Former Gestapo headquarters in Aachen

The Gestapo was a key executive body of the Nazi regime and, as such, was responsible for the organised and institutionalised persecution of alleged ‘enemies of the state’ in Germany and in territories occupied by Germany during the Second World War. Despite having a relatively small staff, the Gestapo’s effectiveness was based on an extensive surveillance network comprising informants and information provided by the general public, as well as by party institutions and municipal authorities.

The Aachen State Police Headquarters was mainly based in the side wing of the former government building at Theaterplatz 14, on the corner of Borngasse. Many people were detained, interrogated and tortured there, as the Gestapo was responsible for the systematic suppression of actual or supposed political opponents of the Nazi regime. As Allied troops advanced, the last staff members of the Aachen field office left the city on 10 September 1944, heading north.

As part of the so-called ‘crimes of the final phase’, members of the Aachen field office took part in the shooting of forced labourers, deserters, those who had gone to the front and opponents of the Nazi regime. The plaque from the ‘Wege gegen das Vergessen’ (Paths Against Forgetting) project commemorates this.

Before and after the Nazi era, this was the administrative headquarters of the Aachen District President (RP). In 1972, the Aachen District Presidency was dissolved and most of its functions were transferred to the Cologne District Presidency. Today, the building houses the Institute of History of the Aachen Technical University (RWTH). The city of Aachen aims to establish a Nazi memorial and documentation centre in the former Gestapo detention basement.