Welthauptstadt Germania

Had Germany won WW2, Hitler planned on constructing a massive "world capital" on the site of Berlin.

Unfortunately Berlin isn't really the best site for constructing many of the monster buildings that Hitler wanted. Many of the structures, such as his triumphal arch, would have likely begun to sink.

Knowing this, were would be the best alternative for construction of the World Capital?

My picks:
-Innsbruck: Its in a narrow valley, but it would still accommodate the world capital.
-Munich: Already a major established city so construction would be easy.
-Frankfurt: I am not sure about the ground quality, but it would also serve as a good new capital.
 
Either those, or build a completely new capital from scratch some place else (or ridiculously deep/strong foundations in Berlin).
 
Munich or Nurnberg. Those were the Nazi "hochburgen."

Nurnberg, btw, is a beautiful city despite its notorious past. It's one of my personal favorites.
 
Either those, or build a completely new capital from scratch some place else (or ridiculously deep/strong foundations in Berlin).

That was one idea I had. Hitler did plan on building huge amounts of underground tunnels and highways and Berlin's soft soil might be best for that as opposed to mountain country.

Munich or Nurnberg. Those were the Nazi "hochburgen."

Nurnberg, btw, is a beautiful city despite its notorious past. It's one of my personal favorites.

Nurnberg is awesome. It would have been especially nice if he had expanded upon the original city with his new world capital.

One of the reasons Hitler chose Berlin however was that some of Berlins major neighborhoods had some anti-nazi dissent issues. So Hitler wanted to pave over those neighborhoods and plant down his new city.
 
That was one idea I had. Hitler did plan on building huge amounts of underground tunnels and highways and Berlin's soft soil might be best for that as opposed to mountain country.



Nurnberg is awesome. It would have been especially nice if he had expanded upon the original city with his new world capital.

One of the reasons Hitler chose Berlin however was that some of Berlins major neighborhoods had some anti-nazi dissent issues. So Hitler wanted to pave over those neighborhoods and plant down his new city.

The post-war reconstruction of Nurnberg's medieval center was amazing.
 
Nuremburg is how you say it properly in America. Nurnburg is how its said in Germany.


It´s Nürnberg; berg not burg.
And I think it would not do for the world capital. You would have to destroy a lot of the old buildings to get the space needed for such a gigantesque city envisioned by Hitler. An alternative would be to build it ante portas so to speak.
 
It´s Nürnberg; berg not burg.
And I think it would not do for the world capital. You would have to destroy a lot of the old buildings to get the space needed for such a gigantesque city envisioned by Hitler. An alternative would be to build it ante portas so to speak.

I always confuse berg and burg. :rolleyes:

So build it somewhat outside of the city you mean? I believe that is what was done with the Nurnberg rallies area. If Germany did win the war to a certain degree, then the sheer amount of resources available would allow for new cities to be built from scratch.

On top of building the world capital, I am also curious as to what Germany would do when it came to colonizing eastern Europe. Would they wipe out the local architecture and replace it with German structures? I think it would have been interesting to see what they came up with.
 
Probably tons of post-Gartenstadt artificial green suburbs planted on the outskirts of Eastern-European towns for "Arian settlers".

Like these houses (1930s) and this school (1941).

Both of these in the Mannheim suburb Schönau newly built up by the Nazis in the late 1930s. Was considered a showcase for Nazi suburban architecture back then.
The housing in this suburb conforms to the Nazi rules for people's housing (Volkswohnungen), as laid down in 1935. The government sponsored new building as long as the cost per flat (!) was below 3,500 RM, and the resulting rent was lower than 50 RM/month. No balconies, no central heating, bad air circulation, minimally equipped kitchens and bathrooms were the norm.

Most of the pre-existing towns would have likely been paved over in favour for the "urban variant", of which some 100,000 apartments were built in Berlin and 650,000 were planned for "Germania", and that were pretty much monotonous 4- to 6-level apartment blocks with next to no individualistic design features (think postwar Commie Blocks like the Green City in Berlin Prenzl. Berg).

"Germania" was planned to include two giant new monotonous urban quarters solely consisting of this latter variant, the Südstadt for 210,000 people and the Oststadt for 445,000 people.

There's a good 1967 quote from a architecture historian on Nazi architecture. "Every single word said about it is too much already".
 
On top of building the world capital, I am also curious as to what Germany would do when it came to colonizing eastern Europe. Would they wipe out the local architecture and replace it with German structures? I think it would have been interesting to see what they came up with.

I don´t believe there is much difference between German and middle and east european architecture. After all it is one cutural region heavily influenced through Germany in the middle ages. At least in the countries of middle europe.
 
It´s Nürnberg; berg not burg.
And I think it would not do for the world capital. You would have to destroy a lot of the old buildings to get the space needed for such a gigantesque city envisioned by Hitler. An alternative would be to build it ante portas so to speak.

Hitler actually was quite content that the Allies bombed down big parts of Berlin and even once told Speer that it was too bad they didn't bomb down every part of the city where new buildings were supposed to be built.

Either those, or build a completely new capital from scratch some place else (or ridiculously deep/strong foundations in Berlin).

Hitler had thought about building a completely new capital, if only to threaten the local politicians of Berlin. But then he scrapped that thought. So it'd be foundations, I guess.

And also note that Hitler planned to build a lot of monumental buildings in Munich, Nuremberg / Nürnberg, Hamburg and Linz as well.
 
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