Nazi Party Rally Grounds & Documentation Center

      I woke up to terrible news on Saturday. It was the day after the Paris attacks. Thomas & I debated whether or not we should travel to a large city for fear of more attacks. We felt hesitant. We read a quote Rick Steves posted in reply to the attacks about living in fear and leading a dull life. As a result, we decided to not cancel our plans, because what is life if you do not live it to the fullest? Thomas & I visited the Nazi Party Rally Grounds that afternoon. I am so glad we went, because we found it informative and moving. Since we had already visited Flossenburg's Concentration Camp we were further educated that the documentation building was primarily built by the granite from the prisoners in Flossenburg.

The  documentation center had countless pictures, information, and a few artifacts. They provided us with a headphone piece that played in English. It was a little tiring holding the headphone, but by pressing in the number in each area we could learn more about Nuremberg's history during WWII, the Nazi Rally Grounds, and the history of WWII in general. The building was originally the Congress Hall and behind the building  The Great Road. Hitler had built the documentation center to resemble the Colosseum.  It was intended to serve as a congress center for the NSDAP and would have provided 50,000 seats and it marked the entrance of the rally grounds. Thomas & I did not explore the other buildings of The Nazi Rally Grounds, because we didn't know their locations  or how far they were located from the Documentation Center. Since we were on foot & it was a gloomy & cold day we didn't explore much further than the road.

       We felt a sense of satisfaction that the building and rally marching grounds that the Nazi's once used for celebrating evil has since turned into a parking lot and documentation of the terrible things they did. The pond that surrounded the strip has now dried up and gave the grounds an eerie and deserted feeling. I don't know why but these grounds made my stomach churn more than the Flossenburg camp grounds did. I also swear that I heard loud boots marching behind Thomas off to the side as we walked to our car from Grosse Strasse (The Great Road), but when I turned around I saw nobody. I stopped Thomas in the middle of his sentence and asked him if he heard it, but he said he did not.

This is a picture I took of The Great Road today.

This is what The Great Road used to look like.

This is what it looks like behind the building. You can see the Roman influence.

This is a picture of the building that I took right before I heard the boots marching behind us.

This is in the middle of the seating of Congress Hall. The picture shows what it was supposed to look like.

Tips for Your Trip
Admission: 5 euro
Parking: 3 euro
Restroom: located inside Congress Hall to the left for ladies and the right for gentlemen
Address: Bayernstraße 110, 90478 Nurnberg
Hours:
Mo – Fri 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Sat & Sun 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Last admission 5 p.m.
Dec. 24-25 CLOSED
Dec. 26  & 31 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

http://www.museen.nuernberg.de/dokuzentrum/

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Other Things to Do in Nuremberg

Kaiserburg (The Imperial Castle)
The Nuremberg Zoo
Nuremberg Toy Museum
Nuremberg Christmas Market
The Toon Walk