The small building with the covered entrance arch in front of you is the "old gatehouse". Beginning in the 1920s, the gatehouse was the main entrance of the Breitenau institute for corrections and the rural poor. It was here that prisoners were formally admitted to the institution; they were registered, and their personal details recorded. This was followed by the additional admission steps: the taking away of personal items, removal of clothing, physical examinations, distribution of the grey institutional clothing and the reading of the institution's regulations.

In 1937, the entrance to the camp was moved to a new administration building, so the half-timbered house on Brückenstraße. Beginning in 1937, the supervisors' office was located in the "old gatehouse". In NS jargon, the room was called a "Gefolgschaftsraum" (literal translation: followers' room) and was equipped with a radio that at the time was called a "Volksempfänger" (literal translation: the people's radio).

Media:

Building plans for the gatehouse from 1921 (LWV archives map collection, no. 1099)