Nazi Architecture madness

[Michel Van]

you requested Nazi skyscraper you get them

Hamburg had to be "Tor zur Welt" (Gate to the world)
Adolf Hitler wanted to transform the city
so it overtop New York and San Francisco !

next to suspension bridge bigger as Golden Gate Bridge.
there had to be skycraper bigger as Empire State Building
but the soft ground was impossibly to build in those sizes
so the Project were scale down, much to Hitler discord.
in end the bridge had to 700 meter long, but the wideness in World !
and skyscraper only 250 meter high.
after some source with a big neon sign in form of a swastika

wat had look like this

 

[Krases]

Marshy soil does it again. Silly Hitler, skyscrapers are for bedrock.

The giant swastika on top looks like something out of a Tarantino movie. The square out in front is way to large and would likely be under utilized. The best way to make a city look as fascist as possible is to eliminate parklands and green belts.

 

[Blair152]

yes that's true

Albert Speer built the Schwerbelastungskörper to check it

12650 metric tons of concret in Berlin
the structure had to sink less than 6 cm (2.5 inches),
but It sank 18 cm (7 inches) after three years !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerbelastungskörper

Another problem with Der Halle Der Volk, was that of condensation. Ironically, it was modeled after Rome's Pantheon.

 

[zoomar]

Why didn't you post the Capitol, Supreme Court and the Lincoln Monument? In a capital predominately Romanesque in architecture its likely that architects will continue the theme.

Actually, I find that there is an amazing similarity between Nazi, Stalinist, and other totalitarian architecture and a lot of 1930's Works Progress Administration (WPA) public architecture in the US. The US stuff is of course not so gargantuan, but features a lot of the same art deco or neoclassical design and "workers building stuff" details. I suspect there was some sort of basic "volksy" zeitgeist going on in the 1930's

 

[Dilvish]

The problem with the dome that Hitler wanted to build was that it would have created a whole heck of a lot of condensation and it would have been
so heavy that it would have collapsed under its own weight because the land
it was supposed to be built on was marshland.

"We built the first dome and it sank into the swamp.
We built a second dome. It caught fire, fell over, and sank into the swamp.
We built a third dome. It rained acid rain inside, chewed up the foundation, collapsed into itself and sank into the swamp.
We built a fourth dome. And it still stands!"

dilvish

 

[Simon]

Most of you know Hitler dream of Capitol "Germania" but there were more plans for Citys of Third Reich. The "Führerstädten" Berlin, München, Nurmberg, Hamburg, Linz.

Berlin or Hitler called its "Welthauptstadt" in eng: "capitol of the World"

I haven't seen anyone post a link but several people have made three dimensional computer models of Germania and put the videos up on Youtube. Here's one giving you a street level idea of how mind bogglingly massive they were. Check out some of the others on the right.

Found new picture

Left München with the West-East Axis with gigantic Victory Column

I have to say that the Munich one actually looks pretty good IMO. Do you have any pictures/details of what the surrounding buildings would look like? Providing they were done in a neoclassical and not some god awful modernist style it could work, you'd have to get rid of the domed train station and scale down the Victory Column a bit though.

I should say something on the lines of "awful Nazi megalomaniacs" but I SO love absurd, monumental architecture...

Agreed. As long as it's done tastefully - something of a contradiction I know.

I'll take the Empire state building any day. Is it just me but aren't Art Deco skyscrapers so much nicer than glass and steel ones. They've built a few in London and they don't look good but I think a nice art-deco one would fit right in.

The Empire State Building is okay but it doesn't hold a candle to the Chrysler Building. Surprisingly the Gherkin works in London, the Shard of Glass or Walkie-Talkie ones though are hideous and completely out of keeping.

 

[Skokie]

I don't see anything impressive about it in the least. It's the work of someone with a child's understanding of architecture.

If you want to see a truly great imperial city, look to Haussmann's Paris.

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

Even though I hate the Nazis as much as anyone, their architectural plans are simply awe-inspiring.

 

[Krases]

I don't see anything impressive about it in the least. It's the work of someone with a child's understanding of architecture.

If you want to see a truly great imperial city, look to Haussmann's Paris.

But that is why I like it. It is so ridiculous and it throws feasibility out the window and yet it was (relatively) close to being a reality.

Now you have me reading about Haussmann's Paris. Interesting stuff.

Even though I hate the Nazis as much as anyone, their architectural plans are simply awe-inspiring.

It is always ok to admire the art and not the artist.

 

[alt_historian]

"We built the first dome and it sank into the swamp.
We built a second dome. It caught fire, fell over, and sank into the swamp.
We built a third dome. It rained acid rain inside, chewed up the foundation, collapsed into itself and sank into the swamp.
We built a fourth dome. And it still stands!"

dilvish

You made me do my Evil Villain laugh

Never heard MrP's, apparently he has an impressively evil laugh

I haven't seen anyone post a link but several people have made three dimensional computer models of Germania and put the videos up on Youtube. Here's one giving you a street level idea of how mind bogglingly massive they were. Check out some of the others on the right.

Yeah... just ridiculous.

...

The Empire State Building is okay but it doesn't hold a candle to the Chrysler Building. Surprisingly the Gherkin works in London, the Shard of Glass or Walkie-Talkie ones though are hideous and completely out of keeping.

Walkie-talkie? What's that?

I know what the Shard of Glass is though, the... thing they're building at London Bridge Station. Don't know why.

For those unfamiliar with London's current look, the building in question is the huge, utterly out of place, pointy one in the mid-left. It will be substantially taller than Canary Wharf tower.

 

[lounge60]

Oh my good Lord!
Poor London!
This is worse that nazis bombing!!

 

[Arachnid]

I actually think the Shard would look great in San Francisco or New York but it just doesn't fit with Central London. While an Art Deco Skyscraper wouldn't be perfect it'd be a hell of a lot better.

 

[Workable Goblin]

Compared to the Big Glass Dildo, the latter actually starts to look pretty good...

 

[alt_historian]

I actually think the Shard would look great in San Francisco or New York but it just doesn't fit with Central London. While an Art Deco Skyscraper wouldn't be perfect it'd be a hell of a lot better.

London has a history of out-of-place buildings. I don't know if it counts as Art Deco, but there's one I've been to often which looks like it should be in Gotham somewhere.

Senate House library (the main admin building for the University of London, as well as it's central library), in situ in Bloomsbury/Russell Square:

And closer up:

It was built during the 1930s, making it our own Stalinist or Nazi monument, and Orwell probably used it as the basis for his description of the Ministry of Truth in 1984.

... the odd thing is, I think it actually looks quite good. Maybe that's because I've been on the inside, which is quite nice

 

[Arachnid]

I actually really like Art Deco and while it doesn't completely fit in with Bloomsbury it fits in a hell of a lot better than the Dildo or Shard.

 

[Workable Goblin]

London has a history of out-of-place buildings. I don't know if it counts as Art Deco, but there's one I've been to often which looks like it should be in Gotham somewhere.

Senate House library (the main admin building for the University of London, as well as it's central library), in situ in Bloomsbury/Russell Square:

And closer up:

It was built during the 1930s, making it our own Stalinist or Nazi monument, and Orwell probably used it as the basis for his description of the Ministry of Truth in 1984.

... the odd thing is, I think it actually looks quite good. Maybe that's because I've been on the inside, which is quite nice

That looks exactly like the central tower of the main library here...
...which was built in '68! Or City Hall...hm...

 

[Simon]

Walkie-talkie? What's that?

I give you 20 Fenchurch Street, aka. the walkie-talkie.

 

[alt_historian]

I give you 20 Fenchurch Street, aka. the walkie-talkie.

Gaah!.....

 

[Bosnjanin]

does anyone knows how much area would welthaupstadt cover???

 

[lichtbringer]

And the United States (with John Russell Pope)
http://classicist.blogs.com/weblog/images/Jefferson_Memorial.jpg
And the French (Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris,for exemple).
http://www.cvltvre.com/mod/cvltvre_events/thumbnail.php?id=26923
The policy is not involved.
Is an interesting phenomenon called:
"30s neoclassicism" or "Decò classicism".

As for the US:

That thing looks like from a TL were the Nazis have won!