The topic of this post is probably thorny. The places representative of National Socialism party in Nuremberg are today again different, and I believe they can tell what and how Nuremberg was in that period (personal political ideas apart, so I would like to avoid comments related to this).
I start with the Nuremberg Trials Memorial “built around” the “courtroom 600”, where the trial was held and which is still used today (it is part of the criminal court of the Nuremberg courthouse). Modified to accommodate all the accused and all those who took part in the process in various ways, the hall was returned to its original appearance when it was “returned” to the city justice: it’s possible to visit the courtroom when there are no processes. With the audioguide, you will follow a path that leads you from the courtroom to the upper floors and the history of this place through videos, stories and exhibits. Opening Hours vary according to the season:
from 1 April to 31 October it is open from 09:00 to 18:00 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday;
from 1 November to 31 March from Wednesday to Monday from 10:00 to 18:00.
The full ticket costs € 5. I suggest you start this “tour of the past” in Nuremberg from this memorial and don’t forget to take the audio guide. [NB: Remember that the classroom could not be visited just because there are still processes].
Do you know/remember that Noriberga was the “City of the National Socialist Party Congress”? If you want to know more then I recommend a visit to the National Socialist Party’s Documentation Center, whose full name is Documentation Center of the Congress area of the National Socialist Party. The area extends for about 4 km2 and in the north wing of the unfinished Pavilion of Congresses, designed by the National Socialist Party to accommodate 50,000 people, today there is the Documentation Center: here there is a permanent
exhibition whose main goal is to tell the story of the National Socialist Party Congresses, how these mass gatherings were used by Party propaganda for the staging of a “national community”.
The entrance ticket costs € 5, I strongly recommend taking the audio guide (included in the ticket price) and the timetable is from Wednesday to Monday from 10:00 to 18:00 (closed on Tuesday; last access is at 17:00). I suggest you take a tour also in the external area of the centre, whose access is in front of the part of the building used by the symphony orchestra town: the area remained unfinished and, after having seen it from the top of the documentation centre walkway, entering inside has another effect.
The area dedicated to party days was not limited to the convention center, as there were also activities as the parades: the Zeppelinfeld was the center of all this and surely you know at least the Zeppelintribüne (the grandstand), dominated from a swastika and from which Hitler (and the personalities of the party) appeared to greet and talk to the crowd. The swastika and the colonnade on the grandstand were destroyed by the Americans once the war was won and today the area appears in decline, despite stadiums for various sports and the many activities and festivals held in this area.
It mustn’t be forgotten the Große straße, a monumental road 2 km long and 60 meters wide that was designed by Speer as the axis of the whole party day area (it reached the Märzfeld, the “March Field”, area for manoeuvres and military parades never completed due to the war. The street was designed with an orientation towards the castle and the old city of Nuremberg, to connect this part of Nuremberg with its medieval past.
Once you are in the area I recommend, once the tour is over, to take a walk and relax at the Volkspark Dutzendteich (park “of the twelve ponds”): partly overlooking some of the buildings I mentioned, it is a park very big (if I’m not mistaken one of the largest in the city) and very populated by locals who come here to run and relax, both by many tourists who “use” the park to rest for a moment, before resuming their discovery tour of Nuremberg history.