🌍 Travel Blog S1E2: Exploring the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nürnberg
Our trip started at the end of April 2017 when me and my sister had a one-week holiday.
The trip started in the early morning. The roads were empty, but got fully packed in the next few hours. After six hours of driving through Austria and 1/4 of Germany, we finally arrived in Nürnberg.
(Rest stop in Bischofshofen, Austria)
First thing we saw was the "Kongresshalle". I've researched for parking spaces in the area before we went on our trip. I saw that they have a nice parking place in front of the "Dokumentationszentrum " and thought to my self: "Oh nice, we can park directly by the Congress Hall!". But when we were actually there, the real surprise came. There were so many people, that they needed to make some parking space inside of the Congress Hall! First I thought this sucks as I couldn't take photos without the parked cars, but then I thought that its kinda cool to have your car parked "inside" instead of outside.
(The Hall and artificial lake)
(The "inside" of it)
The Congress Hall was intended to serve as a congress center for the NSDAP with a self-supporting roof and should have provided 50,000 seats. The foundation stone was laid in 1935, but the building remained unfinished and without a roof. And now it serves as a parking space from time to time, oh well...
(How it should've looked like inside)
We went outside and decided to first make a little walk around the area. Later we wanted to visit the "Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände" (kinda like a museum) which is located inside of the Congress Hall as well.
("Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände" entrance)
The whole area was packed, and they even had the traditional "Herbstvolksfest" fair going on.
Next thing we saw was the "Große Straße" - Great Road, also packed with cars. The road is 2 km long and was intended to be the central axis of the site and a parade road for the Wehrmacht. The construction work started in 1935 and was finished in 1939. After the war, the road was used as a temporary airfield for the US Army.
(Great Road - "Große Straße")
(Map of the area)
We walked around the artificial lake "Großer Dutzendteich" to our next location, the "Zeppelinfeld". It was one of Albert Speer's first works for the Nazi party and the name itself refers to the fact that in August 1909 Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin landed with one of his airships in this location. The grandstand is famous as the building that had the swastika blown from atop of it in 1945, after Germany's fall in World War II. After the war the Nürnberg American High School used the field for high school football and American football practice. Nowdays its often used as the "Norisring" motor racing track or for various music festivals.
(Then/now photo, my best one so far)
(Landing of the Zeppelin in 1909)
Here are some photos of what it once looked like:
And photos of today:
(View of the "Zeppelinfeld")
After a long walk we came back to the Congress Hall. It was around 5:30 PM. Now we wanted to visit the "museum" as well, but unfortunately they told us that its opened only till 6:00 PM and said that we won't be able to see everything. Oh well, I guess I'll need to come back to be able to write about the museum as well.
All in all, It was a great experience and definitely worth a visit. I will return one day... need to visit that museum.
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Check out Episode 1 as well.
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