On the way to Berlin from Munich we decided to stop overnight in Nuremberg as we were interested in the WW11 history here. We hired a guide for half a day who did a good job of giving us the history and taking us to the sights…
Nuremberg has one of the most intact fortified castles in Europe and stands above the city of approximately 550,000 people. It was first built in 1000 and represented the power and significance of the Holy Roman Empire. The walls and towers are still intact and surround the city below…
Don walking through one of the gates in the thick walls.
Our guide picked us up and brought us first to the place called Erhenhalle which was used as Nazi Rally grounds. The memorial was originally built as a memorial to WW1 soldiers but Hitler took it over as a memorial for martyrs of Nazism. This is what it looks like today…
And this is what it looked like in 1933…
Today the Memorial is used as a memorial to all fallen soldiers…
Hitler chose Nuremberg as a base in the 1930s as it was a central position from which to reach out to the rest of the country and Europe. During the Nazi reign here many railways were built to transport soldiers as well as people to the camps…
Hitler had great plans for Nuremberg including building a Nazi city and some of these buildings are still to be seen today…
Here is the unfinished Congress building that he modelled on the Roman Coliseum. He intended it to seat 50,000 and again a place for his speeches and rallies….
It is now being finished to become a documentation center of the Nazi history here in Nuremberg.
He did manage to finish this stage where he would enter from the middle door to the podium to address the crowds who were expected to attend, salute him and stay at attention for hours…
The US military blew the top of and it was declared unsafe however we could still climb the steps and stand on the podium and imagine…
Here would have been the view through the Nazi regime…
Our guide gave us so much history it made our heads spin! There are many company headquarters in Nuremberg which were also associated with the Nazis…Hugo Boss who made the uniforms, Bayer who produced much of the ingredients for the gas used in the camps, BMW, Volkswagen and other German car makers that contributed to the war effort.
And Coca Cola who introduced Fanta in Germany during this time…
We then went to the Palace of Justice where the Nuremberg Trials took place…
The Palace of Justice was selected by the Allied Powers as the location for the International Military Trubunal because it was the only undamaged facility extensive enough to accommodate a major trial. The site contained 20 courtrooms and a prison capable of holding 1200 prisoners.
The site also had a very informative exhibit which explained the trials, here are the main defendants who were many of the top officials of the Nazi Party…
Many of them were sentenced to death, but unfortunately Hitler, Himmiler and Goebbels had committed suicide and could not be tried.
It was a very interesting morning…
Otherwise Nuremberg is a very pretty city…
Great little restaurants to eat local…
The local beer here is red, a little sweet and strong…it is called the ladies beer.
Christmas markets are big here in Germany and Nuremberg is getting ready for theirs as well so lots of lights around the city…
Lots of street markets…
There are many streets with half timbered houses….
It is also a city full of canals and bridges…
And of course there has to be at least one church in the center of the city…
This church is called St. Lawerence Church and was built in 1250, it is an Evangelical Lutheran Church and is quite grand…
We enjoyed our brief stop in Nuremberg both for the history and the beauty of the city. Now on to our last stop for this trip, Berlin.
How very informative!! Lots of History!! You were so fortunate to have a great Guide!! Enjoy Berlin!!
ReplyDeleteYes he was from Brazil and married to a German… very knowledgeable
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