# Did Any of Hitler's Buildings Get Built? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427 "2008-10-31T14:18:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/1 "2008-10-31T14:18:37Z")
Along with his artistic endeavors, Adolf Hitler was an amateur architect. Did any of his designes ever get built? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/2 "2008-10-31T16:35:59Z")
Parts of the [Nazi party rally grounds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_party_rally_grounds) were built in Nuremberg, and still exist. Last time I was there, the Große Straße (a parade route through the middle of the grounds, 40 meters wide and paved with granite) had trucks parked along the middle of it. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/3 "2008-10-31T19:20:02Z")
Though not specifically designed by him, the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich :- [http://www.german-architecture.info/GERMANY/TEN/TEN-NS-16.htm](http://www.german-architecture.info/GERMANY/TEN/TEN-NS-16.htm) bears all the hall marks of his taste in architecture. Ironically It is now used to showcase modern art. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/4 "2008-10-31T19:35:07Z")
And was he any good? I mean, could he have made it professionally? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/5 "2008-10-31T21:28:26Z")
He drew pretty pictures, designing a building requires lots of preparation. Elsewise, the buildings tend to fall down. Gravity and all that. The old Berlin airport (Templedorf?) was built in the Nazi era and is the kind of thing they liked. It closed for good yesterday I heard, but the buildings will be preserved. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/6 "2008-10-31T22:04:26Z")
The what-if-Hitler-won alternate-history novel [_Fatherland,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatherland_(novel)) by Robert Harris, is set in a Berlin where Albert Speer completed his [monumental rebuilding project.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_architecture#Berlin.27s_reshaping) IRL, of course, he never did. He did complete a new [Reich Chancellery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Chancellery) building for Hitler; it was bombed to dust in the war. Hitler, for his part, provided only the general concepts, leaving the details to professional architects like Speer. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/7 "2008-11-01T00:31:23Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Parts of the [Nazi party rally grounds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_party_rally_grounds) were built in Nuremberg, and still exist. Last time I was there, the Große Straße (a parade route through the middle of the grounds, 40 meters wide and paved with granite) had trucks parked along the middle of it. I was there a few months ago, and we couldn’t get onto the grounds themselves, because they’d been closed off for a huge rock festival. I hope they’re deliberately trying to think of things to do there that would have Hitler rolling in his grave. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/8 "2008-11-01T01:09:43Z")
A great many ideologically-inspired buildings were built by Nazi architects in the period 1933-9, many of them on the grandiose side. Many obviously don’t survive, but plenty do - and probably more than most people would guess. However, per the OP’s question, I don’t think any of these can be said to be _designed_ specifically by Hitler. Indeed, offhand I don’t think there are significant numbers of architectural sketches by him from the Twenties, never mind the Thirties. His most prolific drawing days are in Vienna, several years before he discovers politics in post-WWI Munich. By the time he comes to power he is certainly still willing to endlessly pontificate about art and architecture, but it’s not something he actually does himself. Thus I don’t think there are any cases where he even sketches an idea on paper and that is then used by someone like Troost, Speer or Giesler to work up an actual design. Though I could be wrong. What is true is that such favoured architects had to be responsive to verbal feedback and suggestions from him. Thus it’s entirely possible that something like the Great Hall planned (and started) for “Germania” had its basic conception deriving from a conversation between Hitler and Speer in which the former says “and at the centre of the capital I see the largest dome ever built, dwarfing St Peters …” We also know that he commented in detail on the models. Does that make him the architect? I’d still say no - he was ultimately still just an especially enthusiastic _client_, though one with particularly strong opinions. The architects can also be seen as an example of Ian Kershaw’s conception of “working towards the Fuhrer”. Just because they produced work in close accordance with his taste doesn’t mean he designed anything. Though he does retain his share of the blame. (And for that matter I suspect too much is casually attributed to Speer. Something may be Nazi architecture without having been designed by the one Nazi architect people tend to have heard of.) ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/9 "2008-11-01T03:08:19Z")
He wanted to turn Moscow into a lake. Apparently that one didn’t pan out. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-hitlers-buildings-get-built/470427/10 "2008-11-01T05:42:31Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Along with his artistic endeavors, Adolf Hitler was an amateur architect. Did any of his designes ever get built? Yes, but sadly, [the Neptune Men blew it up.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt02kBH7-W0)