So, did the Fuhrer really want our town hall?
FOR years a rumour has circulated - and is sometimes quoted as fact - that had Nazi Germany defeated Britain and invaded our island, Rochdale Town Hall was high on Hitler’s shopping list.
In fact, Rochdale Town Hall isn’t the only building in Greater Manchester said to have been admired by the leader of the Third Reich. There’s the rumour that Hitler ordered his Luftwaffe to avoid bombing the Manchester Town Hall, Midland Hotel and Central Library as he prized the architecture and had the intention establishing a HQ in these buildings after a successful land invasion.
After the war, it was reported that a US intelligence agent had found documents in Germany which suggested Hitler ordered that some buildings be preserved for a future Nazi regime in England. After France fell in the spring of 1940, Hitler believed Britain would accept his terms to end the war, but if not, then Britain could be successfully invaded.
The plans for the invasion were known as Operation Sea Lion. But with Hitler losing the Battle of Britain and Britain refusing to capitulate, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion in September 1940.
Dr Sam Edwards, who used to be the History Programme Leader at Manchester Metropolitan University, said various myths have sprung up as what Hitler’s forces would have done in the north west had Sea Lion been successfully implemented.
He told our sister paper the M.E.N back in 2017: “There’s a persistent myth that Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to avoid bombing the Midland Hotel and the Central Library, with some suggesting it was because he prized the architecture or intended to establish some sort of government or military HQ in these buildings.
“I doubt very much that this was in fact the case and the buildings were likely ‘missed’ because they lacked military or industrial significance and also because bombing was still a haphazard business in the 1940s.
“But even so, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that in an occupied Britain, with the Germans setting up various municipal and regional HQS, several Manchester landmarks would have been attractive due to their location and their architecture.”
Another persistent rumour is that Rochdale Town Hall was also said to have been on the Nazi shopping list, due to its impressive architecture. Hitler is said to have admired it so much he wanted to dismantle it brick-by-brick and rebuild it in the giant new capital city of the Third Reich Germania - which would have featured buildings from conquered territories.
Now a Reader in
Modern Political History at Loughborough University, Dr Sam Edwards said last week: “To my knowledge, the story about Hitler’s intentions for Rochdale Town Hall lacks any substantive evidence.
“So why does the story persist?
“My guess is that it’s a part of the broader fascination in Britain with the threatened Nazi invasion, a fascination which has produced a number of popular ‘counterfactual’ histories like Robert Harris’ Fatherland, C.J. Sansom’s
Dominion, and Len Deighton’s SS-GB.
“And interestingly, Rochdale isn’t alone in having this sort of myth similar suggestions about Nazi plans for particular buildings have been made about Senate House in London as well as City Hall in Norwich!”
There is a possibility that Hitler knew about Rochdale Town Hall thanks to British traitor William Joyce - aka Lord Haw Haw - who made Nazi propaganda broadcasts from Germany, had lived in Oldham. Another suggestion is that Hitler may have seen it with his
own eyes while visiting relatives in Liverpool in 1912-13, but evidence as to whether Hitler ever did visit is debatable.
The truth is there’s little evidence to suggest Hitler had grand plans for Rochdale Town Hall or why it survived the bombing raids.