Company chronicle

From 1930: Bombed, ruined and broken

The Reichsdruckerei district, comprising more than 30 buildings since the early 1930s, was first seriously hit in April 1941 during air raids on Berlin. All the same, it was still possible to keep major parts of production up and running for another good two years. Production only had to come to a halt when on 21 June 1944 all the paper stocks were set on fire.

But things were about to get even worse for Reichsdruckerei: in one of the heaviest daytime attacks on Berlin on 3 February 1945, around 1,500 US planes bombed the Reich's capital city, leaving behind a sea of rubble in which thousands of people lost their lives.

Around half of all the administration and production facilities as well as all files, semi-finished products and equipment were destroyed on the premises of Reichsdruckerei. The few buildings left standing were badly damaged and were finally plundered and almost completely destroyed in the bitter street fights during the last days of the war in May 1945.