Germania Archives - Walled In Berlin

Posts Tagged ‘Germania’

Walking Horses Ownership Clarified

Monday, August 16th, 2021

The “Walking Horses” are two-ton sculptures, standing 16 feet high and 33 feet long and are worth millions. They were custom-made for Adolf Hitler by Austrian sculptor Josef Thorak. The bronzes disappeared from the former East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall and were recovered again in 2015 during a raid of a ring of illegal art dealers. Following a lengthy legal battle that ended on 26 July 2021, the two bronzes will now be returned to the German Government.

New Reich Chancellery: garden portal, 1939. Walking Horses Sculpture in courtyard of Hitler’s New Chancellery, www.walled-in-berlin.com. Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1985-064-24A / CC-BY-SA.

History of the Walking Horses

At the peak of the Nazi regime, Hitler commissioned thousands of artworks. He intended to exhibit them in Berlin, Germany, as part of the transformation of the city into the world capital of “Germania“. Among the artworks were the twin “Walking Horses,” which once guarded the courtyard of Hitler’s New Chancellery. In 1943, when the first Allied bombs fell on Berlin, Hitler had the bronzes evacuated to an unknown location. The New Chancellery was badly damaged in World War II and later destroyed by Soviet forces.

Lost and the Found

In 1988, a West German art historian discovered the two horses on a sports field at a Soviet base near Eberswalde, approximately 35 miles northeast of Berlin. However, within a year, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the sculptures disappeared without a trace. In 2015, West German police found the long-lost masterpieces in a warehouse in southern Germany. An illegal art dealer had acquired them from the Soviets and smuggled them out of East Germany in pieces, disguised as scrap metal. The German government plans to put the twin Walking Horses on exhibit.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, artwork, fall of the Berlin Wall, Germania, Hitler's New Chancellery, Walking Horses
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Classical Architecture – Embraced by Trump and Hitler

Monday, March 16th, 2020

In 1937, Adolf Hitler announced that henceforth all new government buildings were to be constructed in the style of traditional classical architecture. The mandate was part of Hitler’s grandiose plan of transforming Berlin into “the capital of the world.” Hitler named his utopian city Germania. In this new metropolis, German government buildings were to rival the edifices of ancient Egypt, Babylon, Rome and Athens.

In early February 2020, word got out that the Trump administration was working on an Executive Order to impose classical architecture on all new U.S. Federal buildings. According to Trump, these traditional style buildings will “once again inspire respect instead of bewilderment or repugnance.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/opinion/letters/federal-architecture.html

Is this Trump’s first step toward Trumponia?

Hitler’s model of Germania, a metropolis full of classical architecture (the concept never materialized). Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Berlin, classical style architecture, Donald Trump, Germania, Trumponia
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Speer – Hitler’s Chief Architect- Principled or Pragmatic?

Monday, September 10th, 2018

In 1905, Albert Speer was born to wealthy parents in Mannheim, Germany. His father was an architect, and Speer continued in the family tradition. In December 1930, he attended a Nazi rally and heard Adolf Hitler speak. Soon thereafter, he heard Joseph Goebbels speak. Both times, the young Speer was impressed by what he had heard and seen and joined the Nazi Party the following year.

Albert Speer – Hitler’s Chief Architect

From the beginning, Albert Speer showed considerable talent as an architect and quickly rose to prominence in the Nazi Party. One of his early tasks of notoriety was to redecorate Joseph Goebbels’ home. Afterwards, Goebbels, the newly minted Propaganda Minister, asked Speer to remodel his new headquarters. The favorable outcome of these tasks brought Speer to the attention of Adolph Hitler who considered himself rather talented in architecture as well and saw in Speer a kindred spirit. In particular, Hitler was impressed by the young architect’s use of immense Nazi flags on buildings. In 1933, Hitler commissioned Speer to design the Nuremberg parade ground, in which the latter used 130 high-powered searchlights to create the celebrated “cathedral of light” effect (Lichtdom). The following year, Speer became Hitler’s Chief Architect. His projects included the revamping of the Berlin Stadium for the 1936 Olympics, the design for Germania, a total redevelopment of central Berlin) in 1937, and the construction of the new Chancellery in Berlin in 1939.

Albert Speer (1905-1981) Adolf Hitler’s Chief architect. Photo courtesy of Spartacus Educational. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Albert Speer – Minister of Armament and War Production

In February 1942, the Minister of Armaments, Fritz Todt, was killed in an airplane crash. On the same day, Hitler appointed Speer as Todt’s successor. In this new position, it was Speer’s job to keep the Nazi war machine going. He did so largely by using slave labor, which prolonged the war, even after he himself had concluded that it was a lost cause.

Albert Speer and the Nero Decree

As the war in Europe came to an end, on Speer’s 40^thbirthday, Hitler ordered the Nero Decree, the destruction of everything that might have been of value to the enemy. Speer persuaded Hitler to give him full authority to carry out the order, but intentionally failed to follow through. This decision helped Hitler’s Chief Architect to avoid the death penalty during the Nuernberg War Crimes Trials.

Hitler’s Chief Architect – Principled or Pragmatic?

Albert Speer is often described as intelligent, gifted, ambitious, apolitical and arrogant, and some believe that he was sincerely sorry for the torture he had helped inflict upon mankind. Others believe Hitler’s Chief Architect was a pragmatist who admitted to the war crimes tribunal that his actions had been wrong only to save himself from being executed.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing events that engulfed the city during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and John F. Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my own, equally insurmountable, parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. unity, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Adolph Hitler, Albert Speer, cathedral of light effect, Fritz Todt, Germania, Lichtdom, Nero Decree, Nuernberg War Crimes Trials, Nuernberger Prozesse
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Schwerbelastungskoerper for Germania

Monday, June 12th, 2017

The Schwerbelastungskoerper in Berlin (heavy load-bearing body) is a colossal concrete cylinder from the Nazi era. It is the only remaining tangible relic of Adolf Hitler’s vision of transforming Berlin into Germania, the capital of the world. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/germania-hitlers-utopian-quest/ Since 2002, Berlin’s borough of Tempelhof owns this one-of-a-kind concrete tube. Open to the public, the Schwerbelastungskoerper is located on General-Pape-Strasse, not far from Tempelhof airport.

Two enormous structures to anchor Hitler’s Germania

In the summer of 1936, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, handed Albert Speer, his chief architect, http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/albert-speer-designed-for-ruin-value/ two postcard-sized sketches that were about 10 years old. The rough drafts outlined two monumental buildings that were to define Germania: the Great Arch and the Great Hall. The triumphal Great Arch was to honor the soldiers killed in World War I and to be three times as large as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The Great Hall, a gigantic domed assembly hall, was to be Berlin’s most impressive building. It was to be so large that it would eclipse every structure in Berlin.

Why the Schwerbelastungskoeper was built

In March 1928, Albert Speer created Project no. 15: Soils tests to determine whether Berlin’s sandy and swampy soil could support such large monuments. A test cube with 33-foot sides was to be constructed. In the end, it turned out to be a cylinder, close to 100 feet high with a 33-foot diameter underground and a 69-foot diameter above the surface. Between April and November 1941, almost 14,000 U.S. tons of concrete were poured at a cost of 400,000 Reichsmark.

Schwerbelastungskoerper in Berlin-Tempelhof, relic of the Nazi era. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

But because of the start of World War II, the Schwerbelastungskoerper remained unfinished. When the heavy load bearing capacity of the soil underneath was finally measured in 1948, the colossus had sunk 19.4 cm (7 inches) in a period of two and a half years. The maximum acceptable settling without additional stabilization of the ground prior to construction was 2 cm. In other words, without additional work, the Great Arch and the Great Hall could not have been built.

The Schwerbelastungskoerper below ground. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Fate of the Schwerbelastungskoerper

After the Second World War, plans to blow up the Schwerbelastungskoerper were discarded because of the dangers explosives might have presented to nearby train tracks and apartment buildings. For a while, the German Society for Soil Mechanics used the cylinder to perform various tests on site. But after 1983 the structure was no longer needed and the Schwerbelastungskoerper was abandoned. For a number of years, the cylinder was neglected, and the area around it became overgrown. Now it is open to visitors. From an adjacent observation platform, the visitor can even overlook the area that Hitler once envisioned as the heart of Germania.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Arc de Triophe, Berlin sight, Germania, Great Arch, Great Hall, heavy load bearing body, Schwerbelastungskoerper
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Germania – Hitler’s Utopian Quest

Monday, June 5th, 2017

In 1937, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler assigned his chief architect, Albert Speer, the task of developing a plan for transforming Berlin into the “capital of the world.” Hitler envisioned a metropolis with monumental architecture that would rival those ancient Egypt, Babylon, Rome and Athens. He named this utopian dream Germania. The plan was so impressive that even the New York Times described the project as “perhaps the most ambitious planning scheme of the modern era.” https://www.historytoday.com/roger-moorhouse/germania-hitlers-dream-capital

Speer’s model of the proposed Germania

Speer went to work and within a year presented Hitler with a model of his grand design. At the core of the model were two broad boulevards, which would run through the heart of Berlin: a north-south axis and an east-west axis. He called the three-mile long north-south boulevard Prachtstrasse (Street of Magnificence). In the north, the Prachtstrasse terminated in a Volkshalle (People’s Hall); its southern end terminated in a triumphal arch. In Speer’s design, the Volkshalle rose to a height in excess of 700 feet. Its dome was to be sixteen times larger than that of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Hall would accommodate 180,000 people.

Model of Hitler's proposed Germania. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2017. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Speer’s triumphal arch was close to 400 feet high so that Paris’ Arc de Triomphe would easily fit inside its opening. Oodles of proposed new civic and commercial buildings along the north/south axis would link these two massive monuments. Roads, would to be realigned, Berlin’s parks would be revamped and two new rail stations would replace three existing timeworn termini. Speer proposed that entire suburbs would to be constructed to provide modern housing so that over 200,000 Berliners could move out of the slums and into the heart of the city. Furthermore, a plethora of new administrative buildings and commercial developments would be constructed. To see a model of Hitler’s utopian metropolis visit Mythos Germany in the Gesundbrunnen subway station. For hours and fees contact www.berliner-unterwelten.de.

Did Germania come to pass?

Albert Speer designed many grand structures in and outside of Berlin. In Berlin, he completed the Olympic Stadium in 1936, Hermann Goering’s Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium), the largest office building in the world at the time with over 4 miles of corridors in 1936, the Prora and Hitler’s new Reich Chancellery in 1938. But only a tiny fraction of Hitler’s grandiose plans for Germania ever came to pass before the project came to a halt on account of World War II. Today, only Speer’s almost 14,000 U.S. ton Schwerbelastungskoerper (heavy load bearing body) near the Airport Tempelhof still stands. It was built to determine whether Berlin’s sandy and swampy soil could support Germania’s large monuments.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Air Ministry, Albert Speer, Germania, heavy load bearing body, Prora, Reichsluftfahrtministerium, Schwerbelastungskoerper, Volkshalle (People's Hall)
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Albert Speer Designed for Ruin Value

Monday, May 29th, 2017

Albert Speer (1905-1981) was Adolf Hitler’s chief architect. Speer’s career skyrocketed after joining the Nazi Party in 1931. Blessed with strong architectural and organizational skills, he became a powerful man during the Nazi era, both in government and in politics. As part of Hitler’s inner circle, Albert Speer designed many well-known projects. Always on a grand scale, his projects included the Zeppelinfeld Stadium in Nuernberg, the Reich Chancellery, the Prora and above all, Germania, Hitler’s utopian notion of transforming Berlin into the capital of the world.

Albert Speer (1905-1981) Adolf Hitler’s chief architect. Photo courtesy of Spartacus Educational. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Speer designed for “ruin value.” That meant that buildings had to be constructed in such a way that they would make aesthetically pleasing ruins. It would guarantee, his thinking was, that Nazi Germany ruins would remain symbols of greatness throughout history, akin to ancient Greek and Roman ruins.

Albert Speer’s Rise to Power

Albert Speer was a third generation architect from an upper-middle-class family. He met Hitler for the first time when the organizers of the 1933 Nuernberg Rally asked him to submit designs for the rally. Speer quickly became close to Hitler, which guaranteed him a steady stream of government commissions. Before long, he was the Party’s chief architect.

When Hitler asked Speer to build him a new Reich Chancellery in 1938, Speer’s design included a 480-foot Marble Gallery, almost twice as long as the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles. Damaged in the Battle of Berlin in 1945, the Reich Chancellery was eventually dismantled by the Soviets. They used the stone to build the Soviet War Memorial in Treptow Park. As Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer applied his organizational skills toward the end of the war to overcome serious war production losses due to Allied bombings. Under his direction, German war production continued to increase despite the bombings.

Albert Speer during the Nuernberg Trials

Following World War II, Albert Speer was tried at Nuernberg and sentenced to 20 years in prison for his war crimes and crimes against humanity. He served the full sentence, most of it in the Spandau Prison in former West Berlin. He was released in 1966. During his testimony, Speer accepted responsibility for the Nazi regime’s actions. However, he claimed to have been unaware of Nazi extermination activities. That assertion was proven to be false. He did, however, deliberately disobey Hitler’s orders when the dictator issued the Nero Decree in March of 1945. The Nero Decree demanded the destruction of infrastructure within Germany and all occupied territories to prevent their use by Allied forces.

What remained of Albert Speer’s “grand” designs

Little remains of Albert Speer’s designs, short of plans and photographs. In Berlin, only the Schwerbelastungskoerper (heavy load bearing body), not far from Tempelhof airport, still stands and is open to the public. The concrete cylinder was built in 1941/1942 to determine the feasibility of constructing giant buildings on Berlin’s sandy soil – envisioned for Germania – without additional stabilization. In Nuernberg, the partially demolished tribune of the Zeppelinfeld Stadium survived.

Tags: Adolf Hitler, Albert Speer, Germania, heavy load bearing body, Nero Decree, Nuernberg Trials, Prora, Reich Chancellery, ruin value, Schwerbelastungskoerper, Soviet War Memorial, Zeppelinfeld Stadium
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