Spandau Prison Spandau Prison Spandau Prison was located in the borough of Spandau in western Berlin. It was constructed in 1876 and demolished in 1987 after the death of its last prisoner, Rudolf Hess, to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. The site was later rebuilt as a shopping centre for the British forces stationed in Germany. Spandau Prison was built in 1876 on Wilhelmstraße. It initially served as a military detention center. From 1919 it was also used for civilian inmates. It held up to 600 inmates at that time. In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire of 1933, opponents
Spandau Prison Hess during their confinement at Spandau. The prisoners were assigned numbers corresponding to the order in which they were first assigned cells and were, by regulation, referred to by their number only. Speer, number five, was the most ambitious of the prisoners, dedicating himself to a rigorous physical and mental work regime, then scheduling "vacations" of two weeks in length every few months where he relieved himself from his self-imposed routine. He secretly wrote two books, a draft of his memoirs entitled "Inside the Third Reich" and a collection of diary entries, "." Speer also kept busy with architectural works,