- BERLIN: A gigantic Nazi seaside resort on Germany’s Baltic coast in the town of Prora has been turned — after decades of disuse and decay — into one of the country’s largest youth hostels.
Yet initial advertisements highlighting its Nazi past as the “World famous” Strength through Joy (Kraft durch Freude) project caused objections from local historians and led to a marketing U-turn, but not before the German media took notice. Originally built as the world’s biggest hotel, stretching along 4.5 km of one of Germany’s best beaches with 10,000 rooms, it was never used as a holiday resort for the masses in World War Two or afterward although it was used by the military.
As part of the Nazi’s Strength through Joy program, the resort’s aim was to prepare up to 20,000 citizens for war through organized leisure. The outbreak of World War Two put an abrupt end to its construction in 1939, yet even in its incomplete version it was one of the biggest Nazi building projects.