On the corner of Dudenstrasse as well as General-Pape-Strasse inwards Berlin , betwixt the S-Bahn tracks as well as a housing estate , stands a massive cylindrical block of concrete. Inside the construction are a few rooms alongside pieces of erstwhile , rusting equipment lying around. Built inwards 1941-42 during the Nazi menses , it isn’t a terribly exciting landmark exactly a historic 1 nonetheless , because it was purpose of a much grander computer program that Hitler had inwards shop for Berlin.
After a victorious Second World War , which Hitler was pretty confident of , the Fuher planned to redesign Berlin every bit the novel High German World Capital or Welthauptstadt Germania— a megalomania metropolis alongside gargantuan structures that would reverberate the spirit of the Third Reich as well as produce fearfulness inwards the hearts of his enemies also every bit his subjects. Hitler appointed architect Albert Speer to oversee the projection as well as together they drew upwards a fantastic computer program for the city’s rebuilding.
A model of Welthauptstadt Germania. Photo credit: unknown/public domain
Berlin was to live reorganized along a key 5-kilometer long boulevard known every bit the Prachtallee or “the Boulevard of Splendour”. Running North-South , the Boulevard of Splendour would bring served every bit a parade Earth , as well as would bring been unopen off to traffic. Vehicles would bring instead been diverted into an hugger-mugger highway running straight underneath the parade route.
At the northern goal of the avenue , at that spot was to live a large opened upwards forum known every bit Großer Platz alongside an expanse of roughly 350 ,000 foursquare meters. This foursquare was to live surrounded past times grand buildings including the Führer's palace , the Reichstag Building as well as the tertiary Reich Chancellery as well as high ascendency of the High German Army. But the grandest of them all as well as the centerpiece of the novel Berlin was to live an enormous domed edifice called the Volkshalle or People's Hall , designed past times Hitler himself.
The Volkshalle would bring been over 200 meters high as well as 250 meters inwards diameter , or 16 times larger than the dome of St. Peter's Basilica , upon which the pattern was based. Its dimensions were then large that it would bring dwarfed every other construction inwards Berlin. Had it been built , it would been the largest enclosed infinite inwards the world.
Model of the Große Halle as well as the Volkshalle. Photo credit: unknown/public domain
Hitler's aspirations to world domination , already evident from architectural as well as decorative features of the novel Chancellery , are fifty-fifty to a greater extent than clearly expressed here. The domed hall was to live where Hitler every bit the original of the world would look earlier his original race. On overstep of the dome's lantern was the High German heraldic eagle clutching inwards its claws non the usual swastika exactly the globe of the Earth.
According to Speer , the temple-like nature of the domed edifice was intended for world worship of Hitler , his successors as well as the High German Reich. Speer believed that the domed assembly hall would larn nifty holy significance as well as larn a hallowed shrine every bit of import to National Socialism every bit St. Peters inwards Rome is to Roman Catholicism. Such cultism was at the beginning of the entire plan.
The southern goal of the avenue was to bring some other mega construction , a triumphal arch based on the Arc de Triomphe inwards Paris , exactly 1 time to a greater extent than , much larger. It was designed to stand upwards a hundred meters high , theoretically allowing the Arc de Triomphe to check within its opening.
Model of the Volkshalle at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Photo credit: Thomas Peter/Reuters
There was , all the same , a problem. Berlin’s soil is marshy as well as non stable plenty to back upwards the weight of the giant structures Hitler wanted to build. To produce upwards one's postulate heed how much weight the Earth was able to ship , an experimental edifice , the Schwerbelastungskörper , literally “heavy load-bearing body” , was built at the site where the Arch of Triumph would bring been built.
The Schwerbelastungskörper had a 11-meters diameter foundation over which a 12 ,650-ton cylindrical construction 21 meters inwards diameter as well as fourteen meters high was erected. If the construction sank less than 6 cm , the soil would live deemed sound. The concrete trunk sank xix cm.
A few months afterward the Second World War began as well as all plans for Berlin had to shelved.
The Schwerbelastungskörper is the alone edifice of Welthauptstadt Germania that e'er got built , soundless standing every bit a reminder of what mightiness bring been.
The Schwerbelastungskörper. Photo credit: Seth Tisue/Flickr
Photo credit: Jurjen van Enter/Flickr
Photo credit: Paul Horsefield/Flickr
Inside the Schwerbelastungskoerper today. Photo credit: Jurjen van Enter/Flickr
Inside the Schwerbelastungskoerper today. Photo credit: Paul Horsefield/Flickr
Inside the Schwerbelastungskoerper today. Photo credit: Paul Horsefield/Flickr
Inside the Schwerbelastungskoerper today. Photo credit: Drrcs15/Wikimedia
Photo credit: Ben Garrett/Flickr
A model of Welthauptstadt Germania. Photo credit: unknown/public domain
Model of the Volkshalle at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Right below the Brandenburg Gate on the same scale. Photo credit: picture-alliance / dpa
Model of Welthauptstadt Germania at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Photo credit: KaterBegemot/Wikimedia
Model of Welthauptstadt Germania at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Seen hither is the Arch of Triumph. Photo credit: www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de
Model of the Volkshalle at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Photo credit: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Model of the Volkshalle at the Berlin Underworld Museum inwards Berlin. Photo credit: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Sources: Schwerbelastungskörper (Wikipedia) / Welthauptstadt Germania (Wikipedia) / Volkshalle (Wikipedia) / skyscraperpage.com / AndBerlin