do-not-blog-my-view

The road behind Colditz castle doesn't run alongside the Kommandantur!

On a map in Colditz: The German Story former Hauptmann Reinhold Eggers showed the service road behind Colditz Castle running straight South right along the back side of the German Kommandantur building: http://do-not-blog-my-view.blogspot.com/ 1. Source and photo credit: Eggers, Reinhold. Colditz: The German Story. Translated and edited by Howard Gee. London: Robert Hale, 1991. Pages 20-21.

Eggers map error was repeated in other books about Colditz castle that have been published since 1961. Take a look at the second half of this two-page David Ray map published in 1989. The relevant roadway is labeled "Castle", "Track", and "Green Gate".

2. & 3. Source and photo credit: Ramsey, Winston G., editor. After the Battle: Colditz. Number 63. London: Battle of Britain Prints, 1989. Pages 8-9.

Georg Martin Schädlich was born in Colditz and lived there most of his life till he was transferredto Italy, where he was killed in 1945. When his grandson published his father's wartime Colditz diaries in December 1992, Eggers incorrect map was included:

4. Source and photo credit: Schädlich, Thomas. Colditzer Schlossgeschichten: Die Geschichte des Oflag IV C in Colditz nach dem Tagebuch des Georg Martin Schädlich. Colditz: SWING Druck GmbH, 1992. Page 13.

The English translation in 2003 saw the same map included:

5. Source and photo credit: Schädlich, Georg Martin. Tales from Colditz Castle: The Story of the Oflag IV C Prisoner-of-War Camp as Recorded in the Diary and Papers of a Former Guard. Compiled by Thomas Schädlich. Translated by Wolfgang Ansorge and edited by Adrian Simmonds. Colditz: Thomas Schädlich, 2003. Page 11.

But Eggers map, and the relevant subsequent above maps, were incorrect. The road actually curved to the left, when looking downhill at it, and to the right when looking uphill at it. It had to curve to get past the 'Cube' building that juts out from the SE elbow/corner of the Kommandantur and the remains of the round tower down in the very SE corner of the castle complex.

This undated security map of Colditz castle, that most likely once belonged to Eggers, clearly showed that the road did not butt up against the outer side wall of the Kommandantur and run due South. This map showed the service road start to curve away from the castle proper and out past the 'Cube' building and the SE corner tower, with the narrow steps and ladder just beyond that allowed one to climb up, or down, from the far lower service road to the level of the moat and entrance to the former Married Quaters:

[This post/article is still incomplete!]

[This post begun on Friday, 17 March 2006, at 9:01 AM MST]