Germania: the capital Hitler never built, 1937–1943

01Berlin, 1925–1938

Hitler drew the dome in 1925. 12 years later he gave Speer Berlin to build it

On 30 January 1937 Albert Speer was appointed Generalbauinspektor, “general building inspector” for the Reich capital, at the head of the office that would plan the new city around two monuments.

A North–South Axis 120 metres wide and 5–6 kilometres long was to run between them. At its southern end, a triumphal arch 117 metres high, carved with 1.8 million names of the German dead of the First World War. At the northern end, beside the Reichstag, a domed hall for 150,000–180,000 people.

Work began on the axis and the hall site in June 1938.

Neither monument got further than a model, a cleared site and a test block. What did happen happened to Berliners.

A photograph of a model city seen from above: a broad avenue lined with monumental blocks runs through a huge arch towards a domed hall in the distance. — Model, 1939The model of the North–South Axis, 1939: the avenue runs through the triumphal arch to the Great Hall at the far end.Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146III-373 / Unknown author / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

A man in a dark suit and tie sits in the dock, hands folded, two American military policemen in white helmets standing behind him. — Albert Speer at the Nuremberg trial, about 1946.Photo: Albert Speer at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, ca. 1946. Photo by Charles Alexander, Office of the US Chief of Counsel; Harry S. Truman Library accession 72-929 (NAID 348449309). Public domain.

Berlin’s landmarks, at true scale

Planned for Germania, never builtStanding in BerlinParis, for comparison

The sandstone gateway of twelve columns with the Quadriga on top, under a grey sky, people crossing the square in front.

The Reichstag’s columned west portico, inscribed Dem deutschen Volke, the glass dome just visible behind; visitors queue up the steps.

Berlin today

The Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag

Berlin’s two most famous buildings. The gate stands about 26 metres to the top of its Quadriga. The Reichstag is 137.4 metres long, and Norman Foster’s glass dome rises to 47 metres.

The Brandenburg Gate, 2014 · Photo: Norbert Nagel, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Reichstag, 2006 · Photo: Luukas, 2006. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

A colour-tinted view over park trees: the domed Reichstag on the left, a tall column topped by a gilded winged figure on the right.

A colour-tinted view of the massive arch with its carved groups, carriages circling the square around it.

Moved 1938–39

The Siegessäule was moved out of the way, and made taller

The victory column stood on the Königsplatz in front of the Reichstag, on the site the hall needed. In 1938–39 it was taken to the Großer Stern and raised by 7.5 metres, to 67 metres. Beside it, for comparison: the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 50 m.

The Siegessäule in front of the Reichstag, about 1900 · Photo: Unknown photographer, c. 1890-1905. Library of Congress. Via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
The Arc de Triomphe, Paris, about 1890–1900 · Photo: Unknown author, 1890. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Planned, never built

An arch 2.4 times the height of the Arc de Triomphe

Germania’s triumphal arch was to be 117 metres high and 170 metres wide, carved with 1.8 million names of the German dead of the First World War.

The North–South Axis, model, 1939 · Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146III-373 / Unknown author / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

A photograph of an architectural model: a vast ribbed dome with a lantern on top rises over a colonnaded block, with long wings and a paved square in front.

Planned, never built

Then the Great Hall

A podium 315 metres square and 74 high, a dome 250 metres across rising from 98 metres to 290, and 320 with its lantern and eagle. The Siegessäule would not have reached a quarter of the way up.

The Great Hall, model, 1939 · Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1986-029-02 / Unknown author / CC BY-SA 3.0 de

A wide construction pit with timber shoring and sand heaps; the domed Reichstag stands behind, and to its left a row of half-demolished buildings.

150,000–180,000 people

One room for 150,000–180,000 people

Two Reichstag buildings, end to end, would not have spanned one side of its podium. Speer later feared the breath of 180,000 people would condense under the dome and fall back as rain.

The Königsplatz cleared, August 1939 · Photo: Willy Pragher, 1939. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 015684a. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

02Berlin, 1938–1941

Germania needed tens of thousands of homes torn down. Speer’s answer was to take them from Jewish tenants

The building office’s 1941 plan marked 52,144 flats for demolition, enough to leave 150,000–200,000 Berliners without a home.

On 14 September 1938, in an internal meeting, Speer himself proposed “the compulsory eviction of Jews”, to free flats for the tenants his demolitions would displace. Hitler agreed. In the months that followed, an estimated 15,000–18,000 Jewish homes were requisitioned.

The office kept lists of the flats it cleared. Those lists became a basis for the deportations of Berlin's Jews that began in the autumn of 1941.

A large board under an eagle and swastika reads Neugestaltung Berlin, with the names of the planner and builders, above a wooden hoarding. — Building signA building sign at the Runder Platz, August 1939: “Neugestaltung Berlin”, the redesign of Berlin, “according to the plans of the Generalbauinspektor for the Reich capital”.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1939. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 015644. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

Flats to be demolished

52,144

by the office’s 1941 plan, enough to leave 150,000–200,000 people homeless

Jewish homes taken for the displaced

15,000–18,000

Jewish homes requisitioned from 14 September 1938, an estimate. Their tenants had to make way for those the demolitions displaced.

at least 15,000up to 18,000Each square: 100 flats

In 1941 the office ran three eviction “actions”. Then the deportations of Berlin’s Jews began.

The office’s eviction “actions”, 1941 · flats cleared

1st actionJan–Oct 1941

at least 2,000

2nd actionMay–July 1941

1,000

3rd actionlater in 1941

some 5,000

A street corner with signs for Schellingstraße and Eichhornstraße; behind, gutted building fronts with empty window openings, rubble on the pavement and a lorry loaded with debris. — Demolition at the corner of Schellingstraße and Eichhornstraße, Tiergarten, 20 February 1939.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1939. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 015626. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

People “resettled”, by the office’s own final report

75,000

Jewish people “resettled”, by the office's own final report. People, not flats.

Each dot: 100 people

“Resettled” was the office’s word. Its clearance lists became a basis for the deportations that began in the autumn of 1941.

03Tiergarten, 1938–1939

The one avenue Germania finished was opened for Hitler’s 50th birthday

The East–West Axis ran seven kilometres west from the Brandenburg Gate. Widened for the purpose, it was opened in April 1939, in time for Hitler’s birthday. The Siegessäule now stood in its middle, on the Großer Stern.

About 800 of Speer’s double lamps still line it, along today’s Straße des 17. Juni and the Kaiserdamm.

An avenue running straight through a park, packed with spectators on both sides; a column of open cars drives towards the camera. — Hitler’s motorcade arrives along the East–West Axis, seen from the Brandenburg Gate, 1 May 1938.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1938. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 007714. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

Two women in coats and hats stand close together and look up; behind them people stroll on a broad square and an avenue lined with columns and lamps leads into the distance. — The Großer Stern, 21 April 1939: two women look up; behind them, the new axis runs towards the Brandenburg Gate.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1939. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 015635. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

A night view down a wide avenue lined with rows of bright lamps and lit columns; silhouettes of people in the foreground. — The East–West Axis under festive lighting, seen from the Siegessäule, April 1939.Photo: Willy Pragher, 1939. Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 015639a. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0.

041925–1943

18 years from a sketch to a standstill, and the evictions fell in the middle

All work on Germania stopped in March 1943. By then the eviction “actions” were over and the deportations had been running for more than a year.

05Berlin today

A 12,650-tonne block of concrete still stands in Tempelhof

In 1941–42 engineers poured a concrete cylinder onto Berlin’s ground to see whether it would carry the triumphal arch. It would not, without first being compacted. The Schwerbelastungskörper, the “heavy load-bearing body”, is now a listed monument.

A massive windowless concrete cylinder seen through bare trees, with an information panel at its foot. — The Schwerbelastungskörper in Tempelhof, 2011: 12,650 tonnes of concrete poured in 1941–42 to test the ground for the arch. It still stands.Photo: Sekamor, 2011. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.

A row of tall street lamps, each with two lanterns on a slender column, along a wide road. — Speer’s double street lamps on the Kaiserdamm, part of the East–West Axis, 2014.Photo: Sebastian Rittau, 2014. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.

The East–West Axis

Seven kilometres from the Brandenburg Gate, widened and opened for Hitler's 50th birthday in April 1939. About 800 of Speer's double lamps still line it.

The Siegessäule, moved

Taken from the Königsplatz in front of the Reichstag to the Großer Stern in 1938–39 and raised by 7.5 metres.

A district razed

The Alsenviertel beside the Reichstag was pulled down in 1939–42 for the hall: more buildings than the war would later destroy there.

A 12,650-tonne test

A concrete block in Tempelhof, 1941–42, to see whether Berlin's ground would carry the arch. It would not, without first being compacted.

Germania's monuments never left the drawing board. The evictions made in their name were carried out, and became a step towards deportation.

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To clear Berlin for a dome 290 metres high, Speer’s office drove out Jewish Berliners, and counted 75,000 “resettled”