Bombing of Nuremberg in World War II

, Nuremberg was an important production location for armaments and the densely populated medieval old town was a well-suited destination for the purposes of the area bombing directive of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The attacks would have considerable symbolic effect because Nuremberg was officially nicknamed "City of the Nuremberg Rally" during the Nazi era. Its inner city had a high proportion of half-timbered houses especially vulnerable to the combination of explosive and incendiary bombs. The purpose was to ignite a firestorm to increase the effect of this weaponry. Daytime attacks on industrial and infrastructure targets were mostly carried out by the technically better equipped US Army Air Forces as part of the division of labor of the Allied air fleets in order to achieve a high degree of accuracy, which was technologically only possible to a limited extent. Nighttime bombardments were mostly flown by the RAF's Pathfinder Force. The city's old town was most severely affected by the attack of 2 January 1945. Its urban surrounds had numerous military targets. The factories of MAN in the south of the city built diesel engines for submarines and components for Panther tanks. Other important companies were Siemens-Schuckert, , Nüral (Nürnberger Aluminiumwerke, now Federal-Mogul), and Diehl. In addition the bombers targeted the Nuremberg motorcycle industry (Zündapp/Neumeyer, Hercules, Triumph, Victoria) and 120 other armament and companies that employed forced labor as well as the facilities of the German Reichsbahn: the marshaling yard in the south of the city and the main railway lines running over Nuremberg. == Timeline of the attacks ==

Until 1942, there were only minor attacks. From 1942 to 1944 there was a fight for air supremacy over Germany which was won by the Allies in large parts. From autumn 1944, airfields of the Allies had moved close enough that it was possible to deploy low-flying aircraft. The following table is based on the information provided by Schramm. == Destruction ==

Nuremberg's old town was largely destroyed. The southern parts of the city, St Johannis and other neighbourhoods were also hit hard. After Cologne, Dortmund and Kassel, Nuremberg had the largest amount of rubble per inhabitant among the major German cities. The population of Nuremberg decreased from 420,349 in 1939 to 195,000 by the end of the war. Half of its dwellings were destroyed, and many others were damaged. == Reconstruction ==

In 1947, ideas for reconstruction were collected in an urban planning competition. The board of trustees for the Reconstruction of Nuremberg () advised the city administration on questions of reconstruction. A simplified reconstruction was agreed upon. It was at this time that the organisation Old Town Friends Nuremberg () was set up to advocate a faithful, accurate reconstruction of the old town. The association supports the preservation and restoration of the existing historical old town houses and other architectural monuments in Nuremberg that are worth preserving. By 1955 most of the reconstruction work had been completed or at least begun. From 1956 to 1960 the Nuremberg Town Hall ( and ) was rebuilt. Until 1957 the St Sebaldus church was repaired. The largest restoration project was the city walls of Nuremberg with its double wall and the moat. The Katharinenkloster Nuremberg, today called , which was completely destroyed during the air raids in 1945, was not rebuilt but secured as a ruin in 1970/71. Since then it has served as a memorial to the war and as a venue for events. == Bombs found after World War II ==

Since the end of the war, unexploded bombs have been, and continue to be, found in Nuremberg, as throughout Germany. They are often discovered by chance. The explosive ordnance clearance service () is responsible for defusing aircraft bombs, sometimes ordering large-scale evacuations before doing so. == See also ==

• • • • Michael Diefenbacher, Rudolf Endres (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg. 2., verbesserte Auflage. W. Tümmels Verlag, Nürnberg 2000, (online).  • Martin Middlebrook: Die Nacht, in der die Bomber starben. Der Angriff auf Nürnberg und seine Folgen für den Luftkrieg ("The Nuremberg raid"), Ullstein Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979, • Peter Schneider: 30./31. März 1944. Tod am Meisbach: Absturz der Lancaster ND441 bei Dotzlar. In: Wittgenstein. Blätter des Wittgensteiner Heimatvereins, 2007, pp. 130. ==Sources==