History question on Nazis

I was about to make a joke about the holocaust being fake but decided against it.

Am I growing up or getting soft?

Things to read up on to give you more context:

Albert Speer

Neoclassical architecture

Fascist Architecture

Welthauptstadt Germania (World Capital Germany)

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why do you think they planned to build Berlin into a "new Rome" instead of building in their national german style?

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So there are a bunch of answers to this but I don't think that Speer or Hitler ever intended to build a new Rome, just a city on the scale of Rome that played a similar role to their nation that Rome played to its empire, or London to the British empire. It was literally meant to be a "world capital" in their vision.

As far as the architectural style used the same question can be asked about some of our government's buildings in DC. There are two answers to this:

- Broadly speaking, Neo-Classical architecture was in vogue around the Western World in the late 18th century, 19th century, and early 20th century.

- Governments like to build in this style because it adds a subconscious legitimacy to their authority. It captures emotion and beckons back to antiquity making the Government seem more powerful, wise, worthy of support etc. Hitler was a master of capturing emotion in this way, in his speeches, in propaganda, film, events, etc..so naturally he sought to do it with architecture as well. Fascist architecture typically exaggerated some of the neo-classical features making them more grandiose and even more awe-inspiring.

The Soviets tried to do the same thing with their planned Palace of Soviets that never finished construction and was turned in to a massive public swimming pool:



Also, that style wasn't introduced to Germany by the Nazis, it can be seen far earlier like in the 1830s with Walhalla coming to mind as a particularly bright example:



So to answer your question, they didn't exactly want to refashion Berlin in to a copy of Rome, but they did want to rebuild the city in to a city that functioned like Rome once did and employed some of its stylistic elements because they were in style at the time and they're really good for propaganda purposes...see DC.

It’s just weird to me that they would not be promoting the “german” styles. I would have thought a nationalist group would style themselves more like the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (fruitbearing society) where they tried to weed out Latin influences in the german language to promote German-ness. It seems inconsistent to me that they would choose antiqua over fraktur and eliminate Sütterlinschrift.

Why do Trump supporters hate immigrants but want to "Make America Great Again" when immigration is what made America great in the first place?

Because much like Nazi's, Trump supporters don't think any deeper than a catchy slogan they can chant.


Basically what I'm saying is, Trump supporters = Nazi's

You don’t get to take over your country (which was an intellectual powerhouse at the time) and consolidate power with only a catchy slogan. They were wrong, but they weren’t stupid.

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t’s just weird to me that they would not be promoting the “german” styles. I would have thought a nationalist group would style themselves more like the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (fruitbearing society) where they tried to weed out Latin influences in the german language to promote German-ness. It seems inconsistent to me that they would choose antiqua over fraktur and eliminate Sütterlinschrift.

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EDIT: Darn cat jumped on the keyboard and hit the enter key.

Historically speaking Germans have been influenced by Rome for thousands of years.

The Holy Roman Empire was, as some have pointed out, not particularly holy and certainly not Roman... but it was adopted in the Germanic states because of the aura of legitimacy it projected. For much the same reason that Russians proclaimed Moscow to be the Eastern Rome. The Nazis were just following in the footsteps of other European powers that rose and fell after the Roman Empire was finally destroyed in the 1400s (The Byzantium Empire being the Eastern half of the Roman Empire).

The Romans lasted, in one form or another, for about 2000 years. Its hard to imagine any European country not being influenced by them to some degree or another. The Prussian Emperor was, after all, called the Kaiser, the Germanic version of Caesar.

So not only did Rome have its own great history it was a history that was tied into everything European that came after it. That sense of history, of grandeur... well it very much appealed to Adolf Hitler. Particularly since, as a semi-hobby, he was fond of drawing magnificent buildings.

Oddly enough, not just the war but geography conspired against Adolf. Berlin, like DC and Moscow, was built on what would charitably be called a swamp. It simply couldn't support the weight of such massive buildings. The same issue torpedoed the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow.

In essence Hitler and Nazis were driven by an over confidence that masked an inferiority complex. They were going to do everything the great empires of the past had done... but they were going to do it better then anyone and show the world Germany was superior.

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That's true, Trump won't take over the country on catchy slogans because he won't even get a second term, but he definitely got elected on catchy slogans for the mouth breathers to chant.

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Catchy slogans are well and good... but what you need is a cause.

Hitler could provide the German people with a cause, three of them actually.

1. Germany went through the hell of World War I and was betrayed by the ruling class (and Jews). We didn't lose, we were stabbed in the back.

2. Germans are a naturally superior race of humans (descended from Tibetians and some sort of mystical Nordic group) who deserve "living space" to spread and control the inferior races.

3. The Jews are responsible for every single bad thing that has happened to Germany and the world.

You had scapegoats, excuses for failure, and engendering a false sense of pride all combined in one tidy package.

And it worked like a charm because they were all things that most Germans wanted to believe in.

Prussia and Germany had been a military powerhouse with a string of victories... it couldn't have been their fault they lost. Yes, I know, we can apply that most of the fan bases for SEC football when their team gets on a roll and then tanks the big game.

Germans had always had a major inferiority complex... The United States has existed for longer then a modern Germany has and until very recently they used to be a hodge podge of small states that France used as its personal toilet. They wanted to hear they were the best.

And the Jews. I hate to say this, but all of Europe disliked the Jews. They were different, they were outsiders... they were the "go to scapegoat" for damn near any problem. Denmark pisses on the rest of Europe from a moral superiority stand point... When they realized the Nazis were going to come across the border they delayed them with surrender talks long enough for a massive evacuation of Danish Jews to Sweden.

Its little wonder that Israel's response to anything that even looks like a threat is to immediately kill it with overwhelming force.

America has had its Causes. We made the world safe for Democracy. We defeated the Red Menace (it actually choked itself to death because Communism just doesn't work). We protected the Union.

A Cause can be wonderful. It can be horrible. To a degree every President ever elected has a Cause they champion... even if its "Reagan did a great job, maybe four more years of a mildly clueless but fairly benign administration is what the nation needs."

We get it, you're black, we know.

Yea frick you too.