Can anyone tell me please if the Documentation Centre and the Rally Fields etc. are open over the Easter holidays. My husband and I visited Nuremberg in August 2015 with the intention of visiting these sites but because of problems with the overhead power cables we had to get off our train before reaching Nuremberg and didn't have time to go there once we had looked at the sites in the City itself.
Posted by
the Netherlands
2487 posts
They don't make special mention of opening hours around Eastern: http://www.museums.nuremberg.de/documentation-centre/opening-times.html You can send them an e-mail to be sure.
Even if they should be closed, which seems unlikely, it's good to have a look. TIme has done justice to it. What was once the venue of some of the largest political shows in recent history, turns out to be a sorry affair when there's nobody around who believes it anymore.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you so much for your reply, I will email them right away.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
It's not just a case of "nobody believes it any more". The convention hall in Nuremberg was never actually finished before the war started (didn't stop them working a whole lot of concentration camp inmates to death for the marble cladding). Also, the tribune at the open-air parade ground is rotting because it turns out that the marble and the concrete they used were chemically incompatible - so much for Speer being the sane competent guy.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Here's at least one building that still remains in use. Certainly not it's original intent, I'm betting.
By the way, the "rally fields" never close because they're not maintained as a historical monument. Most of the grounds are now occupied by a large public park, with a lake, soccer stadium, beer garden, fair grounds, skate board ramps, race track and an allotment garden. You can find sign boards that explain the historical layout of the complex, but there's little attempt at preservation, other than the shell of the unfinished Congress Hall. In fact, for years, the high school attached to the now-closed US army garrison in Nürnberg used part of the property as athletic fields for its sports teams.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you guys for your input. I love Germany and the German people but obviously don't agree with what happened in the past, having said that I dodn't think you should turn a blind eye to it either and that is the only reason I want to visit this area of Nuremberg.
Posted by
Phoenix AZ
635 posts
The documentation centers are not museums where something is honored or celebrated. They are places for remembrance and learning ... so that it never happens again. The evil came on insidiously and swept up many good people. If we fail to remember and learn, it will do so again.
I think it is important to visit Nazi-era structures such as the Tribune and Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, and Führerbau (now High School for Theater and Music, adjacent to the Doku-Zentrum) in Munich, if only to realize that it wasn't so long ago or far away that human nature, despite the country's rich heritage of art, science, literature, education and culture, ran amok.
Posted by
Oberpfalz, Germany
1292 posts
Anyway, huge Beer Garten here if it's open in Spring when you are there (outside), a short walk around the Grosser Dutzendteich and not far from the Documentation Centre http://www.gutmann-am-dutzendteich.de/
Another walk not far from Documentation Centre to another old site; Luitpoldhain where the famouse Nürnberg oper air concets are still done today: http://www.klassikopenair.de/ Sorry but the first concert looks to be 24 Jul 16.
Checkout this website for Third Reich Nürnberg: http://www.thirdreichruins.com/
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you for the links and information mchp. Greatly appreciated.