Difficult Heritage: Dealing with the Nazi Past in Nuremberg
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Social Sciences
Abstract
How does a city, and a nation, deal with a historical legacy of perpetrating atrocity? In particular, how do they deal with the material remains- such as buildings- of that past?
And how does such a past- and its continued material presence- affect senses of identity?
This research tackles these questions by looking at how the city of Nuremberg, Germany, has dealt with its Nazi past, and especially its Nazi material heritage, post-1945. As a central focus, it takes the former Nazi party rally grounds- site of the Nuremberg rallies and the largest remaining area of Nazi architecture. Lying a short distance from Nuremberg's historic old town, this vast area of former marching grounds (most now grassed over) and colossal Nazi buildings, such as the well-known Zeppelin Building, is a Nazi site, instantly familiar to most that see it from WWII Film footage.
The area is also the site of the City's main football and ice stadiums, the twice-yearly Volksfest, a concert hall, motor racing and other sports events, it is also a favourite leisure area for many local people in Nuremberg, who come to walk and meet with friends on the paths between the buildings, to teach their children to cycle on Hitler's Great Road, to roller-blade, to have barbecues and picnics, to play tennis up the side of the Zeppelin Building, and to sail boats alongside the vast Nazi Congress Hall. Some, including many from overseas, also come to take a guided tour with the organisation 'History for All' (Geschichte fur Alle) or to visit the exhibition of the Documentation Centre of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds that opened, in a striking architectural 'stake through the heart' of the Congress Hall, in 2001.
The research brings together extensive interviewing of people who visit this site -locals, tourists, workers- with that of people who are responsible for it, including exhibition staff and tour guides. It also uses interviews and archives to delve into the post-War past to look at the people, arguments and politics involved in the site becoming what it is today, and to look at the debates, silences and proposals for the site over the years. This includes looking at why the Luitpold marching ground was grassed over at the end of the 1950s; why War commemoration was resumed there; why the side galleries of the Zeppelin Building were blasted off; who was involved in starting the tours and creating exhibitions and what motivated them; and plans to turn the Congress Hall into a football stadium, a shopping and leisure centre, an avant-garde art work or a giant greenhouse.
The fascinating detail of what was underway in Nuremberg is also examined in relation to what was happening elsewhere in Germany (including, importantly, German unification) and, to an extent, beyond. This includes looking at changes in the ways in which identities are publicly debated; and a. the international 'heritage epidemic'. As an anthropologist, I am always keen to explore the underlying cultural assumptions and ideas (e.g. about
Nature as purifying or the past as shaping the present) that inform the positions that people adopt and the actions that they take- and to think about possible alternatives. This contributes to my ambition to offer new theoretical perspectives for thinking about questions of identity and heritage. Together with my longstanding interest in museums and representation, it also contributes to my concern to think about how different styles and media of display may shape visitors' understandings, perhaps in ways unanticipated by exhibition-makers; and to show how the insights of this research can inform museum practice and public history more widely. In order to explore the wider implications of the research, and to develop them still further, I also want to do the groundwork for future collaborative research on a related topic- provisionally 'Representing European Heritage'.
And how does such a past- and its continued material presence- affect senses of identity?
This research tackles these questions by looking at how the city of Nuremberg, Germany, has dealt with its Nazi past, and especially its Nazi material heritage, post-1945. As a central focus, it takes the former Nazi party rally grounds- site of the Nuremberg rallies and the largest remaining area of Nazi architecture. Lying a short distance from Nuremberg's historic old town, this vast area of former marching grounds (most now grassed over) and colossal Nazi buildings, such as the well-known Zeppelin Building, is a Nazi site, instantly familiar to most that see it from WWII Film footage.
The area is also the site of the City's main football and ice stadiums, the twice-yearly Volksfest, a concert hall, motor racing and other sports events, it is also a favourite leisure area for many local people in Nuremberg, who come to walk and meet with friends on the paths between the buildings, to teach their children to cycle on Hitler's Great Road, to roller-blade, to have barbecues and picnics, to play tennis up the side of the Zeppelin Building, and to sail boats alongside the vast Nazi Congress Hall. Some, including many from overseas, also come to take a guided tour with the organisation 'History for All' (Geschichte fur Alle) or to visit the exhibition of the Documentation Centre of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds that opened, in a striking architectural 'stake through the heart' of the Congress Hall, in 2001.
The research brings together extensive interviewing of people who visit this site -locals, tourists, workers- with that of people who are responsible for it, including exhibition staff and tour guides. It also uses interviews and archives to delve into the post-War past to look at the people, arguments and politics involved in the site becoming what it is today, and to look at the debates, silences and proposals for the site over the years. This includes looking at why the Luitpold marching ground was grassed over at the end of the 1950s; why War commemoration was resumed there; why the side galleries of the Zeppelin Building were blasted off; who was involved in starting the tours and creating exhibitions and what motivated them; and plans to turn the Congress Hall into a football stadium, a shopping and leisure centre, an avant-garde art work or a giant greenhouse.
The fascinating detail of what was underway in Nuremberg is also examined in relation to what was happening elsewhere in Germany (including, importantly, German unification) and, to an extent, beyond. This includes looking at changes in the ways in which identities are publicly debated; and a. the international 'heritage epidemic'. As an anthropologist, I am always keen to explore the underlying cultural assumptions and ideas (e.g. about
Nature as purifying or the past as shaping the present) that inform the positions that people adopt and the actions that they take- and to think about possible alternatives. This contributes to my ambition to offer new theoretical perspectives for thinking about questions of identity and heritage. Together with my longstanding interest in museums and representation, it also contributes to my concern to think about how different styles and media of display may shape visitors' understandings, perhaps in ways unanticipated by exhibition-makers; and to show how the insights of this research can inform museum practice and public history more widely. In order to explore the wider implications of the research, and to develop them still further, I also want to do the groundwork for future collaborative research on a related topic- provisionally 'Representing European Heritage'.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sharon Macdonald (Principal Investigator) |