Rare ALLGEMEINE SS pictures...help to identify the place!!

[max history]

And here they are from the air (courtesy of Google Earth).
Max.

[corporalSteiner]

v interesting and helpful posts-are the guards' bayonet ends strangely truncated?i can see no 'point' on either of them.

[Gauleiter]

Thank you Max, Rob and Ramon for the fast and more than precious reply!Thanks to you all this seems to assume the aspect of a real "then & now" thread!!!
Alex

[Gauleiter]

v interesting and helpful posts-are the guards' bayonet ends strangely truncated?i can see no 'point' on either of them.

You are abslutely right,bayonts seems to be troncated and with a fatter blade than common but seeing clearly on the scan the blades are normal but I really don't understand why they are in this way.
maybe we can post picture of them in the right discussion maybe into the edged weapons section?
thanks for your interest!

[Bill Murray]

An observation and a question.

I believe the truncated look to the bayonets is because the scabbard/cover is fitted. They were of course "fatter" and more blunt than the actual bayonet.

I have no background in historical sites and this may be a dumb question, but why have the local or Federal government let this site fall into such a terrible condition??

The only thing I can assume is that it's connection to the prior regime makes it politically unacceptable to maintain it in it's original condition but I thought a lot of TR buildings and sites have been preserved for historical purposes.

Maybe someone here can enlighten me.

Bill Murray

[Gauleiter]

An observation and a question.

I believe the truncated look to the bayonets is because the scabbard/cover is fitted. They were of course "fatter" and more blunt than the actual bayonet.

I have no background in historical sites and this may be a dumb question, but why have the local or Federal government let this site fall into such a terrible condition??

The only thing I can assume is that it's connection to the prior regime makes it politically unacceptable to maintain it in it's original condition but I thought a lot of TR buildings and sites have been preserved for historical purposes.

Maybe someone here can enlighten me.

Bill Murray

Hello Bill and thanks for your post.If you see the picture on the post numer 2 you will see that the bayonets scabbards are on the regular side of the soldier!!!So the mystery of the truncated bayonets is rising!!About the terrible conditions of the site, I think that Max or Rob will answer with historical cognition.I can assume only that maybe it'a private property or maybe there is no economical interest to restore it...

[Bill Murray]

Hi Gauleiter:

HMMM.
Well maybe both of us are correct. I know very little about edged weapons either, soft skin vehicles is my field. But...I wonder if it is possible that either the bayonet holder on the soldier's hip also holds a bayonet in it's scabbard or that they just placed another scabbard on the bayonet on the rifle??

I know in this country, soldiers who stand guard at various public places like this must have their bayonets with the scabbard on them. They also have no ammunition for the weapons, it is strictly ritual.

As to the condition of the site, I will wait to hear further from people with more expertise than I have. To me it is an interesting question.

Bill

[Panzer Rob]

Thank you Max, Rob and Ramon for the fast and more than precious reply!Thanks to you all this seems to assume the aspect of a real "then & now" thread!!!
Alex

Rob

[Todd Gylsen]

Here are a couple more period images of this place. In the first photo you can catch a glimpse of the guard on duty.

[Todd Gylsen]

Another view.

[gew98]

Not a mystery on the bayos to me. For training and in this case public why would the tips not be clipped. Clipping the points off the bayonets limits the chance of any accidental "stabbing" in types of bayonet training and in such ceremonial guard jobs.
So what is this "temple" and it's bronze(?) caskets ?.

[Gauleiter]

Here are a couple more period images of this place. In the first photo you can catch a glimpse of the guard on duty.

Thank you Todd for the precious post and photos!!Alex

[jmehner]

Well,

the Ehrentempel was strictly a Third Reich thing honouring the fallen of the putsch of 1923 and the occupational government would have been the first to see it razed, since it had no connection to German history prior to Adolf Hitler.

Many of the other Third Reich buildings are still in existence today (denazified of course) because the various armies of occupation gladly used them as administration buildings (IG Farben in Frankfurt became V corps HQ) or barracks (including the SS Kasernen in Nuremberg).

Cheers,

JM

[Bill Murray]

Thank you jm, as always.

I will assume then that the Allied Forces more or less picked and chose which TR buildings to keep depending on their needs and either destroyed or left to decay the ones that had no "practical" use.

I have learned something I did not know and that is always good.

Bill

[Tora_Tora_Tora!]

What a wonderful thread…it seems not only a "then & now" but also a lesson of the architecture history...these are lovely threads where each one of us have the real opportunity to discover an hidden world behind the simple concept of "militaria"!!
It’s real sad to see in which state fall now the Ehrentempel, this was one of the first example of the nazi theory of the architecture as religion ruled by a severe way of construction and preserving which ,consequently, taken and brought the theory of the “Value and Ruin” die Theorie Vom Ruinenwert of Albert Speer who tried to avoid use of materials not “naturals” like steel or concrete but all similar to the classical schemes of architecture which seems to be, still nowadays in some cases, without any concept of time and space but simply eternal.
I don’t understand too why german government doesn’t finance for a preservation of it, this should be also of a great interest for the cultural tourism.
Fabrizio

P.S. Gauleiter, pm sent.