Nuremberg is the second-largest city in Bavaria (after Munich), and the largest in Franconia (Franken)
Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi era. Because of the city's relevance to German history and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions – the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held here from 1927.
After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events, a centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl, and made into a propaganda film called Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will). At the 1935 rally, Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for all Jews and other non-Aryans. A number of buildings were constructed solely for these assemblies, some of which were not finished. Today many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city.
During the Second World War, Nuremberg was the headquarters of Wehrkreis (military district) XIII, and an important site for military production, including aircraft, submarines and tank engines. Extensive use was made of slave labour. The city was severely damaged in Allied strategic bombing from 1943–45. On 29 March 1944, RAF endured its heaviest losses in the bombing campaign of Germany. Out of more than 700 planes participating, 106 were shot down or crash landed on the way home to their base.
On 2 January 1945, the medieval city centre was systematically bombed by the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces and about ninety percent of it was destroyed in an hour, with 1,800 killed and roughly 100,000 displaced. In February 1945, additional attacks followed. Nuremberg was heavily fortified but was captured by the US Army in a fierce battle lasting from 17 to 21 April 1945, which fought house-to-house and street-by-street against determined German resistance, causing further urban devastation to the already bombed and shelled buildings. Despite this degree of destruction, the city was rebuilt after the war and was, to some extent, restored to its pre-war appearance including the reconstruction of some of its medieval buildings.
Our visit to Nuremberg was to the Document Centre (based in part of the remains of the Nazi Congress Hall) and the Courthouse where the Nazi War Crimes Tribunals were held
Document Centre
The Congress Hall (Kongresshalle) is the biggest of the preserved national socialist monumental buildings. It was intended to serve 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 the Dutzendteich and marked the entrance of the rally grounds. The building is mostly built out of clinker with a facade of granite panels. The design is inspired by the Coliseum 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. 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 Nürnberger Symphonic have their base.
The permanent exhibition in the "Document Cenrtre" "Fascination and Terror" studies the causes and consequences of National Socialism. It describes the Nazi Party Rallies and explains the fascination they exercised upon participants and visitors. At the same time, the exhibition endeavours to explain what led to the National Socialists' criminal exercise of power and to reveal how the various causal factors were interrelated. The exhibition concludes with an examination of the problem that has been with Germany since 1945: how Germans should deal with the legacy left here in stone at the Party Rally Grounds by the National Socialists. The exhibition is structured in chronological order.
The individual exhibition rooms vary in size and structure. They range from corridors of just a few square meters in size to large halls. The exhibition area offers a total of 1,300 square meters of floor space. We did a self guided tour with an audio guide. There was not really enough time to take it all in, so we had to make do with only listening to a small fraction of the audios. In the end I was not impressed at the way the information was presented - yes, it is a very complex and difficult task to educate modern Germans on the rise and fall of the Nazis, but the permanent exhibition here falls short of educating visitors in the how, why and what happened in Germany at that time. It was even unclear as to what was going on at the whole rally grounds site both then and now - I have had to piece this together retrospectively
The entire 11 square kilometre site of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds was designed by chief Nazi architect Albert Speer with close input from Adolf Hitler. The site is designed on a grand scale to dwarf the size of the individual participants and to herd participants into larger groups to foster collective solidarity.
Congress Hall (5 on the above map) is the best preserved of the buildings on the site. This is where we saw the document exhibition. The Congress Hall was designed to be both the centrepiece of the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds as well as the entrance to it. This building, designed by local architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff and inspired by Rome’s Colosseum, was to be the building where the Nazi party discussed its agenda.
Now and then at Zeppelin Field
Zeppelin Field and Tribune stand - 11 & 12 on the above map. This was the site of the annual Nazi Party rallies where Hitler would address his followers. The area is now devoted to sport. The Zeppelin Field is divided into two soccer (football) pitches. The Tribune Stand is walled off by giant guardrails which were erected for car races, called the Norisring. The Tribune Stand has fallen into disrepair and sections are fenced off due to the risk of collapse. In 2013, the Nuremberg government, owning to their obligations of Never Forget/Never Again, launched a €70 million stabilization and renovation effort to protect the historical site from further deterioration. (The present photo is bottom right below)
The Great Road (6 on the above map) on the Nazi Rally Grounds was never used as the military parade ground that Hitler intended. In the waning days of the war, allied troops actually used it as an air strip. Today, it’s a parking lot for the nearby football stadium.
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Nuremberg Trials
Between 1945 and 1946, German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity were brought before an international tribunal in the Nuremberg trials. The Soviet Union had wanted these trials to take place in Berlin. However, Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the trials for specific reasons: The city had been the location of the Nazi Party's Nuremberg rallies. There was symbolic value in making it the place of Nazi demise. The Palace of Justice was spacious and largely undamaged (one of the few that had remained largely intact despite extensive bombing). The already large courtroom was reasonably easily expanded by the removal of the wall at the end opposite the bench, thereby incorporating the adjoining room. A large prison was also part of the complex
The first, and best known of these trials, described as "the greatest trial in history" by Norman Birkett, one of the British judges who presided over it, was the trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Held between 20 November 1945 and 1 October 1946, the Tribunal was given the task of trying 24 of the most important political and military leaders of the Third Reich (a full list of the men tried and the verdicts), though one of the defendants, Martin Bormann, was tried in absentia, while another, Robert Ley, committed suicide within a week of the trial's commencement. Not included were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels, all of whom had committed suicide in the spring of 1945, well before the indictment was signed. The second set of trials of lesser war criminals was conducted under Control Council Law No. 10 at the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT), which included the Doctors' Trial and the Judges' Trial.
Of the 12 defendants sentenced to death by hanging, two were not hanged: Martin Bormann was convicted in absentia (he had been, unknown to the Allies, killed while trying to escape from Berlin in May 1945), and Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before the execution. Goring committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged, and nobody knows how he obtained the poison. The remaining 10 defendants sentenced to death were hanged. Göring's body, as those of the other executed men, was displayed at the execution ground for the witnesses of the executions. The bodies were cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the Isar River.
Of the others, 7 were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and 3 were acquitted. 1 was judged medically unfit for trial - Krupp. and 1 committed suicide before being tried - Ley
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Nuremberg
The city of Nuremberg has an interesting centre and a large open air market. There is of course a cathedral, where on a Saturday, we watched the brides queuing up for their 30 minute splash and dash inside. We enjoyed kuchen and a beer at the cafe in the toy museum.
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