[Bigg Red]

Spandau Ballet

AI:

Spandau Prison, located in West Berlin’s Spandau district, served as the detention site for seven top Nazi war criminals sentenced at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. Built in 1876, the prison was originally a military detention center and later used by the Nazis as a transit point for political prisoners destined for concentration camps. From July 1947, it housed the seven convicted leaders: Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, Karl Dönitz, Konstantin von Neurath, Erich Raeder, and Walther Funk.

The prison was jointly administered by the four Allied powers—the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union—each taking turns running it every three months. Conditions were strict: inmates were forbidden from writing diaries, had limited family visits, and were referred to only by numbers. The Soviets were known for the harshest treatment, reflecting their immense wartime losses.

The term “Spandau Ballet” was used by someone — don’t know who — to describe the movements of the Nazi war criminals as they were hanged at Spandau Prison.

The band you refer to just borrowed that term as their name. I didn’t care for their sound. This is one song I remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR8D2yqgQ1U

[Bigg Red]

Oops! Excuse the formatting error. The AI info ends with “...wartime losses.” The rest is what I added.

[little jeremiah]

Thank you!

[stylin19a]

also, FWIW...Spandau was a weapons manufacturer for Germany in WW1.
Spandau was slang for German machine guns and "Spandau Ballet" sometimes described the spasms of soldiers dying from gunfire while tangled in barbed wire.

a footnote re: the band name
...band members verified the name came from graffiti scrawled on a wall—typically described as in a nightclub bathroom or toilet stall. One common version of the graffiti was something like Rudolf Hess, all alone, dancing the "Spandau Ballet"

[stylin19a]

I apologize. I meant to post to “all”.