The Camp Klinkerwerk Brickworks was one of the most notorious satellite camps of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located near Oranienburg, north of Berlin. Established in 1938, it was created to support the Nazi regime’s ambitious construction plans led by Albert Speer, who envisioned rebuilding Berlin into the monumental capital known as “Germania.” The camp’s prisoners were forced to produce bricks and construction materials under extremely harsh conditions.
The brickworks consisted of clay pits, kilns, workshops, and industrial facilities where prisoners carried out exhausting manual labor. They dug clay, molded bricks, operated heavy machinery, and worked around intense heat from the kilns. Long working hours, inadequate food, poor sanitation, and frequent beatings by SS guards resulted in widespread exhaustion, disease, and death. The Klinkerwerk quickly gained a reputation among prisoners as one of the deadliest labor sites in the Sachsenhausen camp system.
As World War II progressed and large-scale construction projects were reduced, the function of the Klinkerwerk changed. The facilities were increasingly used for military production, including the processing of materials for the German armaments industry. Nearby industrial buildings, including the SS bakery, also relied on forced labor from concentration camp prisoners. Thousands of inmates from many occupied countries passed through the camp during the war.
Living conditions in the satellite camp were extremely overcrowded and unsanitary. Prisoners suffered from starvation, disease, physical abuse, and arbitrary executions. Many were transferred to the Klinkerwerk specifically for punishment because of its exceptionally brutal working conditions and high mortality rate.
In April 1945, shortly before Germany’s surrender, Allied air raids damaged parts of the Klinkerwerk complex. The remaining prisoners were then forced on evacuation marches as the SS attempted to empty Sachsenhausen ahead of advancing Allied forces.
Visit
The memorial is open to visitors at all times. It is an outdoor site featuring a short, raised walkway where information panels tell the story of the brickworks. Scale models provide an impression of the layout and size of the satellite camp. In addition to the brickworks, the bread factory, the harbor, and the shooting range are clearly visible on the model. The information path is wheelchair accessible.
