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| Nuremberg rally grounds Nuremberg was transformed in the 20s and 30s into the location for the annual Nazi party rallies – massive propaganda exercises where Hitler and other leaders addressed the faithful from the iconic grandstand designed by the Führer’s favourite architect, Albert Speer. Since 1945, the Nuremberg rally grounds have been put to a variety of uses including parkland, an indoor arena, a football stadium and housing as well as a museum explaining Nuremberg’s role in the Nazi story. The city is planing whether to spend around €70m to prevent the grandstand from crumbling. |
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| Führerbau, Munich The Führerbau was Hitler’s building for entertaining while in Munich. In September 1938, it was the venue for the signing of arguably the least successful international deal of modern times – the Munich Agreement – which Britain and France wrongly believed would guarantee ‘peace in our time’. There’s no plaque commemorating the building’s role in the history of diplomacy – but inside, the room where Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler signed the Agreement, looks very much as it did in 1938. Today, 12 Arcisstrasse is a handsome but unremarkable building in a quiet street just north of the centre of Munich. It is home to the city’s University of Music and Theatre. |
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| Olympic stadium, Berlin Berlin had won the right to stage the 1936 Olympic Games before the Nazis came to power. Once installed as German Chancellor, Hitler was soon persuaded of the propaganda value they offered. Plans for the sporting facilities to stage the Games were made more ambitious and the centrepiece was the Olympic Stadium where the Nazis’ hopes that the games would demonstrate Aryan superiority were somewhat confounded by the achievements of the black American sprinter and long jumper, Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals. The Olympic stadium survived the destruction of much of Berlin, but was considered for demolition and replacement by a new stadium in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup. After much debate, a €242m (£187m) refurbishment was undertaken and today the stadium is regarded as one of the best in the world. |
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| Prora-Rügen holiday camp Work began in 1936 to create a holiday camp on the north German coast capable of accommodating 20,000 Nazis at any one time. The camp, at Prora-Rügen, was part of the Nazis’ ‘Strength through Joy’ programme designed to spread Nazi ideals to every aspect of German life. Building was halted on the outbreak of war in 1939 and no one ever had a holiday there under the Nazis. After 1945, the buildings, which stretched for three miles along the coastline, were used by the military. Today, however, despite some local opposition, a number of the blocks are being turned into luxury holiday apartments – thus realising their original purpose 75 years on. |
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| Hitler’s bunker, Berlin One of the concerns about the handling of Nazi sites in Germany has been the danger of them becoming neo-Nazi shrines. Perhaps the location at most risk of this is the bunker in Berlin where Hitler spent the last months of his life before committing suicide there in April 1945. Until the reunification of Germany in the early 90s, the site of the bunker was buried beneath the course of the Berlin Wall. Now, an apartment block and car park stands on the site, which is marked only by a simple interpretation board describing the significance of the location. |
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| Carinhall, Hermann Göring’s residence The Nazi leadership appropriated or built sumptuous private residences for themselves. Most were destroyed either by the Allies at the end of the second world war or a few years later by the postwar German authorities. Carinhall in the Schorfheide forest, about 50 miles from Berlin, was built in the 1930s for Hermann Göring but was destroyed on Göring’s own orders in 1945 as the Allies advanced into Germany. Today, only the gate pillars of Carinhall remain. |
Source: Nazi architecture, then and now – in pictures
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