Nuremberg decaying parade grounds

[Loggie]

Thought visitors to the political forum would find this article interesting.

Nuremberg has a problem with the decaying Nazi Party Parade Grounds. Tear down the buildings? Let them crumble to show how the thousand-year Reich failed? Or patch it up and hope no-one gets the wrong idea. What would you do?


http://www.thelocal.de/society/20130830-51681.html

[Br. James]

My mother had a number of favorite expressions that she'd use as the situation warranted; the one appropriate for this question seems to be: "You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't!" Now 68 years on, most of the major buildings of the NSDAP time throughout Germany have either been refurbished and put to post-war use -- for example, the Air Ministry and the Propaganda Ministry Buildings in Berlin and the House of German Art, the RZM Headquarters and the Führerbau and the Party Administration Building on the Königsplatz in Munich -- or they were so greatly damaged from the war that they were torn down shortly after war's end and in some cases, new construction now stands on those spots -- for example, Himmler's office at Gestapo Headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 8 in Berlin was destroyed and the property now stands basically empty as a memorial to the horrors that went on there, or the Reichschancellery Complex, the Foreign Office and the old President's Palace in Berlin where now stands a huge and sprawling series of apartment buildings just down the street from the former Gestapo Headquarters. Or, in the case of the Temples of Honor in Munich, an attempt to destroy them was taken by US forces after the war but their foundations were left as a memento of the Nazi era, and today they are an overgrown eyesore and a blight on the whole neighborhood of the Königsplatz.

A good deal of the developed rally grounds in Nuremberg remain to some degree intact, though the post-war zeal for erasing all memory of the Nazi time swept through there as it did elsewhere in Germany. The original Congress Hall and the Leopold Arena have been eradicated, though the War Memorial still stands as a silent reminder; much of the Zeppelin Arena rostrum still stands intact, though the field itself has been cut up and sectioned off for other purposes; the Hitler Youth Stadium not only still exists but is still used for events today (when I visited a little over a decade ago, a Rolling Stones concert was taking place there that evening!); the Great Avenue through the center of the grounds still exists, as does the never-completed New Congress Hall, and other areas of the grounds such as the camping field still stand.

So, my opinion would be to stabilize the remaining buildings -- which obviously attract great numbers of tourists each year -- and to use the opportunity to tell the story, yet again, in film, photos, words and guided tours into the future. Spend the money needed to preserve the past, and use it as a teaching tool for the benefit of the present and the future.

Br. James

[Loggie]

For those unaware, Geoff Walden has an outstanding web site ("Third Reich In Ruins") that presents and compares current and past photographs of Third Reich historical sites. Many have been greatly altered or destroyed. Sheridan kaserne at Augsburg is a recent example.

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/

[Coburg]

I last visited Nuremburg in 2008. I found the rally grounds fascinating although in a poor state of repair then.

I personally would like to see them stay. Germany has come to terms with its past and without being political, that era of history still fascinates people. I would be very sad to see it go and I think it would be regretted in the long term.

Jim

[Br. James]

Thanks for reminding us of Geoff Walden's excellent site; it is definitely a great resource!

Br. James

[Obersalzberg]

Ita being preserved and renovated. ...the local senate just pledged a huge sum for this purpose. Work starts next year

[Tony T-S]

Geoff's site is excellent. I've visited it many times.