"This is why these buildings are not intended for the year 1940, or for the year 2000, but, rather, they should reach out, like the cathedrals of our past, into the centuries of the future."
Adolf Hitler in Nuremberg, 1937

The Nazis picked Nuremberg as venue for enormous rallies stretched over several days. The idea was to make an impression--good on the faithful, fear on the others. Nuremberg was selected because of its central location, as well as the connection to the former Holy Roman Empire (of German states). Once in power, Hitler gave his favorite architect, Albert Speer, the order to construct some permanent structures for the party rallies on an area of 11 square kilometers to the south of Nuremberg.

The first stop here should be at the Documentation Center, which not only has general information on the Nazi regime, but a special emphasis on the role this area played. Scale models and lots of audio-visual displays will make a lot clearer the size, role, and symbolism of the "monuments" planned for this area.

The largest building remaining from the Nazi period is the Kongresshalle, or Congress Hall, in which the Documentation Center is located. This closed U-shaped hall was designed to house 50,000 people under a huge roof with no underpinnings inside the hall itself. It was built to last the thousand years the Nazis predicted their empire would last. For years the people of Nuremberg wished to remove these buildings, but breaking them down would simply be too expensive and now they are under heritage protection. The Documentation Center occupies a small part of the building; the rest is used for storage. In a sense the building resembles the Coliseum, but oddly, at the time of construction, the only use envisioned for it was for the party rallies.

The building was never completed, but the outer walls were and are in surprisingly good condition. It took several minutes to walk to the rear of this huge building where one of the longest and best looking parking lots in the world is located. Huge granite slabs were laid in a Great Road 2 km by 60 meters. The road points towards the Kaiserburg in the north to symbolize the connection between the Führer and the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. It was misty when we visited so I’m not sure whether the castle can actually be seen on a clear day. Construction of this road continued, mostly with slave labor, even after the outbreak of the Second World War and it is the only one of the monuments that was actually completed. The US Army used it as a landing strip directly after the war, but nowadays it is being used as a parking lot for the nearby exhibition halls and sport fields.