As a stronghold of the armaments industry, Rostock was a preferred target for air raids during World War II. From April 23, 1942, however, the city center was hit:more than 200 people died.
In the logic of the military strategists, the goal at the time was obvious:Rostock. During the Second World War, the city on the Baltic Sea is a center of the German armaments industry. The Heinkel and Arado aircraft factories and the Neptun shipyard supply the Wehrmacht. As early as 1940, British bombers made targeted attacks on their factory premises, and in September 1941 more than 30 people died in another air strike. Six months later, the strategy of the Royal Air Force changes. Since the attack on Lübeck on March 28, 1942, the Allies have shown no consideration for the civilian population. In the nights from April 23 to 27, 1942, the bombs also hit the city center of Rostock - as the second target of the so-called area bombing directive, the carpet bombing of German cities.
About 150 British bombers set course for Rostock
At that time, around 130,000 people lived in the Hanseatic city of Rostock. When the sirens wail, the residents flee to the basements of their houses or the few air raid shelters, as they always do during these months of war. But what happened on the night of April 24 has a new dimension. Almost 150 British bombers are heading for Rostock. Their devastating cargo:high-explosive and, above all, incendiary bombs. Within a short time, thousands pelt the city and set buildings ablaze. The next morning it becomes clear that the damage is limited. Most of the bombs missed the city center.
200 people die, thousands become homeless
Massive buildings, some of which are centuries old, such as Petritor and Petrikirche are also badly damaged.But in the following nights the attacks are repeated. A total of almost 500 aircraft drop more than 100,000 bombs. Now they also hit the old town. Helpers who want to extinguish the fires cannot stop the conflagration. It spreads from house to house, encompassing entire streets. More than 200 people die and thousands are injured. The old town on the banks of the Warnow resembles a field of rubble, from which individual buildings such as the 48 meter high tower of the Petrikirche protrude. The roof will be consumed by flames.
"One heavy detonation after another"
Luise Utpatel from Rostock is right in the middle of the conflagration. She lives in one of the magnificent gabled houses on Hopfenmarkt, today's Kröpeliner Strasse. In a letter to her mother and siblings, she describes the first of those hard nights in the air-raid shelter:
"One heavy detonation after another shook our house. In between, heavy and light anti-aircraft guns were fired. At half past one the alarm went off, and the attack continued almost without a break. Several times some of the men tried to go upstairs, to look for firebombs. But most of the time they had to come back down before they were on the ground because there was no rest."From a letter from Luise Utpadel from Rostock
The mightiest building survives the attacks
The material damage alone is immeasurable. In addition, around 35,000 people become homeless, often losing all their belongings. Only ruins remain of massive buildings such as the Jakobikirche and the Higher Regional Court, the historic stone gate and the neo-baroque city theater, but also of clinics and schools. At the end of the war in 1945, around a quarter of the residential buildings in the Hanseatic city had been destroyed and more than half had been damaged. The mightiest building in the old town, the Marienkirche, survived the war largely unscathed.
No electricity, no water, no gas
The infrastructure was completely destroyed, says city archivist Karsten Schröder:"On the last of these four days there was no local transport, no power supply, no water supply, no telegraph, no gas supply - gas played a very important role at the time." According to Schröder, the attack was a far-reaching turning point, the history of which has by no means been worked through to this day. And there can still be a lot of discussion about what the commemoration should look like, says Thomas Werner from the Rostock Cultural Office. "Because, of course, a lot of people lost their lives, the cityscape has suffered a lot, but it's the spirits that we called up ourselves. And you have to make that clear again on this day."
One-sided view of history
The perspective from which one looks at events today has so far been relatively one-sided, according to Werner. In order to change that, when commemorating the night of the bombing, not only eyewitness reports like that of the middle-class Luise Utpatel should be presented. For example, it should also be about the Ukrainian forced laborer Grigory Serdyuk, who came to Heinkel's aircraft factory in 1942 as a 15-year-old - and who had to load the bodies of several young colleagues onto trucks after a bomb attack. They were denied access to the city's air raid shelters, says Werner:"That's why these people often died because they sought refuge in shelters that weren't suitable for such bombing raids." That, too, is part of the story that should be remembered.
Population should suffer from the war
The attacks on Rostock were not accidental or mistaken. On March 14, 1942, the British War Cabinet decided to intensify the bombing campaign. Targets should now include entire major cities. The military wanted to break the "resistance of the civilian population of the enemy and above all of the industrial workers", as British documents say. By the end of the war in 1945, many German cities were still badly damaged by carpet bombing. The British and Americans also reacted to German air raids against English cities, which had already begun in 1940.
Carnage bombardment of German cities
28./29. March 1942: Lübeck
23. - April 27, 1942: Rostock
30. May 1942: Cologne
24. July - August 3, 1943: Hamburg
8. - October 9, 1943: Hanover
22. October 1943: Kassel
26. August 1944: Kiel
15. October 1944: Brunswick
3. February 1945: Berlin
13./14. February 1945: Dresden
8. April 1945: Braunschweig