The ruins of a huge hotel are found in the island of Rügen located in the Baltic Sea. It was built between 1936 and 1939 during Adolf Hitler’s reign in Germany. You will be surprised to know that this hotel has 10,000 rooms. However, more than 80 years have passed, but till date no one has ever stayed in the hotel.
The hotel was a part of an ambitious ‘Strength Through Joy’ (Kraft durch Freude or KdF) project of Hitler. It consisted of eight identical buildings and was 4.5 km (2.8 miles) in length running parallel to the beach. About 9000 workers were involved in building the hotel which was then called ‘Prora’.
However, even before the project was completed, World War II started in 1939. So construction came to a halt as Hitler pulled out the construction workers to be a part of the German army. The war ended in 1945. However, with Hitler’s death no one ever again attempted to start construction.
Hitler’s plans for ‘Prora’ were very ambitious. He wanted a gigantic sea resort, the ‘most mighty and large one to ever have existed’, with 20,000 beds. In the middle, a huge building was to be erected. At the same time, Hitler wanted it to be convertible into a military hospital in case of war. Hitler insisted that the plans of a giant indoor arena by architect Erich Putlitz be included. Putlitz’s Festival Hall was intended to be able to accommodate all 20,000 guests simultaneously. His plans included two wave-swimming pools, a cinema and a theatre.
This hotel is almost ruins now. It is said that if this hotel was fully built, then it would be considered the largest and best hotel in the world.
The only guests that Prora ever welcomed were the refugees from Hamburg and Germany who stayed in one of the housing blocks during the allied bombing campaign in 1939.