• Cologne National Socialist Documentation Centre
The EL-DE House in Cologne has housed the municipal documentation centre on the National Socialist era since 1988. In 1981, a memorial was dedicated in the basement of the building to the victims of the Gestapo prison, which was located here between 1935 and 1945.
Image: Cologne, 1935, Exterior view of the EL-DE House, Dr. Georg Dahmen
Cologne, 1935, Exterior view of the EL-DE House, Dr. Georg Dahmen

Image: Cologne, 2009, Exterior view of the National Socialist Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House, NSDOK, Jürgen Seidel
Cologne, 2009, Exterior view of the National Socialist Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House, NSDOK, Jürgen Seidel
The EL-DE House was built by the Cologne-based businessman Leopold Dahmen in 1934 - the building takes its name from his initials. In 1935, the Gestapo took over the building and set up offices and administrative rooms on the upper floors, while a prison was installed in the basement. The EL-DE House became the Gestapo headquarters for the government district of Cologne. The Gestapo persecuted and put under surveillance social democrats, but not only - Jews, Sinti and Roma and so-called asocials were also under scrutiny. During the war, the Gestapo arrested many foreign forced labourers for various offences and subsequently incarcerated them in the prison in the basement of the EL-DE House. The small cells were frequently overcrowded; especially in the last weeks of war there were up to 25 people in one cell. The Gestapo carried out executions in the courtyard of the EL-DE House: most of the victims were foreign forced labourers and prisoners of the nearby Klingelpütz prison. Despite being targeted in air raids, the building remained for the most part intact. The last of the Gestapo staff fled in March 1945, when American troops took the city.
Image: Cologne, 1935, Exterior view of the EL-DE House, Dr. Georg Dahmen
Cologne, 1935, Exterior view of the EL-DE House, Dr. Georg Dahmen

Image: Cologne, 2009, Exterior view of the National Socialist Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House, NSDOK, Jürgen Seidel
Cologne, 2009, Exterior view of the National Socialist Documentation Centre in the EL-DE House, NSDOK, Jürgen Seidel
It is not known how many people were interrogated or imprisoned at the Cologne Gestapo headquarters between 1935 and 1945. The Gestapo mainly arrested people who were considered enemies of the National Socialist regime due to their political or religious beliefs and their background. The exact number of executions which were carried out at the EL-DE House also remains unknown. Historians estimate that several hundred people were executed in the courtyard of the Gestapo headquarters from mid-1943 on. The Gestapo brought prisoners from the Klingelpütz prison to the EL-DE House as late as March 1, 1945, and hanged them there. Most of those executed were forced labourers and prisoners of war.
Image: Cologne, undated, Graffiti in one of the former prison cells at the Gestapo prison memorial, Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Anna C. Wagner
Cologne, undated, Graffiti in one of the former prison cells at the Gestapo prison memorial, Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Anna C. Wagner

Image: Cologne, 2009, View of the permanent exhibition, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken
Cologne, 2009, View of the permanent exhibition, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken
After the war, the EL-DE House remained in the possession of the Dahmen family. Several municipal offices rented parts of the building, including the register office and the legal and insurance office, which is located there until this day. Between 1947 and 1949, the building was extended on both sides, and an additional floor was constructed.
Since the mid-1960s, particularly in the 1970s, citizens advocated establishing a memorial in the EL-DE House. In 1979, the Cologne city council agreed to set up a memorial and documentation centre, yet the former Gestapo prison in the building's basement was made accessible to the public as a memorial site only in 1981. In 2009, the memorial in the former Gestapo prison was redesigned.
In September 1988, the Cologne National Socialist Documentation Centre was opened in the EL-DE House - nine years after the decision had been made on its establishment. The central theme of the permanent exhibition is the history of Cologne as regional capital during the National Socialist period.
Image: Cologne, 2009, Former Gestapo prison in the EL-DE House, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken
Cologne, 2009, Former Gestapo prison in the EL-DE House, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken

Image: Cologne, 2009, Permanent exhibition, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken
Cologne, 2009, Permanent exhibition, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln, Marion Mennicken
Name
NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln
Address
Appellhofplatz 23-25
50667 Köln
Phone
+49 (0)221 221 263 32
Fax
+49 (0)221 221 255 12
Web
http://www.nsdok.de
E-Mail
nsdok@stadt-koeln.de
Open
Tuesday to Friday: 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday: 11.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m., every first Thursday of each month 10.00 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Possibilities
Guided tours, special exhibitions, library, events, interactive databases