WWII Sites in Speyer, Germany: 7 Interesting Museums & Memorials

The relatively small town of Speyer is one of Germany’s oldest cities. Founded by the Romans more than a thousand years ago, it has a long and storied history. Thankfully however, because it lacked any significant military installations, it survived World War II virtually unscathed.

If you’re looking for a great side trip from places like Frankfurt or Stuttgart, or to attend a fun event like the city’s famous pretzel festival, definitely consider a visit to Speyer. And while you’re here, be sure to check out this handful of sites dedicated to the area’s WWII history.

The Holocaust in Speyer

Much of Speyer’s long history revolves around the city’s Jewish community. While once a vibrant and growing Jewish cultural hub, the rise of National Socialism in Speyer quickly put an end to that. By the end of World War II, the Nazis had completely wiped out Speyer’s entire Jewish population.

On the evening of November 9-10, 1938 (otherwise known as Kristallnacht), Nazi zealots destroyed Speyer’s synagogue and yeshiva (religious school) and vandalized its Jewish cemetery. While some of the town’s Jews managed to escape to places like the Switzerland, the United States, and Australia, most of those who stuck around were deported to internment camps (like Gurs in France) and, ultimately, Auschwitz.

Speyer’s Jewish sites

In 2021, Speyer was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for a second time thanks to its ShUM sites—a collection of historical Jewish sites in the towns of Speyer, Worms, and Mainz.

In addition to the few sites I mention in this post, you can also check out:

Map of WWII sites in Speyer

This map contains all the Speyer WWII sites I mention in this post. To save this map: Click on the star ⭑ next to the map’s title to save in your Google Maps. To use this map: When you get here, open Google Maps on your phone, click “Saved” at the bottom, then click “Maps.”

Speyer WWII sites

Speyer wasn’t a major hub of activity during World War II, but there are still a few interesting museums and memorials you can see here. They are:

1. Technik Museum

The Technik Museum is far and away Speyer’s pride and joy (and you’ll see why when you get here). This place is absolutely massive and contains thousands upon thousands of artifacts that showcase the history of technology and transportation.

The museum’s enormous collection includes all kinds of historical vehicles, trains, planes, boats, bikes, carousels, and beyond. You name it; there’s probably an example of it here. This museum is truly massive and could fill a good 3-4 hours of your day if you let it.

For our specific purposes, you’ll be able to see several WWII-era planes, cars, uniforms, and other artifacts. But the museum’s favorite piece is definitely their German U-Boot. Full disclosure: This is not a WWII-era U-boat, but I still think it’s worth checking out since it’s still not that far off in terms of what you can see inside. And you can go inside. (Just prepare for intense heat and very tight spaces in the summer.)

Pro tip: Admission is half price after 3pm. (And it doesn’t close until 6pm so you’ll still have plenty of time to see a lot.)

2. Memorial to the Deportation of Speyer Jews

Just off Maximilianstraße (the main thoroughfare), you can visit the Memorial to the Deportation of Speyer Jews. (In German: Mahnmal für die deportierten Juden Speyer) Carved from basalt lava, this large block also contains a piece of the floor from the original synagogue that was destroyed during the Kristallnacht riots.

The memorial was unveiled in pieces beginning in 1978 and appeared in its current form in 2020. The plaque on it reads (in German): “In memory of the murder of our Jewish fellow citizens in the Nazi regime’s extermination camps.” On the ground next to it is a bronze plaque containing the names of the town’s Jewish victims.

5. Edith Stein Memorial

A block away from the Antikenhalle stands a memorial to Edith Stein—a German philosopher-turned-Catholic nun who died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Stein was born into a Jewish family (Poland 1891) but converted to Catholicism in 1922. As the treatment of Jews in Germany quickly degraded, she was eventually sent to a monastery in the Netherlands for safety. On August 2, 1942, the local Gestapo rounded up all Catholics of Jewish origin and deported them to Auschwitz-Birkenau for extermination.

After being baptized as a Catholic, Stein taught at the Dominican nuns’ school here in Speyer from 1923 to 1931. She actively spoke out against the Nazi regime and even petitioned the Pope to do so as well. Soon after, her teaching license was revoked in accordance with the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service“—a long-winded way to say the Nazis forced all “non-Aryans” to “retire.”

After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, she knew what fate awaited her and thus began training for life inside a concentration camp by forcing herself to endure cold and hunger. She was first deported to the Westerbork concentration camp where she was miraculously offered an escape plan by a Dutch official, but refused.

Stein was beatified as a martyr by Pope John Paul II on May 1, 1987. She became Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross when he then canonized her 11 years later. The memorial to her in Speyer was dedicated in 1993 and stands on the bridge over which she often walked.

6. “Salien Emperors” statues

One key fact you need to know about Speyer is that its main cathedral also holds a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. This massive church is not only 1,000 years old, but also one of the most important Romanesque monuments from the Holy Roman Empire. For nearly 300 years, this was the chief burial place for German emperors and kings. So naturally, the Nazis wanted to take it for themselves.

Thanks in large part to Nazi architect Albert Speer, the Nazis had planned on appropriating it for use as a “national shrine.” Part of that conversion included the commission of a set of statues to adorn the cathedral’s entryway. You can see those statues today outside the church in the garden. (In German: Skulpturengruppe “Salische Kaiser”)

These sculptures were officially commissioned by Nazi Reich Minister Wilhelm Frick whose greatest hits also include participating in Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch and co-authoring the 1935 Nuremberg Laws. They were completed in 1940 by sculptor Ludwig Cauer, a fellow Nazi Party member who had been included in the Gottbegnadeten-Liste—a list of “God-gifted” artists created by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

The group of statues includes four central figures and some accompanying pieces. They represent:

• Emperor Conrad II (and his wife), the man who originally commissioned the cathedral
• Emperor Henry III, seen sitting between a warrior and a priest
• Emperor Henry IV, seen trying to take the imperial crown from Pope Gregory VII (who is depicted as a wolf)
• Emperor Henry V, holding the Concordat of Worms (a treaty of sorts between the emperors and the Pope) with a soldier whispering in his ear

I had no idea these statues existed until I just happened to walk by them in person. The first thing I noticed was what looked like a Nazi soldier that had been inserted into a game of “one of these things is not like the other.” I assumed the emperor statues were really old, and the Nazi was just a more recent addition. (For propaganda purposes obviously.) Thankfully, there’s an easily-translatable information sign on the wall behind them. The real story is actually much more interesting.

If you ask me, the weirdest part of it all is the second-to-last line where they say these Nazi statues (commissioned by a convicted war criminal executed at Nuremberg) were brought out of storage and displayed in the church garden in the hopes of attracting tourism. (And I repeat: …to the city valued for its Jewish history, where the Nazis exterminated the entire Jewish population during WWII.) But perhaps that’s a discussion for another day. Presumably over a couple of U-Boot beers.

Like this post? Have questions about visiting any of the WWII sites in Speyer? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.

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