The Landesverein für Heimatpflege advocates an intensive discussion before the city of Nuremberg realizes plans for an opera interim at the former Nazi congress hall. “It is a memorial that is not a crime scene, but a place of perpetrators. It is therefore not a property like other old buildings, where conversion or continued use is usually desirable,” explains the deputy chairman Günter Dippold in one Message. The torso is a testimony to the NS megalomania, but also a testimony to the failed megalomania. Before operas are played “at this Nazi jubilee site”, a detailed debate must be held as to whether and how this is appropriate at all. Dippold explains that he by no means rejects such plans from the outset. But he found it difficult to imagine that “works by the anti-Semitic opera composer Hans Pfitzner” or Wagner’s “Meistersinger” could be performed there, the overture of which the Nazis “served as parade music”.
Even if time is of the essence for the city, the memorial is “far too important to stifle a debate about the project before it gets going,” explains Rudolf Neumaier, managing director of the state association. In addition to local politics, people from contemporary history research as well as representatives of theater associations and artists should also be involved. If it turns out that the location could be suitable, the discussion will have provided important aspects for implementation. “We have a responsibility for such memorials. Where we do not do justice to it, we make ourselves vulnerable. Therefore, a quick shot is forbidden,” explains Neumaier. The city wants to decide in 2021 whether an interim will come to the site.