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Ruhleben internment camp

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Through World War I, Berlin and Germany

LabNazism Hitler

Detainees

The camp detainees included male citizens of the Allied Powers who were living, studying, working or on holiday in Germany at the outbreak of World War I. They also included the crews of several civilian ships stranded in German harbours or captured at sea. There were numerous fishermen captured from trawlers which had been sunk in the North Sea in the first days of the war: they were mainly men from Hull, Yorkshire; and Grimsby and Boston, Lincolnshire. Numbers in the camp varied between 4,000 and 5,500 prisoners, most of them British.

Life in the camp was described in several books and essays subsequently written by detainees. They included To Ruhleben – And Back (1916) by Geoffrey Pyke, who had successfully escaped from the camp in 1915; and Life in Ruhleben, 1914–1918 (1920) by Frederick Keel. Quarters were cramped: the stable blocks averaged 27 stalls, each housing six men, and the stable block lofts each housed about 200 men.

The German authorities adhered to the Geneva Convention and allowed the camp detainees to administer their own internal affairs. Gradually, a mini-society evolved. Letters, books, sports equipment and a printing press were all allowed into the camp, and the detainees organised their own police force, magazine, library and postal service. The latter, known as the Ruhleben Express Delivery, was organised by Albert Kamps and began operating in July 1915. Soon it was handling over 6,000 pieces of mail per month, and 16 different postage stamps were issued which have since become collectors items. In April 1916, however, the German postal authorities declared the service illegal and it ceased operating.

Prisoners grew flowers beside their barracks to give a bit beauty; this later evolved into the Ruhleben Horticultural Society, which became a formal affiliate in October 1916 of the Royal Horticultural Society in London (subscription fee waived). Later they grew their own vegetables in the centre of the race track as fresh produce became harder to acquire. In addition, a number of independent businesses developed within the camp, including a casino.

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