Nazi architecture

Nazi architecture is the architecture promoted by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime from 1933 until its fall in 1945, connected with urban planning in Nazi Germany. It is characterized by three forms: a stripped neoclassicism, typified by the designs of Albert Speer; a vernacular style that drew inspiration from traditional rural architecture, especially alpine; and a utilitarian style followed for major infrastructure projects and industrial or military complexes. Nazi ideology took a pluralist attitude to architecture; however, Hitler himself believed that ''form follows function'' and wrote against "stupid imitations of the past".

While similar to Classicism, the official Nazi style is distinguished by the impression it leaves on viewers. Architectural style was used by the Nazis to deliver and enforce their ideology. Formal elements like flat roofs, horizontal extension, uniformity, and the lack of decor created "an impression of simplicity, uniformity, monumentality, solidity and eternity," which is how the Nazi Party wanted to appear.

Adlerhorst bunker complex looked like a collection of (half-timbered) cottages. Seven buildings in the style of Franconian half-timbered houses were constructed in Nuremberg in 1939 and 1940.

German Jewish architects were banned, e.g. Erich Mendelsohn and Julius Posener emigrated in 1933.

Forced labor

The construction of new buildings served other purposes beyond reaffirming Nazi ideology. In Flossenbürg and elsewhere, the Schutzstaffel built forced-labor camps where prisoners of the Third Reich were forced to mine stone and make bricks, much of which went directly to Albert Speer for use in his rebuilding of Berlin and other projects in Germany. These new buildings were also built by forced-laborers. Working conditions were harsh, and many laborers died. This process of mining and construction allowed Nazis to fulfill political and economic goals simultaneously while creating buildings that fulfilled ideological expression goals.

Welthauptstadt Germania

The crowning achievement of this movement was to be Welthauptstadt Germania, the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin following the Nazis' presumed victory of World War II. Speer, who oversaw the project, produced most of the plans for the new city. Only a small portion of the "World Capital" was ever built between 1937 and 1943. The plan's core features included the creation of a great neoclassical city based on an East-West axis with the Berlin Victory Column at its centre. Major Nazi buildings like the Reichstag or the (never built) would adjoin wide boulevards. A great number of historic buildings in the city were demolished in the planned construction zones. However, with defeat of the Third Reich, the work was never started.

Nazi Austria

Greater Vienna

Greater Vienna was the second-largest city of the Reich, three times greater than old Vienna. Three pairs of concrete flak towers were constructed between 1942 and 1944; one of them is known as , another one, Contemporary Art Depot (currently closed).

Linz

Linz was one of the Führer cities. Only Nibelungen Bridge was constructed.

Housing construction

The Nazis constructed many apartments, 100,000 of them in Berlin alone, mostly as housing estates e.g. in Grüne Stadt (Green Town) in Prenzlauer Berg. Volkswagen's city was originally constructed by the Nazis.

Proponents

* Hermann Bartels
* Peter Behrens
* German Bestelmeyer
* Paul Bonatz
* Woldemar Brinkmann
* Walter Brugmann
* Richard Ermisch
* Gottfried Feder
* Roderich Fick
* Theodor Fischer
* Leonhard Gall
* Hermann Giesler
* Wilhelm Grebe
* Johann Friedrich Höger
* Eugen Hönig
* Clemens Klotz
* Wilhelm Kreis
* Werner March
* Konrad Nonn
* Ludwig Ruff
* Franz Ruff
* Ernst Sagebiel
* Paul Schmitthenner
* Julius Schulte-Frohlinde
* Paul Schultze-Naumburg
* Alexander von Senger
* Albert Speer
* Paul Troost
* Rudolf Wolters

Surviving examples of Nazi architecture

* The Academy for Youth Leadership in Braunschweig
* The Berchtesgaden Chancellery Branch office in
* The new terminal building at Berlin Tempelhof Airport
* The widening of the '' Charlottenburger Chaussee'' in Berlin
* The former Reichsbank building in Berlin
* The in Munich
* The in Weimar
* The in Munich
* The in Berchtesgaden
* The Ministry of Aviation building in Berlin
* The Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg
* The in Berlin
* The NS-''Ordensburgen'' Krössinsee, Sonthofen and Vogelsang
* The Prora building complex in Rügen
* The Theater Saarbrücken in Saarbrücken
* The Mausoleum Schlesier-Ehrenmal in Wałbrzych, Poland
* The Lower Silesian Government Office Building in Wrocław, Poland.

See also

* Fascist architecture
* Führer Headquarters
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* List of Nazi constructions
* Reactionary modernism
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* Stalinist architecture
* Totalitarian architecture
* Urban planning in Nazi Germany
* Völkisch movement

References

Bibliography

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In Internet Archive (1941 edition by Reynal & Hitchcock, New York).
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In Internet Archive.
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External links

Cornelius Holtorf, last updated on 21 December 2004.
* ''A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust'' website:
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Photos: Third Reich Architecture in Berlin

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at LEMO – Lebendiges Museum Online.

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Architectural styles
History of Berlin
Culture in Berlin