Today i made a little trip to Nuremberg and i had the chance to visit the "Reichsparteitagsgelände" once more. I thought you may like to see some pictures and videos of this place so i decided to make a video about it. My main goal was to show you how those congresses looked like and how the site looks today compared to the past. Here is some further information about each building shown in the video: The Zeppelinfeld (Zeppelin Field): It is located east of the Great Road. It consists of a large grandstand (Zeppelinhaupttribüne) with a width of 360 metres (390 yards) and a smaller stand. It was one of Albert Speer's first works for the Nazi party and was based upon the Pergamon Altar. The grandstand is famous as the building that had the swastika blown from atop it in 1945, after Germany's fall in World War II. The name "Zeppelinfeld" or "Zeppelinwiese" refers to the fact that in August 1909 Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin landed with one of his airships (LZ6) in this location. From 1947 to 1995 the Nurnberg American High School, a DoDDS facility, used the field (called 'Soldiers Field') for high school football and American football practice. In the 1970s, the pillars were removed for safety reasons. Years of neglect had taken their toll. The rest of the stand is intact and used as the centerpiece of the Norisring motor racing track. The German leg of the traveling heavy metal festival Monsters of Rock was held here twice during the 1980s. Another part of the grounds is home to a campground. The Congress Hall (Kongresshalle): It is the biggest preserved national socialist monumental building and is landmarked. It was planned by the Nuremberg architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff. It was planned as a congress centre for the NSDAP with a self-supporting roof and should have provided 50,000 seats. It was located on the shore of and in the pond Dutzendteich and marked the entrance of the rally grounds. The building reached a height of 39 m (128 ft) (a height of 70 m was planned) and a diameter of 250 m (820 ft). The building is mostly built out of clinker with a facade of granite panels. The design (especially the outer facade, among other features) is inspired by the Colosseum in Rome. The foundation stone was laid in 1935, but the building remained unfinished and without a roof. The building with an outline of an "U" ends with two head-buildings (aerial photo). Since 2001, the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände (Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds), with the permanent exhibition Faszination und Gewalt (Fascination and Terror), has been located in the northern wing. In the southern building, the Serenadenhof, the Nürnberger Symphoniker have their domicile. Great Road (Große Straße): The great road is almost 2 km (1.2 mi) long and 40 m (130 ft) wide. It was intended to be the central axis of the site and a parade road for the Wehrmacht. In its northwestern prolongation the road points towards Nuremberg Castle. This was to create a relation between the role of Nuremberg during the Third Reich and its role during medieval times. The road reached from the Congress Hall to the Märzfeld, the construction work started in 1935 and was finished in 1939 (it has never been used as a parade road, as due to the beginning of World War II, the last rally was held in 1938). The pavement was made of granite pavers in black and gray with edges of exactly 1.2 m (3.9 ft). A representative entrance portal and two pylons were planned at the northwestern end of the Great Road. Near the entrance area of the German Stadion a grandstand with a hall of pillars was planned for the government leaders and generals which were to take the salute on Wehrmacht formations which were to march in direction of the parade ground Märzfeld. After the war, the road was used as a temporary airfield for the US Army. Nowadays, it is used by the nearby Nuremberg fair and exhibition company as an occasional parking area for highly frequented fairs. (Wikipedia) I don´t own the rights for the music in this video. I don´t own the rights for the movie clips in this video.

• published: 03 Oct 2014
• views: 327