Congress Hall Nazi Party Rallying Ground, Nuremberg

The Congress Hall is the largest surviving monumental structure from Nuremberg’s former Nazi Party Rally Grounds and one of the clearest reminders of the Nazi regime’s architectural ambitions. Nuremberg was Hitler’s chosen location for enormous rallies and parades, and in 1935, construction began on Congress Hall and the surrounding assembly grounds. Inspired by the Colosseum in Rome, the building was intended to be the centerpiece of the rally grounds and a grand symbol of Hitler’s vision of a supposedly thousand-year Third Reich. You can appreciate this vision by pausing in front of the colossal stone pillars and taking in the sheer scale of the structure.

Designed by architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff, Congress Hall was planned as a U-shaped structure with two head buildings at the ends of its straight section. Its granite-panelled façade was intended to enclose a vast assembly hall with 50,000 seats and a self-supporting roof. The original design called for the building to reach about 70 metres, but construction was abandoned when it had reached only about half its intended height. Today, it is the largest preserved National Socialist monumental building still in existence.

Now it is time to visit the structure’s interior. Follow the exterior perimeter wall around to the building’s straight section at its eastern end. At the centre of this section is the entrance to the hall’s massive semicircular basin. To the north of the entrance is the Documentation Center, while the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra occupies the southern section.

For tourists, the enormous scale and unfinished appearance make Congress Hall particularly striking. Nearby, Zeppelin Field, Luitpold Arena, and the Great Road reveal the enormous scale of the wider rally grounds.