Should a modern democracy preserve an architecture and landscape designed to glorify the 20th century’s most infamous dictator? And, if the answer is yes, how?
The city of Nuremberg has grappled with these questions for years. It is now about to embark on an €85m plan to conserve the vast Nazi party rally grounds designed by Adolf Hitler’s architect Albert Speer.
— The Art Newspaper
The enormous former Nazi party rally complex, with its Zeppelin Grandstand centerpiece, has been decaying for decades but—preserved and presented in the appropriate manner—could serve as a highly relevant educational landmark.
"We won’t rebuild, we won’t restore, but we will conserve," The Art Newspaper quotes Nuremberg’s chief culture official, Julia Lehner, saying. "It is an important witness to an era—it allows us to see how dictatorial regimes stage-manage themselves."
“We won’t rebuild, we won’t restore, but we will conserve. . . . It is an important witness to an era—it allows us to see how dictatorial regimes stage-manage themselves. That has educational value today.”
Their purpose is clear. What they want to maintain but not restore is a stark, massive, and ugly structure as a reminder. Time has stripped the building of whatever pretensions it once had, and there is no interest in returning to those or falsely glorifying a horrible past, as we see in Civil War monuments here. It does not beckon people once more to gather en masse, but rather remember what happened the last time they did so. Standing, sitting in this complex is now an act that leaves one naked, that exposes and questions motives for doing so. It is not unlike memorials to the Holocaust, such as Eisenman's, which the Germans do not want to forget either.
Architecture can be a physical presence that helps us remember, and not all that needs to be recalled is pleasant. I think that is what frightens me most about all our clean, transparent, forward looking buildings today, racing to cover our entire terrain and in doing so erasing the past, that they are blind, in fact oblivious. And when you inspect what they are looking at, looking forward to, you see they aren't looking at anything at all.
I'm going to trust the German people with this one.
All 13 Comments
Why? Just let it rot and crumble. Why the fuck are Europeans so obsessed with conservation of these monuments when there is so much else that can be done.
I assume you are American?
Should be the new HQ for Deutsche Bank.
or the Trump HQ
Isn't that Brutalism?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Yes, but we don't talk about it.
B
B fo sho. This style is stripped down classicism, not brutalism. Albert Speer was a shitty architect and a horrible human being.
Why on earth would you keep this around? Tear it down and build an organic farm on top.
The same question could be applied to the Johnny Reb (and other monuments) across the US. Point being- maybe someone needs it to be up to continue to do work.
Good point. It's impossible to look at these things without context, and the context is pretty shitty. We don't need them to learn from our mistakes.
turn it into a zombie nazi themed paintball arena.
Alexander Kluge did a great film on it called Brutality in Stone. I posted here on Architect while back. We didn't use key words back then.
https://archinect.com/news/article/85877/brutalitaet-in-stein
85 million could be much better spent. It's 85 million. And that's Euros.
Is it currently used for anything? Anything worth 85 million?
Go build a couple of more schools somewhere they're needed. Or some houses. How many dwellings will 85 million build? Two or three at least.
“We won’t rebuild, we won’t restore, but we will conserve. . . . It is an important witness to an era—it allows us to see how dictatorial regimes stage-manage themselves. That has educational value today.”
Their purpose is clear. What they want to maintain but not restore is a stark, massive, and ugly structure as a reminder. Time has stripped the building of whatever pretensions it once had, and there is no interest in returning to those or falsely glorifying a horrible past, as we see in Civil War monuments here. It does not beckon people once more to gather en masse, but rather remember what happened the last time they did so. Standing, sitting in this complex is now an act that leaves one naked, that exposes and questions motives for doing so. It is not unlike memorials to the Holocaust, such as Eisenman's, which the Germans do not want to forget either.
Architecture can be a physical presence that helps us remember, and not all that needs to be recalled is pleasant. I think that is what frightens me most about all our clean, transparent, forward looking buildings today, racing to cover our entire terrain and in doing so erasing the past, that they are blind, in fact oblivious. And when you inspect what they are looking at, looking forward to, you see they aren't looking at anything at all.
I'm going to trust the German people with this one.
"Time has stripped the building of whatever pretensions it once had, and there is no interest in returning to those or falsely glorifying a horrible past, as we see in Civil War monuments here. It does not beckon people once more to gather en masse, but rather remember what happened the last time they did so."
You're not paying attention.
I should clarify. There is no interest in this preservation project to return to the past and return the Third Reich to its glory. Of course there are other factions in Germany who want to do so. This project, I argue, won't encourage them. It is a relic now, not a monument. Nor is the project the same as Reconstruction monuments in the South some want to preserve and cherish, which did glorify a false and wretched past.
This pdf describes the project:
https://www.nuernberg.de/imper...
The mayor's statement makes their intentions clear:
With the National Socialists’ crimes against humanity in mind, particularly a democratic Germany is permanently called upon to do everything in its power to make sure that this will never happen again. The building relics in Nuremberg can serve to demonstrate how the criminal Nazi regime staged itself. Nowhere in the then German Reich rituals designed to align everybody with the “national community”, to create discipline and to prepare the people for war were held to the same extent. This makes the Zeppelin Grandstand and the Zeppelin Field outstanding historical places for learning which would also underline the importance of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds on the national and international memorial scene. Renowned academics therefore also consider the maintenance of the site to be necessary.
It is hardly a sentimental document, well worth reading. Lots of pictures as well. The Germans don't want to forget, and I don't, either.
And I didn't know this:
Until the 1990s, the Zeppelin Field was used mainly by the Americans – as a sports field and as a field for holding German-American popular festivals. It was only after the complete withdrawal of the US Army from its Nuremberg base in 1995 that this open field was available for the city again.
[The picture didn't go through. It was a shot of the team next to the stadium.]
US military baseball team on the “Soldiers Field“, around 1950.
LOL "Preventing crimes against humanity", meanwhile German banks (in concert with the global banking cartels) economically rape and pillage EU member states (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, etc.). Germany found a way to conquer Europe without an army.
Here it is:
The stains of a specific architectures past function fades over time, and is outlived by its purely architectural and historical presence. See Giza, coliseum, Aztec pyramids, colonial buildings, etc....architecture persists, evil fades...
On the other hand the stadium built in Berlin for the 1936 Olympics seems to have fared better. There are several plaques as well as a statue honoring Jessie Owens on the grounds. Go figure.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.