The Case for Third Reich Culture – Part II: Architecture
(Next two paras are repeated but I thought we'd start off afresh)
Let’s start off with a historical perspective from the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, probably the most prestigious such meseum in the capital city. The original is in German so my translation follows (usual disclaimers apply).
Although at the beginning of the 1930s a diverse style strongly influenced by the Bauhaus movement still held sway, by mid-decade a monumental, neo-classical archtitecture had aspired to establish itself as expressing the absolute political power of the NS regime. National socialist architecture did not, however, bring forward in any sense a new and unique buiding form; instead it based itself firmly on the neo-classical genre of the previous century. On the other hand, most buildings [of the period] carry an unmistakable trace of a unique NS signature. Straightforward (but monumental) symmetry, strong rectilinear detail, minimal ornamentation, and solidly horizontal frontal stonework provided for a sense of impenetrability and permanence.
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So there we have it. NS architecture was by all accounts an unlikely amalgam of the Bauhaus-inspired mitteleuropäischen contemporary vernacular, that being readily apparent as a default even today in many thousands of buildings in German-speaking Europe from Hamburg to Bern to Vienna to Rostock, and the greco-roman classical style that was the norm throughout Europe for all public and also upscale private property in the 19C and earlier. It all sounds like a recipe for the proverbial dog’s dinner, but to the consternation of the philistines for whom nothing of any consequence or cultural value emerged from the Third Reich, it’s nowhere near the full story.
By way of example, some of the more important structures from the period are shown below focusing mainly on Berlin.
The Olympic stadium (arch. Werner March) built for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. This is a contemporary view (1936) of the main entrance, the Osttor.
This stadium is still in use today as the home ground for the Bundesliga club Hertha BSC, and it hosted the Final match of the 2006 World Cup. Here is a similar external view of the stadium today, little changed from its original design. One obvious change is the addition of the stadium roof and, of course, the removal of the sunwheel from the r.h. tower.
The stadium is only the centrepiece of a purpose-built complex which survived the war for most part remarkably intact. One famous area still in regular use is the former Thingplatz, more officially known as the Dietrich Eckart Freilichtbühne; this is now called the Waldbühne and often hosts pop and classical concerts for audiences up to 20,000. Like the rest of the Olympiagelände it has barely changed in over 85 years (except again for the roof).
Many of Berlin’s official buildings were severely damaged by Allied bombing while others were demolished after the war for political or ideological reasons, one such victim being the “new” Reichs Chancellery – more on that later. It is surprising however that more than 60 major buildings from the Third Reich era still survive in whole or in part in Berlin alone, and the majority are still used for official or government functions. This is testament to the excellence and practicality of the original designs and as well as the quality of construction. Pretty much the only changes that have been necessary in most cases have been the removal of Third Reich insignia.
A case in point in Goering’s Reichsluftministerium (RLM - Air Ministry) building on Wilhelmstrasse, designed by Ernst Sagebiel. At 56.000 m2 this was not only the largest building in Berlin at the time, it is also the largest surviving building from the period; here is a contemporary photograph from the 1930s:
After the war the building was occupied by government agencies of the DDR, and since reunification and relocation of the government to Berlin, it is still in use by the Federal Government, but minus of course the Third Reich regalia and the Breker artwork. Here is a contemporary view of the RLM at the junction of Wilhelmstraß and Leipzigerstraße – as can be seen, it’s barely changed.
The Deutschlandhalle at its opening in 1935 was the largest assembly hall in world. It was severely damaged in an RAF raid in January 1943 and not reopened until 1957. Here is the original incarnation in the final stages of completion:
And the interior This is not by the way the place where Goebbels delivered his famous ‘Total War’ speech in early 1943, that was the smaller and older Berliner Sportpalast. The RAF had already rendered the Deutschlandhalle unusable by that time.
The hall was still functioning for many years after the war as the major indoor sports, concert and congress venue for Greater Berlin until it was controversially demolished in 2014 and replaced by a generic ‘cube’.
And so to the ‘Jewel in the Crown’, Albert Speer’s masterpiece, the Neue Reichskanzlei or New Reichs Chancellery. Unfortunately for present generations the only physical evidence that still exists of this magnificent structure is the red marble cladding on the Soviet war memorial at Treptow.
Here are a few images of Speer’s masterwork, that was incidentally completed under budget and in two days less than the extremely ambitious twelve month timeframe that Hitler insisted upon.
This is the Ehrenhof where visiting dignitaries arrived. A daylight perspective highlighting the two Arno Breker statues, left die Partei and right die Wehrmacht.
Here is the streetside perspective, looking west down Voßstraße.
And here the Marmorgalerie or Marble Gallery much of which as noted earlier can now be seen adorning the Soviet war memorial. At 150m the gallery was twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
And finally, the Holy of Holies, das Führerarbeitszimmer. At 400 m2 with 10m ceilings this was the largest and most luxurious room of the entire complex, although Hitler was said to dislike it and only used it for ‘representational’ purposes, i.e. when he wanted to impress (or intimidate) a particularly prominent visitor. The large windows at the left opened out onto the Chancellery Gardens, under which lay the bunker where the Führer would end his days.
Although it was only slightly damaged during the Allied air raids, the Soviet authorities ordered its complete removal for fear that it might become a place of pilgrimage. Much later on, the entire empty site was taken over by the East Berlin municipality for a housing estate and that is what exists today. Since reunification of course both capitalism and diversity have taken root, and the following picture shows what exists today at the corner of Voßstraße and Wilhelmstraße, at one-time the SE corner of the New Chancellery. The entrance to the Ehrenhof would have been somewhere to the right of the second sign for the Peking Ente (Peking Duck), while just off camera to the right was the balcony from which Hitler would greet the crowds of his adoring followers who thronged along Wilhelmstraße on the off-chance of catching a glimpse of their hero.
And so on to “Germania”, which was the adopted name for Hitler’s vision for the reconstruction of Berlin as the Metropolitan capital of the 1000-year Reich. Most disparaging commentary has concentrated on the Grosse Halle, or more correctly the Volkshalle, which when seen alone can seem overwhelming especially when accompanied by scale figures. But the point remains that given the specified requirement to accommodate 150,000 people, what other configuration besides a dome might have been more appropriate?
Speer actually provides much more illuminating detail in
Inside the Third Reich particularly with respect to the overall general plan of which the
Volkshalle was merely an element, albeit an important one. The plan involved, amongst other things, the provision of 400,000 new dwellings, numerous parks and other green spaces, a complete realignment of Berlin’s railway and autobahn system, and specific provisions for concert-houses, theatres, galleries and upscale shopping districts.
Here is a view of the project, actually the model that Hitler commissioned. This is looking north along the North-South Axis. Note the Volkshalle at the top, and how it appears much more in scale in this view. The rectangular object north of the Hall is an ornamental pool; the two major structures at either end of the N-S axis were the two new railway stations that were proposed to replace Berlin’s existing termini (North Station not visible here). In between is the ‘Triumphal Arch’ which ignorant commentators claim is merely an outsize knock-off of the Arc de Triomphe, but which is actually modelled on Hitler’s own design from 1925 for a memorial to the dead of the Great War.
The other major architectural presence in the Third Reich was Paul Ludwig Troost, to whom is attributed the following observation concerning the buildings of the Third Reich:
"They shall be eternal; not contemporary, nor of the year 2000, but stretching into the millennia to come."Troost was more active in Munich rather than Berlin, so it is appropriate to include a couple of his contributions to the genre. First the Führerbau, which today still exists as the Municipal High School for Music:
Then the
Verwaltungsbau der NSDAP, or party HQ of the NSDAP – this was actually a symmetrically inverse twin of the
Führerbau, but on the other corner of the
Königsplatz. It currently accommodates several cultural institutions of the State of Bavaria although, like its twin, it is well overdue for renovation.
Most of the architectural credit for Third Reich building in Munich, a great deal of which which survives today and blends imperceptibly with the classical and Romantic fabric of that beautiful city, is due to Troost. Troost’s final contribution, completed after his untimely death in 1934 at the age of 55, was the
Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art). Nowadays in its present guise of simply ‘House of Art’ it is one of the principal cultural attractions of Munich albeit, ironically perhaps, as a treasure-house of what would have been termed ‘degenerate’ art in the Third Reich era.
For these reasons I propose that Troost, along with Speer and March are fully worthy of inclusion in the inventory of significant architectural figures of the 20th Century. This is clearly the case no matter what you feel about their politics or the dubious ends to which their genius might have been applied. The same goes of course for all of the architectural works mentioned here as well as the dozens of others that weren’t.
Intelligent commentary, including that of a dissenting nature, is invited. It goes without saying, of course, that aesthetic appreciation is very much a personal thing so let’s not have any juvenalia in that respect.
