World Capital Germania
World Capital Germania () is a post-WWII propaganda term for the planned implementation of the “Overall Construction Plan for the Reich Capital Berlin” (Gesamtbauplan für die Reichshauptstadt). In fact, according to the plans of the then head of state Adolf Hitler and the commissioned architect Albert Speer, the Reich Capital Berlin was to be massively expanded and beautified in the middle of the 20th century.[1]
History
The term “World Capital Germania” did not come from the National Socialists, as is usually assumed today. Neither Speer nor Hitler ever used this term; It was only thought up by an editor in 1969 for the blurb of a book. The incorrect term still persists to this day. The term was introduced by Propyläen Verlag in the blurb of the book “Erinnerungen” by Albert Speer. The legend arose that Albert Speer was commissioned to plan a “World Capital Germania”. The sensationalist blurb reads:
- “It is the life story of a man who was associated with Hitler for twelve years in unique and contradictory positions: as the architect of the World Capital Germania, as a friend of nightly table gatherings in the Reich Chancellery and at the Berghof, as a technocrat and organizer of a marveled armaments miracle and finally as an unexpected one and effective adversary.”
Therefore, in 1969, a striking brand term – World Capital Germania – was created. The term in itself is a kind of falsification of history, as it (once again) assumes a German drive for world domination that did not exist. The true origin of this name is known only to a few people. However, the historical policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is based on many propagandistic lies, maintains that Berlin was to be made the “National Socialist World Capital”.
Although Hitler used the single term “capital of the world”, this was primarily meant in a cultural sense, with the plan being to transform Berlin into the leading “capital of the world” and thus to surpass other important metropolises through a massive architectural and artistic building program. However, today's propaganda regularly describes these ambitious plans as “megalomaniacal”.
Gesamtbauplan für die Reichshauptstadt
Hitler wrote in his book “Mein Kampf” that, in contrast to ancient times, today’s cities no longer have landmarks, “monuments of pride,” and that the state and its buildings should become more visible to the public again. In 1937, Adolf Hitler commissioned the architect Albert Speer to redesign Berlin with the decree on the general building inspector for the Reich capital (Erlaß über den Generalbauinspektor für die Reichshauptstadt). Hitler announced:
- “Berlin is a big city, but not a cosmopolitan city. See Paris, the most beautiful city in the world! Or even Vienna! These are cities with a big impact. But Berlin is nothing but an unregulated accumulation of buildings. We have to outdo Paris and Vienna. [...] As a world capital, Berlin will only be comparable to ancient Egypt, Babylon or Rome! What is London and what is Paris?”[2]
The new metropolis of Berlin should not just please the eye but inspire greatest respect through its beauty, to which imposing buildings should also contribute. By reviving traditional values in a new architectural style, it was proposed to become one of the large metropolises with a new quality of life by around 1950. Speer created plans for a sprawling city that included a 400,000-capacity stadium, a 5-kilometer-long street known as the "street of magnificence," a massive open forum measuring nearly 4 million square feet, and an enlarged replica of France's Arc de Triomph. The German Triumphal Arch would have been large enough, in fact, to fit the entire original structure within its passageway. It had been intended that inside this generously proportioned structure the names of the 1,800,000 German fallen of the First World War should be carved.
National Socialist architecture – a German expression of the neoclassical style – used concrete and steel, then covered with clinker brick and granite, more for visual reasons than for questionable durability. The goal was not necessarily gigantism, but an architectural law of National Socialism that also wanted to assert itself in Berlin. The architect Friedrich Tamms, who was entrusted with large buildings in the German Reich and was not himself a member of the National Socialist Party, expressed this “law of the monumental” in these words:
- “In this way, the law of the monumental, 'the hard law of architecture', which has always and in all parts been a male affair, can be summarized in a clear concept: It must be strict, of concise, clear, even classical form. It just has to be. It must carry within itself the standard of “reaching to heaven”. It must go beyond the usual measure derived from utility. It must be made from solid material, firmly assembled and built to last according to the best rules of craftsmanship. In a practical sense it must be pointless, but it must be the carrier of an idea. It must have something unapproachable within it that fills people with admiration but also with shyness. It must be impersonal because it is not the work of an individual, but a symbol of a community bound together by a common ideal.”[3]
Some of the projects were completed, such as the creation of a great East–West city axis, which included broadening Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) with the Brandenburg Gate and placing the Berlin Victory Column (Siegessäule) in the centre, far away from the Reichstag, where it originally stood. Other projects, however, such as the creation of the "People's Hall" (Volkshalle), had to be shelved due to the beginning of war, although a great number of the old buildings in many of the planned construction areas were already demolished before the war.
Great Hall
The interior of the hall was intended as a “cult room” and congress hall and was intended to accommodate between 180,000 visitors. It would have been the largest indoor structure in the world if completed, seven times larger than St. Peter's Basilica. A variety of events should take place there. In addition, the hall was intended to demonstrate the power of the Greater German Reich.
- “The Great Hall should be such that St. Peter's Church and the square in front of it can disappear into it. We use granite as a building stone. Even the oldest boulders made of primary rock in the northern German plain show hardly any hint of weathering. If the sea doesn't flood the North German plain again, these buildings will still be standing unchanged in ten thousand years! […]" – Adolf Hitler
Speer later expressed concern that the breath of the 180,000 people could condense and fall back as droplets of water, which would have been the equivalent of light rain in the building. There were later similar concerns about the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in the USA. In an interview with Playboy in 1971, Speer stated that Hitler believed the holiness of the structure would grow as centuries passed, eventually becoming a shrine to National Socialism — in the same way St. Peter's Basilica serves Roman Catholicism. Today, the Federal Chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt) and the Spreebogenpark are located where the Great Hall was to be built.
References
- ↑ Hans Stephan: Die Baukunst im Dritten Reich, insbesondere die Umgestaltung der Reichshauptstadt, Schriften der Hochschule für Politik, Juncker und Dünnhaupt Verlag, Berlin 1939 (The author was a senior building officer or Oberbaurat and consultant to the general building inspector or Generalbauinspektor für die Reichshauptstadt for the Reich capital)
- ↑ In: Monologe im Führerhauptquartier – die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, published by Werner Jochmann, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München 1980, pp. 102 and 318, ISBN 3-453-01600-9
- ↑ Friedrich Tamms: Das Große in der Baukunst, in: "Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich", 1944