Britannia Centre Spandau Rudolf Hess. Five weeks after the death of Hess on 17 August 1987 at 1610 hours, the demolition of Spandau Prison began and was completed on 4 November 1987. In May 1988 the construction of the new facility started and was finished on 18 September 1990. The name "Britannia Centre" was chosen by competition from over 40 entries. The shopping center was also nicknamed "Hessco's" after the well known British supermarket chain, Tesco, and the prison's final occupant. After the Berlin Infantry Brigade was dissolved in mid-1994 the Britannia Centre Spandau lost its name and became the only unnamed shopping
Spandau Prison families were at first limited to one page every month, talking with fellow prisoners was prohibited, newspapers were banned, diaries and memoirs were forbidden, visits by families were limited to one of fifteen minutes every two months, and lights were flashed into the prisoners' cells every fifteen minutes during the night as a form of suicide watch. A considerable portion of the stricter regulations was either later revised toward the more lenient, or deliberately ignored by prison staff. The directors and guards of the Western powers (France, Britain and the United States) repeatedly voiced opposition to many of the stricter