Manfred von Richthofen birth place

[jturner]

While on a recent trip to Prague in the Czech Republic I hired a rental car (from Sixt Rentals at the Prague Hilton, which allows you to drive into Poland) and drove to Wroclaw, formerly Breslau up until 1945. This is about a three and a half to four hour drive from Prague (satnav recommended if you don't want to get lost en route as some of the road signs are a bit erratic).

I wanted to visit Manfred von Richthofen's birth place in Kleinburg (as it used to be called) which was at 92-94 Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse (corner of Goethe Strasse) in the former Breslau. A comparison of the 1945 street map of Breslau with the modern google street map of Wroclaw (for an internet copy of the 1945 Breslau street map see GERMANY~1900's BRESLAU~Kaiser Wilhelm-Strasse~Trolley) shows that the former Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse is now called Powstancow Slaskich in Polish. Goethe Strasse or its modern equivalent has now disapppeared from the map but the next cross street heading northeast along Powstancow Slaskich is Wielka in Polish (formerly Augusta Strasse in German).

I parked the car in Wielka (see photo of street corner road signs attached) and walked back southwest along Powstancow Slaskich about 60 metres to where the 1945 map of Breslau indicated Goethe Strasse used to be. The even numbers are on the northern side of the street. Old postcards of Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse indicate that the buildings used to be closer to the road frontage than the modern postwar apartment blocks which have been built further back from the road following the widespread destruction of the city of Breslau in 1945. I attach some photos of the area near the corner of the old Goethe Strasse, which is now lined by trees for about 50 metres back from the road frontage on the northern side of Powstancow Slaskich. This is the closest I could estimate to where the building used to stand where Manfred von Richthofen was born in 1892.

I hope that this will be of interest to members.

JT

[jturner]

The internet link to the Breslau map contained in my original post does not seem to work properly so I attach pdf versions of the street maps for the former Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse in Breslau and the modern Powstancow Slaskich in Wroclaw.

JT

[FliegerJG1]

You had quite a bit of detective work to find the exact location! Thank you for sharing this information. It is interesting to see what the area is like today.

FliegerJG1

[Alexandra]

Excellent photos - thank you for sharing.

[Gman]

Originally Posted by jturner

The internet link to the Breslau map contained in my original post does not seem to work properly so I attach pdf versions of the street maps for the former Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse in Breslau and the modern Powstancow Slaskich in Wroclaw.

JT

JT,

excellent work. Thanks for posting.
I tried the same thing in 2009 but failed:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/pe...ly-2009-a.html

I might have driven down the same street but after being stuck in rush hour traffic I gave up, realizing that the original building has been lost to time...

[redintheskies]

very awesome!! thank you for sharing!