German Tourism in Occupied France, 1940–1944

Abstract

For German Occupation personnel France became a place to exercise the tourism imaginary that had developed over the preceding generations in Germany as elsewhere. The Deutsche Wegleiter, a bi-weekly guide, offered tourism tips for German soldiers. Hitler set the tone with his tour of Paris, where he was famously photographed standing before the Eiffel Tower. The army organized tours for tens of thousands of German personnel. Sex tourism and gastronomic tourism featured prominently, with selected brothels and elite restaurants made available to German personnel. Tourist images of France may have inadvertently spared France the kind of “polonization” that occurred elsewhere during the war. The touristic iconicity of Paris may have helped spare it the fate of Warsaw during the war.