Nuremberg and the Beginning of the Nazi Party

Today we took a tour of the Nazi Documentation Center and Rally Grounds here in Nuremberg.  

This museum is located in a small section of the Kongresshalle (Congress Hall) that Adolf Hitler was having built to hold 50,000 party members for rallies.  The building was never finished (thanks to the Allied Forces in WWII).

Inside the museum it tells the story on how Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came into power and took over the German government.

This what the building looks like today.  The museums is in the building on the right.  As you can see the inside walls of the building are brick and there is no roof on the building.

This is what the outside of the building looks like. It is modeled after the colosseum in Rome but twice as large and twice as high.

These are some of the photos that are in the museum showing the beginning of the Nazi Party.

As you can see with the photos the German people were really taken by Hitler either with fear or open hands.

He was treated like a god. They thought he was the one person who could bring Germany back to power and respect by the rest of the world, everything they lost after WWI.  These busts of Hitler were in demand by all Germans (almost like smart phones in today's world).

This gives you some idea of how big the Congress Center is.

Hitler had set aside four square miles for his Rally Grounds.  The below arial photo shows you the size of old Nuremberg as it was in 1933 (the lighter colored area near the top of the photo and his Rally Grounds in the lower right (lighter colored area).

He had so many things planned for the area.  There was to be a stadium that would seat 400,000 people.  The hole for the foundation was dug but that is all that got finished.  The hole is now a park and a big lake.

One building that did get finished was Zeppelin Field.  You may have seen this in old news footage from WWII.  It is where he reviewed the troops and gave his speeches to them.

Where Cindy and I are standing the the podium where Hitler stood to review the troops and give his motivative speeches to the Party members.

This is the Great Road that was to lead the Party members from the entrance of the Rally Grounds to the Congress Hall. After the war was over the U.S. military used the Great Road as a landing strip. I bet that made old Adolf turn over in his ashes!

This is what the Rally Grounds would have looked like if finished. This guy really was a megalomaniac!