Architecture of the Third Reich

The leaders of National Socialist Germany, as well as the architects and planners working under their leadership, tried to create a special, National Socialist style of architecture based on neoclassicism and national German traditions. At the same time, for use in a narrow framework, the achievements of modern trends in architecture were also considered. Of particular importance was the need to reckon with A. Hitler's personal views on architecture. The architecture of modernism , including the German Bauhaus style, was categorically rejected. Representatives of the Bauhaus were persecuted, the style itself was branded in the Nazi press as “ cultural-Bolshevik ”, “ soulless ” and “non-German” .

With the development in Germany of the period 1933 - 1935 of the “patriotic” Tingspiel movement with the creation and decoration of venues for Ting celebrations, certain elements of the pseudo-ancient German style (in ornament, etc.) penetrate the official architecture, including the SS architecture ( during the construction of SS-Ordensburgs ). When planning and laying out park territories in Germany in the 1930s, issues related to the conservation of the natural landscape and the protection of the animal / plant world were generally taken into account. The leading representative in this area was Park Architect Alvin Seifert .

The leading representative of the School of Architecture for the Defense of the Fatherland ( Heimatschutzarchitektur ), one of the varieties of modern architecture, Paul Schulze-Naumburg , has been criticized by Hitler since 1935. The leading architect of the Third Reich was recognized Albert Speer , a follower of the neoclassical tradition, but at the same time did not reject individual modernist influences. Both in urban construction and in technological-industrial architecture, the National Socialists primarily valued the rationality and functionality of construction as the first and main sign of technological progress in architecture. At the same time in Germany 30s - 1st floor. The 40s of the XX century did not impose strict requirements and did not implement the dictate "how to build." The state bodies that distributed the orders for the design and construction simply did not notice the specialists departing from the requirements presented by the general line. At the same time, architects who built in the style of international Art Nouveau were also allowed to build private buildings and carry out some industrial projects. The distribution of architectural styles by construction area basically looked like this:

• National Socialist Classicism for state and party buildings, halls for campaigning events;
• The architecture of the defense of the Fatherland for construction in urban suburbs, settlements and in SS-Ordensburg;
• Moderate modern for residential and office buildings;
• Functionalism for the construction of barracks, military construction, stadiums and other sports facilities;
• New materiality for industrial construction, technological facilities.

The architect of the complex of party congresses of the NSDAP in Nuremberg, Albert Speer formulated "Theory of the value of ruins." Its essence boiled down to the fact that the ruins of monuments of the past should evoke heroic inspiration. To convince, he made a model of the Zeppelinfeld tribune , which has been abandoned for several generations and overgrown with ivy. He presented this layout to Hitler and set out his theory. Hitler considered Speer’s considerations logical and ordered in the future to carry out the most important state construction projects, taking into account the “Law of Ruins” ^[2] .

Being an artist with the makings of an architect, A. Hitler appreciated the achievements of each era, including the achievements of its architecture. The Fuhrer spoke about the significance of the latter at the First Architectural and Art Exhibition at the House of German Art in Munich on January 22, 1938 :

Such an attitude of Hitler towards architecture was propagated in Germany, including through cinema. For 15 years, the Fuhrer wants to rebuild the whole country and has a personal influence on the implementation of many projects. His favorite architects were Paul Ludwig Troost , and after the death of the latter - Ludwig Ruff , then Albert Speer and German Gisler .

Before the outbreak of World War II and as the initiative in it moves to the allies, Nazi architecture increasingly affirms gigantomania in the construction of buildings, erects the broadest staircases, designs long and straight avenues (the so-called “ axes ”), creates cyclopean plans, not tied to use for any purpose - such as a radical restructuring of Berlin , moving into the new capital of the Third Reich "Germany" , and the designed mega-building Volkshalle Hall in it.

The implementation of these projects required an exorbitant expenditure of both cash and metal (extremely necessary in the military industry), building materials and stone (imported from all over Europe), as well as labor (the lack of which was compensated by the workers brought from occupied countries).

According to some evidence, A. Hitler saw a positive moment in the Allied bombing of German cities, since they, destroying old buildings, made way for new mega-constructions conceived by the Fuhrer. At the same time, the Reich construction policy was not limited exclusively to German territory, but also extended to the occupied territories, primarily to the Governor General . The whole of Europe was to be covered by the Breitspurbahn super wide gauge railway network.

A separate program supported by the SS Reichsfuhrer G. Himmler was the idea of ​​creating German military settlements in Eastern Europe , settled by soldier farmers and interconnected by a transport network, for which, for example, a railway bridge over the Kerch Strait was provided. Since 1935, Himmler has also been engaged in the reconstruction of the Wewelsburg castle near Paderborn and the creation of the cult center of the future Order of the SS in it ( Hermann Bartels was the architect of the work carried out in Wewelsburg).

The complete transformation of German cities “in the spirit of National Socialism”, the construction or completion of various “cult centers” and mega-structures was disrupted by the circumstances of World War II and the defeat of Germany in 1945.

• Youth Education Academy , Braunschweig
• Reich Ministries of Aviation , Berlin
• Sea resort of Prora ( Strength through joy ) , Rugen island
• The building of the party congresses of the Reich (1933-38, architect A. Speer) , Nuremberg
• Olympic Stadium (1934-36, architect Werner Mark ) , Berlin
• Tempelhof Airport (1934) , Berlin
• New Reich Chancellery , residence of A. Hitler (1938-39, architect A. Speer) , Berlin
• The building of the Italian Embassy (1939-41, architect Friedrich Quetzel ) , Berlin
• House of German Art (1937) , Munich
• Fuhrerbau , Munich
• Administration building of the NSDAP , Munich
• Ordensburg Vogelsang
• Ordensburg Sonthofen
• Tribune Zeppelinfeld , Nuremberg

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Third Reich Architecture
• MONUMENTALITA & MODERNITA, 2011 . - Conference materials on the architectural and artistic heritage of the totalitarian period.