We took a bus tour from Munich so that we could explore with the benefit of a guide. (For details and whether it was worth the money, see the logistics entry at the bottom.) It makes for a strange day. The Nazi sites are grimly fascinating and emotionally difficult. The town centre is visually rich and robustly cheerful. The tour wisely covered the Nazi history first.
We started out at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds. Like most people, I'd seen the films of the massive gatherings dominated by Hitler's messianic preaching. I knew the drama of these events was a major plank in the Party's marketing offensive. I knew they were big. I didn't realise how big. This wasn't just a single parade ground, but something more like an Olympic Park for Nazi Party festivals with a whole range of stadia, rally grounds and cultural facilities. People came here for days to drink in the intoxicating liquor of success and national pride in fellowship with thousands just like them. Most of these buildings have been torn down and the land given over to other things, but the main marching ground (the Zeppelinfeld) and the Congress Hall remain. They're now put to effective use in an earnest educational programme across Germany to remind people of the horror in an attempt to stop history from repeating itself.
There's no denying that architect Albert Speer was a genius at using architecture to manipulate emotion. Even in its ruined state, it's easy to see how the main stand with its Roman Imperial styling, soaring white walls and noble columns would inspire reverence. Between photos and our guide's descriptions, we learned how the organisers used the stage set and powerful lighting to create a quasi-religious experience. Step to the front of the plinth from which Hitler once addressed the crowds, take in the weeds growing through the cracking concrete and the school groups learning the history, and most people will have a sense of grim satisfaction. Sic mundi gloria transit. The glory of the world is fleeting. And nobody deserved it to flee faster than this lot.
Not for the faint-hearted
Things get even more thought provoking inside the Congress Hall. More mock Roman architecture here: a massive half-circle of a building with a three-tiered, Colosseum-copying façade. Today you'll find the Documentation Centre here, a museum that provides a powerful, no-holds-barred exploration of what happened in Nuremberg, and why. The building itself makes a dramatic statement, designed so that some of the galleries jut from the original edifice in glass and steel extensions designed to look like stakes driven through this architectural heart of Nazism. Inside, audio guides come in a wide variety of languages so nobody is left out. Displays explained the environment that allowed the rise of the Nazi party, how they went about claiming power, and then how they manipulated everything to keep it. Here, of course, is where there are several specific rooms about Nuremberg's place in the story. The Nazis were trying to appropriate aura of this imperial capital from Germany's medieval glory days.
Things get even more thought provoking inside the Congress Hall. More mock Roman architecture here: a massive half-circle of a building with a three-tiered, Colosseum-copying façade. Today you'll find the Documentation Centre here, a museum that provides a powerful, no-holds-barred exploration of what happened in Nuremberg, and why. The building itself makes a dramatic statement, designed so that some of the galleries jut from the original edifice in glass and steel extensions designed to look like stakes driven through this architectural heart of Nazism. Inside, audio guides come in a wide variety of languages so nobody is left out. Displays explained the environment that allowed the rise of the Nazi party, how they went about claiming power, and then how they manipulated everything to keep it. Here, of course, is where there are several specific rooms about Nuremberg's place in the story. The Nazis were trying to appropriate aura of this imperial capital from Germany's medieval glory days.
The designers of the Documentation Centre manipulate emotions just as efficiently as Albert Speer once did, though can be forgiven considering their purpose. As the story gets darker, so does the lighting. Prejudice, concentration camps and genocide come near the end. You enter the gallery that lays out the worst of the crimes through a dim brick tunnel that slants slightly downward. Other tunnels stretch away on the sides and, at the end of each, near life-sized photos of piles of emaciated dead bodies fill archways. It's an emotional punch in the gut, and not for the faint hearted. Your stomach will churn further as you reach the Nuremberg Trials section and see how little remorse any of these men felt for their crimes. Most, in fact, didn't even acknowledge they'd done anything wrong. The designers grant you some respite here, allowing you to step outdoors to look down on the open, decaying amphitheatre of the former Congress Hall.
I thought I'd composed myself, stepped back in, and was greeted by the final display. Behind a glass wall, two lines made of neon light ... clearly meant to represent train tracks ... stretch to the distance. The names of the death camps line the wall. It takes a while for your eyes to adjust, and then you see that the tracks are laid not onto the usual white rocks, but onto thousands of ID labels each containing the name of someone taken to a camp to be murdered by the Nazis. At this point all the horror caught up with me and I confess I broke into some fairly substantial tears as I made my way out of the building. I've never been so emotionally overwhelmed by a museum. Which is, I think, the whole point of the place.
The Documentation Centre left an indelible mark on me, as I'm sure it does to each visitor. I'd like to think such efforts have pushed Western society past any possibility of a repeat. But there was plenty in the Documentation Centre that reminded me too much of the present. A widening gulf between rich and poor created tensions the Nazis exploited. People worried about their futures were drawn to glamour, celebrity and easy answers. Fractious political parties, unable to get along, opened the door for a dangerous outsider. Circumstances made it acceptable to criticise one religious group.
Sound familiar? I couldn't help thinking about how completely normal it seems to have become in America to levy broad-brush criticisms of Muslims. On the other side of the religious divide, anti-Semitism is rising. And we've seen plenty of genocide in the news in the past few decades. The Germans are doing a noble job trying to warn the world not to repeat history. I'm not sure it's working.
Sound familiar? I couldn't help thinking about how completely normal it seems to have become in America to levy broad-brush criticisms of Muslims. On the other side of the religious divide, anti-Semitism is rising. And we've seen plenty of genocide in the news in the past few decades. The Germans are doing a noble job trying to warn the world not to repeat history. I'm not sure it's working.
Fantasy on the Pegnitz
Emotionally drained, I needed a complete change of pace. Nuremberg town centre, with its streets plucked straight from Disney's Fantasy Land, does the job. Most of the town was flattened by bombs at the end of the war. The modern reconstruction accounts for the pristine condition and bright colours.
Emotionally drained, I needed a complete change of pace. Nuremberg town centre, with its streets plucked straight from Disney's Fantasy Land, does the job. Most of the town was flattened by bombs at the end of the war. The modern reconstruction accounts for the pristine condition and bright colours.
Local architecture features a lot of tall houses with complex half timbering. Some buildings are enhanced by beautiful paintings. Ornate wrought iron signs, statues of saints on plinths, bloom-heavy window boxes and fanciful towers and rooflines add variety. Two austere early gothic churches tower over the centre of town, the heart of which is a big market square filled with a great variety of market stalls featuring many fine craftsmen. The Christmas market here is supposed to be one of the best in Europe. Seeing how good the market was on an unremarkable day in September, I'd love to get back for the main event.
The town is circled by medieval walls and bisected by the river Pegnitz that offers plenty of charming waterfronts. It's all overlooked by a striking castle on a hill. This was one of the great capitals of the Holy Roman Empire in the middle ages, and the Imperial Palace is one of the blockbuster sights here. We climbed up to it and admired its impressive bastions, picturesque roofline and the great views from its ramparts, but didn't have time to get inside.
Nor did we have time for any of the museums, of which there are many. This was a celebrated centre of humanistic learning. No wonder it gave birth to Albrecht Durer, whose house you can tour. On a more frivolous note, one of the best toy museums in the world is here ... celebrating centuries at the heart of toy production.
We did try both of the local culinary specialities. Nuremberger sausages are longer and thinner than the usual. Tasty, though I'm not sure I'd say they were that much better than others. The local gingerbread, or lebkuchen, is much celebrated. I admit I was underwhelmed, finding it dry and lacking in flavour ... even though I went out of my way to acquire it from Schmidt's, which the locals all swear is the best. (My own gingerbread recipe is dark, moist and chewy from lashings of molasses and studded with chopped, candied ginger, so I wasn't likely to appreciate the German version's subtlety.)
While I don't hunger to return to the cuisine, one taste of Nuremberg's city centre was not enough. It deserves two full days on its own. A long weekend including the Christmas market is now on my bucket list.
LOGISTICS
We took the Gray Line bus tour from Munich station, which left at 8:30 and had us back in town around 5:30. On the plus side, it included guided sightseeing on the way out of town and commentary on a range of topics as we drove. The Rally Grounds and the Documentation Centre are some way out of town, so it was helpful to have transport. Nuremberg's also much bigger than I expected, so the bus allowed us to see a run of city walls and buildings around the periphery we wouldn't have passed on foot. With just a few hours in town, only a guided tour could ensure that you laid eyes on all the key sights.
But with advance planning, we could have done a better job on our own for about the same price. Express trains from Munich take about an hour each way, half of the time you spend on the bus. We would have needed to take taxis to the Nazi sites, but could then have spent more time exploring the Documentation Centre. Most importantly, we could have spent more time in the town centre. The walking tour was exhausting, covering several miles at a rapid pace and including steep climbs up to and down from the castle. The guide was often so far ahead of us we couldn't hear much of her commentary. We might not have seen as much, but we'd have been better on our own with a guidebook. Liberated from the tyranny of the bus schedule, we could have stayed much longer than the three hours we had in the town centre.
We should have taken the train.
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