Über die Sammlung
The collection which is exhibited here is based on a set of wartime photographs belonging to the German Army, the Wehrmacht. The pictures were taken by local photographer Johannes Lange, who was commissioned to produce a comprehensive photographic record of the camp. For example he provided visual aids for the Wehrmacht’s guard training programme by organising and photographing re-enactments of failed escape attempts. He also made portrait photos of the officers, which they were allowed to send back to their home countries. Cardboard weapons, home-made uniforms, typewriters and compasses were all used by Lange as props for his staged events. However other equipment, which was smuggled into Colditz by the British secret service to help prisoners escape, was confiscated. Everything was documented by Johannes Lange and stored in the camp commandant’s office. It was the Germans themselves who, during World War Two, named their collection the Escape Museum (Fluchtmuseum). After the war the collection was kept at the Town Museum and was transferred to the “State Palaces, Castles and Gardens of Saxony” in 2012.