You are currently facing the former monastery church. As you can see, the central nave exhibits barred windows on various floors. When the workhouse was opened in 1874, the prison section was located here.

The Electorate of Hesse was annexed by Prussia in 1866 and the state treasure was seized. As decreed by Prussia, the restitution of the state treasure was subject to the condition that a workhouse be established in the newly created Prussian government district. The administration of this new district came across the vacant buildings of the former monastery complex in Breitenau in its search for a suitable site. This complex appeared to be favourable as it was surrounded by walls and located close to two important railway lines in Hesse. For the purpose of setting up the "institution for corrections and the rural poor" (Correktions- und Landarmenanstalt Breitenau), as the workhouse was officially called, the church building was divided in agreement with the local Protestant parish. The central nave and the portal (bell tower) were converted into a prison with barred windows, while the Gothic choir room served as a church for the Protestant congregation. A wall was erected to separate the two areas.

Upon resolution of Kassel's Chief of Police on 15 June 1933, a "concentration camp for political prisoners in protective custody" was integrated into the Breitenau state workhouse (Landesarbeitsanstalt). The first so-called prisoners in protective custody arrived on 16 June 1933. Among them were 26 communists and two Social Democrats. The SA and later SS security teams responsible for guarding the prisoners of the concentration camp were housed on the second floor of the central nave, the main part of the institution. The prisoners' dormitory was one floor higher, on the third floor, and the prisoners' common rooms were on the first floor.

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The roll-call area on the north side of the former church, prior to 1920 (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, fm6700)