tour national socialism
The Führer’s City? Weimar and National Socialism
ca. 9 km
aer
Fuld
ße
Stra
Meyerstraße
1 Buchenwaldplatz
be
r
g
Friedrich-Ebert-
Am
Kir
s
ch
aße
-Str
ann
Straße
hälm
Carl-August-Allee
st-T
Ern
Neues Museum 2
Weimar
3 Atrium
Weimarplatz
ße
stra
dens
necht-Str
.
Frie
ob
Jak
Karl-Liebk
Weimarhalle
ße
a
str
Rollplatz
Schwan
seestra
ße
Gerberstraße
Graben
raystr
Coud
aße
4 mon ami
Thuringian
Main State
Archive Weimar
8
Herderplatz
Erfurter
Straße
straße
Theaterplatz
Markt
bens
7
Hotel
Elephant
traß
e
Goethe National 11
Museum
Seifengasse
and
Ackerw
Platz der
Demokratie
10
Liszt School
of Music
cksc
hen
raße
Amalienst
ße
tra
ts
ld
bo
m
Hu
Pose
Park an der Ilm
Gar
ten
ße
tra
ts
ld
bo
um
H
er
rka
Be
e
raß
St
llee
13 Nietzsche Memorial Hall
rA
traße
12 Nietzsche Archive
re
de
lve
Be
itscheid-S
Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Visitors’ Information tel + 49 (0) 3643 | 545-400
Am
Rudolf-Bre
05.2013 |
ße
aße
Stra
nstr
rie
rer
Tour duration
ca. 2 h (does not include tours of the buildings)
Tour length
ca. 3.6 km
Ma
Trie
rn
Steu
Duchess
Anna Amalia
Library
9
Ho
Schiller 6
Residence
Markt
Am
German National
Theatre 5
“Weimar and Buchenwald”, “Humanitarianism and Barbarism” are topics of Weimar’s memorial culture and are not to be
left out of most festive speeches. The close
connection of the tremendous cultural
heritage of the classical city to the sobering history of National Socialism often
results in a dutiful or stereotype kind of
reminiscence that demonstrates a civilsociety roll call characteristic, but explains
little about this complicated relationship.
The knowledge about this topic fills
hundreds of pages in the meantime,
ca. 3 km but is
hardly visible at first glance when
visiting
ca. 10 km
the city of Weimar, even at its most important memorial sites.
The purpose of this tour is to tell the
stories hidden behind the facades. In the
process, the rise of National Socialism in
Weimar as of 1925 will be mentioned as
the history leading up to the NS-regime.
Tour stops
1 Buchenwaldplatz (former Square of the
51,000/ 56,000)
2 Weimarplatz, Neues Museum Weimar
(former Reichsstatthalterei or Imperial Deputy’s
Office)
3 Weimarplatz, Landesverwaltungsamt and Atrium
(former Gauforum)
4 Goetheplatz, Kulturzentrum mon ami
(former Erholung)
5 Theaterplatz, German National Theatre
6 Schillerstrasse, Schiller Residence
7 Marktplatz, Hotel Elephant
8 Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar
9 Platz der Demokratie, Duchess Anna Amalia Library
10 Platz der Demokratie, Liszt School of Music Weimar
(former Duke’s House)
11 Frauenplan, Goethe National Museum
12 Humboldtstrasse 36a, former Nietzsche Archive
13 Humboldtstrasse 36b, former Nietzsche Memorial
Hall
Current opening hours, prices and tours at
www.klassik-stiftung.de/en/service/visitor-information
tour national socialism
1
Buchenwaldplatz
Devalued Heroes
Whoever wants to go from the railway station to the “classical”
old town cannot avoid passing by this square: Buchenwaldplatz
(Buchenwald Square) that was given this name in 1991. Up until
1945 it was named after the grand ducal minister Watzdorf. Since
1878 the memorial for the “heroes” of the 1870/71 War had stood
on its west side. Across from it, the equestrian memorial statue
of Grand Duke Carl Alexander had found a new place after having been relocated from the Karlsplatz (today: Goetheplatz). In
1946, both monuments were classified as “military” and consequently razed.
The deserted site was given a new significance in the mid1950’s in the context of GDR memorial politics. In 1953, the
Nationalen Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen
deutschen Literatur (NFG, National Research and Memorial Sites
of Classical German Literature) had been installed in Weimar.
The memorial-political pendant to the “classical” memorial sites
was founded in 1958 as the Nationale Mahn- und Gedenkstätte
Buchenwald (National Cenotaph and Memorial Site Buchenwald)
on Ettersberg Hill. Now it was necessary to create a site within
town as a memorial for the concentration camp. Thus, the
remodelled Platz der 51.000 (since 1945) was festively re-named
Platz der 56.000 and the statue of the former leader of the KPD
(Communist Party of Germany), Ernst Thälmann was unveiled.
He had become the most famous Buchenwald prisoner. In
fact, the SS had transferred Thälmann from Bautzen to Buchwald
on 18 August 1944, but had shot him there immediately. Only in
the memory of the communist prisoners and within the history
concept of the GDR did “comrade Thälmann” become the “comrade” of the Buchenwald inmates. Their terrible suffering and
death was also given a greater political meaning in retrospect.
With the inscription on the wall of the square, “Aus Eurem Opfertod wächst unsere sozialistische Tat” (“Our socialist deeds grow
out of the sacrifice of your death”), those who were sacrificed
were made into “martyrs” of anti-fascism and those who died at
the concentration camp were the “spearheads” of “a better Germany”, i.e. the GDR.
The location of the square within Weimar is reminiscent of
Richard Alewyn’s words on the occasion of the Goethe year 1949:
“Between us and Weimar lies Buchenwald, that is why we just cannot get around it.”
Monument for the War of 1870/71 at the Watzdorf-Platz, as it was
called, around 1900 (Photo: Stadtmuseum Weimar)
Y
2
Weimarplatz, Neues Museum Weimar | 300 m
tour national socialism
2
Weimarplatz, Neues Museum Weimar
Temple of Muses and Centre of Power
When we follow the Carl-August-Allee towards town, we walk
towards a representative Neo-Renaissance façade – the back of
the Neues Museum, which presents the most modern part of
the Weimar Art Collections along with temporary exhibitions.
The building was commissioned by Grand Duke Carl Alexander
and constructed by the Czech architect Josef Zitek between 1864
and 1868. After 1945 it remained a ruin for a long time and was
restored between 1989 and 1998. Then as today it is where the
Odysseus cycle by the classicist painter Friedrich Preller the Elder
is displayed along with an impressive remnant of the Goethe
cult: the monumental statue Goethe and Psyche (1851/52) by Carl
Steinhäuser after sketches by Bettina von Arnim.
In his search for a representative headquarters, the NS
Gauleiter (leader of an NSDAP district) Fritz Sauckel decided in
July of 1933 to install his centre of power in the east wing of
the Landesmuseum, as the building was named at that time. He
resided here until 1937. This severely hampered the museum’s
operation – all the more regrettable, as the museum was one of
the most renowned in Germany in the 1920’s for its modern art.
But already in 1930 the tide had turned. Thuringia’s Minister of
Culture, Wilhelm Frick was a National Socialist from the very
beginning and demanded Wilhelm Köhler to remove about 70
works of classical modernism from the castle museum. Köhler
had been the director of the museum since 1919 and was also a
great supporter of the Bauhaus and the avant-garde. One of the
sharpest critics of aesthetic modernism was then presented at the
Landesmuseum in October 1930, the Weimar painter and cultural
critic Mathilde von Freytag-Loringhoven.
These events surrounding Frick’s notorious decree Wider die
Negerkultur für deutsches Volkstum (Against Negro Culture for
German Folklore) were the foreshadowing of the later attack on
modern art. From 23 March until 24 April 1939 the Landesmuseum showed the exhibition that had been conceived for Munich,
Entartete Kunst (Degenerated Art). This “Show of Terror” was
combined with the touring exhibition Entartete Musik (Degenerated Music), which Weimar’s most influential NS culture functionary, Hans Severus Ziegler, had already created in 1938 for the
Düsseldorf Reichsmusiktage (Empire Music Days).
SS-regiment guard in front of the Landesmuseum when it was
used as the Imperial Deputy’s Office, 1934 (Photo: Stadtmuseum
Weimar)
Y
3
Weimarplatz, Landesverwaltungsamt and Atrium | 100 m
tour national socialism
3
Weimarplatz, Landesverwaltungsamt and Atrium
“Build a new Classicism” – Weimar’s former Gauforum
From the flight of stairs in front of the Neues Museum, there is
a good view of the building ensemble, whose original function
is not necessarily obvious to the observer. The parking garage
underneath the Weimarplatz (Weimar Square), advertising billboards on the shopping mall, signs of the Atrium and the Thuringian Landesverwaltungsamt (State Administration Office)
reveal the pragmatic use of the buildings today. Nowadays they
have been nicknamed “Reichseinkaufshalle” (Empire Supermarket), and they were once called “Sauckropolis” – referring to the
builder’s name.
By 1934, Gauleiter (director of a NSDAP district) Sauckel’s
expanding power and the growing importance of Weimar as a
Gauhauptstadt (capitol city of a NSDAP district) and industrial
and arms-producing city made it necessary to begin planning
large administration and representation buildings for the party
and the state. This coincided with the ideas of the Berlin NS leaders, who intended to architecturally upgrade all the German Gau
capitol cities. While a site near the Goethe National Museum
had originally been suggested, the park in front of the Landesmuseum was soon taken into closer consideration. Beginning in
November 1934 several architecture competitions were initiated,
which resulted in Hermann Giesler receiving the commission.
Not lastly, it was Adolf Hitler himself along with his star architect
Albert Speer who influenced the decision.
After Hitler himself had performed the ground-breaking
ceremony on 4 July 1936 and the cornerstone had been laid on
1 May 1937 by the “Representative of the Führer” Rudolf Hess,
construction work began at the Platz Adolf Hitlers (Adolf Hitler
Square). This project however, the Weimar prototype for all German Gauforen, was never finished. After 1945 three buildings
(today Houses 1 – 3) were the location of the Soviet Military
Administration of Thuringia, which was followed by other municipal offices and educational institutions. Finally, in the 1970’s the
end building that had been planned to become the Halle der Volksgemeinschaft (Hall of the common people) became the Mehrzweckgebäude (multi-functional building) that is today’s Atrium.
A comprehensive exhibition about the history of the complete ensemble can be visited in the annex of the uncompleted
bell-tower.
Gauleiter Sauckel and Hitler at the ground-breaking ceremony
for the later Gauforum on 4 July 1936 (Photo: Stadtmuseum
Weimar)
Y
4
Goetheplatz, Kulturzentrum mon ami | 450 m
tour national socialism
4
Goetheplatz, Kulturzentrum mon ami
Staging and Instrumentalisation
We leave the former Gauforum behind and walk along the KarlLiebknecht-Strasse straight on – passing the Stadtmuseum (City
Museum) located in the Bertuch-Haus (Bertuch’s Home, named
after its builder in the “classical period”). The NS-Gauleitung and
the NS-Volkswohlfahrt (Nationalist Socialist People’s Welfare)
resided in this building for several years, beginning in 1933.
At the Goetheplatz (Goethe Square), we are interested in the
buildings on the left side, the Kulturzentrum mon ami between
the old tower of the city wall (Kasse-Turm or Cash Tower) from
the 15th century and a classicist building that was erected in
1859/60 as the Lesemuseum (Reading Museum) and was the location of the Weimar Education Association in the 19th century.
The architectural model is the Nike-Temple on the Acropolis –
Weimar was thought of as “Ilm-Athens” during that time. The
mon ami, at one time located on the outskirts of town, was built
in 1858/60 as a representative clubhouse for the bourgeois social
association, the Erholungsgesellschaft, from which it got its name:
Erholung. It went down in Germany’s cultural history as the place
where local and national poets’ societies were founded and held
their conferences: the German Dante Society (between 1921 and
1954 in Weimar), the German Shakespeare Society (founded in
1864), the German Schiller Society (1906–1943) and, last but not
least, the Goethe Society (founded in 1885).
Thus it was no accident that Adolf Hitler held his first public
speech in the classical city on 22 March 1925, for the annual celebration of the anniversary of Goethe’s death, in exactly this building. Also in the following years, the NSDAP, increasingly influential both in Germany and Weimar, used the Erholung for regional
and national conferences, symbolically occupying the building
with their spirit. What had been a venue for the national conservative memorial care of poets became one of the Weimar stages
for the exhibition of National Socialist propaganda and power.
The greatest political festivities took place here from November 4th to 6th, 1938 on the occasion of the 10th Gau-Day in Thuringia. This was why Carl Alexander’s equestrian statue (1907), of
which the damaged pedestal can once again be seen, was moved
to what is known today as Buchenwaldplatz (see Site 1), to make
room for the “Führer’s” honorary grandstand.
Parade at the former Karlsplatz, 6 November 1938
(Photo: Stadtmuseum Weimar)
Y
5
Theaterplatz, German National Theatre | 250 m
tour national socialism
5
Theaterplatz, German National Theatre
From “Goethe’s Theatre” to “Hitler’s Stage”
Leaving Goetheplatz, we walk along Wielandstrasse to Theaterplatz – unmistakable with the double statue of Goethe and
Schiller in front of the Deutsches Nationaltheater (DNT, German
National Theatre). The DNT was built in 1908 and has had its present name since 1919. Its predecessors go back to the time of the
court theatre under Duchess Anna Amalia.
The DNT became famous as a political venue in the summer
of 1919 because of the Weimar National Assembly that ratified
Germany’s first democratic constitution here in this building (a
plaque on the left side of the building pays tribute to that event).
For the anti-democratic right wing, this was a scandal, as according to their opinion, “Jews, socialists and democrats” had no business being in “Goethe’s theatre”.
When groups of the nationalist right wing wanted to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the “August experience 1914”
and with that the “German community of the people”, they consciously chose the National Theatre – and wanted to cleanse it
from “the evil spirits of the November criminals”. The NSDAP followed suit when they moved their Reichsparteitag (Imperial Parliament) to Weimar’s DNT at the beginning of July 1923. In the
place where Friedrich Ebert swore his oath on the constitution
in 1919, Hitler consecrated the supreme relic of his “movement”,
the “blood flag” of the SA (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei, or Socialist Workers’ Party) that had led the way during the putsch in
Munich on 9 November 1923.
The DNT gained cultural importance for the National Socialists beginning in 1932. Under the leadership of the regime-faithful directors Ernst Nobbe (1933–1936) and Hans Severus Ziegler
(1936–1945), the avant-garde works disappeared from the repertoire, after they had been fought against in spectacular individual
protests as early 1920’s as “cultural Bolshevism”. NS-conformist
performances at the DNT remained the exception, however. The
regime relied on conservatively staged classical performances;
operettas and boulevard pieces flourished on the side.
At the end of 1944 the DNT closed down and became an
arms factory. Bombing on 9 February 1945 destroyed the building
down to its exterior walls. The festive re-opening with a production of Faust took place on 28 August 1948.
The German National Theatre decorated with National Socialist
flags (Photo: Stadtmuseum Weimar)
Y
6
Schillerstraße, Schiller Residence | 150 m
tour national socialism
6
Schillerstraße, Schiller Residence
“Because he was ours …”
We walk past the Wittumspalais and turn onto Schillerstrasse.
On the right side, where the optician is today, there was a renowned textile department store from 1911 – 1938; it was owned
by the Sachs and Berlowitz families, who belonged to the founding members of the Jewish community in Weimar. The business
was “Aryanised” in 1938; part of the Berlowitz family was able
to flee to Palestine, while other members of the family were murdered in Latvia.
We stop in front of the Schiller Residence, in which the poet
lived from 1802 until his death in 1805. It was opened in 1847
as the first poet’s memorial museum in Germany. The National
Socialists were masters at utilising almost all of the German traditions to their end. While the local NS officers had called for a
boycott of the republican Reichs-Goethe-Feier (Imperial Goethe
celebration) in 1932, they used the year of the “Machtergreifung”
(seizure of power) in 1933 for propagating the fact that it was
also a Luther year. Martin Luther as a “free spirit” was historically
and politically linked to the “liberator” Hitler. One year later,
pompous national Schiller celebrations were staged in Marbach
on the Neckar river (Schiller’s birthplace) and in Weimar on the
occasion of his 175th birthday.
The regime-conformist use of Schiller as a “national poet”,
“hero of freedom” and “liberator” of the Germans was easily able
to pick up on the nationalisation of the classic poet in the 19th
and 20th century. For a long time, Goethe’s friend, who had
wanted to write “for humanity” and not “for a nation”, had
already been made into a contemporary of all following epochs,
often with nationalist constraints. In the context of NS politics,
titles such as Schiller as Hitler’s Comrade (1932) remained exceptions that were even ridiculed within the party. It was more subtle to re-interpret Schiller’s longing for freedom into the idea of
the Germans liberating themselves under the leadership of their
“Führer”, or to accentuate the “heroism” in Schiller’s own life as
well as the destinies of his most famous dramatic figures.
The regime found the idea of tyrannical murder (Wilhelm
Tell) along with the demand for freedom of thought (Don Carlos)
less fitting – both dramas were forbidden in 1941/44.
Hitler in front of the Schiller Residence,
Nationalsozialistische Beamten-Zeitung,
25 November 1934 (Photo: Stadtarchiv Weimar)
Y
7
Marktplatz, Hotel Elephant | 250 m
tour national socialism
7
Marktplatz, Hotel Elephant
The “Führer’s Central German Palace”
At the end of Schillerstrasse we turn left and after a few yards,
we enter the Weimar Marktplatz – back then and now a centre
of urban and touristic life.
The most important building in our context is the Hotel
Elephant on the south side of the market square, with a façade
design typical of the representational style of the late 1930’s. In
fact, today’s luxury hotel was completely rebuilt in 1937/38 and
has only the name in common with the traditional guesthouse
that was mentioned for the first time in writing in 1561. Whoever
visited Goethe during “classical” times stayed here if possible.
Franz Grillparzer called the Elephant the “vestibule of Weimar’s
living Walhalla”. Later on, many prominent figures in business,
culture and politics resided here.
Already during the NSDAP-Reichsparteitag
Reichsparteitag in 1926, Hitler
inspected the parade of his supporters from the front of the
Elephant; since that year he always stayed there when he was in
Weimar. Hitler’s path from a “Drummer to the Führer” and the
increasing power of the regional NS authorities made it necessary for them to search for a more representative domicile for
their “Führer”. Consequently the NS Gauleitung commissioned
Hermann Giesler, the architect of the Gauforum to completely
remodel the hotel in 1938. While the Elephantenkeller was
designed in “old German”, even “Germanic” style, Giesler chose
luxurious materials and an interior architecture inspired by art
deco with a stylish, yet cool elegance for the rest of the building.
Above the entrance, the “Führer balcony” was built, decorated
with flag masts and the Reichsadler (Imperial eagle).
Hitler’s private suite was located on the quiet garden side
of the building. After the glorious initiation in November 1938,
it wasn’t used very often however, because the “Führer” did not
come to his “palace” many more times. The photographically
documented tributes of thousands of Weimar citizens (“Lieber
Führer komm heraus aus dem Elephantenhaus” – “Dear Führer
come out of the Elephant house”) and the many NS formations
must have thus taken place for the most part before the hotel
was remodelled.
Hitler and his representative Rudolf Hess inspect a parade, 12
October 1930 (Photo: Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar)
Y
8
Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar | 350 m
tour national socialism
8
Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar (Thüringisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Weimar)
Memorial Venue and Memory Storage
For over 1,000 years there has been a utility area on this site that
later served as the Marstall, or stables for the ducal horses and
coaches. In 1873/78, Grand Duke Carl Alexander had it generously remodelled in Neo-Renaissance style.
After the last duke abdicated in 1918 it was deserted briefly,
then the Marstall became the location of the Volksbildungsministerium (Ministry of Education) and the Justizministerium (Ministry of Justice) in the State of Thuringia founded in 1920. In 1937
the Thuringian Gestapo office moved into the east wing of the
building, the “Ilm Pavillion”. The cellar rooms were used as a
“house prison”, where political prisoners were questioned. When
the Gestapo required more space, an administration barracks was
built in the courtyard, and the nearby garage was used as an extra
prison. The former riding hall (today the users’ hall of the archive)
was used in 1942 as a collection area for the transports of Jewish
citizens from the NS Gau in Thuringia to the extermination
camps. Between 1945 and 1951, the Soviet secret service used the
former Gestapo offices for holding political prisoners captive.
The doubly problematic history of this venue and its
close entwinement with the Buchenwald concentration camp
(1937–1945) and the “Speziallager 2” respectively (1945–1959) is
portrayed not only by numerous files in today’s Thüringisches
Hauptstaatsarchiv Weimar (in this building since 1951) but also
a special artistic museum production – the project “Zermahlene
Geschichte” (“Ground up history”). In a public art performance in
1997, the former barracks and the extra prison were torn down,
and the remains were ground up and poured into the former
floor plan of the buildings. Thus, their former locations in the
courtyard demand active remembrance today. In the cellar of the
east wing of the building there is an exhibition about the changeable history of the venue. The life stories of exemplary prisoners
are told, who either died or were imprisoned here before and
after 1945.
The Main State Archive (modernised in 1995/2004) uses its
collection regularly for special thematic exhibitions and thus
actively takes part in Weimar and Thuringia’s cultural memory.
Gala parade of Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst, around 1915
(Photo: Stadtmuseum Weimar)
Y
9
Platz der Demokratie, Duchess Anna Amalia Library
300 m
tour national socialism
9
Platz der Demokratie, Duchess Anna Amalia Library
“Church of Books” in Dark Times
The Duchess Anna Amalia Library has received much publicity
in recent times, in particular because of the fire there in September 2004. In the context of our subject, however, it is worthwhile
to take a closer look behind the once again gleaming façade. The
name is reminiscent of the one duchess in Weimar, who had a
residence palace (built 1562–1569) and arsenal (beginning in
1732) remodelled into a representative library (1761–1766). The
fame of this institution has been connected with Anna Amalia,
but also and primarily with the industrious user and official
director Goethe. In comparison with this heyday, the State
Library, as the institution was called beginning in August 1919,
had been in a crisis since the end of the 19th century that was
exacerbated by the economical ups and downs of the 1920’s.
The hopes that the National Socialists would invest in the
library in order to pay tribute to a jewel of the Rococo and a
memorial venue of Classicism were quickly dashed after 1933.
What was unfortunately successfully accomplished, however,
was the “Säuberung” (ethnic cleansing) of the personnel. The
vice-director, Paul Ortlepp, who was married to a Jewish woman,
was harassed, spied upon and relieved of his position in December 1937. His wife died in Auschwitz in August of 1943.
After Werner Deetjen’s death (1939) – an adaptable educated
citizen of Weimar, who had served as the director since 1916 –
and an interim under Hermann Blumenthal (1939–1941) the NS
cultural bureaucracy installed the völkisch writer Robert
Hohlbaum from Vienna as the director. He had been the director
of the Duisburg city library since 1937 and allowed himself great
privileges in Weimar: He used the library as a forum for his own
personal ideological alignment and to stage his own existence as
a poet. However, he neglected the duties of his office in a ravaging way. The “totale Krieg” (“total war”) took its toll, forcing the
library into hibernation.
Weimar surrendered on April 12th 1945, and the undamaged
library re-opened its doors on the 24th. Because of his premature
death in July 1945, Paul Ortlepp’s rehabilitation and appointment
to his position as director was only an intermezzo in the changeable history of the institution.
The library as a backdrop: Gautag of the Beamtenbund (Civil
Servants’ Association), 24 September 1933 (Photo: Stadtmuseum
Weimar)
Y
10
Platz der Demokratie, Liszt School of Music | 20 m
tour national socialism
10
Platz der Demokratie, Liszt School of Music
Democrats against Hitler
While the Elephant was a triumphant place for Hitler, at the Platz
der Demokratie (Democracy Square, as it was named in 1945)
there was a venue where the “Führer” was humiliated.
The main building of the Liszt School of Music Weimar is
called the Fürstenhaus (Duke’s House) still today. It was built
between 1770 and 1776 as an administration building and meeting place for the estates of the realm and served as the residence
for the ducal family (1774–1803) after the castle fire. Later, it
housed the Free School of Drawing (1808–1816) and beginning
in 1816 the State Parliament. After 1918, the Fürstenhaus became
the office of the provisional government, and subsequently of the
democratic parliament of the Free State of Thuringia. Thus it was
the venue for spirited debates between democrats and opponents
of the republic.
In the mid-1920’s, the political climate took a turn; the “Ordnungsbund-Regierung” made up of bourgeois parties had been
in office since February 1924 and was only just tolerated by the
völkisch representatives. In January 1930, a state government was
constituted to which, for the first time, two National Socialist
ministers belonged. Minister of the Interior and Minister of Education Wilhelm Frick had a certificate of appointment as a gendarmerie commissar in Hildburghausen drawn up for Hitler –
another attempt to naturalize the Austrian citizen. One and a half
years later, the fraud was discovered; the new state parliament
appointed an investigation committee. Its chairman, Hermann
Brill (SPD) summoned Hitler, Frick and Sauckel as witnesses.
Hitler made a rather weak impression, but acted as though he
had won the case in his speeches to his Weimar fans.
Even before the landslide victory of the NSDAP in July of
1932, the state parliament was dissolved and did not meet again
until 1945. In 1933 the NS offices moved into the Fürstenhaus;
beginning in June 1937, Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter Sauckel
resided here with his staff.
Hermann Brill was involved in the resistance in 1933/34,
imprisoned in Brandenburg and sent to the concentration camp
Buchenwald in 1943. After the liberation, he belonged to the leading figures striving for a democratic new beginning that was not
to have a chance, however, in the Soviet Occupied Zone. Brill
moved to Hessia and was engaged in the political reconstruction
of the Federal Republic of Germany until his death in 1959.
Festivities of the March election in front of the former Fürstenhaus, 6 March 1933 (Photo: Thuringian Main State Archive,
Weimar)
Y
11
Frauenplan, Goethe National Museum | 300 m
tour national socialism
11
Frauenplan, Goethe National Museum
National Socialist “Goethe Service”
We walk around to the left of the School of Music and continue
on to the Haus der Frau von Stein (House of Frau von Stein), then
turn right onto Seifengasse that brings us to Frauenplan and the
Goethe National Museum (GNM).
Already in the 1830’s, Goethe (along with Schiller) moved to
the centre of the “classical” heritage of the Germans that was
often interpreted after 1871 as a cultural overture for the political
union to an empire. This nationalisation of the classic poets experienced another crisis during World War I, when it was blamed
for – in the opinion of many members of the educated class –
leading “Goethe’s country” into a “defensive war against a world
of enemies”. The lost war, revolution and the founding of a
republic further radicalised nationalist German Goethe-admirers;
they understood the “inheritance of the Olympian” as being a
bastion against the disliked modernism. Of course there were
also other, more “cosmopolitan” Goethe interpretations in the
Weimar Republic.
The Weimar memorial sites connected to Goethe’s life and
work had practical problems after 1918: They were too small for
the increasing number of Goethe scholars and admirers. Hans
Wahl, the most influential local heritage custodian and a member
of the board of the Goethe Society, dreamed of an enlargement
for the National Museum, as the first building dating from 1913/14
had been insufficient for some time.
Also in this case, Hitler advanced to become the “wish fulfiller of the bourgeoisie”. He and his local supporters became
involved in the plans for the GNM that had existed in Weimar
since the beginning of the 1930’s. The opening originally planned
for the 100th anniversary of Goethe’s death in 1932 was not possible for political and financial reasons. The next goal would be
1935: The Goethe Society and Hans Wahl would be 50 years old!
The initiation of the new building tract was used to show
off the official solidarity between the “new chief” and the Goethe
Society. However, the latter remained a difficult partner for the
NS cultural officials in Berlin and Weimar – just as Goethe’s oeuvre
again and again resisted being fit into the “new empire” all too
perfectly.
The President of the Goethe Society, Julius Petersen, with NS
leaders next to the new addition to the Goethe National Museum,
August 26th 1935
Y
12
Humboldtstraße 36a, former Nietzsche Archive | 1 100 m
tour national socialism
12
Humboldtstraße 36a, former Nietzsche Archive
Nietzsche’s “Proclamation as a German”
Already the walk uphill is worthwhile, because it leads us by
several beautiful Art Nouveau houses.
Founded in Naumburg in 1864, the Nietzsche Archive was
located in the mansion at Silberblick under the authoritarian
direction of the philosopher’s sister, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
beginning in 1897. It was beautifully remodelled in 1902/03 by
Henry van de Velde and can be visited in this condition today.
Nietzsche died there in the year 1900, before the mansion was
remodelled.
The archive was a place of Nietzsche admiration and
research, but also a bourgeois salon, in which Weimar’s upper
class as well as guests from all over Europe came and went. All of
them were connected by their admiration of Nietzsche – and of
his sister, who many considered to be the “keeper of the temple”
and a congenial Nietzsche interpreter. Actually, however, she –
with the help of some of her brother’s “disciples” – interpreted
Nietzsche in a one-sided and abbreviated way, manipulated his
oeuvre, hid or even destroyed some of his texts. Politically she
oriented herself more and more to the right and took the philosopher with her in spirit. The “good European”, anti-anti-Semite,
critic of nationalism and culture was mutated into a “German”
philosopher by the editing and publication politics of the archive.
After 1918, the archive turned into a place where anti-democrats and republic opponents determined the tone. Elisabeth’s
early sympathies for Benito Mussolini were expanded around
1930 to include National Socialism and its prominent representatives. Hitler visited the Silberblick for the first time at the beginning of 1932, came back several times and was present at the
state burial of Förster-Nietzsche in November 1935. The directing
clique of the archive had “co-ordinated” itself in the meantime to
the extent that even declared anti-democrats like Oswald Spengler cancelled their allegiance. Cosmopolitan Nietzsche admirers
had long since distanced themselves from the “Weimar Counterfeiting Workshop”.
After the liberation in 1945, the archive was forced to close
its doors and was never opened again. The archive collection was
transferred to the Goethe and Schiller Archives. Today, the building is the home of the Friedrich Nietzsche Kolleg.
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche greets Hitler at the entrance of the
Nietzsche Archive, July 20, 1934
Y
13
Humboldtstraße 36b, former Nietzsche Memorial Hall
20 m
tour national socialism
13
Humboldtstraße 36b, former Nietzsche Memorial Hall
“Home of the Zarathustra Factory”
Nietzsche’s growing fame caused the archive to reach its limits
in regard to space. Therefore an annex was considered, but its
realisation did not materialise. Inflation had devoured the assets
of the Nietzsche Archive Foundation, sponsors were hard to find
and the Free State of Thuringia did not have adequate means.
When Wilhelm Frick became both Minister of the Interior
and of Education, the Nietzsche admirers of the archive and the
National Socialists began to grow closer, a development that
intensified beginning in 1932 and was not terminated by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche’s death in 1935. Her wish for a rather modest annex was ignored by the archivist Max Oehler and his cousins Richard and Adalbert, because for quite some time they had
dreamed of a representative memorial hall as the centre of a
world-wide Nietzsche community.
Money from Hitler’s private funds and Gauleiter Sauckel’s
budget made it possible to begin the construction of an enlarged
building in 1937. The architect was the enthusiastic NS devotee
Paul Schultze-Naumburg, then director of the Weimar Art
Schools. Although he was a “völkisch spear head” of the “Third
Empire”, he had been ignored so far in regard to all the other
Weimar NS building projects. He also had to show his drafts for
the memorial hall to Hitler and Speer in Berlin for their inspection. The floor plan of the building adapted forms of medieval
monastery buildings. The vestibule, colonnade and a festival hall
for 800 people reflected the basilica, and the adjacent complex
for offices and a library is the pendant to the cloister.
The project was never completed. Neither the busts in the
colonnade – heads of famous philosophers who had influenced
Nietzsche – nor the exterior figurative decoration were realised.
In the end, the Dionysus statue sponsored by Mussolini did not
fit into the apsis of the festival hall. Only the cellar was used to
safely store cultural objects from other Weimar museums.
After being used for a short time as the office of the Soviet
secret service, the interior complex was remodelled and enlarged
beginning in 1946, and subsequently served as a radio studio.
In the meantime, the building is privately owned and has been
vacant for the last ten years.
The architect Paul Schultze-Naumburg at the consecration of the
Nietzsche Memorial Hall, October 30th 1937