Youth Hostel (Ubytovna mládeže) – Hitlerjugendheim

 
The Jihlava language island (Iglauer Deutsche Sprachinsel) was an area of mostly German-speaking inhabitants on the then border between Bohemia and Moravia. Its centre was Jihlava. The national contradictions that escalated during the period when the Czechoslovak Republic was established culminated with the rise of the Nazi movement in Germany and Hitler's rise to power in the 1930s. The Germans of Jihlava expected Hitler to help them and free them from Czech influence. The city management subsequently worked very closely with the Protectorate government and the Reich's policy was reflected in the process of urban planning changes in the inner city as well as in the selection of architects. In 1939, for example, the German architect from Brno Emil Leo reconstructed the German Theatre. Two years later, Leo proposed a new regulatory plan for Jihlava. In 1939, in cooperation with the Provincial Office (Zemský úřad) in Prague, the construction of the Siedlung housing estate (now Lidická kolonie) began according to a design by the German architect Otto Scholtz. The foundation stone of the Jugendherberge was laid in the Heulos Forest Park on 11 April 1941, but before the building was completed in 1943, it was transformed into the Adolf Hitler School (AHS). These boarding schools formed the basis of Party education for the training of Party cadres. The building itself was opened in April 1944.

For many years, this building was attributed to the second chief architect of the Reich Hitler Youth Headquarters, Friedrich Gottfried Winter. Winter was indeed the architect of the original site plan for the youth hostel and the large sports arena, which was planned for the site of the former Seidner's knitting factory (plot no. 1011/1) and now a car park at the zoo. The arena was to be entered from the north-east side through a gate with an assembly area. Everything was designed according to the principles of ideal Reich architecture, the tone of which was set by Albert Speer, the Führer's chief architect, later Minister of Armaments and War Production and architect of the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Efforts to construct similar buildings were also made in Prague (locations were sought on Střelecký ostrov, Kampa, and Letná), Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, and Opava. However, due to contradictions in the German occupation administration, these plans never came to fruition and only architectural studies were made.

Winter's Youth Hostel was to bear the characteristic features of rustic German architecture; regularity, a solid appearance, a high steep roof, and simplicity. The southern frontage was to be decorated with a half-arch columned arcade with a terrace. However, this design of Winter's was ultimately not adopted. The real designer of the Hitlerjugend Youth Hostel in Jihlava was the Berlin architect Helmut Weber, who worked for the Reich Association of German Youth Hostelsand was considered a very capable young architect. He also worked on the design of the existing building. The owner of the land where the present building stands was the Reich Association for Youth Hostels,which is also listed as the builder in the sources, together with the Provincial Association of the South-Eastern Mark (Zemský svaz Jihovýchodní marky). The construction work was assigned to the Jihlava stonemasonry company Josef Hurda and sons (Josef Hurda a synové) and the builder Konrad Weigner.

The Youth Hostel building was remarkable for the quality of its design and workmanship. The style corresponds to Old Germanic castle architecture with a stone façade and a high hipped roof. The two-storey main building with two wings offers a view of the city centre in the south and of the Heulos Forest Park in the north. The architect placed six rooms and a common room on each floor of the wings. In addition, there were also flats for staff. On the ground floor, the entrance opened into a spacious grand hall with stone columns topped with decorative capitals. The individual floors were connected by a central staircase with wrought-iron railings. The attic in the Reich hostels was mostly used as a collective dormitory. The layout and most of the original elements have been preserved to this day. A decorative stone fountain, standing on the terrace above the Heulos Forest Park, still embellishes the exterior of the building today. It is made of Mrákotín granite and consists of a wide bowl with a central support and five stylised lions around it. A quadrilateral truncated spire with jets carries a stone sphere as the top of the fountain. Originally, the fountain was accompanied by two statues, which were later removed from the terrace.

In his design, Weber did not strictly follow the concept of austerity that was symptomatic of Hitlerjugend Youth Hostel buildings. He designed more prestigious and more luxurious spaces, which corresponded better to the typology of the Reich training centres, the form of which was determined by the chief architect of the Hitlerjugend cultural office and building department, Hanns Dustmann, who worked for the founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, from 1929–1933. A typical elite Hitler school was equipped with common rooms, a ceremonial social hall, a library with a reading room, lecture rooms with a stage, a study, and a large dining room. Hrádek(as it is called today) in Jihlava was very close to this and later it was actually adapted into a school. The establishment of the Adolf Hitler Schools (AHS) dates back to the beginning of 1937. It was the brainchild of the two instigators of the idea in the Third Reich, DrRobert Ley and Baldur von Schirach. The Jihlava Adolf Hitler School (Jihlavská Škola Adolfa Hitlera) was inaugurated last, of twelve, in the presence of K. H. Frank and the two aforementioned figures on 26 April 1944.



In the land register of the cadastral area of Jihlava-Dřevěné Mlýny, it remained under the German name Adolf Hitler-Schule until 1947, when the name was changed and the building began to be called an apprentice home. It was used by the Pedagogical Institute and the University of Agriculture as accommodation facilities for apprentices and students. In 1995, the whole area was renovated according to the project drawn up by the architect Petr Holub. Today, the site serves as a training centre and accommodation facility for the Police Presidium of the Czech Republic.

MP
Literature and other sources 

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