards the outside wall. At 44 metres long, the Germans discovered the tunnel when it had only a few metres left before breaching the wall. Now, visitors can view the entrance to the tunnel and chart its course through the chapel.

The castle itself, built in 1046, is a brooding structure perched on the hill above the River Mulde in Saxony. The high structure seemed the ideal place for a maximum security prison, but the inmates proved this was a mistake. Apart from many imaginative and brave escape attempts through tunnels, they also sought to use the height of the castle to their advantage. During the winter of 1944/45, British officers built a glider in three pieces in the attic above the chapel. Using wooden shutters, mattress covers and mud fashioned out of attic dust, the completed glider was to be launched using a bath filled with concrete and dropped through the tower as propulsion. While the camp was liberated before the glider could be finished, subsequent tests with a replica proved that it would have achieved its aim.

Guided tours take you through the castle, showing entry points to tunnels and detailing the clever attempts at escape. The small museum displays the means at which the inmates achieved their goals, with stamp pads, false documents, and the tools they made for themselves, including a hand made sewing machine used for making fake uniforms. There are also interesting photographs and a replica of the Colditz Glider. In the old guardhouse is an exhibition of paintings by British Major William F. Anderson, which offer a glimpse into the daily life of the camp.

The castle also has a fantastic history, having even been for many years, among other things, a lunatic asylum. During the communist era, it was a hospital and seniors’ home, though few knew the significance of the structure and the role it had played during the war. The unification of Germany brought renewed interest in the castle, and it soon became a popular destination for people from America and Britain, no less because the legend of Colditz in these countries is even more fantastic than the actual history.

Recent renovations have unearthed a wealth of lost treasures including a bag hidden under the floor which contained a fake German uniform and detailed maps. A secret radio room was also discovered, with a French officer recently returning to claim his radio. Developers plan to include a hotel and youth hostel in the renovated castle, but there are no plans to offer future guests the chance to escape.

The best entry point to Colditz, which is a delightful village in its own right and should be given a few hours of relaxed exploration, is the bustling city of Leipzig. Laid dormant during the communist era, Leipzig is once again one of Germany’s most beautiful and interesting cities. The old city, with its narrow streets, art nouveau buildings and delightful courtyards, is small and compact and full of eye candy. Of course, no former communist city is complete without a couple of Stalin-era eyesores, and you’ll find these on Brühl and Richard Wagner Strasse, opposite the train station.

Much of the old town has been lovingly restored since the Peaceful Revolution marched through the streets in 1989. Of particular interest are the stunning Speckshof courtyard, the old city hall, selected buildings along Ritter Strasse, and the churches of St Nikolai and St Thomas. Bach worked as Choir Master for the famous St Thomas’ Boys Choir for over three decades; his remains are entombed in the altar.

Many other prominent Germans had Leipzig in their hearts: Wagner was born there, Schiller lived there for some time (rumour has it he walked around in his underwear while getting his inspiration for ‘Ode to Joy’), Mendelssohn lived and died there, and the university boasts Telemann, Schumann and Wagner as graduates, as well as some scribe named Goethe.

The statue of Goethe in front of the Old Stock Exchange has him looking in the direction of the university but his feet are pointing towards the Mädler Passage, Leipzig’s most magnificent arcade, which houses the old restaurant Auerbachs Keller. Goethe set the scene of the barrel ride from his most famous work ‘Faust’ in this cellar.

The food is traditional hearty Saxon fair, and there are paintings on the wall depicting scenes from the play. One includes Mephisto, the devil who aids Faust in his quest for eternal life, with the face of one Dr Schneider, a swindler from West Germany who began most of the renovation projects after unification but had lied about his collateral. He escaped the city, though not in a glider made of bed sheets and floorboards, but was soon arrested and imprisoned. Nevertheless, the work he began was continued by the banks which had offered him credit.

The story of Schneider and the main theme of ‘Faust’ fit to Leipzig, where many things are not always as they seem. The city grew because of its commercial success, with the Imperial Road and King’s Road trade routes crossing the town, but its legacy is culture, and in particular the musical talents it sprouted and nursed, the writers it inspired. The communists made it dull, renovating nothing, but the minute they left a beautiful and elegant city sprung up. The Museum in the Runde Ecke documents how the East German Secret Police monitored the lives of East Germans, keeping them in line, but it was the Leipzigers who started the Peaceful Revolution with the Monday Demonstrations. Nearby Colditz was built as impenetrable but the reality was quite different.

And as we pay tribute to the fallen of World War II and the secret battles they fought, it is also necessary to remember that it is also sixty years since the communist cloud cast its shadow over Eastern Europe. Goethe’s Mephisto can take many forms.

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