Thingstätte (Braunschweig)

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Plan of the Thingstätte from 1935 ⊙

The Thingstätte on the Nussberg in Braunschweig , also called Thingplatz , officially designated by the National Socialists since the end of 1935 as a “consecration site”, was built as part of the National Socialist Thing Movement in 1934/35. Today the facility is dilapidated and overgrown.

history

etymology

In terms of the history of language development , the word Thing is derived from the Old Norse - New Icelandic þing as well as from the Danish , Norwegian and Swedish ting and describes a place where the people came together to speak law, among other things.

prehistory

The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was to promote racial idea called, among other things, the Thing movement into life, the so-called by Performance Thing Games , a sort of ritualistic chant - Drama , the Nazi nationality - and national community thought should propagate. In addition, it was planned that around 400 thing sites should be built across the empire.

Planning, construction and costs

The architects Fritz Schaller and Ernst Zinsser were responsible for planning the Thingstätte am Nussberg . In their joint design of February 20, 1934, both had planned an auditorium with 7500 seats in the form of a transverse oval with a diameter of 100 m at the widest point. This was to be followed by an oval stage , which was to be completed by a rectangular and stepped stage system. From this two curved stairs led down on each side and led over a platform into a forecourt.

However, this draft was heavily revised before its implementation by Hans Bernhard Reichow , the head of the structural engineering department of the city of Braunschweig, and by senior building officer Robert Dirichs. The new structuring was less filigree and fragmented. In particular, the stage area was redesigned so that a considerably larger number of people could find space there. For mass scenes and impressive marches by groups of people through the rows of spectators, a staircase was also created through the rows in the central axis of the entire complex.

The groundbreaking ceremony took place on March 31, 1934, by the Braunschweig Ministerial Councilor Adolf Schmidt-Bodenstedt . Numerous members of the Reich Labor Service then built the first thing site in what is now Lower Saxony as an open-air stage in the style of an ancient amphitheater .

The Braunschweiger daily newspaper loyal to the regime had already written on February 11, 1934:

"[On the days of honor of the nation, the Braunschweig population wants to unite for reflection and joy,] ... and we will all be given what we have longed for: strength through joy ."

- Braunschweiger daily newspaper from February 11, 1934.

Cuts in the valley of the Nussberg in connection with a former quarry , from which the local roe stone had been extracted for numerous buildings (especially churches and town halls) in Braunschweig and the surrounding area, were used for the system. The open-air theater had a diameter of 100 m and the depth, measured from the top tier of the audience to the stage, was 14.50 m. The 47-step semicircle of the sandstone grandstand from the Weserbergland could accommodate around 15,000 spectators . At the end of the stage area in the valley floor, a 5.30 m high stage made of natural stone was erected, in which there were changing rooms and equipment rooms. A loudspeaker system was not required due to the good acoustics .

The inauguration took place on August 18, 1935 in the presence of Bernhard Rust , Gauleiter of South Hanover-Braunschweig , and his deputy Kurt Schmalz . Around 15,000 spectators, including many members of the SA and SS , heard speeches and music. The main point of the evening was the performance of the Nazi propaganda work "Ewiges Volk" by Wolfram Brockmeier with 3000 participants.

The city of Braunschweig subsidized the building in 1934 with 24,473 Reichsmarks (RM). For the planned boulevard from the State Theater to the SA field , the city ​​park at the eastern end of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße (today's Jasperallee ) was broken through. Additional costs of RM 21,287 were incurred due to changes in the access road and redesigned green spaces. Another RM 9,690 was spent on renovating football pitches, jumping tracks and paths in the area of ​​the Nussberg, as well as building a flag terrace on the SA field. Preparatory work on the deployment route and its completion cost a further 43,550 RM. The construction costs for the Thingplatz alone amounted to 39,000 RM. Wolfram Brockmeier was responsible for the landscaping.

use

As early as October 1934, the so-called “Thing Decree” regulated that only those Thing sites that had been established by then and approved by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda could continue to use the name “Thing”. On October 23, 1935, the ministry finally banned the use of the term entirely. The official language regulation now only provided for the use of the word “open-air stage”. In Braunschweig, the facility was called the "consecration place". This designation can also be found on contemporary postcards .

In 1937 the facility was redesigned for the last time, with the standing room being converted into seating. The total length of the rows of seats was 2640 m. The amphitheater was used between 1937 and 1939 for Nazi political events and parades and for a total of only eleven performances of operas, plays, symphonies and, in some cases, old Germanic consecration, singing and dance plays.

In order to counteract the unexpectedly low use of the building, the "Braunschweiger Festival" was brought into being. The first theater festival took place from July 4th to 7th, 1937 and was a great success with 20,000 visitors. So it was decided to hold the "Braunschweiger Festival" on the Thingstätte grounds every year at the end of the theater season . The second festival took place from June 25 to 27, 1938. These too were such a great success that Joseph Goebbels , Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, took over the patronage of the festival. On November 9, 1938, the 15th anniversary of the failed Hitler coup in Munich, and only a few hours before the start of the so-called " Kristallnacht ", the excess of violence against Jews and other unpopular groups of people, organized by the Nazi regime, a large memorial ceremony took place on the premises . Around 8:30 p.m. there were thousands of uniformed men in the Thingstätten semicircle, a light dome towered over the facility, torches burned, fanfares rang out. The regime staged itself. Among others, NSDAP district leader Berthold Heilig gave a speech. The Horst Wessel song rang out at around 9:30 p.m. , after which the event was over and those present left the site.

The third Braunschweig Festival took place shortly before the outbreak of war from June 25 to July 2, 1939. Due to the war, the festival planned for 1940 no longer took place.

"Adolf Hitler Oak"

The pulpit today

A little west of the Thingstätte, the regime had a brick, semicircular pulpit built, which is still there today. It is located above the "SA field" at the point where Adolf Hitler on the occasion of the SA march on 17./18. October 1931 is said to have spoken to 100,000 SA men. As a result, the Braunschweig Nazi party leadership used the pulpit for speeches on Nazi memorial days. In September 1933 an “Adolf Hitler Oak ” was planted on the occasion of the German Reich Young Gardener's Day . However, the tree quickly died - probably due to deliberate damage. Several further attempts at replanting also failed, so that the project was finally abandoned.

Blood witness memorial

In the course of the ideological self-staging of the Nazi regime, there were plans for the erection of a so-called "blood witness memorial" on the highest point of the Nussberg. In the design of the entire plant, after the completion of large-scale construction of a staging area for about 200,000 persons are made ( "SA-field"), speaker's platform and Thingstätte would, should this "memorial of the movement" as a kind of Nazi Cathedral to the crowning glory.

Blood witness memorial

(2nd model, architect unknown)

Photographer: unknown
Link to the photo
(please note copyrights )

An architectural competition was advertised, but the results did not meet the regime's expectations, which is why a second competition followed. Among the proposals submitted for this competition was a square building 80 m high, with four illuminated niches on each side, which were supposed to symbolize the 16 “ martyrs of the movement ” as 16 columns of light . These 16 people died on November 9, 1923 in the failed Hitler putsch and have since been stylized by the National Socialists as “ martyrs of the movement”. This building was surrounded by several stairs, stands and bastions .

Due to the increasing armament in preparation for the Second World War and the associated increasingly scarce financial resources and manpower, the planning of the monument was not continued.

Map of the Nazi buildings erected in the vicinity of the Nussberg
Entrance to the district command bunker (with entry openings for bats ) .

The Thingstätte as part of National Socialist architecture in Braunschweig

In the style of NS monumental architecture, it was planned that Thingplatz am Nussberg should become part of a much larger architectural ensemble. It was the end point of a visual axis that led from the Braunschweig Cathedral with the crypt of Heinrich the Lion - redesigned by the Nazi regime in 1935 - over a boulevard still to be built , starting on the Steinweg with the State Theater, today's Jasperallee (at that time "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße ") should lead to the" SA field "and then from there to the end point, the Reichsjägerhof" Hermann Göring " in the Buchhorst near Riddagshausen .

At the end of the war, the following Nazi buildings and facilities were in the immediate vicinity of the Thingstätte:

  • SA field ⊙
  • Lectern on the Nussberg ⊙
  • Reichsjägerhof "Hermann Göring" ⊙
  • Air Fleet Command ⊙
  • District command post on the Nussberg ⊙
  • extensive bunker and protective tunnel systems in the Nussberg ⊙
  • Martyrs monument (planned, but never implemented) ⊙

Current condition

After the use of the facility had already declined before the outbreak of the Second World War due to the popular enthusiasm for the Thing movement and the lack of financial support from the regime, it gradually fell into disrepair. After the end of the war, the stage buildings were used until 1956 as emergency accommodation for bombed out people as well as for refugees and displaced persons . In the decades that followed, the complex continued to deteriorate and is now almost completely overgrown and, apart from a few steps, no longer recognizable.

and display information about the image
Today the Thingstätte is largely dilapidated and - apart from a few steps - hardly visible.

literature

  • Reinhard Bein : We are marching in Germany. Free State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. 2nd edition, Braunschweig undated (approx. 1986).
  • Reinhard Bein: Time signals. City and State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. Braunschweig 2000, ISBN 3-925268-21-9 , pp. 150-152.
  • Reinhard Bein: Contemporary witnesses made of stone. Volume 1. Braunschweig 1930–1945. Döring, Braunschweig 1997, ISBN 3-925268-19-7 , pp. 20-27.
  • Reinhard Bein and Ernst-August Roloff (eds.): The lion under the swastika. MatrixMedia Verlag, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-932313-36-3 , pp. 90-93.
  • Emanuel Gebauer: Fritz Schaller. The architect and his contribution to sacred buildings in the 20th century. In: City of Cologne (Hrsg.): Stadtspuren - Monuments in Cologne. Volume 28, JP Bachem Verlag Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7616-1355-5 .
  • Helmut Weihsmann : Building under the swastika. Architecture of doom. Promedia Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-85371-113-8 .
  • Wilhelm Lehmann: Thingplatz. In: Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 229 .
  • Wilhelm Lehmann: The Braunschweiger Thingplatz in the Nussberg. In: Braunschweigische Heimat 1989. pp. 85–92.
  • Ernst-August Roloff : Bourgeoisie and National Socialism 1930-1933. Braunschweig's way into the Third Reich. Hanover 1961.
  • Burchardt Warnecke: The Brunswick Nussberg and its surroundings. A piece of city history from the east of the city of Braunschweig. 6th adult Edition, Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2002, ISBN 3-930292-53-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Culture and Advertising Office (ed.): Braunschweig. Old Heritage - New Life. Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig 1936, p. 110 (photo p. 111).
  2. ↑ a b Karlfriedrich Ohr: Thing and open-air sites. The staging and aestheticization of politics. In: Helmut Weihsmann: Building under the swastika. Architecture of doom. P. 198.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Lehmann: Thingplatz. In: Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf (Ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . P. 229.
  4. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Lehmann: The Braunschweiger Thingplatz in the Nussberg. P. 87.
  5. ↑ Emanuel Gebauer: Fritz Schaller. The architect and his contribution to sacred buildings in the 20th century. P. 60.
  6. ↑ leg: time sign. City and State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. P. 150.
  7. ↑ Helmut Kramer (ed.): Braunschweig under the swastika. Bourgeoisie, Justice and Church - A series of lectures and their echo. Magni-Buchladen, Braunschweig 1981, ISBN 3-922571-03-4 , p. 100.
  8. ^ A b Ernst August Roloff : Millennial Braunschweig, the city of Henry the Lion through the ages. Publishing house of Ad. Hafferburgs Buchhandlung (Paul Graff), Braunschweig 1938, p. 240.
  9. ^ Warnecke: The Braunschweiger Nussberg and its surroundings. A piece of city history from the east of the city of Braunschweig. P. 68.
  10. ^ Warnecke: The Braunschweiger Nussberg and its surroundings. A piece of city history from the east of the city of Braunschweig. P. 69.
  11. ↑ Wolfram Brockmeier: Ewiges Volk (=  games of the German youth . Issue 3). A. Strauch, Leipzig 1936, OCLC 72431537 .
  12. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Lehmann: The Braunschweiger Thingplatz in the Nussberg. P. 89.
  13. ^ Helmut Weihsmann: Building under the swastika. Architecture of doom. P. 308.
  14. ↑ Emanuel Gebauer: Fritz Schaller. The architect and his contribution to sacred buildings in the 20th century. P. 55.
  15. ↑ Bein, Roloff: The lion under the swastika. P. 91.
  16. ↑ Bein: Contemporary witnesses made of stone. Volume 1. Braunschweig 1930–1945. P. 27.
  17. ^ Wilhelm Lehmann: The Braunschweiger Thingplatz in the Nussberg. Pp. 90-91.
  18. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Contemporary witnesses made of stone. P. 23.
  19. ^ Chronicle of the city of Braunschweig for 1933
  20. ↑ Reinhard Bein: We are marching in Germany. Free State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. P. 150.
  21. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Zeitzeichen. City and State of Braunschweig 1930–1945. P. 11.
  22. ↑ 2nd model of the martyrdom memorial (architect unknown)
  23. ↑ Jürgen Schultz: The Academy of Youth Leadership of the Hitler Youth in Braunschweig (= Braunschweiger Werkstücke. Series A, Volume 15 = The whole series, Volume 55). Orphanage printing and publishing house, Braunschweig 1978, ISBN 3-87884-011-X , p. 83.
  24. ^ Warnecke: The Braunschweiger Nussberg and its surroundings. A piece of city history from the east of the city of Braunschweig. P. 70.