Gedenkrundgang Rüttenscheid: NS-Verfolgung und Widerstand in Essen

Anyone walking through the streets of Essen today passes places where the darker chapters of the city’s history come to life. Nestled among cafés and boutiques are sites where the Nazi regime arrested, tortured, and deported people. A walking tour through the Südviertel and Rüttenscheid neighborhoods commemorates those who were persecuted or who resisted the terror.

The route begins in the city center and leads along Rüttenscheider Straße to the police headquarters, then back past the Museum Folkwang and the former Saalbau. At each stop, buildings are linked to personal stories: resistance fighters against the Hitler regime who operated underground here; Jewish neighbors who were deported; and political prisoners who disappeared into Gestapo cellars. The topography of Nazi terror lies right on our doorstep. Margret Rest from the VVN-BdA Essen guides the tour and provides historical context for the sites. The Association of Victims of Nazi Persecution has been preserving knowledge about resistance and persecution for decades.

The tour does not present abstract statistics, but rather concrete events: How did organized communists, social democrats, and trade unionists organize the resistance? Where were the boundaries between complicity and turning a blind eye? The search for traces ends with questions about the present. Participants leave the neighborhood with a new perspective on familiar streets—and a heightened awareness of the present.
 

Participation is free. After registering on our website, you’ll receive a confirmation of participation with the meeting location.