Berlinfographicsby Berlin Experiences

The dock at Nuremberg. Front row from left: Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel. Behind: Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel. Four of the eight would serve their sentences in Spandau.Photo: Ray D'Addario, US Army Signal Corps, 1945–46. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Spandau

For 20 years and 10 months, four armies took turns guarding one Nazi prisoner

Seven of Hitler’s ministers and commanders, convicted at Nuremberg, served their sentences in the Allied prison at Spandau. From 1 October 1966 only Rudolf Hess was left. The United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union went on guarding him, a month each in turn, until he died on 17 August 1987.

7
Nazi war criminals brought to Spandau on 18 July 1947
20y10m
with Rudolf Hess the only prisoner
4
occupying powers, guarding the prison a month at a time
40y
Hess spent inside Spandau, until his death at 93

01Nuremberg

The tribunal sent seven of them to prison, not to the gallows

On 1 October 1946 the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg passed its sentences on the surviving leaders of Nazi Germany. Many were sentenced to death. Seven were given prison terms: three for life, the others for ten to twenty years.

They stayed in the Nuremberg jail for nine more months. On 18 July 1947 they were taken to Berlin, to the old military prison on Wilhelmstraße in Spandau, in the British sector: from then on the Allied prison for war criminals, run jointly by all four occupying powers.

A gaunt man with deep-set eyes, in a jacket, holding an open book in a bare cell.
Rudolf Hess in his cell at the Nuremberg prison, November 1945.Photo: Rudolf Hess in his cell at the Nuremberg prison, 24 November 1945. US Army Signal Corps photograph, via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Public domain.

The seven, and the crimes the tribunal found them guilty of

PrisonerFound guilty of, in the tribunal’s judgment1234Sentence
Konstantin von Neurath
Foreign Minister; Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
As Reich Protector, crushed Czech political and cultural life15 years
Erich Raeder
Grand Admiral, head of the navy
Planned and waged aggressive war at seaLife
Karl Dönitz
Grand Admiral, U-boat chief; Hitler’s successor as head of state
Directed unrestricted submarine warfare10 years
Walther Funk
Economics Minister and Reichsbank president
Took SS gold, including gold taken from concentration-camp victims, into the ReichsbankLife
Baldur von Schirach
Hitler Youth leader; Gauleiter of Vienna
Pressed for and oversaw the deportation of Vienna’s Jews20 years
Albert Speer
Hitler’s architect; Armaments Minister
Ran war production on forced and slave labour20 years
Rudolf Hess
Deputy Führer
Conspiracy and crimes against peaceLife
1 Conspiracy2 Crimes against peace3 War crimes4 Crimes against humanityGuiltyAcquitted or not charged

02Wilhelmstraße, Spandau

The prison emptied in ten years, then stopped emptying

Four of the seven were out within ten years, three of them early because they were ill. Then the count stuck at three for nearly a decade, and then at one.

Inside: seven prisoners

Seven bars, one per prisoner, on a time line from the arrival in Spandau to the death of the last prisoner, with a line beneath counting how many men were still inside.
A red-brick gatehouse with turrets and a tall brick building behind it, seen across a road through trees.
The prison on Wilhelmstraße: Bauamt Süd, Einofski, CC BY-SA 3.0

18 July 1947

Seven men arrive

Each man was known from then on by a number, given in the order he first took his cell: Hess was number 7.

An elderly white-haired man in a suit beside another defendant.An elderly man in glasses, head lowered, seated in the dock.
Neurath (left): Office of the US Chief of Counsel, public domain · Raeder: Ray D’Addario, US Army, public domain

6 Nov 1954 – 26 Sep 1955

The first two leave, ill and old

Konstantin von Neurath, sentenced to 15 years, was let out on 6 November 1954; Erich Raeder, sentenced to life, on 26 September 1955. Both were released on grounds of ill health.

A balding man in a dark suit and tie, seated in the dock.An elderly, heavy-set man in a suit, seated in the dock.
Dönitz: Ray D’Addario, US Army, public domain · Funk: Office of the US Chief of Counsel, public domain

1 Oct 1956 – 16 May 1957

Dönitz serves his ten years; Funk goes free

Karl Dönitz walked out at the end of his full term, on 1 October 1956. Walther Funk, sentenced to life, was released ill on 16 May 1957.

A dark-haired man in a suit seated between two American military policemen in white helmets.A man in a dark jacket reading a book in a prison cell.
Speer: Charles Alexander, US Chief of Counsel, public domain · Schirach: US Army Signal Corps, public domain

1 October 1966

Speer and Schirach walk out at midnight

Twenty years after their sentence, Albert Speer and Baldur von Schirach were released together at midnight. One prisoner remained.

A gaunt man with deep-set eyes, in a jacket, holding an open book in a bare cell.French and Soviet soldiers in formation in a courtyard before a brick prison wall.
Hess: US Army Signal Corps, via USHMM, public domain · French guard hands over to Soviet guard: ALDOR46, CC BY-SA 3.0

1966 onwards

One prisoner, four armies

Rudolf Hess, sentenced to life, was now the only inmate. The Soviet Union blocked repeated attempts to free him, and the four powers kept the prison running, guard shifts and all.

A red-brick prison building and gatehouse behind a fenced gate.
The prison before demolition: Bauamt Süd, Einofski, CC BY-SA 3.0

17 August 1987

20 years and 10 months alone

Hess died in the prison on 17 August 1987, aged 93, after 7,625 days as its only prisoner.

03A month at a time

The guard changed every month, whichever army it was

Long after the occupying powers’ joint rule of Berlin had broken down, the prison was one of the last places where all four still worked side by side. Each power took the guard for a month, three times a year, in a fixed order: Britain, Jan, May, Sep; France, Feb, Jun, Oct; Soviet Union, Mar, Jul, Nov; United States, Apr, Aug, Dec.

The detachment on duty was about 60 soldiers. On the first of each month one army marched out of the gate and the next marched in, for one prisoner.

Hess died in August: a month of the United States.

Britain: Jan, May, SepFrance: Feb, Jun, OctSoviet Union: Mar, Jul, NovUnited States: Apr, Aug, Dec
French and Soviet soldiers in formation in a courtyard before a brick prison wall.
Changing of the guard on 1 March 1981: French troops hand the prison over to Soviet troops.Photo: ALDOR46, 1981. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two squads of soldiers facing each other in front of a brick prison building.
Changing the guard, about 1986: American troops, left, hand over to British troops, right.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski, 1986. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
British soldiers standing in a line in front of a brick prison building.
A British guard detachment arrives for its month at the prison, 1982.Photo: ALDOR46, 1982. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

04Inside the walls

Speer wrote a secret record and had it smuggled out

Behind the gate and the towers, the prison garden was where the prisoners worked and walked. Speer paced its paths for years, counting the distance as an imaginary walk around the world.

A red-brick gatehouse with turrets and a tall brick building behind it, seen across a road through trees.
The Allied prison on Wilhelmstraße, Spandau, seen from across the road: the gatehouse and, behind it, the cell block.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
A concrete guard post on top of a brick wall, a soldier standing inside it.
A guard post on the prison’s perimeter wall.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
An overgrown garden of trees and long grass crossed by worn footpaths.
The prison garden, where the prisoners worked and walked.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

Albert Speer wrote thousands of pages in secret. A sympathetic Dutch orderly carried them out of the prison. After his release they became his memoirs and the published Spandau diaries, in which he presented himself as the Nazi who repented, and claimed he had not known of the murder of the Jews. Letters that came to light later show that claim was false.

Hess refused to ask for release, year after year. Neurath, Raeder and Funk were let out on grounds of ill health; for Hess, the Soviet Union blocked every attempt.

A dark-haired man in a suit seated between two American military policemen in white helmets.
Albert Speer at the Nuremberg trial.Photo: Albert Speer at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, ca. 1946. Photo by Charles Alexander, Office of the US Chief of Counsel; Harry S. Truman Library accession 72-929 (NAID 348449309). Public domain.
A man in a dark jacket reading a book in a prison cell.
Baldur von Schirach in his cell at the Nuremberg prison, November 1945.Photo: Baldur von Schirach in his cell in the Nuremberg court prison, 26 November 1945. US Army Signal Corps SC 218384-5, via Harvard Law School Library Nuremberg Trials Project. Public domain.
An elderly, heavy-set man in a suit, seated in the dock.
Walther Funk at the Nuremberg trial.Photo: Walther Funk at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, ca. 1946. Office of the US Chief of Counsel; Harry S. Truman Library accession 72-921. Public domain.
An elderly white-haired man in a suit beside another defendant.
Konstantin von Neurath, left, beside Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg trial.Photo: Konstantin von Neurath (left, with Hermann Göring) at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, ca. 1946. Office of the US Chief of Counsel; Harry S. Truman Library accession 72-930. Public domain.

05Prisoner number seven

Hess was a prisoner for 46 years, 40 of them in Spandau

Hitler’s deputy had been a captive since 10 May 1941, when he flew alone to Scotland and was taken prisoner by the British. At Nuremberg he was convicted of conspiracy and crimes against peace and sentenced to life.

He became the only prisoner on 1 October 1966, and stayed the only prisoner for 20 years and 10 months.

He died in the prison on 17 August 1987, aged 93. The Allied investigation found that he had hanged himself with an electrical cord. His family disputed the finding and insisted he had been killed. Peter Padfield’s study of the record found the verdict of suicide consistent with the evidence.

06After the last prisoner

When he died, they tore the prison down and ground up the rubble

Within months of Hess’s death it was demolished, in 1987, so that it could never become a place of neo-Nazi pilgrimage. The rubble was ground up and dumped in the North Sea.

A red-brick prison building and gatehouse behind a fenced gate.
The prison shortly before the demolition, seen through the outer gate.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
A turreted brick gatehouse in front of a partly demolished building, two men watching at the fence.
The demolition under way: the gatehouse still stands while the building behind it is torn open.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
A long heap of rubble among autumn trees behind a fence.
The demolition complete: a heap of rubble where the prison stood.Photo: Bauamt Süd, Einofski. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

A shopping centre for the British garrison and a car park were built on the site.

Four armies spent 20 years and 10 months guarding a single Nazi prisoner. When he died, they erased the building.

Press & citation

Use this Berlinfographic

Free to publish under CC BY 4.0 — in print, online, on Wikipedia and in teaching, commercially or not — with credit to Berlinfographics and a link to this page.

Spandau: the Allied prison and its seven Nazi war criminals, 1947–1987: ready-to-use landscape image

Ready-to-use image

The infographic as one image: headline, key figures, chart, sources and credit, 2,400 × 1,350 px PNG. Please use it unedited.

Download landscape (PNG)
Spandau: the Allied prison and its seven Nazi war criminals, 1947–1987: square version

Square format

A 1:1 version for social media and narrow columns, 1,800 × 1,800 px.

Download square (PNG)
Spandau: the Allied prison and its seven Nazi war criminals, 1947–1987: portrait version

Portrait 4:5

For Instagram and LinkedIn feeds, 1,620 × 2,025 px.

Download portrait (PNG)

Credit line

Berlinfographics (berlinfographics.com), CC BY 4.0

Citation

Berlinfographics (2026). “Spandau: the Allied prison and its seven Nazi war criminals, 1947–1987”. Berlin Experiences. https://berlinfographics.com/spandau-prison-war-criminals/

Wikipedia

{{cite web |title=Spandau: the Allied prison and its seven Nazi war criminals, 1947–1987 |url=https://berlinfographics.com/spandau-prison-war-criminals/ |website=Berlinfographics |publisher=Berlin Experiences |date=2026-11-05 |access-date=2026-11-05}}