Langwasser (Nuremberg)

 quarter (urban subdivision)  Add category

 Upload a photo

Langwasser is a district of Nuremberg in the southeastern area of the city. It was developed as a prototype of the satellite town concept in the 1960s and is primarily a suburban residential area. The name Langwasser (translated as "long water") comes from a small stream bordering the area on its eastern edge.
Prior to World War II, the area which had been cleared by fire became an important site for the Nazi movement. Beginning in 1934 it was the site of various tent cities and encampments. The area originally housed a tent encampment of the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and later the Hitler Youth (HJ). Permanent camps for the SS, SA, HJ, and RAD were built near the Nuremberg Rally Grounds. The Langwasser camp, with space for 200,000, was the largest. At the outbreak of World War II, party rallies ceased and the compound was converted into a POW camp known as Stalag 13 which housed up to 150,000 prisoners until closing in 1940. In this camp during August 1940, prisoners of war celebrated a "special Olympics" called International Prisoner-of-War Olympic Games where prisioners of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Russia and Yugoslavia took part. United States military records report that 6,676 American POWs were transferred there late in the war.