HIST233 S6

S6

NATIONAL SOCIALISM MUNICH, NUREMBERG, BERLIN

DATE

27.02.2012 (WEEK 17)

COURSE

HIST233 1

OUTLINE •A little bit more on ‘urban syntax’ •Totalitarian aesthetics •National Socialism •The three cities of Nazism: Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

‘AESTHETIC PLURALISM’ 12

The ‘culture wars’ of totalitarian regimes

Giuseppe Bottai (left) versus Roberto Farinacci (right): the two fascist leaders represented antidiametrical views on the future form and direction of ‘fascist culture’.

Right: Bottai’s journal, through the pages of which he encouraged a rather open debate about the future of ‘fascist culture’

13

The ‘culture wars’ of totalitarian regimes

1931: Mussolini visits the Exhibition of Rationalist architecture. He is shown the ‘Table of Horrors’ by Pier Maria Bardi.

14

The ‘culture wars’ of totalitarian regimes

The ‘Table of Horrors’ (above), through which the rationalists attacked conservative architecture. Amongst their targets was Marcello Piacentini (left below). But, in hindsight, they went too far, leading to the demise of their movement.

15

The ‘culture wars’ of totalitarian regimes

Alfred Rosenberg (above) versus Joseph Goebbels (below): the two Nazi leaders clashes on numerous occasions over the future of German art and culture, the former espousing a more traditional approach while the latter making qualified statements in favour of more ‘modernist’ pathways.

16

NATIONAL SOCIALISM

17

NATIONAL SOCIALISM

CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

‘TOTALITARIAN’ CONTROL

BIOLOGICAL RACISM

‘REACTIONARY MODERNISM’

18

1919-1920 From DAP to NSDAP From Drexler to Hitler 19

LEFT: (above) pictures of the 16 ‘fallen’ during the 1924 putsch; (below) subsequent Nazi memorial to the putsch RIGHT: (above) a romanticised painting of the clash between the Nazis and the army/police in November 1923

THE 8 NOVEMBER 1934 PUTSCH IN MUNICH 20

July 1932 elections: the pinnacle of the NSDAP’s electoral performance

THE NSDAP’S ELECTORAL BREAKTHROUGH, 1930-1932 21

Hitler was appointed Chancellor in charge of a coalition government. He was meant to be supervised and discarded soon afterwards but, in hindsight, the German conservative political elites underestimated him.

The Nazi party organised a series of events to celebrate the ‘seizure’ of power, including a triumphal torchlit procession at night in the centre of Berlin.

HITLER APPOINTED CHANCELLOR, 30 JANUARY 1933 22

TOTALITARIAN UTOPIAS 23

‘WELTHAUPTSTADT GERMANIA’, 1950 National Socialism’s monumental ‘non-finito’

24

‘WELTHAUPTSTADT GERMANIA’, 1950 National Socialism’s monumental ‘non-finito’

25

BERLIN

NUREMBERG MUNICH

THE THREE CITIES OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM 26

KONIGSPLATZ

HAUS DER DEUTSCHEN KUNST

FELDHERRNHALLE

HOFBRAUHAUS

MUNICH 27

KOENIGSPLATZ

28

Nazi-era Koenigsplatz in Munich

KOENIGSPLATZ 29

Paul Troost, Hitler’s first preferred architect

HAUS DER DEUTSCHEN KULTUR 30

Nazi monument to the ‘fallen’ of the 1923 putsch

FELDHERRNHALLE 31

NUREMBERG 32

THE PARTY RALLY CITY The first NSDAP party rally was held at Nuremberg in 1927. Upon coming to power, Hitler ordered the expansion and remodelling of the grounds of the party rallies

33

PARTY GROUNDS, NUREMBERG

34

PARTY GROUNDS, NUREMBERG

35

NUREMBERG, THE ‘NAZI’ CITY ADOLF HITLER PLATZ ZEPPELINFELD

STADIUM

CONGRESS HALL

EHRENHALL

GREAT STREET

CONGRESS HALL

36

37

S7 ...endlich, Berlin...

38

X CLOSE

CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

‘TOTALITARIAN’ CONTROL

BIOLOGICAL RACISM

‘REACTIONARY MODERNISM’

Hitler was at the very centre of the Nazi regime. A god-like figure above politics and criticism, his central role is epitomised in the notion of the ‘Hitler order’ (Fuehrerbefehl) that existed outside and above the law; and the cult of his leadership that remained pretty much intact until the dying days of the Third Reich in 1945

The Nazi regime is considered the epitome of ‘totalitarianism’. It sought to control all aspects of public and private life, including the physical reproduction of the nation. No other institution captures this scope of control than the Gestapo, even if it is now clear that it was nowhere near as effective and omnipotent as people thought at the time

Biological racism is perhaps the most unique aspect of National Socialism. Nazi ideology glorified nationalism (the Volk) but also equated the nation and society with the idea of the ‘Aryan’ race. Jews were constructed as the existential ‘other’ of the German Volk; but the Nazis also exported their ideas of biological racism to the rest of Europe

Even if the Nazi regime glorified a return to classicism and a more traditional ‘German’ life, society, and art, they were by no means antimodern. Their embrace of technology, the cult of efficiency, and organisation were peerless at their time.

Auschwitz represents the horrifying climax of the Nazis’ embrace of ‘reactionary modernism’ (Geoffrey Herf) 39