Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds

Geschichte

The Documentation Center Nazi Party Rallying Grounds is a museum in Nuremberg. It is in the north wing of the unfinished remains of the Congress Hall of the former Nazi party rallies. Its permanent exhibition "Fascination and Terror" is concerned with the causes, connections, and consequences of Nazi Germany. Topics that have a direct reference to Nuremberg are especially taken into account. Attached to the museum is an education forum.ArchitectureIn 1994 the city council of Nuremberg decided to establish the Documentation Center. Austrian architect Günther Domenig designed the museum, winning the 1998 international competition with his proposal to spear through the northern head of the building with a diagonal glass and steel passageway. Inherent in the gesture of this project is a pun on the name and a refutation of the chief Nazi architect Albert Speer who had directed a masterplan for this site including a Zeppelin Field, a stadium to hold 400,000, a March Field for military exercises, a Congress Hall for 50,000, and a 55m wide Great Road. This is where Speer had created the "cathedral of light" and where the Nazis drew nearly a million people in rallies between 1933 and 1938. These were captured on film by Leni Riefenstahl in Triumph of the Will. Domenig, the son of a Nazi judge, confronted his own personal history in addition to the history and Nazi architecture of the project's site. On 4 November 2001 the project was unveiled by Johannes Rau, then President of Germany.

"Von 1933 bis 1938 hielten die Nationalsozialisten in Nürnberg ihre Reichsparteitage ab. Noch heute zeugen die Reste der damals errichteten Großbauten von der Inszenierung dieser Propagandaschauen. Während der aktuellen Umbaumaßnahme des Dokumentationszentrums vermittelt eine Interimsausstellung ein umfassendes Bild der Geschichte des Areals sowie der Reichsparteitage. Auf dem 4 qkm großen Reichsparteitagsgelände selbst informieren Tafeln über die Historie des jeweiligen Standortes. Wichtiger Hinweis: Die bisherige Dauerausstellung ist aktuell geschlossen!"