Table Of ContentBuilding Nazi Germany
Place, Space, Architecture,
and Ideology
Joshua Hagen
and
Robert C. Ostergren
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hagen, Joshua, 1974– author. | Ostergren, Robert Clifford, author.
Title: Building Nazi Germany : place, space, architecture, and ideology / Joshua
Hagen and Robert C. Ostergren.
Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019014920 (print) | LCCN 2019015891 (ebook) | ISBN
9780742567993 (ebook) | ISBN 9780742567979 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: National socialism and architecture.
Classification: LCC NA1068.5.N37 (ebook) | LCC NA1068.5.N37 H34 2019 (print) |
DDC 720.943—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019014920
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
List of Tables and Figures iv
Preface x
1 Statism, Totalitarianism, and National Socialism 1
2 Things to Take Your Breath Away: The Führer Cities 49
3 A Nazi Civic Spirit: Reordering Cities and Towns 100
4 From Chaos to Order and Back Again: Home, Hearth,
and Family Life 147
5 Turning Germans into Nazis: Mind, Body, and Heart 213
6 The Machinery of Conquest: The Military-Industrial Complex 274
7 Working toward Genocide: Camps of Confinement,
Enslavement, and Death 335
Epilogue: The Building and Breaking of Nazi Germany 385
Notes 401
Bibliography 452
Index 482
About the Authors 496
iii
Tables and Figures
TABLES
3.1 Time Line of Initial Führer Redesign Decrees 126
4.1 Net New Housing in Germany, 1919–1943 149
4.2 Housing Terminology 162
FIGURES
1.1 The Zeppelin Field at the Party Rally Grounds 2
1.2 Hitler Appearing in Propaganda for the Autobahn Motorways 7
1.3 A Stretch of Autobahn in the Foothills of the Bavarian Alps 9
1.4 The Congress Hall at the Party Rally Grounds 10
1.5 The Luitpold Arena at the Party Rally Grounds 12
1.6 Main Administrative Regions of the Nazi Party 16
1.7 Main Governmental Units in Nazi Germany 17
1.8 Potsdamer Platz in Berlin 20
1.9 Hitler Sketching Ideas for the Party Rally Grounds with
Liebel and Speer 27
1.10 Hitler Reviewing Architectural Plans with Troost 29
1.11 Hitler and Speer Collaborating on Architectural Plans 30
1.12 Giesler Reviewing Some Blueprints 33
iv
Tables and Figures v
1.13 An Eagle, Wreath, and Swastika Motif at Luitpold Arena
in Nuremberg 41
1.14 A Luftwaffe Radio Weather Station in Northern Germany 43
1.15 The German Architecture and Handicrafts Exhibitions 47
2.1 Hitler Revising Blueprints with Speer and Ruff 51
2.2 The Main Components of the North-South Axis and
Adjacent Projects in Berlin 58
2.3 Model of Hitler’s North-South Axis Planned for Berlin 60
2.4 The Round Plaza along the North-South Axis Planned for Berlin 61
2.5 The Great Hall Planned for the Northern End of the North-
South Axis 62
2.6 The Reich Sports Field Built for the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics 68
2.7 Tempelhof Airport in Berlin 70
2.8 The Aviation Ministry in Berlin 71
2.9 The Court of Honor Entrance to the New Reich Chancellery
in Berlin 72
2.10 Building Floor Plan of the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin 73
2.11 The Main Structures of the Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg 78
2.12 The Zeppelin Field’s Cathedral of Light at the Party Rally
Grounds in Nuremberg 79
2.13 Model of the German Stadium Planned for the Party Rally
Grounds in Nuremberg 80
2.14 Columns of Soldiers and Nazi Troopers Marching through
Nuremberg’s Old Town 84
2.15 The House of German Art in Munich 86
2.16 The New Führer Building Adjacent Munich’s Königsplatz 88
2.17 The Nazi Party Quartermaster and Material Control Office
in Munich 90
2.18 Model of Plans to Redesign Hamburg as Germany’s
Gateway to the World 92
2.19 Massive Concrete Test Footing for Hitler’s Planned
Triumphal Arch 99
3.1 Map of the Führer Cities and Other Major Building Sites 102
3.2 The Party’s Brown House Headquarters in Munich 105
vi Tables and Figures
3.3 The Redesigned Königsplatz in Munich 106
3.4 The Gau House in Nuremberg 108
3.5 Hitler Offers His Opinion of an Architectural Model to
Sauckel and Speer 112
3.6 Model of Weimar’s Gauforum 114
3.7 Sketch Showing the Saxony Hall Planned for the Gauforum
in Dresden 116
3.8 Map of Hitler’s Plans to Redesign Dresden 117
3.9 Model of the Gauforum in Augsburg 123
3.10 Hitler and His Entourage Touring Paris 132
3.11 The Kreis House in Weimar 136
3.12 The Community House in Riederau in Southern Bavaria 139
3.13 The Town Hall in Munich’s Pasing District 141
3.14 The House of German Law in Munich 142
3.15 Model of the Bückeberg Hillside Redesigned for the Reich
Harvest Festival 145
4.1 Propaganda Celebrating New Housing Construction 151
4.2 Maps Showing Hamburg’s Passageway Quarter before and
after Renovation 154
4.3 A Building in Downtown Nuremberg before and after Renovation 160
4.4 Low-Density, Single-Family Housing in Nuremberg 161
4.5 Standardized Designs Used in the Schottenheim Settlement
in Regensburg 164
4.6 Layout of the Schottenheim Settlement in Regensburg 166
4.7 Farmsteads in the New Adolf Hitler Koog 173
4.8 Detailed Diagram of a Homestead and Its Associated
Garden Plots 179
4.9 The School and Community House in the Lehndorf
Settlement in Braunschweig 186
4.10 The Community House in the Mascherode Settlement
in Braunschweig 189
4.11 Blueprints for Two Standardized Four-Room Apartments
in a Multistory Building 193
Tables and Figures vii
4.12 Layout for a Settlement of Larger Apartment Buildings
near Danzig 195
4.13 Drawing of Planned Residential Areas in Berlin’s
Charlottenburg District 198
4.14 Schematic for an Ideal Town of 20,000 Inhabitants 203
4.15 A Residential Layout That Mirrored the Party’s Structure 205
4.16 Central Place Theory Applied to the Kutno Area in Wartheland 206
4.17 Design for a New Settlement in the East Featuring
Geometric Layouts 207
4.18 The Living Room of Hitler’s Chalet in Obersalzberg 210
4.19 Speer’s Rather Unassuming House in Berlin 211
5.1 A New School on the Outskirts of Cologne 216
5.2 The Adolf Hitler School Planned for Hesselberg in Franconia 219
5.3 Map of Prominent Educational Facilities 221
5.4 The Order Castle Vogelsang in the Eifel 224
5.5 Model of the Order Castle Sonthofen in Bavaria 226
5.6 Model of the High Academy of the NSDAP Planned for
Chiemsee in Bavaria 233
5.7 Model of a Training Academy for the League of German
Girls in Braunschweig 234
5.8 Hitler Sketching Plans in the Dirt at His Berghof Estate
with Schirach 236
5.9 A Hitler Youth Home in Cologne’s Vogelsang Suburb 237
5.10 A Rustic Hostel near Husum in Northeastern Germany 240
5.11 The Theater in Saarbrücken Commissioned by Hitler 242
5.12 The German Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition 245
5.13 The Prora Seaside Resort on the Baltic Island of Rügen 250
5.14 The Evangelical Lutheran Melanchthon Church in Nuremberg 255
5.15 The Reformation Memorial Church in Nuremberg 257
5.16 The Annaberg Thingstätte Amphitheater in Silesia 261
5.17 The Two Temples of Honor Adjacent the Königsplatz Square
in Munich 267
5.18 The Tannenberg Memorial in East Prussia 268
viii Tables and Figures
5.19 One of the Giant Cenotaphs Hitler Ordered Built
across Europe 269
5.20 The Main Lobby of the Soldier’s Hall in Berlin 271
5.21 The Alt Rehse Medical Training Facility in
Northeastern Germany 272
6.1 A Modernist Factory near Berlin 279
6.2 The Opel Factory in Brandenburg an der Havel 280
6.3 Worker Housing and Community Center at Heinkel’s
Oranienburg Complex 281
6.4 The Heinkel Aircraft Works in Oranienburg, North of Berlin 282
6.5 Model of the Headquarters of Electrical Conglomerate AEG
Planned for Berlin 283
6.6 Map of the Salzgitter Complex and City of the Hermann
Göring Works 285
6.7 The Sontra Settlement in Central Germany 289
6.8 A Massive Four-Story Apartment Building in Nuremberg 292
6.9 Map of the Autobahn Network 297
6.10 A Straight Stretch of Nearly Completed Autobahn 299
6.11 An Autobahn Bridge outside Berlin 301
6.12 An Autobahn Service Station 302
6.13 Map of the Volkswagen Factory and City of the KdF Car 305
6.14 An Army Base in the Bavarian Alps 311
6.15 The Submarine Bunker at Saint-Nazaire, France 313
6.16 SS Barracks on the Northern Outskirts of Munich 314
6.17 Model of the Army War School Planned near Danzig 316
6.18 Model of the Greater Germany Infantry Regiment Planned
for Berlin 317
6.19 Map of Major Military Infrastructures and Hitler’s Field
Headquarters 318
6.20 Massive Gun Emplacements as Part of the Atlantic Wall
in Normandy 322
6.21 A Large Apartment Block with Attached Air Raid Shelters
in Munich 324
Tables and Figures ix
6.22 The Nearly Finished Flak Tower VIII in the Arenberg Park
in Vienna 326
6.23 A Plan for Emergency Housing Composed of Standardized
Prefabricated Components 330
7.1 A Reich Labor Service Work Camp 337
7.2 Aerial View of the Dachau Concentration Camp Complex 342
7.3 Map of Major Ghettos and Concentration, Euthanasia, and
Death Camps 343
7.4 Barracks at the Dachau Concentration Camp Shortly after
Liberation 344
7.5 Barracks and Fencing at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp
in Poland 350
7.6 Members of the SS Construction Office in Auschwitz Pose
for a Photo 351
7.7 A Surviving Section of Wall That Surrounded the Kraków Ghetto 363
7.8 Map of the General Plan East 365
7.9 Aerial Photo of the Auschwitz and Birkenau Area 370
7.10 Horse Stables Used as Prisoner Barracks at Birkenau 371
7.11 SS Architects at Work in the SS Construction Office at Auschwitz 372
7.12 Aerial Photo of Birkenau Concentration and Death Camp 373
7.13 Aerial Photo of Crematorium II and Crematorium III
at Birkenau 378
7.14 The Gatehouse Main Entrance to Birkenau 381
7.15 The Central Camp Sauna at Birkenau 383
7.16 Layout of the Central Camp Sauna at Birkenau 384
E.1 The Flooded Führer Bunker in Berlin in 1990 386
E.2 Dresden in Ruins in 1945 390
E.3 The SS Main Economic and Administration Office in Berlin 396
E.4 A Concrete Bunker to Protect Civilians in Berlin 397
E.5 The Voluminous Interior of the Congress Hall in Nuremberg 398
E.6 The Remaining Pedestal of One of the Temples of Honor
in Munich 400
