The Zeppelin Field and Zeppelin Tribune are the only structures of the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds which were completed and used in their function as a parade grounds for the National Socialists. After demolition of parts of the structure, the area can no longer be seen in its original condition. Due to extensive structural damage, the Zeppelin Tribune is currently only partially accessible. The Zeppelin Field and ramparts are also closed for visitors. Part of the field is currently used by athletic clubs as a training and playing site.
With a planned structural upgrade and its configuration into a place of learning and encounter by 2030, the Zeppelin Field and the Zeppelin Tribune will be opened to the public, including interior space.
History of the Area
The Zeppelin Meadow, which was part of the Dutzendteich Park, was used during the 1933 Nazi Party Rally. In the following year, Albert Speer received the assignment from Adolf Hitler to develop a comprehensive plan for the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. In this plan, the field should become a center for parades and assemblies. Between 1935 and 1937, the entire complex with Zeppelin Tribune, Field and ramparts was built in several stages.
The tribune for the guests of honour – whose design was based on the Pergamon Altar– was 360 meters long in its final shape and – with a pillared gallery with a double row of columns – 20 meters high. In the center is a speaker’s platform from which Adolf Hitler could review parades and address masses of people on the field and the ramparts. In front of the tribune is the Zeppelin Field and the ramparts with their 34 towers. The structure provided space for up to 320,000 people, including 70,000 as spectators on the tribune and ramparts.
After 1945, the American army took possession of the area. The demolition of the swastika on the main tribune on April 22, 1945 by the American army was an act of great symbolic power and has been inscribed in our collective visual memory. The Zeppelin Field – which was renamed “Soldiers Field” – was used as a training area and sport field by the army. This practice is continued today by the Nuremberg RAMS, an team playing American football which uses the Zeppelin Field as its training and playing site.
The demolition of the pillared gallery in 1967, which permanently damaged the structure of the Zeppelin Tribune, as well as the removal in the early 1970s of the end pylons (upon which two fire cauldrons were located) shows little awareness of a culture of remembrance.
A clear sign of a democratic attitude are the many concerts which have taken place on the field. Bob Dylan gave the legendary start in 1978; artists such as the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and Udo Lindenberg have also performed here. This is also true of the field’s use as a concert venue for the annual “Rock im Park” festival. Since 1947, motorcycle and automobile races also take place around the main tribune. The Norisring Race of the DTM German Touring Car Championship has become a major annual event.
Development into a Place of Learning and Encounter
At the beginning of the 2010s, the city of Nuremberg, Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany made it their mutual task to preserve the Zeppelin Tribune and Zeppelin Field area and to develop it into a place of learning and encounter.
A prerequisite is to guarantee the structural integrity of the tribune and rampart walls, which are only partially accessible due to extensive structural damage. In the future, it will be possible to view large parts of the interior of the tribune. There will be a route opened through the center of the structure, the upper gallery will be made accessible and the central reception hall –colloquially called the “Golden Hall” because of its ceiling mosaics –will also be opened to the public.
Because the area in the future should make an important contribution to historical-political continuing education, three rooms of the Zeppelin Tribune will be used as museum space which will focus on the construction history of Zeppelin Field and Zeppelin Tribune, the strategies of staging of the Nazis during their Party Rallies, the use of the tribune and field after 1945 and the often-critical public discussion about its future.
Creating of Markings as Low-Threshold Experience Spaces
The classical exhibit format in the Dutzendteich Station and the Tribune will be supplemented in the public spaces of the tribune and field with an additional level of mediation. Here, so-called “markings” will open various experience spaces.
The markings on the speaker’s platform will document and comment upon the historical events with pictures and sound and, in addition, show the current forms of use of the site. Another marking on the Zeppelin Field will explain the perspective of the participants in the events during the Party Rallies. The third marking on the spectators’ wall will give visitors the opportunity to see the entire field not from the perspective of the leader (as from the Zeppelin Tribune), but from the perspective of a spectator. The place of learning and encounter Zeppelin Field and Zeppelin Tribune should be completed in 2030.
