Spandau Prison determine who controlled the prison. The prison was demolished in 1987, largely to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine, after the death of its final remaining prisoner, Rudolf Hess, who had been the prison's sole occupant after the release of Speer and von Schirach in 1966. To further ensure its erasure, the site was made into a parking facility and a NAAFI shopping center, named "The Britannia Centre Spandau" and nicknamed "Hessco's" after the well known British supermarket chain, Tesco. All materials from the demolished prison were ground to powder and dispersed in the North Sea or buried at
Rudolf Hess in 1947, where he served a life sentence. Repeated attempts by family members and prominent politicians to win his early release were blocked by the Soviet Union. While still in custody in Spandau, he died by suicide in 1987 at the age of 93. After his death, the prison was demolished to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. Hess, the oldest of three children, was born on 26 April 1894 in Alexandria, Egypt, into the ethnic German family of Fritz Hess, a prosperous merchant from Bavaria, and Clara Hess ("née" Münch). His brother, Alfred, was born in 1897 and