Zeppelin Field

Entrance to Zeppelin
Tribüne and Golden Hall
The photograph above shows the rear of
the reviewing stand built in 1934 at the Zeppelin Field in Nürnberg,
Germany for Hitler's Nazi party rallies. On the far right is
the front entrance to the Golden Hall, which has been converted
into a museum called Faszination und Gewalt (Fascination and
Violence).
Entrance to Golden
Hall and the Museum
Inside the museum, there is a powerful
display of photographs showing German soldiers on parade and
contrasting photographs of marching columns of concentration
camp prisoners. The museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tues through
Sunday from July to October and is free.
The photograph below shows the modern
sculpture, constructed out of salvage from World War II and spray-painted
battleship gray, which stands in front of the Museum. Hitler
favored classical art and deplored this kind of modern art, which
he referred to as "degenerate art." It has often been
said that the winners write the history of a war; the winners
also build the monuments, so the memorial artwork at all the
World War II historical places is the opposite of what Hitler
admired.
Sculpture in front
of Museum at the Zeppelin Field
Regular viewers of the History Channel
will recognize the marble reviewing stand at the Zeppelin Field,
shown in the photograph below, as the place where the Nazi swastika
was blown up by the Allies in a symbolic display of victory over
the Nazis on April 24, 1945. The film clip of the dynamiting
of the swastika has been shown thousands of time on American
TV. On the central promontory, which is the speaker's stand where
Hitler used to give his speeches, you can still make out the
faint outline of another swastika which was removed from the
marble by the American military. Inside the Golden Hall, a gold
mosaic swastika has been left on the ceiling as a grim reminder
of Germany's dark past.

Speaker's stand still
shows faint outline of swastika
The destruction of the hated Nazi swastika
emblem, encircled by a gold-plated laurel wreath, took place
four days after three divisions of the American Seventh Army
had caputured the city of Nuremberg. A new book by German author Peter Heigl shows photographs
of the demolition, along with numerous other photos of the aftermath
of the American conquest of Nuremberg on April 20, 1945, which
happened to be Hitler's 56th birthday. On the day that the swastika
was blown up, the victorius Americans held their third victory
parade on the Zeppelin field, according to Heigl's book. A quote
from the newsreel shown in American theaters is included in the
book:
A swastika will no longer flaunt its
crooked arms above the Nazi shrine. With the situation well in
hand, the Yanks stage a review. Newsreel and Signal Corps camera
men made this record of the last days of Hitler's Germany. The
cleansing fires of the war have purged Germany of Nazi power.
Let's be sure it never again rises from her ashes.
The three divisions that fought in the
battle of Nuremberg were the 3rd, the 42nd and the 45th Infantry
divisions. The 42nd Rainbow Division and the 45th Thunderbird
division went on to liberate the Dachau concentration camp on
April 29, 1945. The Battle of Nuremberg was given great importance
by the American military, according to Heigl's book, because
it "was in the eyes of the Americans nothing less than the
sacred home of National Socialism."
This page was last updated on June 23,
2008
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