Nuremberg - 10th July

Nazi Rally Ground

Nuremberg was fascinating, especially everything relating to the Nazi Rallies that Hitler held here frequently. Unfortunately it was raining heavily when we arrived so most pictures are through the bus windows and a lot of them did not come out because the camera focused on the rainy window instead of what I was trying to photograph. The rain let up long enough for me to get out of the bus and take this photo of the Nazi Rally Grounds. If you have seen the old newsreels of thousands of Nazis marching past Hitler, this is where they were held.

Hitler's Stage

This is where Hitler stood to salute his loyal troops. There was a lot more construction that was intended to be built here as Nuremberg was central to most of Germany prior to WW2, but they never were completed because, well, WW2 started and Hitler needed his troops to fight, not build. Hitler's propaganda machine was huge, led by the brilliant Goebbels and the rallies held here were huge, 100's of thousands of dedicated Nazis, including the Hitler Youth, traveled to Nuremberg to participate in them.

Round tower

The Old Town of Nuremberg is still surrounded by a stone wall and there are four huge round towers at each corner, like the one on the right.
Hitler planned to build his Rally Centre to be 7 times bigger than the Old Town and his Third Reich (or empire) was so called because it followed the two previous empires that Hitler admired, the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire that followed it.

Documentation Centre

We finished up at the Documentation Centre, again one of Hitler's uncompleted constructions but since finished by the German government. Here was all the information about Hitler's rise to power, WW2 and the famous Nuremberg Trials where Nazi criminals were tried and hung, those that did not commit suicide before hand. Hitler died by his own hand, Goebbels and his wife poisoned their children then shot each other and Goering hung himself in his cell. A sad and futile end to a megalomaniac's vision of world supremacy.

"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it" George Santayana 1905