Nibelungenhalle

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The Nibelungenhalle was from the time of National Socialism originated event hall in Passau , mainly by the occurring therein Political Ash Wednesdays of the CSU and the annual mass rallies of the German People's Union was known.

history

In the first year after the Nazis' seizure of power , on April 27, 1934, the then NSDAP Gauleiter Hans Schemm laid the foundation stone for a hall on the site of the small parade ground leased by the Free State of Bavaria in 1927 , which was intended to enable large-scale popular assemblies . The Nibelungenhalle, planned as a magnificent building by the architect Karl Kieffer, was intended to enable events for 8,000 to 10,000 people, and on May 15, 1934, after only six months of planning, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 1.6 million Reichsmark building took place. As is customary in the context of the National Socialist mass procurements, the building of the hall was declared a joint effort by the whole city, and so many people from Passau worked on the construction in their free time. The low price of the building was made possible through numerous donations in money and in kind. After a year of construction, the hall was inaugurated in 1935. In 1935 a unit of the Austrian Legion was housed in the hall .

Franz-Josef Strauss speaks at the CSU Ash Wednesday rally in the Nibelungen Hall (1975)

The hall only became known in 1975, when the CSU moved with its traditional Political Ash Wednesday from the Wolferstetterkeller in Vilshofen , which had become too small, to the Nibelungenhalle. Above all, Franz Josef Strauss caused a stir there with his sometimes very hearty speeches in the direction of the state parliament opposition and the federal government. With the last Political Ash Wednesday in the Nibelungenhalle in 2003 under Edmund Stoiber , a political era came to an end here. Since then, Ash Wednesday has been taking place in the newly built three-country hall in Passau, which was built to replace the Nibelungenhalle.

The Nibelungenhalle was also reported as the venue for the right-wing extremist parties NPD and DVU . They used the hall with its Nazi architecture as a place for their rallies for more than 15 years. Despite numerous protests from the city of Passau, the trade unions, political parties and thousands of Passau citizens, the NPD and DVU insisted on the Nibelungenhalle as the venue. A ban on the events, against which the city tried unsuccessfully to defend itself in over 50 legal proceedings, failed because, according to the judgments of the courts, each party had to be allowed to use it. However, due to high hall rents that were donated to victims of right-wing extremist violence and the refusal of hospitality by the restaurant tenant, the NPD finally threw in the towel in 2000 and the DVU in 2001. At this point, the demolition of the hall had also been decided.

On February 10, 2004, the demolition of the Nibelungenhalle by Karl Bau began and was completed in a very short time. The “City Tower” has been built on the square since 2008 as part of the Passau project “ New Center ”.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna Rosmus : Hitler's Nibelungs . Samples Verlag, Grafenau 2015, pp. 98-101. ISBN 978-3-938401-32-3
  2. ^ Nürnberger Nachrichten, February 11, 2003 ( Memento from October 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ PNP of April 10, 2004: demolition perfect three weeks ahead of time

Coordinates: 48 ° 34 ′ 20.3 "  N , 13 ° 27 ′ 27"  E