Nazi architecture

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146III-373, Modell der Neugestaltung Berlins ("Germania").jpg's plan for Germania (Berlin) formulated under the direction of Albert Speer, looking north toward the {{Lang|de|Volkshalle|italic=no}} at the top of the frame]]

File:Berlin Finanzministerium Wilhelmstr asv2019-07.jpg

File:Urzad Wojewodzki (cropped).jpg (formerly Breslau)]]

File:Haus der Kunst - Munich - 2013.jpg|italic=no}} art museum in Munich]]

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".Nazi architecture, in "Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture", 2006, p. 518.

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 décor created "an impression of simplicity, uniformity, monumentality, solidity and eternity," which is how the Nazi Party wanted to appear.{{Cite journal|last=Espe|first=Hartmut|date=1981|title=Differences in the perception of national socialist and classicist architecture|journal=Journal of Environmental Psychology|volume=1|issue=1|pages=33–42|doi=10.1016/s0272-4944(81)80016-3|issn=0272-4944}}

Greek and Roman influence could also be seen in Nazi architecture and typography, as they drew inspiration from monumental architecture of ancient Rome and Greece to create a sense of power. The Nazis also shut down the Bauhaus movement, which emphasized functionalism and simplicity.

The Nazi regime also staged several "Degenerate Art" exhibitions to condemn modern art as harmful to German culture. This led to the persecution of many artists and architects, including members of the Bauhaus movement.

The Volkswagen was also a product of Nazi architecture and industrial design. Hitler commissioned Ferdinand Porsche{{Cite web |title=Volkswagen is founded |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/volkswagen-is-founded |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=History.com |date=13 November 2009 |language=en}} to design a "people's car" that was supposed to be affordable and accessible to all Germans, which resulted in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle.

Adlerhorst bunker complex looked like a collection of {{Lang|de|Fachwerk}} (half-timbered) cottages. Seven buildings in the style of Franconian half-timbered houses were constructed in Nuremberg in 1939 and 1940.{{Cite web|url=https://museums.nuernberg.de/documentation-center/the-site/the-nazi-party-rally-grounds/information-system-rally-grounds/point-15/|title=15. Transformer Building and Workers' Housing | General Plan of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds}}

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.{{Cite book |title=The architecture of oppression: the SS, forced labor and the Nazi monumental building economy|last=Jaskot|first=Paul B.|date=2000|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0203169654|location=London |oclc=48137989}}

Greek and Roman influence

File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1986-029-02,_"Germania",_Modell_"Große_Halle".jpg]]

Hitler was fascinated by the Roman empire and its architecture, which he imitated with a stripped-down style called "starved neo-Classicism." In 1934, he put Albert Speer in charge of building construction and began an ambitious program to create massive public buildings, including a Führermuseum in Linz, Austria. Hitler had a long-standing vision for a monumental Volkshalle or Grosse Halle, and Speer created a design for a building that would dwarf any structure in existence at the time, with a seating capacity of 180,000 and a dome 16 times larger than that of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The building was meant to inspire awe and emphasize the power of the Nazi state, rather than any spiritual or religious sentiment unlike Roman or Greek buildings.{{Cite web |title=Nazi Architecture: Hitler's Grandiose Plans for Imperial Berlin - Articles by MagellanTV |url=https://www.magellantv.com/articles/nazi-architecture-hitlers-grandiose-plans-for-imperial-berlin |access-date=2023-04-03 |website=www.magellantv.com}}

= Typography =

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The Nazis wanted to bring all aspects of society together under a process called Gleichschaltung. It began immediately after the Nazis came into power. They used propaganda, censorship, and mass rallies to enforce their message. The new typography was inspired by Classical Roman Imperial letterforms, which was Hitler's own preference.{{Cite book |author=Aynsley, Jeremy |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/723452550 |title=Graphic design in Germany 1890 - 1945 |isbn=0-500-51007-5 |oclc=723452550}}

Welthauptstadt Germania

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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.{{Cite journal |last=Griffin |first=Roger |date=2018-05-05 |title=Building the Visible Immortality of the Nation: The Centrality of 'Rooted Modernism' to the Third Reich's Architectural New Order |journal=Fascism |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=9–44 |doi=10.1163/22116257-00701002 |issn=2211-6249|doi-access=free }} 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 {{Lang|de|Große Halle}} (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=

File:Haus des Meeres - panoramio (7).jpg|italic=no}}]]

File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1987-003-09A,_Berlin,_Neue_Reichskanzlei,_Innenhof.jpg with Arno Breker's two statues, completed in 1939]]Greater Vienna was the second-largest city of the Reich, three times greater than old Vienna.{{Cite web|url=https://www.azw.at/en/event/vienna-the-pearl-of-the-reich-planning-for-hitler/|title = Exhibition: »Vienna. The Pearl of the Reich« Planning for Hitler}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wien.gv.at/english/history/overview/nazi.html|title = Vienna under the Nazi-Regime - History of Vienna}} Three pairs of concrete flak towers were constructed between 1942 and 1944; one of them is known as {{Lang|de|Haus des Meeres}}, another one, Contemporary Art Depot (currently closed).{{Cite web |last=Chornyi |first=Maxim |date=3 November 2017 |title=Vienna Luftwaffe Anti Aircraft Flak Towers today |url=https://war-documentary.info/vienna-flak-towers-flakturm/}}

=Linz=

Linz was one of the Führer cities. Only Nibelungen Bridge was constructed.{{Cite web|url=https://www.kunstdatenbank.at/the-fuehrers-prerogative-and-the-planned-fuehrer-museum-in-linz|title = The "Führer's prerogative" and the planned "Führer Museum" in Linz - Art Database}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.berliner-mieterverein.de/magazin/online/mm1106/110614.htm|title = Der Wohnungsbau der Nazi-Zeit – Unbekanntes Erbe|date = 28 November 2006}}{{cite book|title=Berliner Wohnungsbau 1933 – 1945|url=http://www.reimer-mann-verlag.de/pdfs/302786_1.pdf|first=Michael|last=Haben|publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag|location=Berlin|date=2017|isbn=978-3-7861-2786-4}}{{Cite web |title=Grüne Stadt | Michail Nelken |url=https://www.michail-nelken.de/index.php/wahlkreis-9/gruene-stadt/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420173756/https://www.michail-nelken.de/index.php/wahlkreis-9/gruene-stadt/ |archive-date=20 Apr 2021}} Volkswagen's city {{Lang|de|Wolfsburg|italic=no}} was originally constructed by the Nazis.

Degenerate Art

= Exhibitions =

File:Entartete_"KUNST"_Ausstellungsführer_30_Pfg._Degenerate_art_Exhibition_catalogue_front_cover_1937_Nazi_Germany_Propaganda_Otto_Freundlich_Der_neue_Mensch_(L'Homme_nouveau)_1912_No_known_copyright_restrictions_17-20_(3).jpg", 1937]]

The Nazis associated modern art with democracy and pacifism and labeled it "degenerate" due to supposed Jewish and communist influences. They sought to control art and favored more realistic and classical styles over avant-garde art. This was the result of disagreements among leaders, including Alfred Rosenberg and Joseph Goebbels, with Goebbels ultimately conforming to Hitler's preference.{{Cite web |title="Degenerate" Art |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/degenerate-art-1 |access-date=2023-04-11 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}}

In July 1937, the Nazi Party held two art exhibitions in Munich. The Great German Art Exhibition displayed works that Hitler approved of, while the Degenerate Art Exhibition showcased modern, abstract, and non-representational art that the Nazis deemed "degenerate." The aim of the exhibition was to encourage a negative reaction and portray it as a symptom of an evil plot against the German people. The exhibition attracted over a million visitors, and some of the art was later burned by the Nazis. However, being banned by the Nazis gave some of the artists a positive image, and they are now considered among the greats of modern art.{{Cite news |date=2013-11-06 |title=Degenerate art: Why Hitler hated modernism |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24819441 |access-date=2023-04-03}}

= Disposal of Degenerate Art =

In 1937, the Nazis took over 20,000 modern artworks. The next year, they made selling confiscated artworks legal and sold the artworks at a large auction in Switzerland, and In 1939, the Nazis burned 5,000 paintings they couldn't sell.{{Cite web |title="Degenerate" Art |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/degenerate-art-1 |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}}

= The Bauhaus =

The Bauhaus movement began in 1919, in Weimar, Germany. It was a school that brought together artists and craftspeople to pursue and master their crafts together in one place. The movement's aim was to create a utopian society for artists and designers. The first version of the school was under the leadership of Walter Gropius for nine years. The school then moved to Dessau in 1925, where Gropius designed the Bauhaus Building and several other buildings. The school moved to Berlin in 1932, but under constant harassment by the Nazis, it finally closed.{{Cite web |title=Bauhaus |url=https://www.history.com/topics/art-history/bauhaus |access-date=2023-04-16 |website=History.com |date=21 August 2018 |language=en}}

= Proponents of Nazi architecture =

Surviving examples of Nazi architecture

The Academy for Youth Leadership in Braunschweig
The Berchtesgaden Chancellery Branch office in {{Lang|de|Bischofswiesen|italic=no}}
The new terminal building at Berlin Tempelhof Airport
The widening of the Charlottenburger Chaussee in Berlin
The former Reichsbank building in Berlin
The {{Lang|de|Führerbau|italic=no}} in Munich
The {{ill|Gauforum|de|Gauforum Weimar}} in Weimar
The {{Lang|de|Haus der Kunst}} in Munich
The {{Lang|de|Kehlsteinhaus|italic=no}} in Berchtesgaden
The Ministry of Aviation building in Berlin
The Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg
The {{Lang|de|Olympiastadion|italic=no}} 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.

References

External links

[https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/holtorf/7.4.html A Theory of Ruin-value ], Cornelius Holtorf, last updated on 21 December 2004.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust website:
: [http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/BERBLD.HTM Photos: Third Reich Architecture in Berlin];
: [http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/MUNBLD.htm Photos: Third Reich Architecture in Munich].
[https://web.archive.org/web/20220928044824/https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/ns-regime/kunst-und-kultur/ns-architektur.html NS-Architektur] at LEMO – Lebendiges Museum Online.

Category:Architectural styles

Category:History of Berlin

Category:Culture in Berlin