NS-Ordensburg

Under the name Ordensburg or Schulungsburg, three training centers for future leadership personnel (cadres) of the NSDAP were built between 1934 and 1936. The planning was the responsibility of Reichsleiter Robert Ley, the head of the German Labor Front.

The Ordensburgen were new buildings, not converted medieval castles. The medieval castles of the Teutonic Order, a mixture of barracks, castle and monastery, were a vague historical model.

The following NS-Ordensburgen were built and put into operation:

• NS-Ordensburg Vogelsang in the Eifel (architect: Clemens Klotz),
• NS-Ordensburg Krössinsee in Pomerania (architect: Clemens Klotz)
• NS-Ordensburg Sonthofen in the Allgäu (architect: Hermann Giessler)

In addition, the Cologne architect Clemens Klotz made further plans for National Socialist Ordensburgen, but these were not implemented. In the east, one was planned on the site of the medieval Marienburg Order Castle near Danzig and a second with the project name “Weichselburg” in the Kazimierz district of Kraków. In the west there were plans for a castle on the Saar loop near Mettlach.

The training at the Ordensburgen should follow an overall concept, according to which each institution had a thematic focus:

• Vogelsang: "Racial Philosophy of the New Order" (National Socialist racial ideology)
• Krössinsee: Character education
• Sonthofen: administrative, military and diplomacy

One after the other, the Ordensjunker - as the course participants were called - were to undergo a year-long training course at the three order castles, starting at Vogelsang Castle and ending at Sonthofen Castle. The lessons were carried out by the regular leaders who were permanently stationed at the Ordensburg. However, a coherent curriculum did not materialize. Apart from the main topics mentioned, the training was mainly characterized by military and sporting exercises. Alfred Rosenberg also planned a high school of the NSDAP on the banks of the Chiemsee. The Ordensjunker approved for the training should have already proven themselves in the NSDAP and should be between 25 and 30 years old. In initially three, later in four and a half years, the training to become a party or administrative leader was completed at the individual castles of the Order. Since May 1936, courses have been held in Vogelsang; there and in Krössinsee an estimated 2,000 men underwent ideological training. Ordensjunker, who, according to Heinen, were considered to be “among the most unscrupulous and fanatical” leaders, took up leading positions in German civil administration in the East, for example as regional commissioners in the Reich commissioners for Ukraine and Ostland. When ethnic German resettlers settled in occupied Poland in 1939 and 1940, the Ordensburgen provided logistical support with buses.

Based on the NS-Ordensburgen, other training centers of the DAF and the NSDAP were named Reichsschulungsburg or Schulungsburg (even if the houses had nothing to do with a castle). Such Reichsschulungsburgen existed in Saßnitz, Oberursel (the Villa Gans), Erwitte (see Schloss Erwitte) and Königswinter (today's Adam-Stegerwald-Haus). After the annexation of Austria, Altkettenhof Castle also became the Reichsschulungsburg of the DAF. The same applies to the Reichsschulungsburg of German technology on the Plassenburg in Kulmbach.