Bauten aus der NS-Zeit – Wie damit heute umgehen?
With the Allied victory over the Nazi Dictatorship, with the sentencing of war criminals and the critical examination of the historical past in Germany has still not been worked up all traces of the Nazis.
were built during the Third Reich, many buildings, which at that time had a strong symbolic character and should demonstrate the power and the rule of the Nazis in material terms. As serious as this is certainly the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg
. The site is one of the greatest relics of the Nazi period in Germany (the total area is at least 16.5 km2) and had also 1933-1945 a unique representation and propaganda function. The held on the grounds of the Party Rallies were less internal party meetings with political issues, but served primarily as a demonstration of power and generating a sense of the Nazi 'national community "and were therefore a little to be underestimated propaganda of the Nazi Party.
What about now after the Nazi era of the "right" way of dealing with these sites from? The example of the Nuremberg Nazi party rally grounds, I would like to present options that show that in the course of the war over and over again to interest shifts and different attitudes Nazi architecture was.
In the first years after 1945 were demolished many buildings simply from. Sun 1959, the Luitpold Arena, a huge area that was used for parades and propaganda speeches was demolished. The resulting surface was transformed into a landscaped recreation park back. With this radical solution, however, there is a risk that the historical, which is particularly present in the crowd out, easy to use and to demolish. A reflected past work-up is essential, and could be relieved of authentic historical locations. In addition, according to the part of the historic preservation of the objection to appreciate the architectural value of such buildings. For this reason parts of the site were established in 1973, even as a historical monument.
The never-ending
Congress Hall, where would the actual party conventions to take place, was a long time used to urban exhibition purposes or as a yard further. Other places of the Party Rally Grounds were included in a pragmatic manner in the present: The Great Road, the main axis of the site, now acts as a parking lot. were performed on the March Field, the 600.000m2 large square on the maneuvers of the powerful army, was in the 1960s
built a housing estate that now a "very
normal "neighborhood is Nuremberg. The plan to transform
, the Convention Hall in a huge shopping and leisure center, in 1987, fortunately, never realized. Too large, the moral concerns raised by the citizenry.
Another way I like to the bite point "trivial use of" imagine. Thus, at the former Nazi party rally grounds already held many rock concerts (Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, etc.) or secular and religious events. Even the annual music festival "Rock in the Park 'is an integral part of the site is part of the stage and tent sites.
critics oppose such pragmatische und triviale Nutzungen ein, dass man dabei Gefahr laufe, den Ort zu verharmlosen. Das Gelände ist ein Symbol der Schreckensherrschaft der Nazis und ist überdies ein Zeugnis der breiten NSDAP-Anhängerschaft im Volk. So wurde zunehmend der Ruf laut, diesen Ort in einen historisch entsprechenden Rahmen zu betten.
Dieser Forderung wurde 2001 mit der Eröffnung des
Dokumentationszentrums Reichsparteitagsgelände nachgekommen. Das Dokuzentrum ist in der ehemaligen Kongresshalle stationiert und beherbergt neben einer Forschungsstätte auch ein Museum am „authentischen Ort“, das sich der allgemeinen NS-Geschichte mit dem Schwerpunkt Reichsparteitage widmet. In particular, the structural transformation of the building has been praised again and again. The Graz architect Günter Domenig cut the typical granite facade of the convention center from top to bottom and sat there up a pile of steel and glass. So the pile breaks with modern materials, the rigid architecture of the Nazis, thus producing both a symbolic as well as an architectural break with the violence and the power of the Nazis.
The brief statement about the handling of some buildings of the Reich Party Rally Grounds in 1945 shows that over time, different views were current. A larger temporal distance to the Third Reich, lessons learned and general discussions are still leading to be that the concepts of earlier rejected, amended or retained. What is the "correct" use of the site now is a complex discourse that requires great sensitivity and historical judgments. Whether you opt for a pragmatic, commercial or trivial use decisions, building unchanged worn or torn off, transforms it to museums or memorials on the authentic site, are decisions that must be taken case by case basis. Hardly a decision in principle from the start "right" or "wrong". Therefore it is necessary to rest such discussions can not, but again and again to ask whether this or that now is a worthy approach to history. This applies not only, but certainly in particular, for the Nazi past, but also for any other chapter of history.
Franziska Götz
(In the Commons of Wikipedia find more pictures of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. The two figures in this text are taken from there.) (see also memory culture )
