Inner Court of the Nazi Party’s Never-Completed Congressional Hall
This shows approximately 30% of the inner court of the Nazi Party’s never-completed Congressional Hall (Kongresshalle)(Kongreßhalle). Its construction with forced labor on the shore of Nuremberg’s Dutzendteich (Dozen-Pool) Lake began in 1935 and ended with Nazi Germany’s defeat. This gigantic chamber was designed to seat 50,000 people, and its skylight-equipped roof would have spanned the entire space without columns for support. In accord with Adolpf Hitler’s grandiosity and the Third Reich’s use of individual-dwarfing “intimidation architecture,” the exterior of this thick, curved structure–clad on the outside with a granite facade–was designed as an upscaled (150%) facsimile of Rome’s Coliseum. Its intended outer diameter of 250 meters (820 feet) was achieved, but the Allied Forces’ invasion halted construction at the current height of 39 meters (128 feet)–well short of the intended, roof-including height of 70 meters (230 feet). The parked tour bus in my picture provided a welcome reference scale to show the size of this structure. Imagine how much more intimidating the finished structure would have been if the cavernous roof had arched 80% higher than the current wall! The structure’s northern wing now contains The Documentation Center (Dokumentationszentrum), whose "Fascination and Terror" exhibition extensively documents not only the atrocities of Nazi Germany but also the insidious processes by which Germany’s pre-Nazi democracy was perverted into the Nazi nightmare. This latter documentation, like Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, is frighteningly relevant today to every democracy. 12 July 2015, Documentation Center, Nazi Party Rallying Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände), Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bavaria (Bayern), Germany (Deutschland).
2015-07-12 GGP07437 Nuremberg Scale of Kongresshalle.jpg
Inner Court of the Nazi Party’s Never-Completed Congressional Hall
This shows approximately 30% of the inner court of the Nazi Party’s never-completed Congressional Hall (Kongresshalle)(Kongreßhalle). Its construction with forced labor on the shore of Nuremberg’s Dutzendteich (Dozen-Pool) Lake began in 1935 and ended with Nazi Germany’s defeat. This gigantic chamber was designed to seat 50,000 people, and its skylight-equipped roof would have spanned the entire space without columns for support. In accord with Adolpf Hitler’s grandiosity and the Third Reich’s use of individual-dwarfing “intimidation architecture,” the exterior of this thick, curved structure–clad on the outside with a granite facade–was designed as an upscaled (150%) facsimile of Rome’s Coliseum. Its intended outer diameter of 250 meters (820 feet) was achieved, but the Allied Forces’ invasion halted construction at the current height of 39 meters (128 feet)–well short of the intended, roof-including height of 70 meters (230 feet). The parked tour bus in my picture provided a welcome reference scale to show the size of this structure. Imagine how much more intimidating the finished structure would have been if the cavernous roof had arched 80% higher than the current wall! The structure’s northern wing now contains The Documentation Center (Dokumentationszentrum), whose "Fascination and Terror" exhibition extensively documents not only the atrocities of Nazi Germany but also the insidious processes by which Germany’s pre-Nazi democracy was perverted into the Nazi nightmare. This latter documentation, like Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, is frighteningly relevant today to every democracy. 12 July 2015, Documentation Center, Nazi Party Rallying Grounds (Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände), Nuremberg (Nürnberg), Bavaria (Bayern), Germany (Deutschland).
2015-07-12 GGP07437 Nuremberg Scale of Kongresshalle.jpg