already started at the Führer Headquarters before the project was officially commissioned by Hitler in 1941. As a permanent German possession, it was acknowledged that some arrangements would have to be made for its resident seamen and their accompanying families. Hitler concluded that this new harbor would make the construction of an accompanying city inevitable, with living accommodations for 250,000 inhabitants. He dubbed the new settlement Nordstern ("Northern Star"). To organize and carry out the necessary planning for the new project, Hitler appointed Albert Speer, at the time his favorite architect and later Minister of Armaments in his Cabinet. On 1 May 1941, Speer received the necessary information on the spatial and structural requirements for a large shipyard from Vizeadmiral of the Oberkommando der Marine (Naval High Command; OKM). He reported to Hitler on the project at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, accompanied by Großadmiral Erich Raeder on 21 June. During this meeting, Hitler determined the precise building site for the city, while also deciding that a large, sub-surface submarine base was to be blasted into the granite cliffs. He further discussed the future city and its military base during an armaments conference on 13 May 1942. In 1943, the first ground detonations were begun. To provide the construction site with labor, a prisoner-of-war camp was built in Øysand. A reserve landing strip for airplanes was also put in place. Special maps were prepared for Hitler from which he studied the optimum positions for the docks and accompanying structures. A metres-wide, highly detailed miniature model was also built for him, which was destroyed during an Allied bombardment in Berlin in 1945. Abandonment of the project After the course of the war turned against Germany, construction was eventually stopped and put on indefinite hold. After the destruction of the Tirpitz in November 1944, most of the naval leadership was sacked and the plan abandoned permanently. The few existing remains of the concrete foundations can still be seen on the shores of Trondheim Fjord. Location, size and plans It was decided that the city was to be built in the wetlands of Øysand, to the southwest of Trondheim. It was supposed to provide living quarters for about 300,000 German inhabitants (more than three times the size of 1940s Trondheim), and for this purpose 55,000 residential houses were to be built on an area of approximately 300 ha. The city was also to