Detail

The Adlerwerke Historical Site is a memorial and educational centre opened in March 2022 in the former Adlerwerke factory. It commemorates forced labour in Frankfurt am Main during the Nazi era and the Katzbach concentration camp, which was located in the Adlerwerke factory from August 1944.

Adlerwerke was a company with a long tradition in Frankfurt am Main. For around 120 years, the factory dominated life and work in Frankfurt’s Gallus district. It produced bicycles, typewriters, cars, motorcycles and armaments. During the Second World War, Adlerwerke was closely involved in the Nazi dictatorship’s armaments industry. It produced mainly half-track vehicles, engines and vehicle parts for the Wehrmacht. As labour shortages increased during the war, the factory management increasingly tried to keep production going by exploiting forced labourers. From July 1941, foreign civilian forced labourers and prisoners of war had to work at the factory. Adlerwerke used several thousand forced labourers and were the third largest recipient of forced labour in Frankfurt. In total, some 50,000 foreign civilian workers, prisoners of war and Italian military internees were forced to work in various businesses and households in Frankfurt during the war years.

In addition, in August 1944, the Katzbach concentration camp was established on the site as a satellite of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp. A total of 1,616 concentration camp prisoners were forced to work at the Adlerwerke. Most of these men came from Poland, having been captured during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and deported to German concentration camps. Many of the prisoners did not survive their time at Katzbach concentration camp.

Based on our permanent exhibition, we offer a wide range of educational programmes in German and English for students and adult groups. As a living place of learning, the formats are designed to draw attention to the scope of action available to the people involved and to raise questions relevant to the present through learning about the history of injustice.

Our general tours provide an introduction to the history of Katzbach concentration camp and forced labour in Frankfurt. Interactive tours offer school groups the opportunity to participate in the exhibition under the guidance of our education team.

Workshops allow groups to explore the exhibition in more depth. Using historical sources and biographies, individual themes will be explored in greater depth. Further workshops on prisoners’ biographies, forced labour in Frankfurt and labour and migration are planned.

Guided tours of the district offer groups the opportunity to explore the Gallus district as the site of the Adlerwerke factory and learn more about the relationship between the district, the factory and the concentration camp.