Bombing on October 18, 1944 Newly discovered photo shows destruction in Bonn in 1945
Bonn · During the heavy bombing raid on Bonn on October 18, 1944, large parts of the city center were destroyed and several hundred people died. From time to time, people discover private photos from those years. This photo was tucked away in an attic.
A repaired overhead line here, a makeshift tower of the cathedral there, tracks cleaned of debris, and neatly stacked bricks freed from mortar at the roadside. Pieces of wall, ledges, sidewalk slabs, billboards, stucco, sculptures - there are always little things that enlighten us as to the chronological significance.
Reader finds old photos
A General-Anzeiger reader contacted the editorial office some time ago, having discovered old photos in an attic on family property. In a bundle of private photos, it was not difficult to recognize Bonn's city center after the destruction caused by the heavy bombing raid on October 18, 1944. But when exactly were the pictures taken? What does the condition of the buildings reveal? And what did those buildings house?
So sah das zerstörte Bonn 1945 aus
Bonn-based Norbert Kreitel helps with clarification
This is where Bonn entrepreneur Norbert Kreitel comes into play. When some of the photos were first published, he got in touch with the editorial team, and just hours later the Bonn native, who is both interested in and knowledgeable about urban history, was able to get down to the nitty-gritty detective work. Kreitel (born in 1969) was able to draw on, among other things, his private Bonn archive, which he has been cultivating for many years. Add to that his nearly photographic memory, where he has literally "stored" many historical photographs of Bonn in his head.
REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD
Memorial service was held at the Women's Museum
A memorial service was held in the courtyard of the Frauenmuseum (Women’s Museum) in north Bonn on Monday, October 18. For nine years now, the memorial service for the war dead of the bombing of Bonn's Old Town has been held in the courtyard of the Frauenmuseum and in the Gertrudis chapel. It also commemorates the destruction of Nivelles in 1940 by German troops. Nivelles in Brabant is the birthplace of Saint Gertrude, an ancestor of Charlemagne.
(Orig. text: Rüdiger Franz, Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
