Luther’s Land
By April 1945, there were also 37,430 war refugees from the east who had lost their homes temporary encamped within in the city of Erfurt. They would either escape farther west or be thrown into captivity for decades. Luther’s land was in peril. The Allied Operation Clarion was carried out with the goal of helping Stalin and erasing German cultural symbols and objects of national pride. In the process, thousands of years of history were needlessly lost to the world. Many historical buildings dating from the 15th to the 16th Century were destroyed completely by British bombardment.
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Top: Erfurt in 1550. Bottom: Erfurt in 1895
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The strong pressure waves caused huge damage to the west wing of the Augustinerkloster monastery, the Priory, the Augustinerkirche and to the other buildings of the Renaissance yard. Protestant Michaeliskirche, built in 1183, which later served as the official church of Erfurt University was also mostly destroyed.
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Top: Augustinerkloster 1600. Middle: Erfurt Rathaus 1800 and 1945. Bottom: Augustinerkloster 1945
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The Augustinerkloster in Erfurt was an Augustinian monastery where Martin Luther lived while he studied at the university for a few years after 1505. February 25, 1945 was one of the darkest days in the history of the building. Due to an air raid, numerous townspeople sought refuge in the cellars of the monastery. However, two British planes dropped two bombs on the building, causing it to completely collapse. The 267 people huddled below for safety met their deaths, the only survivor being a little girl pulled from the rubble who lost an arm in the blast. On April 12, 1945, Erfurt was taken by units of the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton and occupied until July 3, when to the horror of the citizens, American troops handed it over to the Soviet Red Army.