Fort Oberer Kuhberg (KZ-Gedenkstätte)

Fort Oberer Kuhberg is one of the 40-odd 19th-century fortifications that ring Ulm, built between 1842 and 1859 as part of the Bundesfestung (Federal Fortress) Ulm. The ring of forts is one of the most extensive systems of 19th-century military architecture in Central Europe, and Oberer Kuhberg is one of the better-preserved examples.

What makes this fort particularly significant is its later history: from November 1933 to July 1935 it served as an early concentration camp under the Nazi SS, where political prisoners from Württemberg were imprisoned. The KZ-Gedenkstätte Ulm memorial and documentation centre now occupies the fort, with exhibitions on the victims, their fates, and the broader history of early Nazi terror. A serious and thoughtful memorial, managed by a local association of relatives and historians. Open Thursday and Sunday afternoons; guided tours available.

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Fort Oberer Kuhberg was one of the first concentration camps established in Germany, opened in November 1933 just months after the Nazis took power. About 100 political prisoners — Social Democrats, Communists, trade union officials — were held here under terrible conditions. The camp closed in 1935 when the prisoners were transferred to Dachau, and the fort reverted to military use. Remarkably, survivors and locals pushed for a memorial here from the 1970s onwards, and the documentation centre opened in 1984.

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