In the Künstlerhaus at Nuremberg’s main train station, you can use colored pencils to sketch in a template how you could imagine the future of the torso-remaining Nazi congress hall in the south of the city. Not all of the submitted sketches are immediately recognizable, but a visitor seems to see a concert hall complete with an interim opera building on to float in front of the two flat head buildings. An idea that is at least spectacular – but probably not perfectly compatible with the monument protection that the torso has had since 1973.
The sketch of a visitor to the exhibition, who can apparently imagine the NS hall torso as a techno club.
(Photo: Olaf Przybilla)
Another visitor advocates a large-scale techno club in the giant Nazi property, a kind of “Berghain Nuremberg,” as can be read above his scribbled draft. Whether this is meant seriously or not – the topic obviously fires the imagination.
These are two treasures from the exhibition “THINKING, RETHINKING – RETHINKING?”, which deals with ideas and visions for Hitler’s hall torso. Of course, even more valuable than this is a handwritten note, with which someone apparently feels compelled to breathe – with a view to the visitor sketches made in the Künstlerhaus. The note can be considered pars pro toto for the debate that Nuremberg has been conducting for several months about the future of the Nazi giant building; and in which mutual irritation can be observed even among those discussing who come from the same milieu and have never been far apart, at least in fundamental matters: academics interested in history and those with an affinity for culture, classic educated middle classes.
Request in the Nuremberg Künstlerhaus to bring in ideas for the future of the monumental building – including a handwritten note from a visitor.
(Photo: Olaf Przybilla)
“This is 1 memorial site, not an event site,” someone wrote on the invitation to submit ideas – which roughly illustrates the depth of the ditch that runs through this debate. Especially since even experts would not be able to fully agree on the first part of this note: Is this NS colossus actually a memorial? Or rather monument and place of remembrance? Or even better, a place to learn and meet? The giant torso, which as such never had a function in the Nazi state, is a complicated historical legacy – at least everyone agrees on that to some extent.
The exhibition can be seen at two locations in Nuremberg until February 28th. The open office of the city planning office on Lorenzer Strasse focuses on architectural work, including concrete historical plans, visionary drafts and seminar papers from the course. Filmic, photographic and sculptural works can be seen on the ground floor of the Künstlerhaus glass building, artistic reflections on an open wound.
As an introduction to the topic, it is advisable to take a look at the notes that people left when they visited the NS Congress Hall Feedback Cards (kubiss.de). What one could imagine in the future for this semicircular building was asked there in 2021 – and the range of (of course not representative) answers gives an approximate impression of how little consensus there is on this question more than 75 years after the war. Just tear off, some wish; Leave largely untouched as a monument, others demand. Many find a cultural use good, especially artist studios. An opera against it? It’s okay, but only as an interim, some think. It’s possible, of course, but if so, then please don’t do it on an interim basis, others will oppose it.
The city council made the decision at the end of 2021that an interim opera should come to the NS Congress Hall in 2025; its backstage area is planned in a semicircle, the rooms are to be used by artists after the theater people have returned to the city center. On the other hand, it is unclear where exactly the performance hall will be built; and it has not been fully discussed whether it should or must be dismantled after about ten years – or whether it can be used for other purposes.
Model from the post-war period, when the NS Congress Hall was to be used as a large stadium for more than 80,000 visitors.
(Photo: Olaf Przybilla)
All of this would have been out of the question had the city decided 15 years after the war to convert the torso into a stadium for 82,000 people. The matter had already taken concrete form, city councilors found themselves on the former party rally grounds on the inside of the horseshoe and gathered around a model – it would have been one of the largest stadiums in the republic. The matter failed, mainly because of the costs. At least the model stayed, it can now be seen in the exhibition.
Jasna Kajevic’s architectural design, which envisages an art and culture center including an academy.
(Photo: Olaf Przybilla)
For a long time, cultural plans were less concrete, which of course was not able to slow down the imagination of artists or the design spirit of women architects. About five years ago, Jasna Kajevic presented a concept for an art and culture center, including an academy for the subjects of architecture, design and art, as a student research project. She would have reversed the original idea of the NS builders – a covered hall for 50,000 people, in which the circular building was only intended to serve as access. The semicircle with integrated atriums would therefore be converted into an academic teaching and learning location. The plan envisages a structural division for the inner courtyard – via walkways that connect and network all areas.
The exhibition shows half a dozen such concrete designs. A certain flaw is inherent in them, as is the sophisticated vision of the Egyptian architect Samir El Kordy, with which a Nazi building becomes a contemporary place for the arts and cultures of the world: Questions of monument protection are largely left out. The planners of the opera interim will not be spared. According to a statement by the responsible state office on the city’s plans, “a development of the area” of the Hallenhof “is fundamentally viewed very critically from the point of view of monuments”.