Nuremberg, part 2 – Germany Trip Blog Post #12

Uff-da, as my sister Pat would say. Here we are, the last official blog post from my trip to Germany in May (I might share one more silly post next week). We saw so much, heard so much history, and took so many pictures. And forgot a lot of what our tour guides said. As much as I hate relying on the internet, I have looked stuff up on every one of these twelve posts. Anyway.

There we were in the wind and rain on May 12 to be reminded of what one man’s plan was for Germany, and perhaps the world.

Ever since I was in high school, when I heard the name of the city of Nuremberg, I pictured the films of the Nazi rallies held there. I’m sure you’ve seen the same movie, where the Nazi soldiers are parading, goose-stepping, passed Adolf Hitler. Then Hitler gives a speech, shouting the words, saying that Germany is a great country and that her people deserve to live long, prosperous lives, and that he is here to make that happen. Or something like that. And the thousands of people attending thrust their right hands into the air and shout “Heil, Hitler!”

I always thought the road where those rallies were held was just that – a wide road next to an empty field where a stadium had been built and maybe some bleachers had been set up somewhere around Nuremberg. I never knew that those grounds were part of Hitler’s greater plan.

This plan encompassed over two-thousand acres and was going to include: a deployment area, the "Old Congress Hall", the “New Congress Hall”, a Zeppelin Field, a March Field, the German stadium, the "stadium of the Hitler Youth", the "Great Road” (never-used parade road), and the “House of Culture”.

Taken from the Nurembgerg website:

The structures at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds were intended both to impress and to intimidate, to impose discipline and to build a sense of community. Architecture was placed in the service of propaganda and shows of strength. As the self-appointed "Builder-in-Chief," Hitler was often concerned with even small details of his great construction projects. From 1934 onward, he tended to prefer Albert Speer as the architect to carry out his fantasies of domination. Hitler engaged Speer not only to build the Nazi Party Rally Grounds – by 1950 he was also supposed to rebuild Berlin as the "World Capital Germania." Only a few components of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds were ever actually finished. Others never got beyond the foundations or half-completed shells. Work essentially ceased when the Second World War began. But planning still continued until shortly before the war's end.

(Click this link for a map of what the grounds would look like.) 

I took what pictures I could, but the weather outside was horrible and the rest of the pictures were taken from inside our bus.  

We also stopped at the Hall of Justice, where the war crimes trial was held. You need to watch the 2025 movie, “Nuremberg”.

I hope this post gave you something to think about.