The Kongreßhalle, or Kongreßbau, under construction. Designed by architects Franz and Ludwig Ruff to have seating for 50,000, and influenced by the Coliseum in Rome, the building beside the Dutzendteich lake was never fully completed.  (Albert Speer, "Neue Deutsche Baukunst," Berlin, 1943)

Above right - the Kongreßhalle today. In the past, the building was used for storage, offices, a concert hall, and a fire station. Since 2001, the principle building occupant has been the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände museum (replacing the display that used to be inside the Zeppelintribüne).

Below, a view of the initial construction of the Kongreßhalle in 1937. The structure at the left of the site was a full-scale wooden model of a portion of the building, to give the public an idea of what the completed hall would look like.  (original photo in author's collection)

Hitler views a model of the completed structure.  (period postcard)

Recent aerial view - the museum is in the upper corner (the structure jutting out toward the top).  (Bayerische Vermessungsverwaltung)

These views show the monumental Romanesque style of architecture in the Kongreßhalle.

Interior of the Kongreßhalle under construction. On top is a partial model of what the finished upper area would have looked like. The modern photos show the interior of the main entrance side. The steel bridge-like structure seen jutting out in the photos below is a feature of the Dokumentation Zentrum museum, installed in 2001.  (National Archives RG 242)

Interior of the Kongreßhalle under construction, and as it appears today.  (Albert Speer, "Neue Deutsche Baukunst," Berlin, 1943)

The interior and seating areas were never completed. These views show the brick base that underlies the exterior marble blocks.

This exterior wall shows damage from the impact of a high explosive round, presumably fired in 1945 (see also similar damage to the Zeppelintribüne).

By far the largest structure on the Party Rally Grounds would have been the Deutsche Stadion. Albert Speer designed this to be the largest sports stadium in the world, with a seating capacity of 405,000. This photo shows Adolf Hitler dedicating the foundation stone on 9 September 1937.  (U.S. National Archives, RG 242H)

Except for some excavations, work on the Deutsche Stadion did not proceed beyond this granite foundation stone, which could be found near the Großestraße. In 2001 this stone was removed for the construction of a parking garage. In the summer of 2007, the Deutsche Stadion foundation stone was returned to the planned stadium site, but without its original brick base and not in its original location. It now has an interpretive marker next to it (above). The photo below shows the foundation stone in its original site in the woods just off the Großestraße.

The planned Stadion site is occupied today by the Silbersee, a lake formed by the excavations, and the Silberbuck, a hill made of rubble from the bombed city.

To test the proposed view from the upper levels, a partial full-scale model of the seating area was built of wood on a hillside east of Nürnberg. Click here to see the remains of this site today. 

On the left, the Märzfeld under construction. Work was mostly halted after the beginning of World War II, and only about half of the towers were built. The towers were demolished in 1966-67 to make way for construction of today's Langwasser subdivision. Only a few remains of the tower foundations can be found today, at the north end of Hermann Thiele Weg.