Home of infamous Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer and Gauleiter of Franconia, Nuremberg held especial significance for the Nazis. It was because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany that the Nazis chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions–the Nuremberg rallies- held annually from 1927 to 1938. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the rallies became huge state propaganda events, a centre of anti-Semitism and other Nazi ideals. It was at the 1935 rally that Hitler specifically ordered the Reichstag to convene at Nuremberg to pass the Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship specifically for Jews, Afro-Germans, and gypsies from German citizenship; to this day one could be born in Germany yet not be allowed citizenship as in the case of my son. A number of premises were constructed solely for these assemblies, some of which were not finished and so many examples of Nazi architecture can still be seen in the city today.The site of the rallies on the outskirts of Nuremberg, particularly the enormous Zeppelin Meadow, was conspicuous for its monumental architecture and landscaping. The Nazis pioneered elaborate staging and lighting techniques to give the annual celebrations the character of sacred religious rituals with Hitler in the role of High Priest. The function of the ceremonies was to manufacture ecstasy and consensus, eliminate all reflective and critical consciousness, and instil in Germans a desire to submerge their individuality in a higher national cause.
The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts, Stackelberg & Winkle (177)
In 1933 and 1934, the Zeppelinfeld meadow served as a parade ground for the Nazis during their Party Rallies. They put up temporary wooden stands for the spectators but by 1935–1936, the Zeppelin Field, complete with stone stands, was constructed to plans by architect Albert Speer. The complex is almost square, and centres on the monumental Grandstand with the “Führer’s Rostrum”. The visibly lower spectators’ stands on the other three sides were divided by these flag supporters. There were 34 of them mounting six flag poles which surrounded the Zeppelinfeld, dividing the seating areas and providing toilet facilities. The interior which measured 312 by 285 metres provided space for up to 200,000 people for the mass events staged by the Nazis. |
| The so-called 'Cathedral of Ice.' |
The
climax of the rally occurred at the Zeppelin Field on 7 September.
Hitler's peroration came as darkness fell and the whole arena was then
lit by 130 anti-aircraft searchlights shining vertically into the sky.
Their beams formed what Albert Speer called the "first luminescent
architecture", vast columns supporting the blue dome of a gigantic
"cathedral of light." The glow could be seen nearly 100 miles away, in
Frankfurt. What remained hidden, as the party choreographers had
planned, were the paunches of the 21,000 standard-bearers; for the klieg
lights focussed on the swastika flags crowned with eagles as they were
marched in ten columns through the ranks of nearly half a million Nazis
to the floodlit grandstand. After an oath-taking ceremony Hitler drove
slowly back through the thronged and cheering streets of Nuremberg at
the head of a torchlight procession. Bonfires blazed on the hilltops and
the parade "looked like a river of molten, bubbling lava which slowly
finds its way through the valleys of the city."
Albert Speer had chosen the Pergamon Altar, built during the reign of Eumenes II in the first half of the second century BCE, as a model for his design of a massive stone structure some 400 metres long and 24 metres high on the Zeppelin Field. Here the altar is shown during the Third Reich and me in front t0day. Pergamon had been the centre of pagan worship in Asia Minor; Revelation ii.12, refers to “the church in Pergamum …where Satan’s throne is.” On this altar, apparently burnt sacrifice was practiced as recorded in Pausanias v.13.8. Lucius Ampelius also wrote of this altar in chapter VIII (Miracula Mundi) of his liber memorialis where he described "a great marble altar, forty feet high, with colossal sculptures. It also shows a Gigantomachy". The formerly thriving city had lain forgotten and in ruins until 1864 when German engineer Carl Humann discovered one of antiquities’ greatest monuments- the Altar of Zeus. The altar was excavated and taken stone by stone to Berlin where it was reassembled in its own museum. The Ottoman government agreed that the ancient foundation of the altar would become the property of Germany. In 1930 the Pergamon Museum was opened to the public. At the end of the war, the pieces of the altar which had been placed in an air-raid shelter near the Berlin zoo fell into the hands of the Red Army and were taken to the Soviet Union as war trophies where they were stored in the depot of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad until 1958. The next year much of the collection was returned to East Germany, including the altar fragments. Under the leadership of the museum's then-director, Carl Blümel, only the altar was presented as it had been before the war. The other antiquities were newly arranged, not least because the Altes Museum had been destroyed.
The Zeppelintribüne during the 1935 party rally before the columns and rear façade were added whilst even using older buildings. Often propaganda effects were created with wooden dummies as with Speer's eagle here behind and above the central building forming a structure with another stage system. The party congress of 1934 as depicted in Triumph of the Will still characterises the collective image of these major events. This grandiose stone structure, which ran the full length of one side of the field, was the work of the young architect Albert Speer, whom Hitler also commissioned to oversee a master plan for the Rally Grounds complex. Speer's Tribune took the form of a long grandstand-like structure, flanked at each end with massive 'book-end' pylons, and dignified by a colonnaded screen behind the seating, topped by a giant swastika set in an oak leaf wreath. A small, squareish podium- the Führer's rostrum- jutting out from a raised platform at the centre of the structure, allowed Hitler to review march-pasts of Labour Service battalions and youth groups, and military demonstrations staged by the armed forces. In the subsequent expansion of 1936-1938, the wood cladding was replaced with often only the existing building fabric overbuilt. Deadline pressure to complete such monumental architecture for each Reich Party Rally in September led to an overly fast planning and construction execution. At least in the case of the main rooms and exterior, the Zeppelin tribune was completed in 1938 for the last rally. Much structural damage which continues to trigger the current debate about the building's preservation and securing projects began as early as 1941 when many stones had to be replaced because they had been built too quickly and due to sufficient moisture.
Members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) parading before Hitler on September 7, 1938 and me in front seventy years later. It was at this event that Hitler delivered an address before blue collar workmen (Arbeitsmänner), culminating in the following words:
We are proud of you! All of Germany loves you! For you are not merely bearers of the spade, but rather you have become bearers of the shield for our Reich and Volk! You represent the most noble of slogans known to us: “God helps those who help themselves!” I thank you for your creations and work! I thank your Reich Leader of Labour Service for the gigantic build-up accomplished! As Führer and Chancellor of the Reich, I rejoice at this sight, standing before you, and I rejoice in recognition of the spirit that inspires you, and I rejoice at seeing my Volk which possesses such men and maids! Heil Euch!
According to Speer (66) in Inside the Third Reich:
 |
| My Bavarian International School students in 2012 |
To clear the ground for it, the Nuremberg streetcar depot had to be removed. I passed by its remains after it had been blown up. The iron reinforcements protruded from concrete debris and had already begun to rust. One could easily visualise their further decay. This dreary sight led me to some thoughts which I later propounded to Hitler under the pretentious heading of ' The idea was that buildings of modern construction were poorly suited to form that to future generations which Hitler was calling for. It was hard to imagine that rusting heaps of rubble could communicate these heroic inspirations which Hitler admired in the monuments of the past. By using special materials and by applying certain principles of statics, we should be able to build structures which even in a state of decay, after hundreds or (such were our reckonings) thousands of years would more or less resemble Roman models.
To illustrate my ideas I had a romantic drawing prepared. It showed what the reviewing stand on the Zeppelin Field would look like after generations of neglect, overgrown with ivy, its columns fallen, the walls crumbling here and there, but the outlines still clearly recognisable. In Hitler's entourage this drawing was regarded as blasphemous. That I could even conceive of a period of decline for the newly founded Reich destined to last a thousand years seemed outrageous to many of Hitler's closest followers. But he himself accepted my ideas as logical and illuminating. He gave orders that in the future the important buildings of his Reich were to be erected in keeping with the principles of this. 
Standing
on the Zeppelintribüne's rostrum today positioned in the centre of the grandstand for which all participants of the party rally on the field, including political leaders, had to look up to Hitler just as much as the other spectators. Seen from afar, the rostrum was further emphasised by the golden swastika placed above and by a Nazi flag draped on it. It was positioned on the main axis of the Zeppelin Field so that the men of the Reich Labour Service would always march towards the swastikas and the rostrum, thus getting ever closer to Hitler. The grandstand served to confront the Führer with his followers in such a way that every year his leadership was symbolically reconfirmed and thus strengthened by forcing participants to line up before him and pledge allegiance to him. The spectators were witnesses to this staged oath of allegiance and thus became part of the “national community” which took a subordinate role to the Führer.In June 2006, five matches of the World Cup were held at the municipal stadium in the Volkspark Dutzendteic which is now a public park that once was the Nazi Party rally grounds. Tournament organisers feared that the remains of the Nazi era buildings surrounding the stadium would be glorified, expressing concerns about misuse by the infamous English soccer hooligans in particular. In December 2005, the Times Online published how "[i]t does not take a big leap of imagination to see England fans mimicking the goose-step march heading for the Zeppelin Tribune from where Hitler took the salute from the massed ranks of party faithful." Nuremberg Mayor Ulr Maly rejected the idea of a "no go" zone for English fans, but added that the police would be mobilised immediately if anybody was seen making Hitler salutes, forbidden by German law even though I've never noticed any such authoritarian presence.
How far the materiality of the site is suggestive directly to the senses or emotions, rather than being actively interpreted by visitors, is more difficult to determine. Certainly, physical qualities make practical differences to how people use it. The walls of the Zeppelin Building making for such good tennis practice, or the outer corridors of the Congress Hall providing quiet shelter in which to sleep rough, are just a couple of examples of uses of the site that were never originally intended but to which its material qualities lend themselves. But what of the intended Nazi effects? How far are the buildings and former marching grounds still able to impact and enchant in the ways that Hitler and Speer had hoped? Watching people using the place and hearing them talk about it, it seemed to me that there was little to indicate much of this. Certainly, some would stand where Hitler would have stood on the Zeppelin Building, and they might even give a Nazi salute, but this was typically accompanied by joking and parody. And, certainly, some visitors talked of the chilling nature of the site, prompting them to quiet reflection... in all of their accounts it seemed that what was involved was not so much being directly affected by particular calculated features of the architecture as by their own pre-formed visions of it. They accounted for their senses of disquiet by, for example, knowing that this was where Hitler stood or by imagining vast fervent National Socialist crowds chanting in unison on the marching fields.
Sharon Macdonald (182) Difficult Heritage
During the Day of the Hitler Youth of September 11, 1937, and standing on the same podium now. By this time the Hitler Youth now had five million members and was the largest youth organisation in the world. Here Hitler
spoke at a celebration organised by the Hitler Youth whilst it was pouring with rain which Hitler was forced to reference in his speech: "This morning I learned from our weather forecasters that, at present, we have the meteorological condition “V b.” That is supposed to be a mixture between very bad and bad. Now, my boys and girls, Germany has had this meteorological condition for fifteen years! And the Party had this meteorological condition, too! For the space of a decade, the sun did not shine upon this Movement. It was a battle in which only hope could be victorious, the hope that in the end the sun would rise over Germany after all. And risen it has! And as you are standing here today, it is also a good thing that the sun is not smiling down on you. For we want to raise a race not only for sunny, but also for stormy days!" 
Hitler Youth walking past in 1940 and today
Standing outside the so-called Goldener Saal. Located below the heightened VIP stands, this large foyer was known as the 'Golden Hall' because of its gilded ceiling mosaics. Through two stairwells inside the grandstand, a cast iron door was reached, positioned above the rostrum and exactly below the golden swastika. The ornateness of the hall is noteworthy given the generally austere architectural style favoured by the Nazis. Hitler, according to Speer’s original plans, would have been able to step down to the people assembled in the Zeppelin Field area, from above, as it were although Hitler in fact preferred to drive up in a car during the party rallies, and so entered the grandstand from below, from the crowd of spectators. This, too, was calculated to stage himself as the Führer who came from 'the people and remained connected to them which meant that Hitler probably never set foot in this foyer, historically known as the “Hall of Honour”.
The 335 m² hall was only completed in 1939, and was to be used for the first time during the party rally of that year. Large sculptures created for the four niches in the foyer by Kurt Schmid-Ehmen were never installed. At short notice, the “Party Rally of Peace” was cancelled before Germany attacked Poland and unleashed the war. The Golden Hall is the only remaining interior planned by Speer, remaining an impressive example of Nazi architecture’s resemblance to stage sets. The 36.5 × 8.7 metre-high walls are made of Lahn marble slabs whilst the ceiling which reaches a height of 7.8 metres is decorated with shimmering gold mosaics by Hermann Kaspar. The original purpose and use of the golden hall during the Nazi party rallies is no longer known today. From 1985 to 2001 it housed the Fascination and Violence exhibition, which provided the impetus for the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds. In 1986, the post-industrial band Einsturzende Neubauten performed in the hall for the only concert to date in the premises. Frontman Blixa Geld described the performance as a counter to its totalitarian history. Currently the Golden Hall can only be visited as part of a guided tour of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds although apparently the permanent opening of a section is planned.
In Germany as this site presents, there are many building relics from
the Nazi era, many of which continue to be used with Nazi paraphernalia
on the façades still intact- the Olympic Stadium in Berlin has remained a sports arena, the former ministries of the German Reich in Berlin were converted into offices, the “House of Art” in Munich
is an exhibition venue. In Nuremberg, the situation is particularly
nuanced however as the Party Rally Grounds and various buildings
designed by Albert Speer served only one main purpose: as a forum for
the glorification of the Nazi regime and Hitler. Germany today has no
need for places for march-pasts and roll calls for 100,000 to 200,000
people in uniforms or for a megalomaniac Congress Hall for 50,000 party
members which is why the Nazi buildings in Nuremberg could not be
suitably used after 1945. Thus the Nuremberg buildings have remained
largely in their original state with no means to strip them of their
original character whilst the Zeppelin Grandstand itself is only rarely used today with the Zeppelin Field in its vast size of very
little practical value today. Parts of the area are used as sports
fields now; up until the mid-1990s, American forces played sports on the
field and the ring road around the Zeppelin Grandstand (Norisring)
annually hosts motor sport events. Between 2005 and
2011 the city invested over one million euros to safeguard access to the
Zeppelin Grandstand with an additional three million euros spent on
infrastructure such as paths and roads in the immediate surroundings.
Nevertheless, in spite of all the repairs the Zeppelin Grandstand is
collapsing. Since 2010, access for visitors to various areas has been
prohibited for safety reasons with the current assumption being that
sooner or later the spectator steps will have to be blocked off.
According to building experts, the site cannot not be preserved without a
general refurbishment with initial estimates putting the costs at
between 60 and 75 million euros. 
As Germany copes with mass migration and blows to its economy, like the Volkswagen scandal, and to its pride, like the allegations it paid bribes to secure its hosting of the 2006 World Cup, it also continues to deal with vestiges of its problematic past. In few places are those questions more vivid than in Nuremberg. Should public money be spent to preserve these crumbling sites? Is controlled decay an option for anything associated with the Nazis? Or have Hitler and his architect, Albert Speer, locked future generations into a devilish pact that compels Germans not only to teach the history of the Thousand Year Reich the Nazis proclaimed here but also to adapt it for each new era?
The Zeppelin Field was the most important event location for the party rallies. While the Luitpold Arena was firmly established as the site for the cult for the dead of the SA and ϟϟ, numerous events were staged on the Zeppelin Field. During the roll call of the Reich Labour Service, tens of thousands of their men lined up before the Hitler. Large parades and show manoeuvres of the Wehrmacht were held on the Zeppelin Field. Tanks drove up, flak was fired at aeroplanes thundering over the field at low altitude, in 1938 the prototype of a helicopter landed on the Zeppelin Field. On the “Day of Community”, young men demonstrated “virile strength” in manoeuvres with tree trunks, while young women in so-called “girls’ dances” personified the female role of future mothers desired by the Nazis.
Göring, Generaloberst Werner v. Fritsch and Generaladmiral Raeder at the Tag der Wehrmacht on September 14, 1936.
Several times since 1935 Karl Bodenschatz had overheard Göring and Hitler discuss the possibility that the top army generals might be plotting against the regime, and in the autumn of 1937 Göring asked Blomberg outright whether his generals would follow Hitler into a war. It is clear that by December 1937 Göring had begun to indulge in fantasies of taking supreme command of the armed forces himself in place of Blomberg. The only other candidate would be General von Fritsch. At fifty-eight, Fritsch was not much younger than Blomberg, and Göring felt it unlikely that Hitler would feel comfortable with him. Promoted to colonel- general on April 20, 1936, Fritsch came from a puritan Protestant family. His upright bearing suggested he might even be wearing a lace-up corset. With a monocle screwed into his left eye to help his face remain sinister and motionless, he was an old-fashioned bachelor who loved horses and hated Jews with equal passion.Irving (281) Göring
The
American flag being hoisted over the swastika on April 21, 1945 and my
students from the Bavarian International School today.
Four days after Nuremberg fell, the US Army blew up the swastika which had been installed at the centre of the Grandstand. The gold-plated and laurel-wreathed swastika which once crowned Albert Speer’s Zeppelin tribune represented the apotheosis and fulfilment of the swastikas which are still present, but sublimated in the decorative scheme of the tribune’s interior. Ornament as the unconscious graphology of the Volkgeist was thus ‘completed’ in the self-conscious presence of the Nazi symbol, and the sign of a (Gothic, mediaeval) past is linked to the rhetoric of a glorious future, thus avoiding the displacement of tradition implied by an Enlightenment concept of progress. The Tribune swastikas expressed in microcosm Hitler’s aim of uniting the medieval Nuremberg with the ‘modern’ National Socialist city, giving equal weight to a glorious past and a glorious future, and thereby defining the present as a moment of transition from one to the other.
Quinn (63) The Swastika: Constructing the Symbol
At the rear of the Grandstand
A visit to the Nuremberg Zeppelin field as it exists today supplies evidence of a healthy disrespect for the few remaining monuments of National Socialist architecture. On Sundays, Turkish Gastarbeiter and their families picnic in the shade of trees flanking Hitler’s ‘Great Road’, the grand thoroughfare which was intended to link the ancient Nuremberg, the ‘City of Imperial Diets’ with his modern ‘City of the Rallies’. Tennis is played against the walls of the Zeppelin tribune, and teenagers tryst on the steps. However, this reclaiming of Nazi architecture for leisure activity is frustrated by the neo-Nazi swastika graffiti which must constantly be removed from the tribune towers and entranceways. This is also the case at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, where the bronze swastikas which have been partially erased from the ceremonial bell reappear in graffiti on the lavatory walls, contesting with the countering phrase ‘Nazi raus’
Quinn (61)The Swastika: Constructing the Symbol
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Nuremberg is currently about to embark on an €85 million plan to conserve the rally
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Julia Lehner, Nuremberg’s chief culture official, says the intention is not to “rebuild, we won’t restore, but we will conserve. We want people to be able to move around freely on the site. It is an important witness to an era—it allows us to see how dictatorial regimes stage-manage themselves. That has educational value today.” Even though the entire site has been under a preservation order since 1973, the grandstand was assessed for damage until 2007, revealing corrosion, broken stairs, dry rot and mildew. As Daniel Ulrich, head of Nuremberg’s construction department, says, “[t]he damp is the biggest problem. The original construction was quick and shoddy. It was little more than a stage-set designed purely for effect. The limestone covering the bricks is not frost-proof and water has seeped in.” This has left the city with various options. One was to reconstruct the buildings but this threatened to be seen as glorifying the Third Reich. Others favoured a “managed decay” which would have involved the city authorities forced to fence off increasingly large parts of the grounds. On the other hand, others feared that the decaying buildings could emit the kind of “ruin romance” Speer envisioned as mentioned above. Others called for the entire site just to be bulldozed and have the site's history swept under the carpet. In the end, the decision was made to conserve the ruins in their current state and make them fully accessible. The most complex conservation challenge is the damp that has seeped into the stone walls of the ramparts and grandstand, the steps and facades. A ventilation system will be required to remove humidity from the interiors. About a quarter of the stones in the façades and steps are to be replaced by matching concrete blocks. The top layer of the compacted soil stairs of the ramparts will be replaced.In addition, a new “project room” will be installed in the grandstand. The target date for completion is 2025 at the same time Nuremberg is competing to be the European Capital of Culture that year.
grounds.
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Julia Lehner, Nuremberg’s chief culture official, says the intention is not to “rebuild, we won’t restore, but we will conserve. We want people to be able to move around freely on the site. It is an important witness to an era—it allows us to see how dictatorial regimes stage-manage themselves. That has educational value today.” Even though the entire site has been under a preservation order since 1973, the grandstand was assessed for damage until 2007, revealing corrosion, broken stairs, dry rot and mildew. As Daniel Ulrich, head of Nuremberg’s construction department, says, “[t]he damp is the biggest problem. The original construction was quick and shoddy. It was little more than a stage-set designed purely for effect. The limestone covering the bricks is not frost-proof and water has seeped in.” This has left the city with various options. One was to reconstruct the buildings but this threatened to be seen as glorifying the Third Reich. Others favoured a “managed decay” which would have involved the city authorities forced to fence off increasingly large parts of the grounds. On the other hand, others feared that the decaying buildings could emit the kind of “ruin romance” Speer envisioned as mentioned above. Others called for the entire site just to be bulldozed and have the site's history swept under the carpet. In the end, the decision was made to conserve the ruins in their current state and make them fully accessible. The most complex conservation challenge is the damp that has seeped into the stone walls of the ramparts and grandstand, the steps and facades. A ventilation system will be required to remove humidity from the interiors. About a quarter of the stones in the façades and steps are to be replaced by matching concrete blocks. The top layer of the compacted soil stairs of the ramparts will be replaced.In addition, a new “project room” will be installed in the grandstand. The target date for completion is 2025 at the same time Nuremberg is competing to be the European Capital of Culture that year. 
Albert Speer designed the Märzfeld (March Field) as an arena for Wehrmacht manoeuvres (with 955 x 610 metres interior area, making it larger than eighty football pitches) planned as the south-eastern end of the grounds. The
Märzfeld was named after the ancient God of War and to
commemorate the reintroduction of conscription in March 1935.
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Stele number 15 provides information about the substation on Regensburger Straße. Popp, who sits on the board of the architects' association BauLust, was "shocked" when he found out that he had just set up his information board next to a future Burger King branch. A hamburger restaurant negates any real historical debate leading him to complain that "[t]he building is simply used as a shell; that upsets me bitterly." To him the willingness of the city administration and the monument protection to agree to a mundane use such as the sale of chips and burgers reflects a disturbing attitude on their part. In this he's joined by architectural professor Josef Reindl who states that on the one hand, "[i]n the documentation centre the city engages with history and a few hundred metres further on, it no longer cares." The head of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds documentary centre, Hans-Christian Täubrich, also criticises the use of the building to serve American fast food by aditting that only financial interests played a role in the sale of the building and nothing else. Nevertheless, the city's monument protection has ensured that the advertising boards are not screwed to the façade and the external impression is not changed leading to Burger King anchoring its logo to the ground as close to the front of the building as possible.
Standing in front of the Hall of Honour (Ehrenhalle) today. During the Weimar Republic, Nuremberg erected this monument to commemorate the 9,855 Nuremberg soldiers killed in the Great War. The design was by architect Fritz Mayer. A rectangular yard is adjacent to the arcaded hall, with a row of pillars carrying fire bowls on either side. Lord Mayor Hermann Luppe officially opened the hall in 1930. During the 1929 Party Rally, the Nazis for the first time incorporated the then unfinished Hall of Honour in their staging of the cult of the dead and where Hitler commemorated the fallen soldiers of the First World War and the “Martyrs of the National Socialist Movement”. The ritual was intended to commit the “party soldiers” present to sacrificing their lives for the Führer and for National Socialism. In 1933, Hitler had the Luitpold Grove park remodelled into the Luitpold Arena for the Party Rallies. During the Party Congress of 1929 the then-unfinished "Hall of Honour" was used for the enactment of a cult of the dead by the Nazis for the first time.
The Ehrenhalle is located at one end of the Luitpoldhain, a 21-hectare park located in the southeast of Nuremberg northwest of Volkspark Dutzendteich and which extends between Münchner Straße, Bayernstraße and Schultheißallee; on the northern edge is the Meistersingerhalle. In 1927 the first Nazi Party Rally took place here. At the second rally in 1929, the Nazis incorporated the newly completed the Ehrenhalle into their event. After the Nazis took power in 1933 they held a celebration here where Hitler on a wooden-built grandstand. As of 1933, the Luitpoldhain was transformed by a strictly structured display area as part of the plans of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, most notably by the so-called Luitpold Arena with an area of 84,000 m². Opposite the honour hall was erected a speaker's platform which was connected by a wide granite path. In this ensemble the Reichsparteitage held its rallies of SA and ϟϟ in front of up to 150,000 spectators. Central to the ritual was the blood flag, which had allegedly been carried along by the Nazis in the Hitler Putsch and which served to consecrate new standards of SA and ϟϟ units through contact. The Luitpoldhalle was eventually destroyed by the RAF during one of the first air raids on Nuremberg in the war on the night of August 28-29, 1942.
The Ehrenhalle is located at one end of the Luitpoldhain, a 21-hectare park located in the southeast of Nuremberg northwest of Volkspark Dutzendteich and which extends between Münchner Straße, Bayernstraße and Schultheißallee; on the northern edge is the Meistersingerhalle. In 1927 the first Nazi Party Rally took place here. At the second rally in 1929, the Nazis incorporated the newly completed the Ehrenhalle into their event. After the Nazis took power in 1933 they held a celebration here where Hitler on a wooden-built grandstand. As of 1933, the Luitpoldhain was transformed by a strictly structured display area as part of the plans of the Nazi Party Rally Grounds, most notably by the so-called Luitpold Arena with an area of 84,000 m². Opposite the honour hall was erected a speaker's platform which was connected by a wide granite path. In this ensemble the Reichsparteitage held its rallies of SA and ϟϟ in front of up to 150,000 spectators. Central to the ritual was the blood flag, which had allegedly been carried along by the Nazis in the Hitler Putsch and which served to consecrate new standards of SA and ϟϟ units through contact. The Luitpoldhalle was eventually destroyed by the RAF during one of the first air raids on Nuremberg in the war on the night of August 28-29, 1942. 
The Luitpold Grove and its First World War necropolis became the complex's most sacred ceremonial ground, being completely reworked for the rallies. The former landscaped pleasure park was casually levelled and flanked by massive stone grandstands to be transformed into the Luitpold Arena. The resulting formalised space served as the stage for one of the most moving moments of the rally schedule whereon the seventh day of the proceedings,the massed ranks of more than 150,000 SA and ϟϟ Storm Troopers filled the floor of the arena. Hitler and his entourage then passed solemnly between the ranks along a granite path leading straight to the steps of the war memorial, where the Führer would pay his respects to the nation's and the party's martyred dead. Connected to the Luitpold Arena was the Luitpold Hall. In 1933 this area was transformed into a strictly structured parade area with an area of 84,000 m². A speaker's platform was built across from the Hall of Honour. The victims of the 1923 Hitler coup were commemorated at the hall of honour itself. The direct connection between the grandstand and the hall consisted of a wide granite path. The marches of the SA and ϟϟ with up to 150,000 people took place in this ensemble during the Nazi party rallies.
The Nazis used the site primarily as a commemoration for the fallen soldiers of the Great War and commemoration of the sixteen "Martyrs of the Movement" of the November 9, 1923 Hitlerputsch in Munich. Hitler, accompanied by ϟϟ-leader Heinrich Himmler and SA-leader Viktor Lutze, strode through the arena over the 240 metre-long granite path from the main grandstand to the terrace of the Ehrenhalle and gave the Nazi salute as shown here in 1937 and the site today. The
central “relic” was the blood flag that was supposedly carried by the
putschists during the Hitler coup. During the consecration of the blood
flag, new standards of SA and ϟϟ units were "consecrated" by touching the blood flag. The ritual was the climax of the celebration.Arguably the most powerful scene in a film that has many is Hitler’s speech at the memorial for the late Paul von Hindenburg, Germany’s most famous World War I commander and Hitler’s predecessor as the Weimar President. The Führer is surrounded by over a quarter of a million civilians and troops from the Nazi special Schutz Staffel (“Shield Squadron,” or ϟϟ , Hitler’s personal bodyguard) and Sturm Abteilung (“Storm Troopers,” or SA, an earlier paramilitary outfit eventually superseded by the ϟϟ). Hitler, flanked by ϟϟ commander Heinrich Himmler and SA commander Viktor Lütze, slowly marches towards Hindenburg’s memorial and gives the Nazi salute in absolute silence.
Stout, Michael J. (23) The Effectiveness of Nazi Propaganda
Inspiring
the final scene of Star Wars (1977), Himmler, Hitler and Lutze at the
6th Party Congress rally in the film with the Grandstand in the
background from Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will.
The film contains
excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress,
including those by Hitler, interspersed with footage of massed party
members. Hitler commissioned the film whilst serving as unofficial
executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. The
overriding theme is the return of Germany as a great power, with Hitler
as the True German Leader who will bring glory to the nation. Much of it
takes place in the Zeppelin field- the second day shows an outdoor
rally for the Reichsarbeitsdienst
(Labour Service), which is primarily a series of pseudo-military drills
by men carrying shovels. The following day starts with a Hitler Youth
rally on the parade ground again showing Nazi dignitaries arriving with
Baldur von Schirach introducing Hitler. There then follows a military
review featuring Wehrmacht cavalry and various armoured vehicles.
It's on the fourth day (Riefenstahl took liberties in her editing; this
is not a true documentary despite her post-bellum protests) which
provides the climax here as Wagner's music
plays whilst Hitler, flanked by Heinrich Himmler and Viktor Lutze,
walks through a long wide expanse with over 150,000 SA and ϟϟ troops
standing at attention, to lay a wreath at a Great War Memorial.
Hitler then reviews the parading SA and ϟϟ men,
following which Hitler and Lutze deliver a speech where they discuss
the Night of the Long Knives purge (aka Operation Hummingbird) of the SA several months prior. The latter was the newly appointed leader of the brown-shirts, having just replaced the murdered Ernst Röhm after Operation Hummingbird. During his first official appearance as Stabschef, Shirer notes that “the SA boys received him coolly”. In one of the final scenes, Hitler holds a speech with references towards “unity” and “loyalty”, alluding to the reason for the Night of the Long Knives. This post-Operation Hummingbird aura is explicit in Triumph of the Will, and is especially heavy in the scene depicting Hitler’s address to the Schutzstaffel and the Sturmabteilung. Despite their positions and formations having aesthetic purposes, it is still evident that there was a rift between the two groups, the former being closer to Hitler than the latter, resulting in drunk quarrels during the Rally. These were, needless to say, excluded from the film. Nevertheless, the cold animosity and tension is evident. Kershaw argues that, although following the Night of the Long Knives the Sturmabteilung was forfeited its importance, Hitler could now have confidence in the freshly cleansed bloc. Triumph of the Will suggests otherwise as during Hitler’s speech, the ϟϟ surround him in a protective stance, suggesting the brown-shirts’ adherence was still doubted. Shirer confirms this in his “Berlin Diary” stating that “there was considerable tension in the stadium and I noticed that Hitler’s own ϟϟ bodyguard was drawn up in force in front of him, separating him from the mass of the brown-shirts. We wondered if just one of those fifty thousand brown-shirts wouldn’t pull a revolver, but not one did”. Martin Davidson, in his account of his grandfather’s life as an ϟϟ man, asserts that Hitler was vulnerable at a time so soon after the Night of the Long Knives and there existed considerable animosity between the two groups, culminating in fights and brawls under the influence of alcohol behind the scenes of the 1934 Rally. In some cases, such as the visual allusions to Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will that cap the concluding medal ceremony of A New Hope, the reference could only become clear in the context of the saga as a whole. In that case, the allusion to the Rebel victory as a quasi-fascist one suggested the moral hollowness of their victory achieved by military force, while setting the stage for their defeat at the start of the second film. The only enduring victories in these films are those built on love, understanding, and mutual self-sacrifice.
Such comparisons can be made alongside Ridley Scott's Gladiator with its depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome (although Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was of course inspired by the Roman Empire). Gladiator reflects back on the film by duplicating similar events that occurred in Hitler's procession. The Nazi film opens with an aerial view of Hitler arriving in a plane, whilst Scott shows an aerial view of Rome, also seen through clouds, quickly followed by a shot of the large crowd of people watching Commodus pass them in a procession with his chariot. The first thing to appear in Triumph of the Will is a Nazi eagle, which is alluded to when a statue of an eagle sits atop one of the arches (and then shortly followed by several more decorative eagles throughout the rest of the scene) leading up to the procession of Commodus. At one point in the Nazi film, a little girl gives flowers to Hitler, whilst Commodus is met with several girls that all give him bundles of flowers. The parallels between Commodus’ parade of power in Rome and Hitler’s arrival at a Nazi rally in Nuremberg are unmistakable. Both scenes open with aerial views of monumental buildings and cheering crowds, both offer shots from the viewpoint of the central figure, the camera angles making Commodus and Hitler seem larger than life. In an explicit quotation of the moment in Hitler’s progress when he is offered flowers by a little girl, Commodus on the steps of the Senate House is presented with bouquets by children. In Ridley Scott’s Rome, the Senate House faces the Colosseum across a vast square filled with the massed ranks of soldiers. This grandiose vision of the architecture of domination owes most to Hitler’s plans for a new Berlin. Rome in the 2nd century AD, with its narrow streets and densely built Forum, was never like this. It only came close in 1932 when Mussolini drove his processional Via dell’Impero straight through the centre of the city.
Personally, I am most impressed in the opening scene when the Germans are heard giving the same war-cry as that heard in Zulu, Scott's favourite film.
The Nazi influence continues to be made explicit in the most recent instalment of Star Wars: The Force Awakens
I’m beginning to comprehend, I think, some of the reasons for Hitler’s astounding success. Borrowing a chapter from the Roman church, he is restoring pageantry and colour and mysticism to the drab lives of twentieth-century Germans. This morning’s opening meeting in the Luitpold Hall on the outskirts of Nuremberg was more than a gorgeous show; it also had something of the mysticism and religious fervour of an Easter or Christmas Mass in a great Gothic cathedral. The hall was a sea of brightly coloured flags. Even Hitler’s arrival was made dramatic. The band stopped playing. There was a hush over the thirty thousand people packed in the hall. Then the band struck up the Badenweiler March, a very catchy tune, and used only, I’m told, when Hitler makes his big entries.
The Luitpoldhalle: Dating back to the Bavarian Exposition, the former machine hall was renovated and first used by the Nazis for the party convention party congress of 1934. Its monumental neo-classic façade featured a shell limestone facing with three enormous entrance portals. It was in this building during the party congress of 1935, that the Nuremberg laws were adapted which deprived German Jews and other minorities of their citizenship. The
Luitpoldhalle had an extension of 180 x 50 metres and offered space for
up to 16,000 people. Within it the party congress took place during the
Reichsparteitages. From 1933 to 1936 the largest organ in Europe with five manuals and 220 registers was installed within the hall. The
structure was severely damaged by allied bombs in early 1945 and a
few years later replaced by a parking lot. Part of the granite staircase
leading to the building remains intact today as seen in this GIF. 
This facility was completely reworked for the rallies. The former landscaped pleasure park was callously levelled, flanked by massive stone grandstands and transformed into the Luitpold Arena. The resulting formalised space served as the stage for one of the most moving moments of the rally schedule. On the seventh day of the proceedings, the massed ranks of more than 150,000 SA and ϟϟ Storm Troopers filled the floor of the arena. Hitler and his entourage then passed solemnly between the ranks along a granite path leading straight to the steps of the war memorial, where the Führer would pay his respects to the nation's and the party's martyred dead. Connected to the Luitpold Arena was the Luitpold Hall, a meeting hall with a capacity for sixteen thousand people redesigned and enlarged from a structure built for the 1906 Bavarian Jubilee Exhibition. 
Hitler's car in front as he leaves in 1935. There is persuasive visual evidence that the reconstruction drawings of the main buildings at Assur, the early capital of the Assryian Empire, by Walter Andrae, assistant in German excavations at Babylon, formed the most direct influence on Speer's designs. Speer need not have known much ancient history to have realised that Assur was the centre of a Semitic empire, and that the peoples who produced such buildings could not by any stretch of the imagination be supposed to have been Aryan or Indo-European. (often used interchangeably, even by reputable ancient historians). Yet in his Spandau Diaries, published in 1975 but supposedly written whilst he was still in prison, Speer admitted the importance of Assyrian models as influences on his designs.
The Fliegerdenkmal, a monument to the pilots killed in the Great War designed in 1924 by Walter Franke for the fallen German pilots of the First World War which is today located directly behind the Ehrenhalle, and as it appeared in a Nazi-era postcard. It presents a crashed, upside-down plane made of limestone topped with a bronze eagle. It was originally located on Dutzendteichstraße, but was relocated to Marienbergstraße on the occasion of the opening of the new Nuremberg airport on Marienberg. During the Second World War it had ended up being severely damaged and was eventually restored in 1958, now commemorating the fallen pilots of both world wars.
Großen Straße: Speer
designed the Great Street to be the central axis of the Party Rally
Grounds aligned with the Imperial Castle in the Old Town to create a
symbolic historic link. It is sixty metres wide and was to be two
kilometres long. Between 1935 and 1939, only 1,5000 metres were actually
built, with sixty thousand granite slabs. On its concrete foundation, granite slabs were laid in two different colours- light and dark grey- so that marching groups could more easily follow the orientation. The light grey, square plates have an edge length of 1.2 metres,
which corresponds to the length of two Prussian marching steps serving to
further facilitate the maintenance of the formation during parades. By 1939 it had been largely completed but after the start of the war no further party rallies took place and thus the unfinished complex was never used as a parade street. After the war, the Americans used the Großen Straße as a temporary airfield. Since 1968, the area has served as a parking lot for major events as the annual volksfest which was taking place when I took my photograph. The refurbishment of the Great Street between 1991 and 1995 had been specifically implemented with the road’s historic importance in mind in which the granite slabs were partly restored and partially renewed whilst a third of the area was concreted.
The Congress Hall (Kongreßhalle), a listed building currently under monument protection. Based on the Colosseum and intended for Nazi party congresses, it is the second largest remaining Nazi structure, the largest being a former KdF holiday resort complex at Prora, on the
island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. The design with its cantilevered
roof was designed by the Nuremberg architects Ludwig and Franz Ruff. The
hall itself was planned as a Nazi convention centre with space for
50,000 people. Of the planned height of around seventy metres, only 39 were
reached. The largest part of the building is made of bricks; the façade
was clad with large granite slabs "from all parts of the Reich". The
architecture, especially the outer facade, was inspired by the Colosseum.
The laying of the cornerstone took place in 1935, but the construction
remained unfinished; in particular, it still lacked its roof. The
dimensions of the building's U-shaped exterior was 240 × 200 metres, its
interior 175 × 155 metres. Its U-shaped design was clearly cited by Ludwig and Franz Ruff in their design for the façade as being modelled on the ancient Marcellus theatre in Rome.
The architect Friedrich Tamms, a Nazi Party member who was also commissioned to produce large buildings for the Third Reich, described the monumentality of these buildings as the law of the monumental,
'the harsh law of architecture', which has always and in all its parts been a masculine affair, can be summarised into a clear concept: It must be strict, of a concise, clear, even classical form. It has to be easy. It must carry within itself the standard of the 'reaching to heaven'. It must go beyond the usual measure borrowed from the benefit. It must be made of the solid, firmly fixed and built according to the best rules of the craft as for eternity. It must be pointless in the practical sense, but it must be the bearer of an idea. It must carry something unapproachable that fills people with admiration, but also with shyness. It must be impersonal because it is not the work of an individual, but a symbol of a community connected by a common ideal.
Taking my students from the Bavarian International School on tour
A
domed hall was to be erected a hundred feet high to seat 100,000. Among
the party buildings designed to give the city of Nuremberg ‘its future
and hence everlasting style’ was a congress hall for 60,000, a stadium
‘such as the world has never seen before’, and a parade ground for a
million people. The excavations alone would have called for 40 miles of
railway track, 600 million bricks would have been required for the
foundations, and the outer walls would have been 270 feet high. Hitler
paid particular attention to the durability of the bricks and other
materials, so that thousands of years later the buildings should bear
witness to the grandeur of his power as the pyramids of Egypt testified
to the power and splendour of the Pharaohs. But if the movement should
ever fall silent,’ he declared as he laid the foundation stone for the
congress hall at Nuremberg, ‘then this witness here will still speak for
thousands of years. In the midst of a sacred grove of ancient oaks men
will then admire in reverent awe this first giant among the buildings of
the Third Reich.’ And he remarked effusively to Hans Frank, "They will
be so gigantic that even the pyramids will pale before the masses of
concrete and colossi of stone which I am erecting here. I am building
for eternity, for, Frank, we are the last Germans. If we were ever to
disappear, if the movement were to pass away after many centuries, there
would be no Germany any more."
Joachim C. Fest, The Face Of The Third Reich: Portraits Of The Nazi Leadership
Model
of the façade in front of the shell of the Congress Hall, shown on the
left in 1938 and today, with me on the other side of the shore of Dutzendteich lake which marked the entrance of the rally grounds. Although it was never completed, the Congress
Hall gives an insight into the dimensions of Nazi architecture. The
foundation stone was laid in 1935, but the building remained unfinished
and without a roof. Popular leisure facilities, such as the public
swimming baths and the 1906 lighthouse were demolished. Part of the
expanse of water of the Dutzendteich lake had to be drained. The laying
of foundations for the construction was extravagant and extremely
costly. Since 2000, the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände, with its permanent exhibition Faszination und Gewalt, has been located in the northern wing. In the southern wing the
Serenadenhof, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, has its domicile. At the end of the war the structure was used to store American military equipment.
The building itself is mostly built out of clinker with a façade of granite panels. The design (especially the outer facade, among other features) is inspired by the Colosseum in Rome.
Since 2000, the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände, with its permanent exhibition Faszination und Gewalt, has been located in the northern wing of the Congress Hall. In 1998, an architectural competition was held for the Dokumentationszentrum with the Austrian Günther Domenig winning with a plan for a museum that slashed through one corner of the Kongresshalle. His design emphasised the disparity between the fragmented steel and glass museum and Ruff’s monumental stone Kongresshalle. Reporters and politicians widely commented on the new structure’s asymmetrical cut into the side of the Kongresshalle seen behind me as a symbolic rejection of the Nazi past by a democratic present. Here, too, officials proclaimed that the aesthetic choices antithetical to the monumental masonry and axial plans at the site were transparent to historical critique. The German government initially rejected the plans (citing the need to channel any cultural funds to the new states in the East), but, by 1999, it had agreed to help fund the project.
Then and now, unchanged
Various permanent exhibitions deal with the causes, connections and consequences of the Nazi tyranny. Topics that have a direct connection to Nuremberg are particularly taken into account. The concept began in 1994 when the city council of Nuremberg decided to set up the documentation centre. On November 4, 2001 it was opened by President Johannes Rau. The Austrian architect Günther Domenig won the international competition in 1998 with his suggestion to drill the northern head building diagonally through a walk-through "pile" of glass and steel. The permanent exhibition inside entitles Fascination and Violence deals with the causes, connections and consequences of national socialism. Aspects with a clear connection to Nuremberg were highlighted. Nuremberg was the city of the Reichsparteitage during the Third Reich and was often used for propaganda purposes. The history of the Reichsparteitage, the buildings of the Reichsparteitagsgelände, the Nuremberg Laws, the Nuremberg trials and its twelve successor processes as well as the handling of the Nazi architectural heritage after 1945. Since May 2006 23 stelae have been set up within the historical area, allowing an individual tour of the former rally grounds.
Inside is a model of the proposed Deutsches Stadion which Hitler can be seen reviewing before the foundation stone is laid at the 1937 Nuremberg Parteitag der Arbeit.The Deutsches Stadion was a monumental stadium designed by Speer for the Nazi Party Grounds which was begun in 1937 but interrupted two years later by the outbreak of the war and never completed.
As in ancient Greece, the elite and highly experienced men are chosen from among the masses of the nation. An entire nation in sympathetic astonishment sits in the ranks. Spectators and contestants go into one unit.
Hitler, as late as July 6, 1942, enthused about the prospects of the Reichsparteitagsgelände and proposed Deutsches Stadion:The Party Rally has, however, been not only a quite unique occasion in the life of the NSDAP but also in many respects a valuable preparation for war. Each Rally requires the organisation of no fewer than four thousand special trains. As these trains stretched as far as Munich and Halle, the railway authorities were given first-class practice in the military problem of handling mass troop transportation. Nor will the Rally lose its significance in the future. Indeed, I have given orders that the venue of the Rally is to be enlarged to accommodate a minimum of two million for the future—as compared to the million to a million and a half to-day. The German Stadium which has been constructed at Nuremberg, and of which Horth has drawn two magnificent pictures, accommodates four hundred thousand people and is on a scale which has no comparison anywhere on earth.
Trevor-Roper (565-6) Hitler's Table Talk
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Standing in front of the former ϟϟ-Barracks, built by architect Franz Ruff between 1937 and 1939 on the western outskirts of the Party Rally Grounds. Although referred to by the Nazis as the "Gateway to the Rally Grounds," it was not actually used until after the start of the war- never during the years of the rallies. Its construction demonstrates how the ϟϟ sought to be represented in Nuremberg by its own units right next to the rally grounds. In 1936 no barracks were planned for the Nazi rallies but the ϟϟ, having set up the guard service for the grounds, desired one and in so doing expand its responsibilities and to set up its own troops. Thus in March 1936 ϟϟ-Gruppenführer Ernst-Heinrich Schmauser began planning its construction with an area on Frankenstraße chosen the next year. By July Reichsführer ϟϟ Himmler commissioned Speer to submit blueprints in three months. After an inspection of the site by Himmler and Speer and Willy Liebel, the mayor of Nuremberg, the final plan was decided and Ruff was commissioned as architect whilst remaining responsible for the neighbouring Reichsparteitagsland. Hitler himself interfered in its planning, ordering in September 1937 for an immediate start with accommodation ready by 1938, although the work was not started until October 20. The topping-out ceremony of the main building was celebrated on June 2, 1939 and by 1940 the building complex was largely completed. Officially described as ϟϟ accommodation and never barracks, the main building alone had a thousand rooms. Above the main entrance hung a large reichsadler and the ceilings were covered with mosaics designed by Max Körner whilst the floor of the festival hall consisted of marble mosaics in the form of hooked crossbars. This was one of the Nazis' largest barracks buildings erected and the entire complex consisted of the central main building with a “Portal of Honour”, and two side wings, both built around a courtyard, as well as several additional buildings. 
During the war radio operators for the Waffen ϟϟ were trained here, some of whom took part in the siege of Leningrad. During the war radio operators were trained for different units. In addition, the c Barracks Nachrichten-Ersatzabteilung (Nuremberg) had its seat here. In May 1940, prisoners from the Dachau concentration camp came to the barracks for construction and other work. Through 1944-45, a small section of the building was used to provide accommodation for roughly an hundred prisoners from the Dachau and Flossenbürg concentration camps. When Nuremberg was conquered by the Americans in April 1945, German troops from the ϟϟ barracks attempted a final resistance although, apart from bullet holes at the main building, the barracks were scarcely damaged during the war. In April the building complex was renamed Merrell Barracks after a fallen soldier of the 3rd American infantry division and the empty buildings held foreign forced labourers. Today it houses the Federal Department for the Recognition of Foreign [sic] Refugees.
Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally Grounds history Zeppelinfeld events then and now current state of Rally Grounds Nuremberg Documentation Center visits virtual tours 2025 Adolf Hitler's speeches at Nuremberg Leni Riefenstahl films Nazi architecture in Nuremberg can I visit the sites what happened during rallies preservation efforts today WWII Nuremberg landmarks map drone footage 2025 Holocaust education at Rally Grounds ethical debates on touring Nazi sites augmented reality experiences Nuremberg Trials connection modern exhibits at Zeppelinfeld guided tours of Nazi rally locations digital archives of Nuremberg events contemporary significance of Rally Grounds underground structures at Nuremberg site memorial sites near Zeppelinfeld Nuremberg city map with Nazi history interactive timelines of rallies 1930s to now virtual reality reconstructions of speeches current excavations and restorations drone footage of Nuremberg 2025 historical photos then and now augmented reality apps for Nazi sites educational resources on Rally Grounds
