Nazi redesign of Berlin into the Nazi capital "Germania."

At the Nazi party rally grounds In Nuremberg, the largest such site of this era, organizers assume visitors are looking for educational information. Dokumentationszentrum Reichs-parteitagsgelände Nürnberg Deutschland. Some 200,000 people from around the world annually visit the Nazi party rally ground's Documentation Center. This 11-square-kilometer (six-square-mile) compound was built according to plans by Hitler's architect, Albert Speer. Hitler held Nazi rallies at the grounds until 1938. The massive rallies served to gain support for the party as well as a visible place for the Nazis to parade their power.

Some of the colossal buildings have survived to this day. Like the building shell of the Congress Hall, which has housed the Documentation Center since it opened in 2001 to educate and inform visitors about the Nazi party and its rallies. The Grosse Strasse, along which Nazi troops paraded, has also survived, as has the Zeppelinfeld (Zeppelin field), where buses filled with visitors arrive at regular intervals. The place where as many as 200,000 people could attend rallies is today partly paved and used as parking lots and sports fields. At one end of the field the grandstand from which Adolf Hitler made his speeches is still open to tourists.

 Hitler's stone grandstand, however, is beginning to crumble. For months there has been a bitter dispute over whether it should be repaired. Citizens groups, like the Nuremberg "BauLust" club are urging caution over what it terms the "Disneyfication" of the grandstand. It's afraid of turning the site into too alluring of a location and thereby attracting "dark tourism." Nuremberg's city council has announced that it is working on a plan that encompasses the entire compound, not just the grandstand. The council argues that once survivors of the Nazi era have died, there will be nothing left but the buildings, places and the stories associated with them. The city has, therefore, decided to carry out repair work in order to keep the site from falling into disrepair but added it will not restore or rebuild any of the buildings.

The Nuremberg council is adhering to the view advocated by many historians who recommend using monumental Nazi buildings as exhibition and information centers focusing the history of the Nazi era. The exact cost for the repair work on the Nazi party rally grounds will be calculated by summer, according to Nuremberg city council. But that will not mark the end the conflict over the site - even if waves of tourists may help to recoup some of the costs.

Repair work to a lesser-known Nazi-era construction located not far from the Berlin Südkreuz rail station cost a hefty 1 million euros. The "Schwerbelastungskörper," or "heavy load-bearing body," is a hefty 12,000-ton concrete cylinder rammed 18 meters (59 feet) into the ground, reaches 14 meters into the air and has a diameter of 21 meters. This seemingly useless building was constructed with the use of French forced laborers in the middle of the Second World War. It was deemed an important project and its construction ordered personally by Adolf Hitler. Architect Speer wanted to determine the feasibility of constructing large buildings on the area's marshy, sandy ground, specifically a massive triumphal arch on a nearby plot, which would have been part of the planed Nazi redesign of Berlin into the Nazi capital "Germania."

Schwerbelastungskörper Südkreuz

Today the "Schwerbelastungskörper" concrete cylinder serves as a somber place of information. Not the spectacular locations tourists might expect when visiting sites associated with Hitler and Speer and their mythical, planed "Germania" German capital. An imposing attraction located next to the cement block is a 14-meter tower, which was built for visitors in 2009. The wide-ranging view from the top of the tower is quickly undermined once when it becomes clear it is the exact height of the planed seven-kilometer, north-south axis road that Speer and Hitler envisioned also connecting the government district with the Südbahnhof rail station.

Berlin Führerbunker Deutschland

Everything visible from the tower would have vanished into that massive project. One look shows how many houses would have been buried by this plan to create a 120-meter-wide parade road. It also illustrates the sheer megalomania of Nazi regime's monumental city planning. Michael Richter from the "Berliner Unterwelten" association explains: "This is the only place left in Berlin where you can experience the sheer dimensions involved in Nazi city planning - and on a three-dimensional basis, as all other plans are either in model form or on paper."

Berlin city council have attempted for years to rid itself of the "Schwerbelastungskörper," but plans to have it blown up, rented out or even sold have failed. The "Berliner Unterwelten" association, however, succeeded in persuading the city council to recognize the historic values of the building that has been listed as a protected site since 1995.

Some 7,000 people visited this place last year, which is not much compared to the "Führerbunker." As time passes and the Nazi era move into the realm of history textbooks rather than lived history, the emotional component that is essential to success of "dark tourism" also fades. In turn, this may mean that information centers in Berlin and Nuremberg - places to educate and help understand what happened during the Nazi era - will gain in importance. Their future in tourism as places that document history is guaranteed. The same may not apply to "dark tourism." 

Source: http://www.dw.com