Audio Guide: Hitler's Nuremberg Tour (Self Guided), Nuremberg

Nuremberg’s association with Adolf Hitler and National Socialism is one of the darkest chapters in the city’s history. Although Nuremberg is known for its medieval architecture and storybook appearance, few German cities are as closely intertwined with the Nazi legacy. Hitler referred to it as the “City of the Party Rallies” and regarded it as a model for the ideal German city.

The Nazis began using Nuremberg for their annual party rallies in 1927, and after taking power in 1933, they extensively reshaped parts of the city to accommodate enormous rallies, military parades, and propaganda spectacles. The regime developed a vast Nazi Party Rally Grounds southeast of the Old Town, commissioning monumental buildings and broad ceremonial spaces designed to overwhelm visitors and project the supposed permanence and power of the Nazi movement. Many of the most important structures were designed by Albert Speer, Hitler’s favoured architect.

The rallies were carefully choreographed spectacles involving enormous crowds, uniforms, banners, music, searchlights, marching formations, and speeches. The resulting images were distributed throughout Germany and abroad. Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, filmed during the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, became one of the most notorious examples of Nazi propaganda.

Nuremberg’s role was not merely theatrical. During the 1935 Nazi Party Rally, Hitler announced the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped German Jews of citizenship and prohibited marriages between Jews and people classified by the Nazis as German or “kindred” blood. These laws institutionalised racial persecution that would ultimately culminate in the Holocaust.

The city also became an important centre of military production during the Second World War. Allied bombing later caused enormous destruction, affecting both the historic centre and the Nazi rally grounds.

After the war, Nuremberg acquired a very different historical significance. The Nuremberg Trials of 1945–46 brought leading Nazi officials before an international military tribunal and established an important precedent for prosecuting individuals for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Walking through Hitler’s Nuremberg means confronting the surviving physical evidence of this history. Visitors encounter the vast Congress Hall, the Documentation Center, the monumental Great Road, Zeppelin Field, and the former Luitpold Arena and Hall of Honor. The route also passes the South Barracks and Max-Morlock-Stadium, located beside the former rally grounds.

Today, these same spaces tell a very different story: not of power and triumph, but of how that power was constructed, where it led, and why it must never be forgotten. As you walk through the former rally grounds, pause at each major structure, read the historical information, and take a moment to consider how the space was designed to influence the people who stood here.