East German developers say hi-di-heil

The camp was intended to be the biggest package holiday complex the world had ever seen, a totalitarian Torremolinos to keep the Aryan faithful fit, happy and productive.

Since the war, Hitler's holiday facility at Prora on Germany's Baltic coast has been used as a barracks for the East German army and a venue for raves, but now a group of German entrepreneurs have come up with a plan to renovate it and turn it once again into a tourist attraction.

The £82m plan will transform the decaying Nazi-era buildings into a sport and leisure centre, with a 1,200-bed hostel, football stadium, marina, and golf course.

The short-term aim is to complete the renovation for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. But in the longer term, the aim is to attract more foreign tourists and create jobs for locals to stem the draining away of young people from the impoverished eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

No one ever holidayed here in Nazi times; the invasion of Poland forestalled that. The developers say this will be a subversion rather than a culmination of the Nazis' plans.

"Adolf Hitler wanted to have 20,000 German guests here," said the architect and manager, Kurt Dreher. "But if our plan succeeds we will have guests from every foreign country."

Mr Dreher and his associates envisage building a new multi-purpose centre, in a style reminiscent of the Millennium Dome, which will be used for sports events and conferences.

"We hope some of the World Cup teams will use this to train," he said.

On the foundations of a Nazi-era block demolished by Russian troops after the war, they plan a four-star hotel with space for 200 guests.

Meanwhile, one of the giant accommodation blocks still standing will be converted into a 1,200-bed hostel. Another block is earmarked for film and television studios.

Nicknamed "the Colossus" by locals, Prora has long been a headache for its owners, the federal government. The concrete monolith, built to a megalomaniac design approved by Albert Speer, was intended to give loyal German workers a seaside break on the Baltic island of Rügen.

The island, which enjoys balmy summers and was a favourite of Christopher Isherwood and other chic Berliners in the 1930s, is now pinning its hopes on a tourist resurgence.

But Prora casts a six-storey shadow over three miles of some of the best sandy beaches on the island; it is protected by a preservation order and cannot be knocked down.

The site is already home to a museum documenting its use as an East German army barracks, as well as an arts centre, but such inhabitants occupy just a fraction of the space.

Kurt Meyer, who runs the arts centre, said: "Binz [Ruegen's main town] is a very beautiful, up-and-coming sea resort, but it suffers because of Prora. I would like it if Prora did something positive for Binz. I do not believe it should remain a negative memorial."

But the historian Professor Thomas Stamm-Kühlmann expressed scepticism that any renovation could make Prora attractive: "Aren't these buildings much too cramped, too narrow and too overcrowded? They would be rejected by today's tourists."

The Nazi hierarchy intended that holidaymakers would be crammed together like ants and hectored during every waking moment by loudspeaker announcements telling them what to do with their leisure time. Its planners were quite clear that it would be used to indoctrinate workers as well as give them a holiday.

"Only sleep should be provided as free time," wrote Robert Ley, head of the Strength Through Joy movement for which it was built. "Organising one's free time on a private basis... has no sense of value for the German people."

The complex is a symbol of totalitarianism's "great madness", Prof Stamm-Kuhlmann said, as well as the Nazis' desire to turn Germans into cogs in their machine. "It is a kind of anticipation of the postwar new towns - people would live in mass quarters at home and go to mass quarters at the seaside for a vacation.

"Always moving in a mass - that's what the system wants."

The new plan for Prora has some practical problems to overcome, however. According to the federal property management office, whose approval is needed before work can start, question marks remain over whether a golf course would conflict with local environmental rules and whether a marina is feasible.

There is also scepticism about the numbers of tourists who will be attracted to Rügen in winter, when the sea has been known to freeze over.