There was
a dance event in/around Nuremberg and I decided sort of late to go. The company christmas party was Friday, which ended up making a bit late getting out Saturday. I got into Erlangen (by Nuremberg) at about 5pm, made it into Nuremburg (Nürnberg, auf Deutsch) the next day, for the Christmas Market and the Rechtsparteigelände (old nazi party parade grounds).
My hotel room had a dragon on the door, which was pretty adorkable.
A short thought on Nuremburg: it has about 500 000 people, and a lot of the old architecture (well especially Art Nouveau era) is still standing, including a castle and a large inner square. It feels kind of like what Heidelberg would be if it were that size, scaled proportionally (and will fewer hills around).
If you don't know, Nuremberg, outside of its Nazi past, also has the largest Christmas Market in Germany.
Which everyone complains is super crowded and unpleasant, so I made sure to go pretty early (around noon) and brace myself.
The train station is pretty regal
The weather, like all of Germany in winter, was pretty bleak, with sharp winds and the occasional snow flurry. I miss the clear, crisp, cold snowy days I spent in Copenhagen in winter in 2012, or similar (but much colder!) winter days stateside.
Walking towards the Christmas market from the train station, I found something magical, a (reconstructed) portion of the old wall and fortifications:
(Created 1450, destroyed 1945, rebuilt 1953)
Inside was a beautiful little village of oldtimesy shops (
Frauentor was the name written somewhere of this area)
which sold pottery and stained glass and very cute christmas baked goods.
Once through, the view looking back:
The walk to the center of town was full of other lovely architecture as well
Finally, arriving in the center of town (just past the river), and the Christmas market.
Christkind (made up weird religious figure meant to out-compete santa claus, and is somehow tasked with bringing gifts) decoration hanging in the christmas market:
My favorite part was the Markt der Partnerstädte (Market of partner cities):
which included both booths from Palestine and Israel (surprisingly close to each other), as well as Turkey (selling tea) and Greece, and a sad gaudy booth of crappy american candy and googaws coming from Atlanta. It was also the location of the only food booth in the market selling more than just sausage in bread (Nuremburger würstchen)
In the main market, there were a lot of cute stands and cute signs.
Oh, see the guy with the blue cap? There were groups of men wearing caps of this kind with different colors and what looked like semi militaristic sashes and things under their coats. My guess was fraternities (in the German sense).
This picture suggests I am correct.
Views along booths:
A cute sign for a booth of miniatures:
After getting quite cold walking around, I went into an adjacent cafe with good views of the square from their balcony.
Obligatory photo of me with the market:
After some hot chocolate and a break from crowds, I decided I had enough energy before leaving town to go to the Documentation Center of the Nazi party rally grounds.
As I arrived (just before 2pm), I noticed there was a tour of the grounds about to happen, and quickly signed myself up, feeling more like a tour than a solemn wandering through a museum.
Tour was to be 2 hours, which was a bit tight with my schedule, but I had already handed over my 8 euros and decided I could bow out early if needs be.
It was about 0 Celsius with a brisk wind, so maybe less than the best idea, my feet got pretty cold.
First stop was the building adjacent to the Documentation Center, the never-finished-being-built Congress Center
Much more imposing from the outside, across the (allowed to dry up in winter so it can be dredged of silt) pond:
It was never finished, and since then various things have been proposed as replacement uses for the building (finished in granite, Hitler's favorite stone), including a shopping mall.
So, the various political parties pre WWII would have rally days, which usually changed city each year, but the NS-party had decided to do their rallies always in the same place, which then lead to post-takeover, pre-war building.
Between the above viewpoint and the actual location of the museum (i.e. first stop) was a very long bridge/walkway, used for marches and later used by occupying us troops as a landing strip. If you walk by raising your leg up about 45 degrees with each step, each block is 2 steps. Granite again, and made rough to prevent slipping. The color coding is on purpose, to make it easier to arrange platoons or whatever they were called. The direction being faced is where people would camp during these huge rallies (trying to keep the rowdy guys away from town), which became more permanent dwellings post-war, and the general layout can still be seen walking around the streets.
The Zepellin- Stage, deconstructed in stages post-war to try to remove any possible (neo)nazi fetishism associated to the site, which was in pretty well-preserved condition post-war:
Advantage of a tour: could go inside.
The big basin looking thing was a flame holder. There were two. One has been repurposed as a kiddie pool in some swimming pool in town. This one was locked inside.
Of the buildings (and planned buildings) on site, this was the only completed one.
We got to hear about the purposeful de-fetishization of things, and stuff like e.g. how trees have been planted and encouraged to grow around the never-completed congress hall, which, back then, had purposefully no greenery around it to make it look more massive/imposing/stark, and also to look larger with the reflection on the pond.
One of the more important buildings was destroyed by a stray bomb (the in-use congress/meeting hall). An unplanned hall had really only had a foundation laid, which was at the bottom of a sort of pit, which was then filled with rubble from the city, some of which was toxic, and then water.
It has since formed the
"Silver sea", due to the color it picked up from the toxicity, and is not someplace animals or people should swim.
I would like to make a trip back to Nuremberg to actually visit the Museum, as well as the Albrecht Dürer House and perhaps the castle itself.
