Colditz Castle

With its striking white gables, Colditz Castle stands as one of the finest 16th-century architectural monuments in central Germany. During the Second World War, it served as a high-security prisoner-of-war camp for senior officers of the Western Allies. Among the prisoners were Winston Churchill’s nephew and a nephew of King George VI of the United Kingdom. Today, the museum tells the stories of the many ingenious escape attempts – including secret tunnels and a secretly built glider. The book The Colditz Story and its film adaptation brought international fame to Colditz Castle near Leipzig.

Museum tour

The new permanent exhibition at Colditz Castle recounts the castle’s eventful history across different eras. Particular emphasis is placed on the spectacular escape attempts by Allied officers from the prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War. The exhibition also explores the castle during the Renaissance and the period when it was used as a hospital.

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History of Colditz Castle

Rising high above the town Colditz, Colditz Castle stands on a porphyry outcrop. The castle is a remarkable curiosity of cultural history. The eleventh-century German Burgward - an early medieval administrative district centred on a fortified strongpoint - came into the possession of the Wettin dynasty in 1404 and was transformed into a magnificent hunting residence. After a period of complete decline, the castle served in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as a workhouse, psychatric hospital, concentration camp, and site of so-calles "euthanasie".
In 1939, the officiers' prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV C was established here. Owing to its many prominent inmates and repeat escapes, it became one of the most famous POW camps of the Second World War.

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